04/03/2018 BBC Weekend News

Sir Roger Bannister,

the man who broke the 4

minute mile, has died.

He goes straight game forwards.

His achievement in 1954 gave him

a place in the record books -

and athletics history.

I was totally overwhelmed

and delighted.

It was a great surprise to me

to be able to do it today

and I think I was very lucky.

We'll be hearing tributes

to Sir Roger from some of those

he inspired to compete.

Also on the programme...

Ireland casts doubt on government

plans for the Irish

border after Brexit -

saying there is still no detail

on how to keep the border invisible.

'Where is the world' -

say the people of Eastern Ghouta,

as the Syrian government advances

on the rebel-held area.

Would you stop interrupting me while

I am interrupting new?

And will it be V for Victory

at the Oscars tonight?

With Gary Oldman among

the British hopes.

Good evening.

Sir Roger Bannister -

the first man to run a mile

in under four minutes -

has died at the age of 88.

He made athletics history

on a track in Oxford in 1954 -

when he was an amateur athlete.

It was a moment that came

to symbolise sporting achievement.

After retiring from athletics

he became a distinguished

doctor and neurologist.

Today fellow athletes paid

tribute to a man who made

"the impossible possible."

Joe Wilson looks back

at a remarkable life.

NEWSREEL:

25-year-old Roger

Bannister, third from the left.

There are some moments of sporting

history which become part

of the world's history.

He's decided this

is the right moment.

What Roger Bannister achieved

in 1954 was like a lunar landing

for 20th century sport.

Bannister's old friend and rival

Chris Chataway is in third place,

waiting to take over as pacer.

To run a mile and stop

the clock before it reached

four minutes in 1954,

this was a magical number,

a barrier of human achievement.

A feat that would redefine

what was humanly possible.

And it would fall to a young medical

student to achieve it.

After two-and-a-half laps,

Brasher gives way to Chataway.

Bannister, a superb tactician, has

suffered some criticism in the past

for adopting his own rather

unorthodox training methods.

But they are paying dividends now.

At this point it

becomes quite painful.

I overtake Chris Chataway

and begin the finish.

And here he comes.

Bannister goes streaking forward

with about 250 yards to the tapes.

Every stride counted.

The tape broke at three

minutes 59.4 seconds.

And Bannister has done it.

Though he is out on his feet,

his coach and team manager tell him

he has achieved his ambition.

It might have felt like the world

stopped when that clock stopped.

Four minute mile was a sporting

catch phrase everyone recognised.

All I can say I'm absolutely

overwhelmed and delighted.

It was a great surprise to me to be

able to do it today.

And I think I was very lucky.

There was certainly a feeling of it

being a national event,

and something of a landmark

for the country.

Sir Roger Bannister was a hugely

influential figure in sport.

Especially for those whose

athletics careers came after.

Roger was a great athlete.

He would tease Seb and I in later

years about had he been around

in our day and had better tracks

and better shoes and better training

methods he would have beaten us.

He was one of the cleverest people

I think I've ever met,

and he was, in equal measure,

modest as well.

He never really got what he did

and it wasn't a front.

Laura Muir is the most recent

athlete to continue Great Britain's

middle distance tradition,

giving everything to win a silver

medal at the World Indoor

Championships this weekend.

She studied medicine to become

a vet, and recognises

her link to Bannister.

I think he was very influential

and very sort of inspirational

to a lot of people, and to me,

that you can combine, you know,

academics and running.

Sir Roger Bannister

was knighted in 1975.

Athletics was only

a small part of his life.

He regarded his work as

a neurologist as more significant.

When he was diagnosed

with Parkinson's disease

he described the gentle irony that

a neurologist should find himself

with a neurological condition.

Training for Roger Bannister

in athletics had been half an hour

a day on a cinder track.

The world's first for minute

miler was also perhaps

sport's last great amateur.

Sir Roger Bannister who has

died at the age of 88.

The Irish Foreign Minister has

suggested that Britain's proposals

for the Irish border after Brexit

may be rejected by the EU because it

will need to protect how

the single market works.

Simon Coveney said there was little

new detail on how to avoid a hard

border in the Prime Minister's

speech on Friday.

Theresa May insisted

there would be no return

to barriers and border checks.

Here's our Political

Correspondent Eleanor Garnier.

It is more than 300 miles long.

Tens of thousands of

people cross it everyday.

And more than £1 billion is done

in trade between Northern Ireland

and the Republic every week.

But after Brexit, these roads

will be the new frontier

between the UK and EU.

The challenge, how to keep

this border invisible,

when Britain is outside the single

market and the customs union.

We are committed, the Irish

government is committed,

all the parties in Northern Ireland,

to making sure there

is no hard border.

The Prime Minister's plans

would mean 80% of companies

would face no new customs checks

and with new technology,

she believes a hard

border can be avoided.

But the Irish government

has its doubts.

I am not sure that the

European Union will be able

to support a situation whereby 80%

of companies that trade north

and south and south north

will actually protect the integrity

of the EU single market.

To sort out this most trickiest

of Brexit conundrums,

multiple sides need to be won over

and the Prime Minister

has already made clear,

she will not accept the fallback

position in Brussels.

One that would see Northern Ireland

stick to the rules and

regulations of the EU.

Mrs May believes her latest

thinking is a step forward.

It sets out some ways,

particularly on the issue

of customs across-the-board,

in which we can resolve

that and I am pleased

to say that the Taoiseach,

when I met him recently,

has agreed that the UK and Irish

governments and the Commission can

sit down and look in more

detail at the proposals

that we have put forward.

But others elsewhere

in the UK have their doubts.

I think one of the most shameful

features of the whole Brexit

process has been the way,

the negligent way in

which the interests of Ireland have

just been cast aside.

So, when I hear her talk

about technological solutions,

I guess there is nobody

who would disagree with

the objectives she is setting,

but she is talking at the moment

about technological solutions that

perhaps do not even exist.

The Irish border is a key sticking

point in the talks, but other

problems need solving, too.

There has been progress,

but the Brexit negotiations

still have a long way to go.

This week we will get a better idea

of how convinced Brussels is when

the EU side publishes its draft

guidelines for the next round of

talks, but the shape of our future

relationship with the European Union

and back could give us a big clue

into whether what the Prime Minister

is asking for is achievable.

Hundreds of people have been fleeing

Eastern Guta as government forces

continued their assault. There are

now said to hold a quarter of the

province which has been in the hands

of rebel groups. Jeremy Bowen

reports from Damascus.

These people said their village was

moving because the Syrian Army had

arrived. One man cursed the Russians

and Iranians, key allies of the

regime. Air strikes he said

including band cluster bombs had not

stopped.

TRANSLATION: It has been five days,

no fuel, no bread, no food, no

water. Where is the world? Where are

human rights? We are humans, not

animals.

animals. 400,000 people live in

Eastern Guta, an area of fields and

small towns about the size of

Manchester. Most of them are

civilians who have not been able to

escape the war.

TRANSLATION: When the plane 's

shelves, I could not see anything in

front of me.

I did not wait for the

ambulance, I started running.

ambulance, I started running.

The

air strikes have been followed by

ground troops who are making rapid

advances. The strategy seems to be

to cut Eastern Guta in half.

Negotiations between the rebel

groups and the Russians have been

going on for quite some time. It is

not clear if the objective is a

ceasefire or are they effective

surrender of the rebels. The biggest

rebel group says it is regrouping

after a retreat. The fighting is

still going on, for the regime the

prize is the end of the last major

rebel enclave around Damascus. For

the rebels, these are desperate

moments. Jeremy Bowen, BBC News,

Damascus.

Work is continuing to clear snow

from the roads after days

of disruption as the thaw continues

after this week's storms.

There are still some

problems on the railways -

Dan Johnson is at Carlisle railway

station for us this evening.

Dan.

Not exactly the Polar Express.

The train to Carlisle but has not

moved for three days.

They have been trying to free it

from a snow drift blocking

the line from Newcastle.

A farmer helped rescue

the passengers.

They were very pleased to see us.

Very, very pleased, because they had

been there for about five hours

before we found them.

They were just sitting,

getting colder and colder.

We found them and we got it sorted.

There are teams working

like this across large parts

of the railway network,

but the problem is, they keep

clearing snow from the tracks,

but then high winds blow it back

again, blocking the line.

So that means replacement buses

and increasingly weary passengers.

Hoping to get the train back

on Wednesday morning and I had just

been staying there since.

It has taken you five

days to get here?

Five days, yeah, yeah.

Going to Weymouth and I have just

been told I have got

to get three trains,

a Tube and then a bus.

It is difficult to fathom,

after this period of time.

I am sure they are doing their best,

but I am really irritated.

And we could see more of that

frustration tomorrow because even

though Network Rail says it has

cleared the West Coast Main line

between here and Glasgow, trains are

still not running north. That

service has just arrived from London

and the passages have had to get on

coaches to continue their urge

journey to Glasgow. Other lines are

blocked and some trans-Pennine roads

are still tricky and we have had

power cuts in parts of the country,

villages in Devon where teams have

only managed to reach with a water

has been cut off four days. The

after-effects of the storm last week

and all this snow are still having

long-lasting impact. Thank you.

Apologies, the line to Dan was a

little tricky. Sorry about that.

Voters in Italy have been

going to the polls today

in a general election.

The campaign has been dominated

by the issue of immigration

with the centre-left government

facing opposition from

a coalition of right-wing

parties and the popularist

five star movement.

Here's Our Europe

Editor Katya Adler.

Charming, but troubled Naples,

unhappily encapsulates the problems

at the heart of Italy's elections.

Falling living standards,

unemployment, and mass irregular

migration from Africa. But

uncertainty hangs in the today.

Italians are voting for change. They

are just not sure which political

party to trust.

TRANSLATION: I am so worried about

Italy. I said a prayer before coming

to vote.

TRANSLATION: Italians are

frustrated. They need to hear our

voice today. Some of Naples is the

leader of the party tipped to become

Italy's largest today. His 5-star

movement claims to be corruption

free and people friendly. But the

political system here favours

coalitions and meaning this familiar

face could be kingmaker in stead.

Naples and the south of Italy will

swing the vote today, Silvio

Berlusconi did some last-minute

campaigning here on behalf of a

right-wing Coalition. So, what does

this rather chaotic political

picture mean for Italy and Europe?

After all, this is the Eurozone's

third-largest economy.

third-largest economy. Confusion or

is quintessentially Italian,

Brussels is used to it, the

financial markets seem prepared for

it, they believe that a Coalition

government will water down more

extremist populist policies on

offer. How does that help Italians

get to grips with their problems?

This shop is famous for its

handcrafted political figures.

TRANSLATION: Today, all Italian

voters will help paint the future

landscape of the country.

Hollywood's finest will be

celebrated at the 90th

Academy Awards this evening.

But the event takes place

against the backdrop of allegations

against Harvey Weinstein,

and the #MeToo and

Time's Up movements.

Unlike the Golden Globes

and the BAFTAS - there will be

no black dress code.

Our Arts Editor Will

Gompertz is there.

Here on a still concealed

Oscars red carpet, just

about everybody has got an opinion

about what is going

to happen tonight.

But what does a genuine Hollywood

insider, with her ear

to the ground think?

Does she expect there to be

a post-Weinstein reaction that might

change how Academy members vote?

In terms of voting on the Oscars,

I don't think that there will be

a real effect on who wins

and who loses.

My daughter, Angela was...

I would be surprised

if Three Billboards repeated

its BAFTA success and won

Best PPicture.

That movie is quite polarising among

American Academy members.

The Shape of Water,

Guillermo Del Toro's film is one

that has won a lot of the precursor

awards that lead up to the Oscars,

so that seems to be sort

of a rising contender.

Who is going to win?

I would put my money on Get Out.

Chris was just telling me

how he felt much more

comfortable with my being here.

Noted.

What about Best Actor?

You cannot reason with a tiger!

The front runner for Best Actor

is Gary Oldman for Darkest Hour,

for whom this is, in many ways,

possibly a lifetime

achievement award.

There is an outside contender,

Timothee Chalamet for

Call Me By Your Name.

He has kind of captured,

what I think of as the

ingenue spot this year.

Surely Francis McDormand

is a shoo-in as Best Actress for her

performance in Three Billboards

as a grieving, seething mother.

If there is any movie that sort

of captured the #MeToo movement

and the idea of female rage,

surely it is this one.

And what about Greta Gerwig

and her film Lady Bird?

Could she become just the second

woman in the history

of the Oscars to walk away

with the Best Director prize?

I think Greta Gerwig is a long shot.

I think her being nominated is

a milestone for a female director.

Three, two, one.

Ready?

Action!

Guillermo Del Toro is the person

I would put my money on.

This could indeed be the year,

but The Shape of Water is the film

that makes the biggest...

Splash?

Will Gompertz, BBC News, Hollywood.

There's more throughout the evening

on the BBC News Channel,