30/12/2016 Look North (North East and Cumbria)

Good evening. news where you are.

The daughter of a Tyneside man killed by a drink-driver has spoken

56-year-old Gavin Bolam was hit in Hebburn by a driver who'd shared

Ahead of New Year's Eve, police are warning people

I was woken up by the telephone ringing and the guy at the other end

introduced himself as a PC from Northumbria Police

and said my dad had been involved in a serious road traffic incident.

So I asked the officer how bad my dad was and he said

that he regretted to have to tell us that my dad had not survived.

Kelly Bolam took this nightmare telephone call

Her father, Gavin, was killed by 39-year-old drunk driver

Ian Hale, who mounted the pavement in his Mercedes, hit Gavin,

didn't stop, and then collided with other cars before

He was later jailed for six years, but Gavin's family now have

You can't help but be angry, because that was his choice

to go out that night, drink as much as he drank and then

And because he made that choice, he took my dad's life away from him.

Kelly is speaking out in the hope that other families might be spared

For Northumbria Police, this grim story is all too familiar.

It had an absolutely devastating effect on the family.

Kelly might appear that she is all together now, but I can tell

you that she will not be for a long time.

The family liaison officer for Kelly had to knock

on the door and give them that most horrendous news.

This is what we do not want to happen again.

Meanwhile, North Yorkshire Police have received more than 70 tip-offs

about bad behaviour from motorists under "Operation Spartan",

where people can report cases of bad driving via a police website.

The force says some drivers reported for being distracted

by gadgets or technology could face prosecution.

An online fundraising appeal for the family of baby triplets

after their mother's death has passed the ?10,000 mark.

Rachel Park from Whitehaven died on Tuesday, having just

spent her first Christmas at home with her three girls.

Police say her death's unexplained but not suspicious.

She's been singing all her life, but this weekend Susan Robertson,

an opera singer from Teesside, will become a global star.

After 27 years of teaching others to sing, Susan's been given

the starring role at this years New Year's Day

Rehearsing for the biggest role of her life.

This Sunday, Susan Robertson will be the start of London's famous

The event, seen here on previous year, has a worldwide

Susan is this year singing the all-important national anthem

and a rousing rendition of Rule Britannia.

For years and years, I have watched things like the rugby

on telly and watched people sing God Save The Queen at the beginning

I've always thought, it would be lovely to do

So, to be asked to do that, it is wonderful.

Susan, who has been a singing teacher for 27 years,

was talent-spotted for the role whilst singing

A performance which was to impress one very important guest.

A chap just tapped me on the shoulder and said,

would I go down and sing at the New Year's celebrations?

And it is a chap called Bob Rose, who apparently organises these

So, in that moment, I did not realise who he was.

Then he told me what he did and I sort of said to him,

So, for this north-east singer, the start to 2017

The performance of a lifetime that will be watched

A busy weekend of sport gets under way tonight,

with Newcastle Falcons hosting joint rugby union Premiership

In the Football League, Newcastle and Hartlepool

But our preview begins with Middlesbrough's trip

Man United boss Jose Mourinho always thought his assistant

at Real Madrid, Aitor Karanka, had what it takes to

Well, after Middlesbrough's promotion in May, Karanka can now

pit his wits against his good friend and mentor at Old Trafford.

We played last season at Old Trafford.

I know how big the stadium is and how nice it is to play there.

Again, it is 90 minutes, three points are important for us

and at the end of the game, we will have a glass of wine,

or beer and one of us will be happier than the other.

Despite Boro being linked with Aston Villa striker

Rudy Gestede, Karanka says he'd be more worried about the number

of goals his team scores if they weren't creating chances.

In the last game against Burnley, we had one clear...

If we had scored that goal, it would have changed a lot.

In the transfer market, the aim again is that we can

have a better squad than we have at the moment.

But now it is Manchester and then after that, Leicester.

Sunderland, who host Liverpool on Monday,

Now without Jordan Pickford can they go one better than Boro

Burnley have some really good results on the board and we have to

try and match that. We're getting close and we will have to play them

in this, the cup and then again at in this, the cup and then again at

the Stadium of light later in the season.

Newcastle would love to avenge their recent controversial

9-man defeat at Nottingham Forest tonight after losing

We have seen a lot of teams play against us at the top of the table

giving 100% in every game. Now, maybe it will be an opportunity to

do something important and put more pressure on them.

Hartlepool are in League Two action this evening -

both they and Carlisle will be kept pretty busy over

There has been some glorious Christmas week whether. Let's find

out if it will continue. It has been quite a cloudy day

in places across the north-east and Cumbria and it will stay that

way as we head through this A few spots of drizzle in the west,

a few clear spells in the east, but generally a cloudy,

breezy, mild night with temperatures dropping down

to around nine Celsius. So it will be quite a mild

start to New Year's Eve. There will be a few spots of drizzle

across parts of Northumberland, again into Cumbria as well

through the afternoon. Temperatures tomorrow up to a high

of around ten or 11 Celsius. Now, as we are approaching midnight,

we are watching this band of rain. It is a cold front gradually sinking

southwards and it does mean that for many of us,

by the time we get to midnight, well, it looks like it could be

quite a soggy start to 2017. But parts of Northumberland will be

drier, clearer and colder. Into New Year's Day itself,

it is looking dry, bright, but cold. Good evening, fog has been a problem

in recent days, slow changes over the next 48 hours or so as this

weather front moves south bringing rain and behind it, much cleaner,

cold arctic air which will sweep that fog out of the way. The fog was

dense in places, you could hardly see across the Thames in Kingston,

Greater London this afternoon. It has been thickening up in the last

few hours and if you are on the move in the