:00:42. > :00:45.Good morning. Welcome to have the last show of the year. Normally I
:00:45. > :00:49.would find something cheerful to greeted you whip but it is not
:00:49. > :00:59.possible on a day when all of the papers are talking about mass
:00:59. > :01:00.
:01:00. > :01:03.murder of 20 small children and six adults in America. After the
:01:03. > :01:09.Snowdrop petition are gun laws were tightened up. In America the gun
:01:09. > :01:13.lobby always says that guns don't kill people, people do, which seems
:01:13. > :01:18.to pass over the obvious point that people with guns kill faster and
:01:18. > :01:26.kill more people. Reviewing the Sunday newspapers, apps story and
:01:26. > :01:30.plenty more, Amanda Platell and the actor, Richard Wilson. Towards the
:01:30. > :01:36.end of 2012, it is important to remember the good things. We will
:01:36. > :01:39.look back both to the Jubilee and the Olympics. We will have music
:01:39. > :01:44.from the former while we will be hearing from the mayor of London,
:01:44. > :01:47.Boris Johnson, about bottle and the Olympic spirit and applying it to
:01:47. > :01:52.the greatest challenge facing the UK, which is getting growth in the
:01:52. > :01:58.economy. He discusses Europe, his own future and mutant rats with
:01:58. > :02:02.gooseberry eyes! More of that later. I did mention Dunblane and the
:02:02. > :02:07.Snowdrop petition and we are joined by the man who brought in the
:02:07. > :02:11.tightest restrictions on handguns, Labour's Jack Straw. We will hear
:02:11. > :02:16.his advice to his successors on dilemmas from drugs policy to
:02:16. > :02:22.intervention in Syria, and asked about those controversial rendition
:02:22. > :02:27.runs as well. And then with hobbit fever gripping cinema-goers, I will
:02:27. > :02:32.be talking to Sir Ian McKellen, Gandalf. But also one of the
:02:32. > :02:36.greatest Shakespearean actors of our times, and shortly a television
:02:37. > :02:46.sitcom star as well. Finally, the singers who serenaded the Queen on
:02:47. > :02:47.
:02:47. > :02:49.a wet day on the Thames, now in warmer and drier surroundings.
:02:49. > :02:56.# Deck the halls with balls of holly.
:02:56. > :02:59.First the news. President Obama will travel to
:02:59. > :03:05.Connecticut to visit the community of Newtown, left devastated by the
:03:05. > :03:10.shooting. All 26 victims have been identified, 20 of them were
:03:10. > :03:13.children aged 6 and 7. President Obama has pledged what he calls
:03:13. > :03:19.meaningful action to tackle gun crime in America, although it is
:03:20. > :03:26.not clear what that means. Emily Alison Park there was six.
:03:26. > :03:31.She was a big sister and a cherished daughter. As the pain
:03:31. > :03:37.settles into our hearts, we find comfort, reflecting on the
:03:37. > :03:42.incredible person Emily was. And how many lives she was able to
:03:42. > :03:50.touch on her short time on earth. She was bright, creative and very
:03:50. > :03:55.loving. Robbie Parker was at work when he heard of the shooting. His
:03:55. > :03:58.pain was matched with extraordinary compassion. Let us please keep the
:03:58. > :04:05.sentiments of love we feel for our families and the compassion we feel
:04:05. > :04:10.for others, even strangers. And keep them with us at all times. Not
:04:10. > :04:15.just in times of sorrow and tragedy. And maybe we do this so we can
:04:15. > :04:20.better all of our communities and all of our cities and states, we
:04:20. > :04:24.can make everyone, everywhere in this country feel safe. Police
:04:24. > :04:29.still don't know why 20-year-old, Adam Lanza, did what he did. Nor do
:04:29. > :04:33.his own family. The family of Nancy Lanza share the grief of a
:04:33. > :04:37.community and the nation as we struggle to comprehend a tremendous
:04:37. > :04:44.loss we share. Our hearts and prayers are with those who share in
:04:44. > :04:46.his last. The families, teachers, staff and students of Sandy Hook
:04:46. > :04:52.Elementary School, the first responders and all of those touched
:04:52. > :04:56.by this tragedy. On behalf of Nancy's mother and siblings, we
:04:56. > :05:00.reach out to the community of Newtown and express our heartfelt
:05:00. > :05:05.sorrow for the incomprehensible and profound loss of innocence that has
:05:05. > :05:10.affected so many. All day, just outside the school, local families
:05:10. > :05:15.have been coming to lay flowers, candles and even little teddy bears
:05:15. > :05:19.in a makeshift memorial to those who were killed. They pause,
:05:19. > :05:29.sometimes they pray, and all too often they cry. 26 white balloons,
:05:29. > :05:37.one for each of the victims, one for little Emily.
:05:37. > :05:43.Voting is taking place in Japan with the former Prime Minister,
:05:43. > :05:46.Shinzo Abe voted out of power. The ruling Democratic Party led by
:05:46. > :05:49.Yoshihiko Noda, has struggled to deliver on promises of more welfare
:05:49. > :05:52.spending. The body of the nurse who
:05:52. > :05:58.apparently killed herself after a hoax phone call about the Duchess
:05:58. > :06:00.of Cambridge, is due to arrive in India for burial. Jacintha
:06:00. > :06:04.Saldanha's remains are being escorted by her husband and
:06:04. > :06:08.children to the city of Mangalore. She was found dead on 7th December
:06:08. > :06:11.near the hospital in London, where the Duchess had been treated for
:06:11. > :06:17.severe morning sickness. The Mastermind of the London
:06:17. > :06:21.Olympics, Lord Coe, will be awarded the BBC BBC Lifetime Achievement
:06:21. > :06:30.Award at the Sports personality achievement -- programme this
:06:30. > :06:35.evening. A former Olympic gold medallist himself, he joins other
:06:35. > :06:40.winners such as Pele, belong bog and so Steve Redgrave.
:06:40. > :06:43.I will be back with the headline just before 10 am.
:06:43. > :06:48.So too are paper review with Richard Wilson and Amanda Platell,
:06:48. > :06:53.who I should say has had a horrible eye operation and has bravely and
:06:53. > :07:03.undoubtedly come in anyway. I normally go through the front pages,
:07:03. > :07:04.
:07:04. > :07:14.but actually there is just It is amazing how the different
:07:14. > :07:20.newspapers have chosen to focus on. It is incredible trying to choose
:07:20. > :07:29.among the tragedy and appalling human stories. Many have focused on
:07:29. > :07:34.this teacher, he told the children to hide in the cupboard. And when
:07:34. > :07:40.the shooter arrived, why don't they call him a murderer? When issue to
:07:40. > :07:46.a ride, she shielded them. The Daily Telegraph showed all of the
:07:46. > :07:51.teachers shot dead trying to save the children. For horror of school
:07:51. > :07:56.mergers with victims' names. The Sunday Express, first edition. Very
:07:56. > :08:04.tasteless. Then they change the fact that we learnt very later a
:08:04. > :08:10.British charge was among the victims. The Sun newspaper is
:08:10. > :08:15.saying, "burn in hell". The Independent, they do this
:08:15. > :08:20.wonderfully. But the Sunday Mirror, caught with his pants down, the
:08:20. > :08:24.story of a backbench MP who is having an affair. Nobody has ever
:08:24. > :08:30.heard of him. No wonder they only sell a third of the copies of the
:08:30. > :08:34.Sun newspaper. They do have a comment which has attracted Richard
:08:34. > :08:41.Wilson's attention. This is from the Sunday Mirror. It is from the
:08:41. > :08:46.head of the programme Second Amendment Foundation. There was
:08:46. > :08:52.nobody in that school allowed a firearm. I find that deplorable. I
:08:52. > :08:58.am sure Adam Lanza felt he could go in because he knew nobody had a gun.
:08:58. > :09:02.If everybody is on... If the teachers were armed, he wouldn't
:09:02. > :09:07.have done it. On the day of the killings, they did not know how
:09:07. > :09:14.many children had been murdered. That is what they were saying. It
:09:14. > :09:18.did to shoot -- if the teachers had guns. Will it make a difference?
:09:18. > :09:24.will see, presumably a huge argument now which President Obama
:09:24. > :09:29.has kicked off. The pro-gun lobby is formidable in America. That town
:09:29. > :09:35.has one of the biggest groups of the pro-gun lobby in the country. I
:09:35. > :09:40.did think President a banner's speech was brilliant. It it is the
:09:40. > :09:43.finest beach at the time of the tragedy I have seen by a politician.
:09:43. > :09:48.In the beginning he hinted something need to be done. The next
:09:48. > :09:53.day, again. Pity he did not have the courage to raise it when he was
:09:53. > :09:57.running for President. None of them would touch it. We will talk about
:09:57. > :10:02.other stories, Boris Johnson, the subject of Europe and the word
:10:02. > :10:06.referendum is mentioned. You have chosen something from the observed
:10:06. > :10:09.or to kick us off on the subject? One thing that has happened is we
:10:09. > :10:15.are having a debate on what would happen if Britain that the use. I
:10:15. > :10:19.don't think David Cameron has any desire to do that. -- the EU.
:10:19. > :10:24.Whether or not we would thrive like Norway. Or whether we were just
:10:24. > :10:30.wither. Someone has said, we would have had no power, no influence and
:10:30. > :10:40.we would still foot the bill. don't be like Norway. Richard, you
:10:40. > :10:46.
:10:46. > :10:50.have chosen Nigel Farage? Yes, UKIP is officially the third party.
:10:50. > :10:55.Nigel Farage is saying he is not homophobic but is supporting this
:10:55. > :11:03.Polish group the things all gay people are sodomites. Sodomy aside,
:11:03. > :11:13.I wonder if victim Aldro wouldn't be a UKIP support? I think he was a
:11:13. > :11:15.
:11:15. > :11:19.liberal. He was not. He believed in community. It is an important story.
:11:19. > :11:24.UKIP going ahead of the Lib Dems. No one thinks they will end up as
:11:24. > :11:30.the third party when we have the next elections. But they will strip
:11:30. > :11:37.the Tories of votes. There are so many people disenfranchised with
:11:37. > :11:43.the Conservative Party, they won't vote Lib Dem or Labour, they will
:11:43. > :11:47.vote UKIP. And this in the Mail on Sunday talking about gay marriage,
:11:47. > :11:51.which is one of the problems, turning a lot of traditional
:11:51. > :12:00.Conservatives off. 69% of people say the only reason David Cameron
:12:00. > :12:02.is supporting it because he once trendy votes. Let's talk a bit
:12:02. > :12:08.about the Labour Party. There is a cartoon I have noticed in the
:12:08. > :12:16.Observer. A very good piece by Andrew Rawnsley. Could the Prime
:12:16. > :12:20.Minister be a bit f r I t about facing Ed Miliband on the box. They
:12:20. > :12:28.are debating the next election. There is a possibility we won't
:12:28. > :12:32.have television debates in the next election? One of the headlines is,
:12:32. > :12:38.Mr Miliband is the equal of Mr Cameron in the Commons. I think Ed
:12:38. > :12:43.Miliband is doing well at Question Time now. He is much more confident.
:12:43. > :12:51.He is improving. If David Cameron had any sense, he would say, get
:12:51. > :12:57.them out of the way, I am not doing them. Have the round now, get it
:12:57. > :13:02.out of the wave. Having watched Question Time as my job for many
:13:02. > :13:08.years, watching Prime Minister's Questions turns me off. Why is
:13:08. > :13:16.that? There is just so much silly stuff going on. I don't think any
:13:16. > :13:22.of them do themselves a lot of good. We do not learn anything from it.
:13:22. > :13:26.But this word, F r I t, I thought it was Scottish. It is Lincolnshire,
:13:26. > :13:33.comes from Margaret Thatcher. That is why people in politics do not
:13:33. > :13:38.use it. You are directing as much as anything else at the moment?
:13:38. > :13:42.am an associate director at Sheffield. I am working at the Bush
:13:42. > :13:50.Theatre at the moment. It is called straight, which is running for
:13:50. > :13:54.another week. Do not tell UKIP! The other terrible story, is the
:13:54. > :14:00.suicide of the nurse? We are starting to get more details about
:14:00. > :14:05.these three letters she wrote. In one of them, she said she held the
:14:05. > :14:09.DJ's responsible. This story is just so ghastly from start to
:14:09. > :14:14.finish. Two beautiful teenage children without their mother at
:14:14. > :14:19.Christmas. But there is a feeling... Surely they must have been
:14:19. > :14:25.something else that was troubling her to make her take her life over
:14:26. > :14:30.a stupid Hoax? Nothing divulged about Kate Middleton in the end. We
:14:30. > :14:35.all knew she was sick. It is this thing about apportioning blame. You
:14:35. > :14:40.cannot actually blame people for a consequence like that. The Pogues
:14:40. > :14:47.may have been silly, it may have gone too far, it does not mean they
:14:47. > :14:51.were responsible. -- the hoax. Richard, you have chosen the
:14:51. > :14:56.profile from the Sunday Times, Maria Miller, the Culture
:14:56. > :15:03.Secretary? She is having a terrible time of it at the moment. She has
:15:03. > :15:10.her expenses if they're going on, where she claimed �90,000 of
:15:10. > :15:14.taxpayers' money. That is being investigated. She does not fill me
:15:14. > :15:24.with confidence in being in charge of the arts at a time when we
:15:24. > :15:26.
:15:26. > :15:30.Her aid and Number Ten were putting pressure on the Daily Telegraph to
:15:30. > :15:34.ghost doffed -- soft on the expenses story because she is
:15:34. > :15:39.looking at Leveson. It is a crude threat. It doesn't take them long
:15:39. > :15:43.to turn into bully-boy is, does it? It is absolutely appalling and she
:15:43. > :15:53.is clearly incompetent. Did you think Jeremy Hunt was any better?
:15:53. > :15:55.
:15:55. > :16:00.No! Final story, Amanda. Nelson Mandela. A much-loved man, 94 years
:16:00. > :16:06.old. He has a terrible lung condition and a gallstone operation,
:16:06. > :16:11.surrounded by his family. You can't help but think that if he was in a
:16:11. > :16:18.Brit he would be stuck in a side room and left to die. I hope he has
:16:18. > :16:24.a Happy Christmas. A thank you. I hope you do. Richard, your final
:16:24. > :16:34.offering is a culinary one. Really, I'm so sick of Christmas, I'm
:16:34. > :16:35.
:16:35. > :16:42.sorry! Yes, Victor! How baize can you get? -- based. All of the chefs,
:16:42. > :16:48.their turkey recipes are under scrutiny. Delia comes top with 43.
:16:48. > :16:51.A turkey is just a turkey. That is so not true, honestly! You can cook
:16:51. > :16:54.them a million different ways. could talk about this all day, but
:16:54. > :16:57.could talk about this all day, but we have to turn to another subject.
:16:57. > :17:00.The freezing fog gave way to rain again, and the country's slowly
:17:00. > :17:02.becoming a huge sticky grey puddle. So how's it looking for the build-
:17:02. > :17:10.So how's it looking for the build- up to Christmas? Over to John
:17:10. > :17:13.Hammond in the weather studio. Well, it is pretty soggy underfoot
:17:13. > :17:17.and the rain will return in the middle part of the week, but just
:17:17. > :17:22.for a while some sunshine to look forward to it. Most of us having a
:17:22. > :17:26.fine and bright day. There are some showers around and you can see them
:17:26. > :17:30.on the satellite picture. Clumps of cloud out west and it is the
:17:31. > :17:34.western parts of the country which will catch most of the showers
:17:34. > :17:38.today. They will move through quickly on the breeze. There's a
:17:39. > :17:44.good chance that where you live you will avoid most of the showers. The
:17:44. > :17:49.driest weather will be on the eastern side of the country. Mid-
:17:49. > :17:54.afternoon, a scattering of showers in the West, but large expanses of
:17:54. > :17:59.dry weather with some sunshine. In the sunshine, not feeling too bad.
:18:00. > :18:05.There will be some heavy showers towards western areas and along the
:18:05. > :18:14.south coast. For London it should stay largely dry. Looking ahead to
:18:14. > :18:18.Mundon, a showery start to the des. Some lingering fog patches. Showers
:18:18. > :18:23.will diminish out west later in the afternoon. It should be a dry day
:18:23. > :18:25.on Tuesday and then the rain and wind return on Wednesday. I'm
:18:25. > :18:28.wind return on Wednesday. I'm afraid it is a mixed prospect in
:18:28. > :18:33.the run-up to Christmas. Back to you.
:18:33. > :18:36.Her mixture of squelch and drip! The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson,
:18:36. > :18:40.seems to be feeling quite satisfied with life at the end of 2012. A
:18:40. > :18:42.year in which he was re-elected for a second term and cheered by the
:18:42. > :18:45.Olympic crowds - in contrast to some of his senior Conservative
:18:45. > :18:48.colleagues. As the Prime Minister remarked, he even turned getting
:18:48. > :18:52.stuck on a zipwire into something of a PR triumph. When we talked a
:18:52. > :18:55.couple of days ago, I asked him if he could bottle the Olympic spirit
:18:55. > :19:05.and channel it into another great national project, what would that
:19:05. > :19:05.
:19:05. > :19:09.be? Aviation, immediately. The Olympics showed what the public and
:19:09. > :19:14.private sector can do when they work together, when they are brave,
:19:14. > :19:18.when they view this country as a great country, something we can be
:19:18. > :19:23.proud of and that we can do extraordinary things. I think we've
:19:23. > :19:29.got a looming crisis, a crisis that is already upon us in our aviation
:19:29. > :19:33.capacity. We could sort it out with boldness and vision. You mentioned
:19:33. > :19:37.aviation, what about some of the huge economic problems? We've got
:19:37. > :19:41.to get the economy going again. biggest thing you could do for
:19:41. > :19:47.Londoners at the moment is build hundreds of thousands of new homes.
:19:47. > :19:54.Since I've been Mayor of London, in the last four years, the city has
:19:54. > :19:58.acquired another 600,000 people. It is not all down to me! It is a
:19:59. > :20:03.stunning comment on the popularity of London. London is the motor for
:20:03. > :20:09.the UK economy. They have to live somewhere. Yes, and they have to be
:20:09. > :20:13.able to get around the city. This year has been wonderful for brand
:20:13. > :20:17.London. When I went to India recently, it was noticeable that
:20:17. > :20:24.people thought what a fantastic place. You had software companies,
:20:24. > :20:30.IT companies, hotels, wanting to invest here. Lower taxes, as you
:20:30. > :20:37.pointed out. That is one of the ingredients. I've made a point
:20:37. > :20:40.about access for talented people to the London market. But we do have a
:20:40. > :20:44.problem with visas. Some of the signals we've sent out have been a
:20:44. > :20:50.bit negative. Of course we must crackdown on illegal immigration
:20:50. > :20:54.and Labour was completely wrong to open the floodgates in 2004 and to
:20:54. > :20:58.fail to grip the problem and everybody understands that. But
:20:58. > :21:03.loads of the people I talk to, the number one issue among Indian
:21:03. > :21:09.business people is, are you hostile to us coming to London? What do you
:21:09. > :21:15.make of the signals sent by the government? A sense that a
:21:15. > :21:19.drawbridge is being closed. If this argument that immigration is
:21:19. > :21:23.responsible for an increase in house prices, I want to look at an
:21:23. > :21:28.aspect of that proposition. It is certainly true that if you look at
:21:28. > :21:33.the London market, property values are very much driven by the
:21:33. > :21:38.confidence of inward investors in this city who come to buy houses
:21:38. > :21:46.here... The French and the Italians and Russians and Chinese. All of
:21:46. > :21:52.the refugees from the terror... All of the people fleeing across the
:21:52. > :21:56.Channel, they are investing in London. It is not sensible to say
:21:56. > :22:02.that property value, we should keep people out or keep rich investors
:22:02. > :22:06.out of our domain in order to allow property values to decline. That
:22:06. > :22:12.would lead to a fall in the equity of everybody in their property, in
:22:12. > :22:16.the City, and for the life of me I can't see the economic logic.
:22:16. > :22:21.turn to the eurozone and what you've been saying about an in-out
:22:21. > :22:26.referendum of some kind for the British people. As I understand it,
:22:27. > :22:31.what you want is a really serious renegotiation of our relationship
:22:31. > :22:34.with the rest of the EU to give us a single market style relationship
:22:34. > :22:38.and then to put that to a referendum. Yes. They are
:22:38. > :22:43.laboriously keeping their counsel alive while the patient's health
:22:43. > :22:49.deteriorates further. For GDP of Greece has gone down 10% since we
:22:49. > :22:53.were last here. Unemployment is soaring in Spain and Greece and
:22:53. > :22:59.other Mediterranean countries. It is a tragedy. What we should say to
:22:59. > :23:04.them is, OK, you go on with that project, you keep going with your
:23:04. > :23:08.efforts to sustain the single currency, you create this fiscal
:23:08. > :23:14.union, absolutely fine. We can't stop you, we don't approve, we
:23:14. > :23:19.don't support it, but we can't stop you. You walk Court of Cameron and
:23:19. > :23:23.Osborne for sounding enthusiastic. -- you are critical. It is wrong to
:23:23. > :23:27.be enthusiastic. It is not democratic, it is not in the
:23:27. > :23:32.interests of the people of Europe to take away their right to vote
:23:32. > :23:38.for the people who set their taxes. What they are deciding to do is to
:23:38. > :23:42.create a single policy based more or less in Brussels... That stifles
:23:42. > :23:46.all of the national or local democracy in your view? Yes. They
:23:46. > :23:51.are being kept on a gold standard over which they will have less and
:23:51. > :23:56.less control. In my view, they are compounding the problem. We should
:23:56. > :24:01.say, OK, we are good Europeans so we will let you do that if that is
:24:01. > :24:05.your wish, but what we would like in return for our consent to you're
:24:05. > :24:09.using EU institutions on this project which we think his
:24:09. > :24:14.misguided, we would like a new relationship. What most people in
:24:14. > :24:17.this country want it is the single market, the Common Market. A lot of
:24:17. > :24:23.people will understand the attraction of it, but you must
:24:23. > :24:26.admit it is a gamble. They might say no. Therefore it is a
:24:26. > :24:30.negotiation you can only go into honestly if you are prepared to
:24:30. > :24:35.walk away at the end and say, if we can't get the Europe we want, we
:24:35. > :24:42.are prepared to leave. Correct. Absolutely correct. I happen to
:24:42. > :24:48.think, by the way,... I don't think that is necessarily the end of the
:24:48. > :24:53.world. Don't forget that 50 years ago, the entire CBI, British
:24:53. > :24:58.industry, the City, everybody was proffer sizing that there would be
:24:58. > :25:03.a gigantic Newton rats with gooseberry eyes swarming out of
:25:03. > :25:09.gutters in the so it to chew the faces of the remaining British
:25:09. > :25:17.bankers. We didn't... It is not my preferred option. My preferred
:25:17. > :25:23.option is for us to stay in there... For how long do you think the
:25:23. > :25:31.endlessly promised referendum... can't. To a certain extent, this is
:25:31. > :25:36.now driven by the feeling that a lot of people have that it was 1975
:25:36. > :25:40.when the people were first put a clear proposition about Europe and
:25:40. > :25:45.it is a long time ago. Lots of other countries have had
:25:45. > :25:51.referendums on this exceeding treaties. How long? We've never had
:25:51. > :25:54.a popular vote since 1975 on Europe. I would like to be able to campaign
:25:54. > :26:00.for the single market and a withdrawal from a lot of the
:26:00. > :26:04.nonsensical policies. I think most people at... For how long can it be
:26:04. > :26:09.postponed? I can't believe the government will do it this term. It
:26:09. > :26:15.would be a good idea if they did it before 2015, but I can't see it.
:26:15. > :26:22.All apparently will be revealed in a speech that his forthcoming.
:26:23. > :26:28.as the voice... Reason. For the financial centre of this country, I
:26:28. > :26:32.was going to say, what is your take on these huge companies, Google,
:26:32. > :26:38.Amazon, Starbucks, who have avoided paying almost any corporation tax?
:26:38. > :26:46.It is difficult. You can't exactly blame the finance directors of
:26:46. > :26:52.these companies for doing their job. All of the tax lawyers. Their
:26:52. > :26:56.salaries, their livelihoods, depend on minimising the tax exposure and
:26:56. > :27:01.obligations of their companies. If there's some way of parking all
:27:01. > :27:06.their profits in Luxembourg or wherever and their bike at
:27:06. > :27:09.minimising their tax exposure, you can't blame them. You could change
:27:09. > :27:16.the arrangements, the government could change the arrangement.
:27:16. > :27:20.should they? If possible, yes. What I don't think you can do is keep
:27:20. > :27:25.beating them up. Starbucks, the other day, wrote a cheque for �20
:27:25. > :27:31.million. Everybody is now sneering and saying �20 million doesn't
:27:31. > :27:34.begin... My any feeling is that if companies are going to show
:27:34. > :27:38.corporate responsibility and they are going to contribute to wider
:27:38. > :27:44.society, you should not see it -- sneer at them. You either sorted
:27:44. > :27:48.out... That is for politicians to do. You are the most popular
:27:48. > :27:54.Conservative politician in the country. I don't know. According to
:27:54. > :28:00.the polls! What are you going to do to help your party win between now
:28:00. > :28:08.and 2015. I will campaign for a Conservative victory relentlessly
:28:08. > :28:12.at in the coming years. I think we will win. I tell you why. I think
:28:12. > :28:19.that my all schoolmate, Ed Miliband, we went to the Thain primary school,
:28:19. > :28:25.they made a huge mistake in putting all of their chips, their political
:28:25. > :28:29.chips, on the square marked economic gloom, failure, but in
:28:29. > :28:36.going down. Their entire pitch to the people is that things are going
:28:36. > :28:41.to get worse. The minute... I think there will be a recovery. I am not
:28:41. > :28:45.as gloomy as some people about the UK. I think the UK it is great. At
:28:46. > :28:50.the minute -- the minute people's confidence returns, they will say
:28:50. > :28:55.to Ed Balls and Ed Miliband, you crashed the car, we seem to have
:28:55. > :29:00.got out of the ditch at last, we are back on the road, why would we
:29:00. > :29:04.give the keys back to you? If there was any suggestion, a campaign to
:29:04. > :29:13.get you back into the House of Commons, if your sainted brother
:29:13. > :29:21.said listen, Boris, have my seat... Joseph Johnson! That will not
:29:21. > :29:25.happen. If the trumpet sounds, it will you not respond? And no.
:29:25. > :29:31.got 3 1/2 more years as Mayor of London. You're absolutely going to
:29:31. > :29:35.stick to that under all circumstances? Yes. We did a great
:29:35. > :29:39.Olympics, seriously, it was a great year for the City, but there's more
:29:39. > :29:43.that needs to be delivered and we need to show we can get value from
:29:43. > :29:50.that night �0.3 billion and we will. The Olympic investments will be
:29:50. > :29:53.transformed a tree of huge chunks of East London. I want to be there
:29:54. > :30:03.to make sure we get it right. I think we can and I think people
:30:04. > :30:16.
:30:16. > :30:19.will be piling into London for And Now, there are stars of stage
:30:19. > :30:21.and there are stars of screen. Sir Ian McKellen was already a
:30:22. > :30:25.theatrical knight before Hollywood beckoned. Now he's famous all over
:30:25. > :30:28.the world as Gandalf in Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, which had its
:30:28. > :30:31.London premiere last week. Sir Ian joined fellow stars and royalty on
:30:31. > :30:34.the special green carpet in London's West End. He said it felt
:30:34. > :30:37.proper to celebrate the film in London, given the author, and a
:30:37. > :30:41.large part of the cast, were British. It will eventually form
:30:41. > :30:47.part of a trilogy. Sir Ian is with me now. Good morning. A trilogy,
:30:47. > :30:52.out of what I recall a little book? Miraculous, isn't it? I thought we
:30:52. > :30:56.were making two films which was a little bit questionable. On the
:30:56. > :31:05.last day of shooting, Peter Jackson, the director, said it will be
:31:05. > :31:09.turned into three. I am sure the finances thought, great, 13 why
:31:09. > :31:15.not? Peter Jackson wouldn't do anything to sully his reputation as
:31:15. > :31:22.a serious director. It is not cashing in, but it is an awful lot
:31:22. > :31:28.of what used to be called celluloid per page? In the book, it is the
:31:28. > :31:33.beauty of literature. Talking can, in half a page, described it battle.
:31:33. > :31:37.The cinema is a clumsy way of describing a battle. It takes
:31:37. > :31:42.longer than it does to read about it. From your point of view, apart
:31:42. > :31:50.from the burden of having to be wise, you have to sustain a
:31:50. > :31:56.formidable hat. Let's see a brief glimpse.
:31:56. > :32:06.They are not far behind. Who did you tell about your quest? No one.
:32:06. > :32:12.Who did you tell? No one, ice work. You are being hunted. Between the
:32:12. > :32:18.hat and the beard... You have to do a lot of this against the blue
:32:18. > :32:23.screen, you are not in situ because of the way it is filmed. If you see
:32:23. > :32:27.Gandalf on top of a mountain, he was there. Treading ground known
:32:27. > :32:31.human being had trodden on before because it was inaccessible. In the
:32:32. > :32:40.studio you have to have a bit of green screen behind you. You have
:32:40. > :32:47.to be very tall, compared to Bilbao? You have understood it. I
:32:47. > :32:52.had to be taller than The Hobbit. I would be standing on a table.
:32:52. > :32:57.Sometimes we are in separate parts of the studio. I separated from the
:32:57. > :33:03.smaller people, and by the magic of two cameras filming at the same
:33:03. > :33:09.time, pictures can be put together. New Zealand stars with wonderful
:33:09. > :33:14.landscape. Some people have been quite critical about the effect of
:33:15. > :33:20.3D vision. It is so sharp, but sometimes you get distracted from
:33:20. > :33:26.the story? It happened to me and I have seen it twice. I am told that
:33:26. > :33:31.people of my age, whose eyesight is less clear than people of yours,
:33:31. > :33:35.that it does not worry us as much as it worries younger people. I
:33:35. > :33:41.think it is the future whether we like it or not and the hobbit will
:33:41. > :33:48.go down as the film that broke through. It is 48 frames a second,
:33:48. > :33:53.it is normally 24 frames a second. This human eye sees at 60 seconds
:33:53. > :33:57.per-second, so it is a little bit further to go and probably someone
:33:57. > :34:04.like James Cameron will take us there. Gandalf has become a
:34:04. > :34:10.character children all around the country are now obsessed with. The
:34:10. > :34:16.dwarfs our hooligan, real ale campaigners, basically? Charmless,
:34:16. > :34:20.compared with hobbit sauce. have actually made the other two
:34:20. > :34:25.films, or do you have a lot of filming To do question my Eddie not
:34:25. > :34:32.really know, frankly. I just turn up when required. I have another
:34:32. > :34:36.few weeks to go to tie up the two films. We will be seeing you on an
:34:36. > :34:45.ITV sitcom, with Derek Jacobi, someone you have known for a long
:34:45. > :34:54.time? We acted together at a university, but not since. Also,
:34:54. > :35:02.Marcia Warren, played my mother when I did Camel it. -- hamlet.
:35:02. > :35:07.working title is a vicious old queens. My reply was I am not old.
:35:07. > :35:10.It is about a gay couple who have lived together for 50 years and one
:35:10. > :35:17.of the ways they communicate his bike being horrible to each other.
:35:17. > :35:21.Of course, they love each other. It is very, very funny. Written by one
:35:21. > :35:30.of the writers from will and Grace, a very successful American TV
:35:30. > :35:35.series who wrote Family Guide. We get going in January. -- family guy.
:35:35. > :35:41.Gay marriage has become politically controversial. David Cameron in
:35:41. > :35:46.favour of it. The Church of England have said it will be illegal?
:35:46. > :35:50.a way of protecting the Church's right not to consecrate a marriage.
:35:50. > :35:55.Marriage is not done in church technically, marriage only happens
:35:55. > :36:00.when you sign the register. It is a civil contract, the blessing of it
:36:00. > :36:05.is an extra. You can do without it, you do not have to go to church.
:36:05. > :36:10.They get very confused about it, thinking it is an attack on the
:36:10. > :36:16.church. And the Quakers say, we want to celebrate same gender
:36:16. > :36:20.marriages. You must allow us to do it. It is all peripheral to the
:36:20. > :36:23.real argument and the inevitability of the march forward to the
:36:23. > :36:28.acceptance of a quality, which has been one of the great success
:36:28. > :36:34.stories of the last 25 years. do you regard David Cameron in that
:36:34. > :36:39.regard? It was gratifying, when they tried to stop the Government
:36:39. > :36:46.making a fool of itself introducing section 28, I talk to John Major,
:36:46. > :36:52.the then Prime Minister. He came out and supported David Cameron on
:36:52. > :36:56.gay marriage. They are responding to the pressure in society. When we
:36:56. > :37:01.had Civil partnerships. Every civil partnership celebrated going beyond
:37:01. > :37:05.the family and the friends to the employers and the ripples have gone
:37:05. > :37:13.across the country. People who objective to same gender marriages,
:37:13. > :37:16.really are caught in by Waters and the King old fashioned. People who
:37:16. > :37:21.might a not know it the fact you are a pub landlord, but you go to
:37:21. > :37:26.schools to talk to children? Yes, I am on my way to the north-east and
:37:26. > :37:31.Edinburgh. I tell them what it used to be like. And I see their jaws
:37:31. > :37:37.drop, when I tell them that friends of mine were put in prison for
:37:37. > :37:40.making love, they cannot believe it. Sex and 28, having gone, which
:37:40. > :37:45.inhibited schools talking positively about it, there is work
:37:45. > :37:49.to be done. All parties are rallying around that and local
:37:49. > :37:53.authorities, and enlightened headteachers and governors, parents
:37:53. > :38:01.as well. To see the way the kids understand the principles is
:38:01. > :38:04.wonderful. There are not many schools I am not invited to. Faith
:38:04. > :38:11.schools and some academies. They need to be told more strongly about
:38:11. > :38:19.what they should and shouldn't say. Senior churchmen make alarmist
:38:19. > :38:25.remarks. Yes, of course. You have the authority on Gandalf. You were
:38:25. > :38:32.the hat, in the schools. Are we going to see you on stage again
:38:32. > :38:36.soon? I was talking about great Shakespearean roles? You will have
:38:36. > :38:41.to come to New York next year. But there is a plan to come to London
:38:41. > :38:51.after that. But not for a bit, I am afraid. Le V8 to have you. 20 very
:38:51. > :38:54.much indeed. When Labour left office in 2010,
:38:54. > :38:56.Jack Straw was one of only three people who'd served continuously in
:38:57. > :38:58.Cabinet, throughout the party's 13 years in government, under Tony
:38:59. > :39:01.Blair and then Gordon Brown. Appropriately, his recent
:39:01. > :39:04.autobiography is subtitled 'Memoirs of a Political Survivor'. When
:39:04. > :39:07.Labour returned to Opposition, he had to re-learn all sorts of skills,
:39:07. > :39:10.like driving. He'd got so used to having protection officers to do
:39:10. > :39:12.that for him. He's been in the news again recently, because of the
:39:12. > :39:17.controversy over the alleged rendition of detainees to face
:39:17. > :39:23.torture abroad on his watch. Jack Straw joins me now. Good morning.
:39:23. > :39:28.Good morning. Can we talk about the terrible story that dominates the
:39:28. > :39:34.papers today? When you came in as Home Secretary, there was this
:39:34. > :39:40.thing called the Snowdrop petition which was pressing for even tighter
:39:40. > :39:44.controls on handguns in particular. It was after the Dunblane massacre.
:39:44. > :39:50.What would your advice be to the American politicians, including the
:39:50. > :39:56.President, who are facing a more formidable gun lobby and how they
:39:56. > :39:59.should proceed? Their system is different from ours. They have this
:39:59. > :40:05.love affair with guns. Not withstanding the fact crime has
:40:05. > :40:10.gone down, murders have gone down in the US, for fear of crime has
:40:10. > :40:13.gone up, so people are arming themselves. Not just with hand
:40:13. > :40:19.pistols but semi- automatic machine-guns, the kind that was
:40:19. > :40:24.used in this massacre. It is a different circumstance. My advice,
:40:24. > :40:29.for what it is worth is this, there is no act of Parliament, no act of
:40:29. > :40:33.Congress that can guarantee there will never be a massacre, even in
:40:33. > :40:39.Norway where they have very tight laws. We have had them here, in
:40:39. > :40:45.Cumbria, it you remember? However, the more he tightened the law, the
:40:45. > :40:53.more you reduce the risk. There is no doubt at all, the firearms Act
:40:53. > :40:58.which I brought in in 1997, had quite a lot of controversy. People
:40:58. > :41:03.were saying, you're taking the right to use pistols away. We are
:41:03. > :41:08.not all criminals. It is difficult to get a licence for a pistol and a
:41:08. > :41:13.rifle. People feel much happier about that and say that. Do you see
:41:13. > :41:18.movement happening in the state? Or is it an impossibility? I am not
:41:18. > :41:24.putting on any money on people happening. Sensible people want it
:41:24. > :41:29.to happen. But the Rifle Association lobby controls politics
:41:30. > :41:34.in a number of states. A number of things we do not understand about
:41:34. > :41:40.US politics is, because there is no limit to what outside organisations
:41:40. > :41:44.can spend on political advertising, none at all, you can buy
:41:44. > :41:48.commercials. It you are a politician and you get involved in
:41:48. > :41:53.something controversial, than an outside lobby will almost literally
:41:53. > :41:59.kill you politically. President Obama does not have to face that?
:41:59. > :42:03.No, but he faces Congress which does. And you had this completely
:42:03. > :42:08.mad aspect of the American constitution with elections every
:42:08. > :42:14.two years. It is one of the very few democracies where it is
:42:14. > :42:19.election after election. So it is always controversial. Let's now
:42:19. > :42:24.talk about the arguments of the decriminalisation of drugs. We have
:42:24. > :42:30.MPs calling for a major push and possibly a Royal Commission. Have
:42:30. > :42:34.your views changed? You always very hard line. My views about whether
:42:34. > :42:38.you should decriminalise it, particularly soft drugs, have not
:42:38. > :42:45.changed. However, you have got to think about this all of the time.
:42:45. > :42:49.The evidence is there. There was a piece in the Independent, a man who
:42:49. > :42:53.knows about this was saying, I paraphrase, on the whole what we
:42:53. > :42:57.have done in the last 15 years has been in relative success, because
:42:57. > :43:00.interesting read, and you don't see much about this in the papers, drug
:43:00. > :43:06.use by all age groups in the population, but particularly
:43:06. > :43:12.younger people has gone down. We have put loads of money into drug
:43:12. > :43:16.abusers who ended up in prison. And that has also helped. However, I am
:43:16. > :43:22.not so certain about my views that I think they should never be re-
:43:22. > :43:26.examined. Possibly a big Commission? I don't except what
:43:26. > :43:33.Nick Clegg says, there has been a conspiracy of silence about this.
:43:33. > :43:37.It you have up to little -- particular view, you should be
:43:37. > :43:42.ready to have it examined. It you can set up a Royal Commission which
:43:42. > :43:46.will do a speedy job, because that is important, not take many years.
:43:46. > :43:52.And you get decent people on it he will be able to stand back and come
:43:52. > :43:57.to a view, than fine. My worry on this issue of decriminalisation, is
:43:57. > :44:01.what it lead to an increase in consumption and then it used and
:44:01. > :44:06.leading on to harder drugs? Starting with tobacco, and someone
:44:06. > :44:11.said we have found this wonderful product that makes you hazy, so
:44:11. > :44:16.Walter Raleigh. I think now we would look back and say no, we want
:44:16. > :44:20.it banned. And the other thing in the papers, the renditions. A
:44:20. > :44:26.Libyan dissident has been paid �2.2 million by the British Government
:44:26. > :44:29.because he was rendered, taken, he says with MI6 help and then
:44:29. > :44:33.tortured in Libya. I know there is another case still pending which
:44:33. > :44:37.makes it difficult for you to comment. You are a reflective man,
:44:37. > :44:41.you have reflected on the issues around the Iraq war on what you
:44:41. > :44:45.knew at the time. There is something very worrying about a
:44:45. > :44:49.relationship with Colonel Gaddafi Yeading so quickly to people being
:44:49. > :44:54.sent back and tortured? There is a great deal I would like to say on
:44:54. > :45:00.the subject, a huge amount. I will do at an appropriate stage. I am
:45:00. > :45:08.sorry, Andrew, for the reasons you have already raised, there is
:45:08. > :45:12.another two cases. One has been settled and one has not, it is an
:45:12. > :45:16.in active stage a proceedings. I had said I had always scribblers
:45:16. > :45:20.been observed in my duties on the law in respect of this and
:45:20. > :45:25.everything else. Can you go as far to say what happened to these two
:45:25. > :45:29.men was terrible? That is to commence on the merits of the case,
:45:29. > :45:34.and I understand your concern. I do feel frustrated about this. I would
:45:34. > :45:40.like to say the great deal about this and the wider issues. In my
:45:40. > :45:45.book, I do talk about other issues including Iraq and Iran. You may
:45:45. > :45:55.remember on Iran, on his programme... You used the word
:45:55. > :46:00.
:46:00. > :46:04.crackers. It's that a nuclear Your critics say they find it
:46:04. > :46:08.difficult to understand how you as Home Secretary knew nothing about
:46:08. > :46:13.rendition flights coming through Britain. I don't think there were
:46:13. > :46:18.lots of them. I am ready to be proved wrong on this. A pretty
:46:18. > :46:24.large number have been recorded. What the government has promised is
:46:24. > :46:29.a re-establishment of Sigurdsson inquiry, the judge lead inquiry
:46:29. > :46:34.into renditions. -- Gibson inquiry. I am very happy to answer for my
:46:34. > :46:39.actions. Do you feel comfortable about that episode in your
:46:39. > :46:45.political life? As I said earlier, I was very scrupulous indeed about
:46:45. > :46:49.observing my legal duties. When this worry came forward, we did the
:46:49. > :46:55.most thorough examination possible about whether it renditions had
:46:55. > :47:00.taken place either through British airspace... In the UK, or in places
:47:00. > :47:06.like Diego Garcia. With one exception, as I recall, which David
:47:06. > :47:09.Miliband brought up in the House of Commons in 2008, there were none.
:47:09. > :47:13.There were two transfers of prisoners which I agreed as Home
:47:13. > :47:19.Secretary, which could be classified as renditions, but that
:47:20. > :47:24.was on the record. A my comfortable? Do jobs I had were
:47:24. > :47:29.very difficult. But I am comfortable about the decisions I
:47:29. > :47:32.made and I am happy for them to be examined. You mentioned your book.
:47:32. > :47:36.One of the things in your book is the agonising you went through
:47:36. > :47:40.about whether or not to basically joined in a plot to remove Gordon
:47:40. > :47:45.Brown when he seemed to be failing as Prime Minister. You said like a
:47:45. > :47:50.lot of people, you were prepared to win and but not to kill. You could
:47:50. > :47:55.have helped change political history, possibly. Having read the
:47:55. > :47:59.book, I don't quite understand why you chose not to. I could have
:47:59. > :48:03.changed political history. But we didn't know how to change political
:48:03. > :48:07.history. Alistair Darling, Harriet and the rest of us were deeply
:48:07. > :48:12.worried about what was happening inside the Labour government. Our
:48:12. > :48:18.hopes and aspirations and rational judgments about Gordon were not
:48:18. > :48:21.working out as planned. But the problem, if we had organised a coup,
:48:21. > :48:25.is that history might have gone the other way and there could have been
:48:25. > :48:29.total chaos. That would have been the worry, all right. For now,
:48:29. > :48:30.thank you. Now over to Naga for the news
:48:30. > :48:33.headlines. President Obama will travel to
:48:33. > :48:36.Connecticut today to visit the small community of Newtown left
:48:36. > :48:41.devastated by Friday's school shooting. All 26 victims have now
:48:41. > :48:43.been identified - 20 of them were children aged six and seven.
:48:43. > :48:47.Survivors and local people have been leaving flowers in memory of
:48:47. > :48:50.the dead. Mr Obama has pledged what he calls "meaningful action" to
:48:50. > :48:54.tackle gun crime in America - though it's not clear what that
:48:54. > :48:57.means. The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson,
:48:57. > :49:04.has added his voice to pressure for a referendum on the UK's membership
:49:04. > :49:07.of the EU. He told this programme that he was in favour of staying in,
:49:07. > :49:11.but wanted people to have their say on a re-negotiated relationship
:49:11. > :49:14.focusing on the single market. He said he didn't expect any vote to
:49:14. > :49:22.take place before the next general election, although he wanted it to
:49:22. > :49:27.happen as soon as possible. Lots of other countries have had
:49:27. > :49:33.referendums on the succeeding treaties. How long? We have never
:49:33. > :49:36.had a popular vote since 1975 on Europe. I would like to be able to
:49:36. > :49:39.campaign for the single market and a withdrawal from a lot of the
:49:39. > :49:42.nonsensical policies. That's all from me for now. The
:49:42. > :49:45.next news on BBC One is at midday. Back to you, Andrew.
:49:45. > :49:49.Thanks, Naga. Well, Jack Straw is still with me, and we've been
:49:49. > :49:52.joined again by our paper reviewers. We're going to hear about some of
:49:52. > :49:56.their most memorable moments from 2012. But first, here's a look back
:49:56. > :50:06.at some of the highlights from the past year on this show - a year in
:50:06. > :50:12.
:50:12. > :50:15.which I got a new motor. A rather A year where we have for boost from
:50:15. > :50:20.the Olympic Games, the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, a year when the
:50:20. > :50:24.world will be looking at Britain and visiting Britain. We have to
:50:24. > :50:29.play to our strengths. His 2012 a year in which you say I will do
:50:29. > :50:34.better? This is part of the gig of being leader of the opposition. You
:50:34. > :50:37.get criticism, you get advice, it is what happens. I want this
:50:37. > :50:41.government to be rooted in the centre ground of British politics
:50:41. > :50:46.on the side of hard-working families. George Osborne said a
:50:46. > :50:51.year ago in his Budget, I will put fuel in the tank of the British
:50:51. > :50:55.economy. 12 months on, we are on the hard shoulder. Of course things
:50:55. > :50:59.have not turned out as we wanted two years ago, but I don't think
:50:59. > :51:03.you could find the Finance Minister of any Western country in the world
:51:03. > :51:07.at the moment who would not say the same. The bookies say you're a hot
:51:07. > :51:10.favourite to take over from Ed Miliband. I am not happy with my
:51:10. > :51:13.current job as Shadow Home Secretary because I want to be Home
:51:13. > :51:18.Secretary for up I thought you were going to say you wanted to be
:51:18. > :51:23.leader! Home Secretary. This job is absorbing mentally, emotionally, I
:51:23. > :51:29.loved doing it and I want to continue. Whether I will be lucky
:51:29. > :51:35.enough to do anything else in politics, I very much doubt. At you
:51:35. > :51:40.would call yourself a monarchist? really, really love the Queen.
:51:40. > :51:46.will still be our head of state, she will be Queen of Scotland,
:51:46. > :51:50.Queen of England. 100% dedicated, professional. It is hard to think
:51:50. > :51:57.of her ever put in a foot wrong. have the pageantry coming over the
:51:57. > :52:03.wall! If you watch any actor's career, any great actors, it
:52:03. > :52:13.doesn't end well. You will not say you are ageing! My hair is grey!
:52:13. > :52:16.
:52:16. > :52:21.ate in the places where I used to It is our old friend Europe that
:52:21. > :52:23.comes back and dish -- dominates. In your waters, do you believe the
:52:23. > :52:28.British people will have a referendum on Europe in the next
:52:28. > :52:34.five years? That is another way of asking the same question. What is
:52:34. > :52:38.your instinct? We will set out our position together. We don't answer
:52:38. > :52:43.questions on the basis of our guts. Her good morning! Britain's Olympic
:52:43. > :52:53.George. If there's one British quality we don't want to see this
:52:53. > :52:58.
:52:58. > :53:04.year it is British modesty. Her # To be the bad man, to be the
:53:04. > :53:09.sad man. Sunny days are over this guys are
:53:09. > :53:14.angry. I am not going to answer any questions this evening, but
:53:14. > :53:20.tomorrow I am doing a number of interviews including one with
:53:20. > :53:24.Andrew Marr at 9am. Did he go or was he pushed? He went, extremely
:53:24. > :53:29.honestly -- honourably. You said, if will you as Prime Minister
:53:29. > :53:34.undertake to implement whatever Leveson asks? Correct. A what did
:53:34. > :53:39.he say? He said if it is not bonkers, I'll do it. Is that still
:53:39. > :53:44.the case? Absolutely. Tax-avoidance rather than evasion. The mood has
:53:44. > :53:49.changed. What people maybe would not have cared about a few years
:53:49. > :53:56.back, if you are in a time of economic difficulty and austerity
:53:56. > :54:03.and people care about these things. I put up my loyalty card. Your
:54:03. > :54:07.Starbucks card? Yes. I went every day. It does seem grotesque.
:54:07. > :54:17.does and it is unacceptable. News Cwmni Dawns Werin Caerdydd I'm
:54:17. > :54:19.
:54:19. > :54:29.-- # I'm sorry. It's quite good! It might be more
:54:29. > :54:41.
:54:41. > :54:44.effective than the original. # Don't mess...
:54:45. > :54:50.Quite a year, 2012 - 2013 doesn't sound such a good number, what are
:54:50. > :54:55.you looking forward to from it? Your best or worst moments from the
:54:55. > :55:00.year? Richard Wilson. Opening Ceremony of the Paralympics with
:55:00. > :55:07.Sir Ian McKellen. Very good. Sir Ian McKellen? I was about to say
:55:07. > :55:15.that! It was the Paralympics. More recently, seeing Richard's
:55:15. > :55:19.production of Straight. This is becoming a lovely! Mind was
:55:19. > :55:24.certainly with Mike -- when my mum met the Queen on her Jubilee tour.
:55:24. > :55:31.My second one is seeing the Hobbit next Saturday. On it goes. Jack?
:55:31. > :55:36.was the Olympic. It was fantastic. We had a fantastic sense of
:55:36. > :55:40.ourselves and an achievement by Britain. We can still do stuff.
:55:40. > :55:47.Just add his point. If it hadn't been for Tony Blair and Tessa
:55:47. > :55:53.Jowell, we wouldn't ever have got that. And Sebastian Coe. Absolutely.
:55:53. > :55:58.They deserve huge credit, but it was fantastic. Thank you very much.
:55:58. > :56:01.2013 doesn't have the same ring. We're almost at the end of the show,
:56:01. > :56:05.but before we go, just time to introduce the musicians who are
:56:05. > :56:07.going to be singing us out this morning, and indeed, this year. Who
:56:08. > :56:12.could forget this moment from 2012? The rain-lashed finale of the
:56:12. > :56:15.Queen's Diamond Jubilee river pageant. Among those brave souls
:56:15. > :56:19.singing their hearts out on that barge on the Thames back in June
:56:19. > :56:22.were Monica, Victoria, David and Peter - collectively known as Amore.
:56:22. > :56:32.Back on dry land now and they've been busy recording their debut
:56:32. > :56:32.
:56:32. > :56:36.album, Stand Together. It is an album of all sorts of hits.
:56:36. > :56:40.Absolutely. We've got a real mixture on there. We've got one of
:56:40. > :56:44.each voice type so we take it straight from the score. It is
:56:44. > :56:52.lovely to do some great arrangement. What was it like waiting for your
:56:52. > :56:58.big moment? You were like a drowned rat. Yes. It was a pretty tense
:56:58. > :57:07.moment when the boat started moving around and we saw the Royal Family.
:57:07. > :57:11.We look like this! Fantastic. We will be hearing a Christmas carol
:57:11. > :57:14.from you. Thank you. Well, that's it - thanks to all my
:57:14. > :57:17.guests this morning, and thanks to you for watching the show
:57:17. > :57:20.throughout this eventful year. We're taking a break now, but we'll
:57:20. > :57:23.be back on Sunday, 6th January when my guests will include the Prime
:57:23. > :57:31.Minister, so do join me for that. Meanwhile, have a very Happy
:57:31. > :57:34.Christmas, and we leave you now # Deck the halls with boughs of
:57:34. > :57:43.holly. # Fa la la la la, la la la la.
:57:43. > :57:53.# Tis the season to be jolly. # Fa la la la la, la la la la.
:57:53. > :57:58.
:57:58. > :58:01.# Don we now our gay apparel. # Fa la la, la la la, la la la.
:58:01. > :58:06.# Deck the halls with boughs of holly.
:58:06. > :58:16.# Fa la la la la, la la la la. # Tis the season to be jolly.
:58:16. > :58:19.
:58:19. > :58:21.# Fa la la la la, la la la la. # Strike the harp and join the
:58:22. > :58:31.chorus. # Fa la la la la, la la la la.
:58:32. > :58:33.
:58:33. > :58:37.# Follow me in merry measure. # Fa la la la la, la la la la.
:58:37. > :58:42.# While I tell of Yuletide treasure. # Fa la la la la, la la la la.
:58:42. > :58:47.# Fast away the old year passes. # Fa la la la la, la la la la.