29/05/2013 Newsnight


29/05/2013

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NHS can schedule your much-needed operation, but it is on a Friday and

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you are much more likely to die than after the same operation on a

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Monday. Why is the date of the week a matter of life and death? We will

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discuss with the medical director of NHS England.

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David Cameron is looking for friends in Europe as he tries to renegotiate

:00:32.:00:37.

our membership. The Polish foreign minister tells us whether Britain in

:00:37.:00:39.

or out really matters to the rest of the continent.

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The cosmopolitan world of the Afropolitan, roots in Africa, home

:00:46.:00:51.

in Europe or North America, Taiye Selasi on the nomadic culture of the

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21st century. No need to worry, termite you see

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before you the artistic, sensitive side of me.

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Now, it is one of the BBC's great iconic brands, so why was Doctor Who

:01:07.:01:17.
:01:17.:01:17.

so badly neglected in the lost decade of the 1980s?

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Could evening. If you wander into Sainsbury's or Tesco's, you would

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expect the same range of food and roughly the same service, but if you

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end up in hospital at the weekend, you do not get the same service as

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on a weekday. You are more likely to die. Researchers have discovered if

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your operation is on a Monday, your survival rate is 50% higher than the

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same procedure carried out on a Friday. This raises questions. Why

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the discrepancy, and with something approaching seven-day service and

:01:51.:01:57.

the lottery? Whether we are sick during the day

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or at night on a weekday or at the weekend, we rely on the NHS to treat

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us the same. But that does not always happen. In the past, research

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has suggested it is riskier for patients to be admitted over the

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weekend than it is cheering the week. Now, a new study suggests the

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same pattern applies when it comes to elective surgery. It is safer to

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have an operation on a Monday than on Friday. The overall mortality

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rate is low, 0.67%, but the research found that surgery carried out on a

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Monday carries the lowest likelihood of death. Using Monday as a base

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point, this graph shows how the risk increases. Surgery carried out on a

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Friday carries a 44% greater risk. Weekend surgery is even riskier,

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though the sample size for smaller. When we looked at the data, we found

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no difference in the types of patients admitted on Friday

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competitor Monday, -- prepared to Monday, so we think this effect is

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likely not to be due to the patients but to the quality of care. If the

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NHS were to offer a truly seven days a week service, we would expect to

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see these differences even out. research bears out many patients'

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experience, what one charity has described as weekend malaise. This

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woman had a hysterectomy on a Friday morning. A friend came in who was a

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nurse who noticed that my trip had run out and that my painkiller had

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run out. She called the nurse, she was overstretched, there was too

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much to do, not enough time. But eventually, it got sorted. Over the

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weekend, on the Sunday, they had been let down by an agency nurse, so

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there were only two nurses on cover. Again, they were struggling. That

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pattern is not the same everywhere. In Southampton, some surgeons say

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they do not see that Friday is out. Maureen Cox came in as an emergency

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late in the week. After a tricky operation, she spent the weekend in

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intensive care. She is recovering now. It is remarkable.Her surgeon

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specialises in stomach and oesophagus surgery. We do this three

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days a week, and we do not see a difference in our outcomes, we

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scrutinise them, so we are the first to know if there is a problem. If's

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over the past five years, we have changed the way we deliver the

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service, so we can provide care around the clock. He says it is not

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just a question of resources, but the way the hospital is organised.

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We have a large number of consultants, the economies of

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scale, and that is the future of the delivery of complex surgery. Within

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big centres, lots of consultants, providing 24 hour care for completed

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patients. For many, including obstetricians, that underlines the

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need for reconfiguration in the NHS, to concentrate services in fewer

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hospitals, let them become centres of excellence seven days a week.

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Even those who support this recognise it is hard to sell the

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idea of closing hospitals to patients. In the large conurbations

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in the UK, where there are many hospitals, they do have to realise

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there has to be rationalisation of some of the facilities that

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hospitals can offer. It is more challenging in parts of the world

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like where I work, in the West Country, where you have greater

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distances, and people expect a sick core functions to be provided in

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their local hospital. But in the cities, there needs to be greater

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centralisation, as has been shown for conditions like/. The survey's

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authors did not explain the differences they found, though they

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said that as the NHS is trying to become more efficient it has two

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make provision to ensure the best outcomes, especially for vulnerable

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patients. Bruce Keogh is the medical director

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of NHS England. We will also hear from Mark Porter from the BMA and

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Philip Lee, a doctor and a Conservative MP, who thinks the NHS

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needs a shake-up. How worried are you by the discrepancy? I am worried

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by any discrepancies that I see. I would like to put this in some

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context. The results for elective surgery are very good, with

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mortality less than 1%. Some of the statistics that have been quoted

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showing higher mortality at different times of the week need to

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be seen in context. The authors looked at mortality two days

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following surgery. On a Monday, the number of deaths cost 0.7 per 1000,

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rising to 0.9 per 1000 on a Friday. Whilst that is quite a big increase

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in percentage, in general terms, it should not frighten patients.

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not think it is acceptable, however? No, and you will know that

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I have been central to trying and raised the debate of how we can

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improve services, seven days a week. It is my sense that other service

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industries have moved on and off routine services seven days a week,

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but healthcare has liked behind. have raised this repeatedly, as have

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other people, but given that you are the director of NHS England, what is

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stopping this happening? One of the things is we need to agree a

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sustainable, clinical model and a sustainable financial model, so on

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the half of NHS England, I am convening a forum of chief

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executives, finance directors, clinicians, presidents of colleges,

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to work out an agreed way forward. Many hospitals have moved in this

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direction, you have mentioned Southampton, and they are ahead of

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many hospitals. Others are following. There are some complexity

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she is. Isn't one of them, if you move to seven-day working with the

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same resources, and we know the resources problem, you can make

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things worse? I do not believe that is the case necessarily. It is a

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matter of working practices. Much of the research which has shown

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differences in outcomes at the weekend has shown that by delivering

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services in a different way we can significantly influence outcomes,

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which has led to the Royal colleges and other professional groups

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starting to identify potential solutions, like having more

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consultant residents at the weekend, and improving access to diagnostic

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services for GPs and hospitals. do you make of the argument that in

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the end it is going to mean a bit of pain, because what has got to happen

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is more centres of excellence, more bigger hospitals, so some people

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will lose out occurs hospitals that do not provide surgery will have to

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close? That is a realistic possibility. In some specialties,

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centralising services, bringing expertise together, improves

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outcomes. An example would be /services in London, there were 32

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hospitals at one point, but after the reorganisation, there will only

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be paid hospitals -- only eight hospitals were left, and the result

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is a lower death rate, better outcomes, more patients returning

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home, a shorter length of stay, and tens of millions of pounds saved.

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be clear, the outcome would be better for all of us in general, but

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it would mean some hospitals would have to close because they would be

:10:46.:10:53.

no place for them? I would not say that, but some services would have

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to be centralised. People like to have hospitals and services near

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their home. It is important we do not deprive people of that. But

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where there is clear evidence that centralisation of services would

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revive better outcomes for patients, that is an area that we

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need to explore. We have got a slight problem with the sound, we

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will try to fix that. That last bit was music to your ears, because you

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are doing something that MPs are not going, campaigning for a closure of

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a hospital in your area? I and the only one, I have been doing it for

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three years in the Thames Valley. My constituency is practical, but I

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have worked in the Thames Valley for almost ten years, I have looked

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after 50,000 patients, I have long thought we needed a more

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consolidated acute service on the M4, with more community hospital

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locations doing the chronic care. Before I became an MP, Mike argued

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for it, and since I have been giving it, I have done the same thing.

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big hospital and others lose the right to do surgery, so they will be

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closed or diminished? diminished, I would say changed. The

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majority of expenditure is on chronic care, and most of that can

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be delivered closer to home. With the advances of telemedicine, we can

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be in the home or in the GP practice or in the community. The impression

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is that a lot of MPs are responsive to the people in their area, they

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say, do not close, do not change. the past, it was good politics to

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defend services that were indefensible. Now, it is good

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politics to save lives. You are a lone voice. At the moment.

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Colleagues share my view, but they are reluctant because of the way in

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which you describe politics. Do you see the system is being an

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anachronism, and in the 21st century we need something different? No, it

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has been planned, not centrally from the start, it has grown up according

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to local need, with specialties provided in different places. But it

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is not just there, it delivers an excellent service that we need to

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continue to improve. This research gives us information about the sort

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of things we need to do to continue improving. What about the things

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Philip Lee was talking about, that way forward? The important thing is

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getting a balance between local delivery of services and the

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necessity to follow the evidence where it exists, to make sure we are

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not actually delivering below standard care for conditions where

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we can show that centralisation is best, but in other conditions, the

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clinical evidence may show that it is not necessary to centralise, we

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can deliver everywhere. What do you say to this view that part of the

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NHS are run more for the benefit of people who work there rather than

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patients? That is putting it badly? That is something that anybody in

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any work face has to think about, are you serving the people who use

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the service? That is the argument? The NHS has a mould of working that

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mirrors what happens in the rest of society and we talked about

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supermarkets being open all day and at weekends and the NHS is open all

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day and night and takes people, whatever the need or the time.

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about seven-day working? I am in favour of that by directly knows

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that in order to deliver that, you need fewer sites because to have a

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life outside of work, you cannot have a long list of district

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hospitals in which we expect consultants to work seven days every

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week. With a consolidated service, like with Southampton, you can have

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more consultants and they only do so many weekends every year so in order

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to deliver seven days, care which would address the figures that have

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come out, you need fewer acute surgical sites. Do you accept that?

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In some specialties, the evidence points that way. The key is to

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follow the evidence, and where it can be shown that this specialising

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helps, do so but that does not mean we must move to is simple solitary

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system. That would not serve the population well. I hope the line has

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been re-established. The political context of this is we have had the

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Mid Staffordshire report and reports suggesting nurses should care more

:15:59.:16:04.

for patients and cheap keys are not prepared to work outside of their

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powers and so on, so the politics science that patients of being

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softened up. -- are being. The NHS is owned by the people and it is

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there to serve the people and rightly there will be vigorous

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debate about the direction of travel for the NHS over the next few years.

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All healthcare systems are in the grip of a triple pincer of

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increasing costs and escalating demand and tight fiscal

:16:36.:16:42.

environments. Those things can be very difficult to balance. What this

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does is it provides an impetus for us to focus on new, different ways

:16:47.:16:52.

of delivering services and I believe that with appropriate public rebate

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and the intellectual capital that resides within the people who work

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in the NHS, we can solve this. Philip, you have not blamed staff

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but some have and the implication of some reports has been that. If the

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basis of the reforms is trust staff more, give clinicians more power,

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how does that square with some reports that seemed to undermined

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the confidence of some doctors? The reforms to years ago by the

:17:24.:17:30.

collation were more about trusting primary-care physicians to construct

:17:30.:17:34.

services to suit patients so it was not necessarily about hospital

:17:34.:17:41.

consultants. But what I must emphasise is that all I am

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interested in is clinical outcomes, the best outcomes, and I am not

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convinced that we have the structure, hospitals and clinics in

:17:49.:17:57.

place to deliver the best outcomes. Thank you all very much. Thank you.

:17:57.:18:06.

In a moment. The legacy of the 1980s version of Doctor Who. Was it really

:18:06.:18:14.

rubbish? Today the European Commission continued its tiptoeing

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away from austerity, giving France and five other countries extra time

:18:16.:18:23.

to cut their deficits. But if the big European plan isn't austerity,

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what is it? Most are waiting for the German elections in September to

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give some kind of answer to that. But some are also nervously awaiting

:18:31.:18:33.

a British referendum. The Polish Foreign Minister, Radek Shikorski,

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is here, briefly a contemporary of David Cameron at both Eton and

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Oxford. But first, our diplomatic editor, Mark Urban. In terms of a

:18:42.:18:48.

sturdy, is the commission moving the goalposts? This is a journey and in

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December 2011, this was meant to be tough stuff with legally enforceable

:18:54.:19:00.

limits on deficit spending. We get to the report card today and the

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European commission says that several countries have not made

:19:02.:19:08.

those limits. Will they give them more time? Portugal and the

:19:08.:19:13.

Netherlands, if you like, being given one more year. And another

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group of countries, further out of line, being given two more years.

:19:18.:19:24.

That includes France, one of the cheerleaders of the pact, it was a

:19:24.:19:30.

different president, Spain and Poland. Not in the Eurozone at the

:19:30.:19:35.

moment, they want to join but public opinion is difficult on that issue.

:19:35.:19:40.

You wonder where this leaves the dreams of further European

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integration? It is fascinating. Isn't it? David Cameron has built a

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lot of his politics are around the referendum issue. On the assumption

:19:52.:19:57.

that there must be some mean negotiation of the European treaties

:19:57.:20:01.

and this thinking, when it first came into being 20 months ago, was

:20:01.:20:04.

based on the idea that Eurozone countries needed closer integration

:20:04.:20:08.

to save the euro, what about the rest? Their rights are to be

:20:08.:20:13.

protected. This provides him with a template to open up a conversation

:20:13.:20:18.

in return for helping out Eurozone countries. And the UK might get

:20:18.:20:26.

concessions. Recently, key people in the -- in the EU, they seem less

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certain that this type of fundamental renegotiation is

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feasible and desirable. Where does this leave the support of Mr

:20:33.:20:35.

Cameron? He has been doing courting of some leaders, where is the

:20:36.:20:41.

support? He has had some displays of support from some governments, the

:20:41.:20:47.

Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden have been helpful, at least not in

:20:47.:20:52.

putting down his ideas. Angela Merkel has given him some room for

:20:53.:20:58.

manoeuvre. But there is the feeling among many Europeans that there is a

:20:58.:21:03.

loss of influence. Radek Shikorski in January talked about written from

:21:03.:21:08.

a country which was a natural member of the triumvirate kibble of ruling

:21:08.:21:12.

the EU and has moved to the category of a country of special concern.

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That is the key thing in the coming months. What influence can Britain

:21:16.:21:23.

exert in these delicate negotiations? Indeed. Thank you.

:21:23.:21:30.

Radek Shikorski is here. You know this country very well and you have

:21:30.:21:34.

lived here, how important is it to the people of Poland whether they

:21:34.:21:40.

are in or out? It does matter, particularly to those who admire

:21:40.:21:50.

Britain. You are a voice for liberal economics and for common-sense

:21:50.:21:55.

approaches and you will be missed in Europe. But it is a free union and a

:21:55.:22:01.

voluntary one so if you decide to leave, we will miss you and we hope

:22:01.:22:07.

it will not come to that! You have been here for quite a while, this

:22:07.:22:11.

debate has gone on for quite a while and are quite a few people saying,

:22:12.:22:18.

make up your mind. Would that we a good idea? To decide? It would be

:22:18.:22:22.

nice to resolve this. I spoke to Deputy Prime Minister this

:22:22.:22:27.

afternoon, Nick Clegg, who told me that it is extremely unlikely that

:22:27.:22:33.

Britain would vote to leave. When you talk about us being a country of

:22:33.:22:38.

special concern, the implication of that quote, is that that we have

:22:38.:22:46.

blown it? We could have been a bigger player? And we are not? It is

:22:46.:22:50.

difficult to lead a club when you're considering whether to stay in or

:22:50.:22:58.

out. So, yes, in that sense, you have weakened your hand. But not

:22:58.:23:02.

everything is lost, some of your concerns are being impressed, like

:23:02.:23:08.

the fisheries policy. And other reddish objections are relatively

:23:08.:23:14.

easy to address, the working time directive, for example. That is

:23:14.:23:21.

something you are getting sympathy from. Do you think we could be

:23:21.:23:25.

moving towards a situation where Mr Cameron will re-negotiate certain

:23:25.:23:30.

things which would amount to less that major treaty change? The

:23:30.:23:37.

premise of the referendum might not be right? It would not necessarily

:23:37.:23:42.

mean a change in the treaty? Well, the conditions have not been stated,

:23:42.:23:48.

I understand that some of these things don't even require treaty

:23:48.:23:56.

change, for example the working time directive which is the outcome of a

:23:56.:24:00.

verdict of the European court of justice. And that could be addressed

:24:00.:24:07.

at that level. In terms of European politics, it might mean that a

:24:07.:24:10.

number of countries want to re-negotiate and they could come to

:24:10.:24:15.

an agreement and that would require treaty change and the premise that

:24:15.:24:19.

Mr Cameron has launched, this view of having some referendum, might not

:24:19.:24:25.

be necessary? He has also, I understand, predicated the

:24:25.:24:30.

referendum on his party winning an outright majority in the next

:24:30.:24:39.

election. But on that point, then, you understand very well the

:24:39.:24:42.

domestic political concerns and not just domestic, but within his own

:24:42.:24:48.

party? I am confident that when the arguments are deployed and it is

:24:48.:24:53.

explained to the Tory party that the European commission is a force for

:24:53.:25:03.
:25:03.:25:04.

opening markets, for competition, for no monopolisation, when this is

:25:04.:25:10.

explained how much influence Britain gets as a multiplier, in foreign

:25:10.:25:14.

policy, when it is explained that America would take a very dim view

:25:14.:25:19.

of Britain leaving the EU, when it is explained that European

:25:19.:25:25.

directives are not just invented by the European commission. They are

:25:25.:25:30.

agreed by member states. And when the alternative path is sketched

:25:30.:25:36.

out, Britain going it alone, while the rest of us are making a

:25:36.:25:40.

transatlantic free-trade area with America, I hope the British people

:25:40.:25:46.

will take the sensible decision. That is a very interesting list.

:25:46.:25:50.

a reflection on how things and Poland might see our debate here,

:25:50.:25:57.

that has not been at the forefront? Our opposition is against us joining

:25:57.:26:05.

the Eurozone. So nothing unusual about that. I think and hope that we

:26:05.:26:09.

shall get a mature debate in Britain with a real argument being

:26:09.:26:16.

addressed. But if you look at the state of the Eurozone, which we will

:26:16.:26:20.

come onto, if you look at the state of that, nobody in Britain is making

:26:20.:26:26.

any argument that we should join, it is seen really as either a dead duck

:26:26.:26:33.

or continuing trouble and staggering towards more trouble. We are not

:26:33.:26:37.

eager to join either until it fixes itself but remember, Eurozone gave

:26:37.:26:42.

members one decade of extremely cheap money. And when it overcomes

:26:42.:26:47.

those problems, those interest rates might converge again to something

:26:47.:26:53.

like German levels and then it will be an official again to be a member.

:26:53.:26:56.

You have called for more German leadership, which given the shared

:26:56.:27:03.

history, could be... And they have provided that. But we are waiting on

:27:03.:27:13.
:27:13.:27:14.

what will happen with the German electorate in September. It will be

:27:14.:27:17.

harder fast troubled countries carry out their reforms. In Poland, we

:27:17.:27:23.

introduced because of judicial limit -- constitutional limit. Some other

:27:23.:27:30.

countries are only now fixing their public sector and the issue of

:27:30.:27:36.

competitiveness. Yes, I think bold decisions will become possible in

:27:37.:27:40.

Germany after the election but the real work is to be done in the

:27:40.:27:46.

troubled economies because the Eurozone is like the gold standard,

:27:46.:27:55.

it magnifies your competitiveness or lack thereof. Thank you very much.

:27:55.:27:58.

There's an old Bob Dylan song, I Pity the Poor Immigrant, which

:27:58.:28:01.

reflects on the rootlessness of people who move from one culture to

:28:01.:28:03.

another and could have roots everywhere but end up with roots

:28:03.:28:06.

nowhere. The London born novelist Taiye Selasi reflects on precisely

:28:06.:28:09.

that in her work, coining the phrase Lost in Transnation and the

:28:09.:28:16.

suggestion that she, among others, is an Afropolitan. One of Granta's

:28:16.:28:19.

young stars and a protege of Toni Morrison, she'll explain what she

:28:19.:28:29.
:28:29.:28:30.

means in a moment. A full biography of Ty Selassie 's life would require

:28:30.:28:36.

a small novella. She is London born, American educated but with a deep

:28:36.:28:42.

attachment to parents's West African homeland. He still way behind him

:28:42.:28:48.

all those decades ago with the Ocean beside and he followed him

:28:48.:28:52.

everywhere since. Why are we not filming his life or the life of the

:28:52.:28:58.

men who he wishes to be? A writer and photographer, her debut novel

:28:58.:29:04.

has earned her a spot in Granta's stages list of Best Young British

:29:04.:29:08.

novelists. Her writing and photography raise questions about

:29:08.:29:14.

the nature of identity itself. Her concept of the Afropolitan has come

:29:14.:29:17.

to define a new generation of dynamic young Africans with complex

:29:17.:29:24.

heritage, one foot mounted in the heartlands of Africa, the other in

:29:24.:29:27.

their new Cosmopolitan lives in Western Europe and America. In the

:29:27.:29:32.

Bob Dylan song, the poor immigrant wishes he stayed at home. But the

:29:32.:29:41.

real question is where home might actually be.

:29:41.:29:47.

You have gone they Nigerian roots, Britain, United States... Where is

:29:47.:29:54.

home? I have got four of them! feels like home? There are four

:29:54.:30:01.

places. It has nothing to do with geography, it is personal, which is

:30:01.:30:05.

the case for the characters in this novel. When you are moving around

:30:05.:30:13.

like I do and my family, home because it's -- home becomes

:30:13.:30:20.

emotional, not geographical. There is a Roman India, a Roman New

:30:20.:30:27.

Jersey... Some people would see all of that as enriching, because you

:30:27.:30:31.

can dip into cultures, but it might be destabilising, and that is part

:30:31.:30:38.

of what you write about. You can enjoy the richness of it, but you

:30:38.:30:45.

are slightly uncertain of yourself, perhaps. In 2005 I wrote an essay,

:30:45.:30:51.

what is an Afropolitan? Those of us who have a fraught time and touring

:30:51.:30:56.

the question, where are you from? You say, I was born in London, I

:30:56.:31:03.

speak with an American accent... One can become self-conscious of the

:31:03.:31:07.

fact that everybody else can give a simple answer, but you are stuck in

:31:07.:31:14.

between. You have written about the nature of colour itself, blackness

:31:14.:31:24.
:31:24.:31:26.

and beautiful round skinned people. -- round skinned. You consciously do

:31:26.:31:34.

this. Why do I reject the label Black? It is a fiction. The idea of

:31:34.:31:40.

race, blackness and whiteness, is an invention, it has been doggedly

:31:40.:31:47.

sustained over time and reinforced in institution, which is the best

:31:47.:31:52.

way to keep things going, especially if you can get songs and slogans

:31:52.:31:59.

involved, but it is a myth. I live in Rome at the moment, and I have a

:31:59.:32:07.

friend who is a white American, blond haired, blue-eyed, marrying a

:32:07.:32:10.

girl from Sardinia, so in the States, we would call her Italian

:32:10.:32:16.

Emma and we would call him white, but my Sardinian friend's father

:32:16.:32:24.

said, few marry a white men -- if you marry a white man, I will be so

:32:24.:32:34.
:32:34.:32:36.

new. So what are you? When you peel back the layers of the fiction of

:32:36.:32:41.

racial identity, you end up with what is more salient and human, in

:32:41.:32:47.

during, and that is culture. other thing that struck me about

:32:48.:32:51.

your writing, notions of beauty, the weight that is a construct, the

:32:51.:33:01.
:33:01.:33:01.

Barbie culture, what's it that society gets wrong? There is a

:33:01.:33:07.

character, the youngest of the four children, she has a moment when she

:33:07.:33:12.

reflects that, growing up, she is aware that she wanted to look like a

:33:12.:33:16.

Barbie doll, but being the daughter of an African immigrant, she does

:33:16.:33:26.
:33:26.:33:29.

not. She says she looks like a doll when she would not have wanted. This

:33:29.:33:33.

was an allusion to a study when the young African-American girls were

:33:33.:33:37.

shown a black doll and a white doll and they all preferred the white

:33:37.:33:47.
:33:47.:33:48.

doll. Intellectually, she gets it, suffering, she has a skinny blonde

:33:48.:33:57.

best friend that she would rather be. That comes from the expressions

:33:57.:34:03.

of hegemony, every time that she opens a magazine or tones on the TV

:34:03.:34:11.

or watches a film, what is considered beautiful looks one-way,

:34:11.:34:16.

and the poor immigrant looks the other way. These basic images that

:34:16.:34:21.

are thrown at young brown girls are something that I try to combat with

:34:21.:34:28.

documentary films and photography. We will have tomorrow's front pages

:34:28.:34:35.

before the end of the programme, but prestigious is the way Peter Davison

:34:35.:34:40.

chose to demonstrate the BBC's current attitude towards Doctor Who.

:34:40.:34:44.

It will mark its 50th anniversary later this year, and the British

:34:44.:34:47.

Film Institute has been screening stories from each incarnation of the

:34:47.:34:53.

Doctor. This month, it reached the 1980s, when prestigious hospital

:34:53.:35:02.

last word BBC bosses would have used to describe it. But it managed to

:35:02.:35:05.

stay on air until 1989, despite the reputation that it was a bit

:35:05.:35:15.
:35:15.:35:18.

rubbish. We ask Shaun Ley to go back to the 80s and explain.

:35:19.:35:26.

It looks just like a body of quarry. In fact, this is another world. Put

:35:26.:35:34.

this back on! OK, it is a muddy old quarry in the Home Counties. During

:35:34.:35:37.

the heyday, places like this would have been full of alien invasions

:35:37.:35:44.

and rubber monsters. But it has still managed to scare the living

:35:44.:35:48.

daylights out of generations of kids, this one included. Then

:35:48.:35:58.
:35:58.:36:00.

something changed. For this was the 1980s. It was a rough ride in the

:36:00.:36:05.

1980s. It was not just the police box which dated Doctor Who. Star

:36:06.:36:09.

Wars and other films delivered science-fiction with panache.

:36:09.:36:19.
:36:19.:36:20.

Meanwhile, Doctor Who. On the small screen, it had a old, glossy new

:36:20.:36:25.

look, but the way it was made had not received a makeover. People

:36:25.:36:31.

blade used to a faster pace, more complex characters, and there was a

:36:31.:36:34.

simplicity about the way it was doing things that was making it look

:36:34.:36:38.

increasingly out of step. In studios, several cameras covered the

:36:38.:36:45.

same scene. It relied on special effects, recorded in the same weight

:36:45.:36:51.

as a courtroom drama or a soap. I was a timelord and we had no time.

:36:51.:36:57.

We had to do things by pulling the plug at ten o'clock, and if we did

:36:57.:37:06.

not get the scene in, it did not go in. Once more, please. We cannot.

:37:06.:37:16.
:37:16.:37:16.

sorry, it is ten o'clock. Fire again! A film would have been a bit

:37:16.:37:20.

more subtle in lighting this futuristic sea bass, but time and TV

:37:20.:37:30.
:37:30.:37:32.

tradition served to expose the limits of the budget. Just a few

:37:32.:37:38.

weeks after the green sea monster came this, a relatively new director

:37:38.:37:44.

stirring things up. His Doctor Hugh debut so -- showed the programme

:37:44.:37:51.

could changed. He even got the lights turned down. I knew the way

:37:51.:37:58.

to present it cost to use a single camera, more than it had been used.

:37:58.:38:02.

Instead of doing a whole scene at once, cutting between several

:38:02.:38:06.

cameras, he tried to record like a film, one shot at a time, editing

:38:06.:38:16.
:38:16.:38:23.

the accolade of a special showing at the BFI on London's South bank, part

:38:23.:38:28.

of celebrations for the 50th year. It is the relentlessness of the pace

:38:28.:38:32.

of the story, it starts off high and goes up from there. It is so

:38:32.:38:37.

exciting. It has got a punch, there is a grittiness. It begs the

:38:37.:38:43.

question, could 80s Doctor Who have been made this way all the time?

:38:43.:38:49.

Could I do this in the time given? had a good try! But after the first

:38:49.:38:55.

block, when I got myself into serious trouble and did not

:38:55.:39:05.
:39:05.:39:07.

complete, I have to use four or five cameras per scene. But at least he

:39:08.:39:11.

did get the opportunity to put his directorial stamp on a moment that

:39:11.:39:20.

is uniquely Doctor Who, the change of lead actors. I must have been

:39:20.:39:23.

listening to a fantastic piece of music by the Beatles, and at the

:39:23.:39:33.

end, the orchestra driving itself bonkers, to a big explosion of a big

:39:33.:39:43.
:39:43.:39:50.

piano chord. So I used that as my casting quality mix used by John

:39:50.:39:54.

Turner, producer for the whole of the 1980s, to keep it in the public

:39:54.:40:00.

eye. The programme attracted some amazing names, but sometimes the way

:40:00.:40:04.

they were directed all dressed undermined the fact that they were

:40:04.:40:10.

good at is. If they were being encouraged to camp it up. Sometimes

:40:10.:40:20.
:40:20.:40:22.

the programme looked less drama, more pantomime. How evil! Some

:40:23.:40:32.
:40:33.:40:34.

grumbled. I played my spoons on her front, and it bounced! I arrived

:40:34.:40:38.

with my bag of tricks and started playing them all, but as we went

:40:38.:40:44.

through, I realised, there is more, this is a great acting role, one of

:40:44.:40:49.

the best on television, because you can go so many places. There was a

:40:49.:40:56.

pantomime aspect, you have the glutinous and camp, and it is deeply

:40:56.:41:06.
:41:06.:41:08.

sinister. You make sweets that kill people? There is a danger that

:41:08.:41:17.

people only see the surface. A more contemporary travelling companion

:41:17.:41:20.

allowed Doctor Who to engage in social commentary, exploring issues

:41:20.:41:26.

like racism. The companion was too often there to ask the question and

:41:27.:41:33.

trip over and lead to get rescued, and audiences were tired of that. It

:41:33.:41:37.

was only towards the end of the decade that a hint of emotional

:41:37.:41:47.

intelligence krypton. An emotional cripple, a social misfit! She was

:41:47.:41:54.

the first step to what we have now. It is not true. But there is nothing

:41:54.:42:00.

like a Doctor Who monster to scupper a writer's Scott -- subtext.

:42:00.:42:06.

thought there would be a subtle but discernible lesbian subtext between

:42:06.:42:16.

her and Cara. The subtlety of that was conveyed in the face and the

:42:16.:42:20.

close-up and the movement, and this was buried under the teddy bear

:42:20.:42:30.
:42:30.:42:30.

heads, which was slightly disappointing. Bold ideas like that

:42:30.:42:35.

are one answer to the question, was 80s Doctor Who rubbish? Michael

:42:35.:42:41.

grade could not see beyond the effects. I thought it was pathetic.

:42:41.:42:45.

I had seen Star Wars, and close encounters of the third kind, and

:42:45.:42:51.

ET, and then I had to watch these cardboard things clunking across the

:42:51.:43:01.
:43:01.:43:01.

floor. If he moves really badly, poorly animated... But she looks

:43:01.:43:08.

great. The rocks are plastic holders that do not weigh anything at all,

:43:09.:43:13.

it is the dichotomy of the show, the good design and the bad design in

:43:13.:43:23.

the same shop. Even a quarter of a century later, in an age of CGI,

:43:23.:43:27.

some of the effects work still stands up to scrutiny. I remember

:43:27.:43:37.
:43:37.:43:39.

this. It was a high Marsh to Indiana Jones. It is very effective. It was

:43:39.:43:45.

brilliantly done, so simple. Very well made from wax, and they got

:43:45.:43:49.

hairdryers on either side of the camera and blew onto it. It was

:43:49.:43:59.
:43:59.:43:59.

glorious. Doctor! Soon, British TV viewers would enjoy the delights of

:43:59.:44:05.

reality TV instead, something Doctor Who addicted, and like the people in

:44:05.:44:11.

charge on Doctor Who, the BBC decided it would be better off

:44:11.:44:20.

without the doctor. The execution of Doctor Who in the 80s did not always

:44:20.:44:25.

live up to the bold ideas, but the youngsters who grew up with it are

:44:25.:44:28.

the ones making the multi-award-winning programme now.

:44:28.:44:34.

Perhaps 80s Doctor Who was the catalyst.

:44:34.:44:44.
:44:44.:45:14.

To not have nightmares! The front That is it for tonight, we leave you

:45:14.:45:17.

with pictures of the highest base jump ever to mark the 60th

:45:17.:45:22.

anniversary of the conquest of Everest, Valery Rozov jumped from

:45:22.:45:32.
:45:32.:46:02.

the North face at a height of 23,000 are continuing with sunshine to the

:46:02.:46:08.

West, thicker cloud further east. Patchy rain first thing in the

:46:08.:46:16.

morning. One or two showers might be heavy. Sunshine is abundant across

:46:16.:46:21.

Northern Ireland. The North West of Scotland stays fine and dry. Further

:46:22.:46:27.

east, a bit more cloud. The temperatures creeping up into double

:46:27.:46:33.

figures along the east coast of England. A cold day. Moved inland,

:46:33.:46:37.

some holes in the cloud, come the afternoon. A better chance of this

:46:37.:46:43.

sunshine, we have the showers. One ought to have the potential to be

:46:43.:46:53.
:46:53.:47:00.

slightly. Scotland and Northern Ireland start to see their

:47:00.:47:05.

temperatures dropping away, as cloud arrives. Further south, across

:47:05.:47:10.

England and Wales, things should write an up and warm up on Friday,

:47:10.:47:16.

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