23/12/2016 Look East

Hello and welcome to Look East, with Susie and me.

In the news tonight, we have got the latest

on the house fire in Braintree which killed a mother

Watch can never escape how much we will miss you and how much fun we

had. Stay with us for live travel news

on the great Christmas getaway. We are getting into

the festive spirit with a special feature on the making

of Ethel and Ernest, the latest classic animation

from Raymond Briggs. And we are joined in the studio by

this year's panto star, Wayne Sleep. Police and fire investigators have

spent a second day at the scene of a fatal house fire

in Braintree in Essex. There is still no official

explanation for the blaze which killed a mother

and her daughter. All day, people have

been leaving flowers The deaths of Alina Kordashevshka

and her daughter Emilia have had A special mass in the local Catholic

church last night was packed out. We can get the latest now from our

Essex reporter Gareth George. And still they came as a community

paid its respects. The family should be photos of the friends together.

Choking back tears, she read out the message on her car. Words cannot

describe how much I miss you. They cannot escape the fund teams we

heard. Always stay forever young. He went to the same school, so we saw

them growing up together. They had become very close friends. The last

time she spoke to her was on Monday. What do you think of the response?

It shows as the tape of community we have. They are very much part of the

community. There is not much more I can say really. The evidence is

there. The house is very badly damaged and that will make the fire

investigation very difficult. Anything which indicated how it

started me have been destroyed. Lastly, a mass was said said for the

couple. A fundraising page setup for the family has raised ?20,000. And

back at the house, many very moved by this tragedy just before

Christmas. Thieves have carried out another

raid on a church roof in Norfolk. The raiders stripped lead

from the roof of the village church in Toft Monks, near Beccles.

Dozens of churches across Norfolk and Suffolk have been hit

in the past 18 months. Stripped beer under the cover of

night, the church in Toft Monks the latest to be targeted by thieves. It

is devastating that they have done this to us. We do not know how much

it will cost. There's a limit know how much we are allowed to in

insurance for stuff which is stolen from. It will probably be way beyond

the means that we can afford. The church is determined that a service

tomorrow evening will still go ahead. This is the third time in

recent years it has been targeted. This was security marked. It links

directly to this building but the police have told the judge the

chances are it will be taken abroad and Saul Dornier. Repair work has

just been completed after a previous read. It is so selfish when people

would come and do this. Especially after spending so much money

repealing the porch. It took us so many years just to raise enough

money for that and know we have got to find more money to do the roof,

as well. Work to make the church weatherproof is no under way.

Repairs could take tens of thousands of pounds, money the congregation

simply does not have. The great Christmas getaway

is in full swing this In a moment, what is

happening at the airport, but first, the trains.

Robby West is in Colchester. Unlike now, it has been very busy

today. A lot of people getting themselves by call for Christmas.

There has been a relatively normal service today, but that will not be

the case tomorrow. A lot of the line will be closed tomorrow for planned

engineering works. You have been dressing very pessimistic for us.

Someone has too. A five-hour drive for Jake and his girlfriend lies

ahead. She managed to avoid the disruption. I was able to get on the

one o'clock. I am obligated to some weird bit warmer. For the next ten

days, the lane effectively closes down as the railway company carries

out repair work. Our holiday period is a good team to close it down. The

work is absolutely necessary. We need to get the real week up to the

standard. We have to accept that work needs to be done and that

Christmas is the best time to do it, too minimise the disruption. But

people using trains today were angry about dreams not running over

Christmas. It is anaemia. It has meant that the family cannot

visitors over Christmas. We will have to stay a few days and come

back next Friday. Causing a lot of problems. A lot of problems. Today,

it was gridlocked as people took the last chance to use the train before

the lane effectively closes for ten days. I am joined by Juliet, the

area manager for the railway company. What have passengers to

expect next year? It will be a good year. It will be the first full year

of the new franchise. We will be spending more than ?5 million on

improving the current dreams. We will improve the reliability. They

are already very reliable, but we will improve even more. We are going

to be bringing an automatic daily and P. And we will generally be

looking to make journeys better and more comfortable for our passengers,

bringing in more ticket machines in stations and doing whatever we can

to improve things for the passengers. Thank you. If you're

travelling over the Christmas period, if you want to know all the

latest travel news, check the BBC local website and BBC local radio

station. Today was the busiest day

of the holiday so far at Stansted Airport.

Leigh Milner was there. Well, today more than 40,000

passengers walked through those gates, making it the busiest

departure day before Christmas. But if you think

that is busy, in just under a week's time, double

the number of passengers will be Both Christmas and New Year on a

weekend, holiday makers are making the most of it. We are going to make

your car. We are going to go for Christmas and New Year. My

grandparents and already there. We want to leave their soul behind and

go off skiing, but there is no snow. We like the hot weather. We are

going on the Spanish beaches. It guesses away from the grand

children! If you are running late for a flake, it will take you eight

minutes to get through security. If you do not follow the rules, it

could take you up to five times as wrong. Especially if you have extra

luggage. Snow globes are really popular,

they are liquid, so it is the same with all other liquids -

stick them in the hold luggage, just to

be on the safe side. We do not allow crackers through,

so make of they they're put into Inmates have been a decade since the

new rules were introduced, but it seems a few of you must need an

update. If it is over 100 millilitres, you have to dump that

will quit. Otherwise, let it be seen by putting it into this plastic bag.

The police are searching for the driver of a van

which crashed into the central reservation of the A14

They had been chasing the van, which then headed

After crashing to avoid two lorries, the driver escaped on foot.

The police helicopter has been used in the search.

You are watching Look East from the BBC.

Stay with us for panto villain Wayne Sleep.

We have got your Christmas weather forecast

and we meet the director behind the latest classic

The Church has today urged everyone to do what they can to help

The Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich has recently been

volunteering in winter shelters and has seen first-hand the scale

And it's not just the food banks that have been busy.

Look East has reported recently on concern at the number of homeless

This is from our Chief Reporter, Kim Riley.

The community project Rumsey foodbank which has been running for

eight years. Heather, who had six children and lost her partner of six

months ago, was today presented with a turkey for the family Christmas.

Have the family been struggling for food? It has been a struggle. I got

myself into debt. But they come here on the help me out here. We are in a

very busy centre. We do not just to food, Brett give advice on debt and

other things like that. People are very generous at Christmas and we

are very grateful for what we have been given. But we are a fitting

people throughout the year. In Great Yarmouth, it is a worry that some of

the people in the town are going shirtless Christmas because of

problems with the new universal credit system being under change. We

have good people who have been waiting since October. We still

don't know if they going to get money. A number of rough sleepers in

the town has risen steeply in the past year and the Bishop was on BBC

radio Suffolk and helped out at the shelter run by the churches in

Ipswich. It was interesting listening to the guests. To heal the

sequence of events which they all fall into which had led to them

being homeless -- relationship break-up, loss of a job, thrown out

of the house, no income. And suddenly finding themselves without

the house. Another food bank in Cambridgeshire has distributed a

record four times of Christmas hampers this year, from a proof of

the growing number of patents struggling this Christmas.

Let's take a moment to talk sport, with a couple of winners.

Joining us from Colchester is British Olympic sailing champion

And with us in the studio is Alfie Hewett,

the wheelchair tennis player, who won at Wimbledon

Congratulations on a fantastic year. Can you do things at Christmas that

you could not do in previous years because you have retired? I do not

know if I will have to restrain from anything this year. It should be

fun. What was your highlight? For me, both were two iconic events.

Wimbledon and the Olympics. They were both absolutely amazing. They

were both amazing. To get two silver medals at the Olympics was very

special. It must be magic for you this year at the Olympics? It was

absolutely brilliant. A gold medal has been the childhood dream and it

has been a long-time training and racing to finally get it done. It

was amazing. The lovely thing is that we got to meet your family and

your family. We were talking to them from anti-banisters from gnome. --

anti-banisters front room. Having that family support must be amusing

and very important? The support we get from family and friends is

all-important. I cannot thank them enough for being the and supporting

me. Obviously, for both my parents. The actually went to the Olympic

Games and did she ever experience with was amazing. I think we all

thought she was going to win the gold medal, but you are officially

just ranked 13th in the world. You did not expect to get a medal? No, I

did not really think so. I thought the Meadows Republic go to the first

few ranked players in the world. I think it was the first time someone

out the top six and one a medal before. I am incredibly proud of

what a dead. And you chose to retire at the top. Are you enjoying your

retirement? I know you are very busy. Or do you miss the competitive

edge? I am definitely missing out. It is a strange time. Then, having

to look at what is next. Do you go out on the water over Christmas? I

do not think so. I will go down to the Boxing Day swim at the beach,

but I am going to just watch all these crazy people raising money for

the lifeboat, but I am not going in! Thank you both so much for being

with others and have a very enjoyable Christmas.

One of the big television moments of the Christmas schedules is likely

to be a film animation called Ethel and Ernest.

It is a story based on the book by Raymond Briggs,

are actually based on Raymond Briggs' parents.

The film was directed by Roger Mainwood,

Ethel And Ernest is the story of Raymond Briggs' own parents.

Originally a graphic novel, it has been brought to the screen

His studio, at home in Wivenhoe, is in the spare room.

Roger was one of the animators on the Snowman in 1982.

Back then, it was paper and pencil, today, it's a computer.

As director, Roger likens his role to that

In this case, a rather big orchestra.

For the animation process itself we have over 100 people and that

includes the animators, their assistants, but also

the clean-up people who put the final line to the drawing.

We've also got background artists, all the people who do the ink

The end credits go on for a long time.

The film stars Jim Broadbent and Brenda Blethyn.

Well, Ethel, how about coming to the pictures with me?

When their voices came over I just felt my mum

And I spent the whole two days of recording in tears.

I'm absolutely over the moon with it.

We start with the storyboard and then removed to the rough animation

stage. This is really final link which appears on the screen is put

on. At the end of it, we end up with that lovely lake which is fairly

unique to his work. It was such an important thing to get right. We

could not mess up on this. Not a chance.

Roger Mainwood and his team have done a fine job,

and Ethel And Ernest looks set to be a highlight of the Christmas

We have already met two big winners from the world of sport.

Now, let's turn our attention to dance.

Wayne Sleep's career started in the '60s,

Since then, he has done just about everything on the stage.

This Christmas, Wayne is leading the cast in Jack

and the Beanstalk at the Theatre Royal in Norwich.

It is fantastic. I can really frighten the children! Normally, I

am the Jester or buttons and I am keeping everyone happy and jolly.

But I need just as much energy to be bad as to be good. And dancing is

still very important to you? Yes, tap dancing. Tap dancing, you can do

will have when you are a bit older because it is just from the ankle

don't watch. But you have returned to pantomime after a few years. Do

you really enjoy it? Yes. I feel like a duck out of what if I do not

do pantomime at Christmas. I did my first one year out they had done the

London Palladium in 1976. My first official one was in Norwich. That

was back in the 70s. We have been hearing about the trouble people are

having with foodbank. When you see something like that, what is your

reaction? Sorrow. We need people to help each other over the Christmas

period. I have just done the voluntary service, where we send

packages to older people's houses. And we are knocking on the houses of

people who are lonely. If it is important, but loneliness, having no

one to talk to over Christmas, that can be desperate. For all you know,

that ten minutes could make someone's day. Dancing is having a

renaissance in general. All pages are getting involved. I think you

would see that you could dance at any age? Very much so. The children

from all the local schools come. I want children from schools who have

no introduction to dance previously too, they will give a a free class

on it. And would you like to be a judge on Strictly? There's a

vacancy. I would love to be on it. Do you still keep a very fit? I

stretch every day. What is about dance that you love so much that you

think other people love? As soon as the music starts, it lifts your

spirits. Sometimes, I think, I cannot get through to those -- shows

today. But all of a sudden, you get a bit of a tingle. It gives you up

and get going. You can give a pleasure back to the audience, they

can receive it and give it back to you. In pantomime, you are only as

good as your audience and if they do not move me, then in this instance,

I have actually not done a good job! Wonderful.

I think we could possibly be looking at near-record temperatures over

Christmas. At Stormy weather making the headlines will to the north of

us. Much more calm in our part of the country. Every lean cleaving

through the region at the moment. Probably around until eight o'clock.

Then it will dry out across the entire region. The wind easing down.

Otherwise, we are looking up moderate south westerly wind.

Overnight temperatures 3-4 C. Maybe rather cool first thing in the

morning. Still a bit of a blustery day tomorrow but not rain expected.

High temperatures of 8-9 C. Overnight tomorrow night, the cloud

increasing. A bit blustery during the course of the night. Overnight

temperatures 9-10 C. Father Christmas we need to rear a T-shirt!

Temperatures well above really would normally be for this time of day.

Mostly dry conditions on Christmas tree, but the odd piece of drizzle

possible. Possible high temperatures of 13-14 C. Temperatures will go

back more to average into next week. 5 degrees cooler on Boxing Day. And

a hard frost possible by Tuesday. Thank you very much. We will

integrate with a treat. This is from Norwich Cathedral choir. Thank you

from others have very good Christmas.