Browse content similar to 07/12/2011. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Hello and welcome to Midlands Today, with Nick Owen and Suzanne Virdee. | :00:04. | :00:07. | |
The headlines tonight: Too expensive and out of reach for | :00:07. | :00:10. | |
people on average pay - home truths about the region's broken housing | :00:10. | :00:15. | |
market. The rents, the council tax with bills on top, and then trying | :00:15. | :00:18. | |
to save for a deposit does make it very hard. | :00:18. | :00:22. | |
A court's told a soldier who tried to blow up a Mosque was a member of | :00:22. | :00:24. | |
the English Defence League and the BNP. | :00:24. | :00:27. | |
More chaos on the railways as overhead cables snap again, causing | :00:27. | :00:32. | |
long delays for passengers. It's horrendous but at that time of the | :00:32. | :00:36. | |
morning, that's how it's going to be. We got here as quickly as we | :00:36. | :00:38. | |
possibly could. And in court again. Birmingham | :00:38. | :00:41. | |
City's owner, Carson Yeung, says he'll be denying charges of money- | :00:41. | :00:51. | |
:00:51. | :01:02. | ||
Good evening, welcome to Wednesday's Midlands Today, from | :01:02. | :01:05. | |
the BBC. Tonight, warnings that the region's housing market is broken, | :01:05. | :01:10. | |
with average-priced homes way out of reach of people on average pay. | :01:10. | :01:13. | |
A report released today by the National Housing Federation shows | :01:13. | :01:17. | |
the average home in the region costs just under �178,000. That's | :01:17. | :01:24. | |
nine times the average wage of just under �20,000. The most expensive | :01:24. | :01:27. | |
place to live is South Shropshire, where house prices are 14 times the | :01:27. | :01:30. | |
average wage. Joanne Writtle has this report. | :01:30. | :01:32. | |
Ludlow has, for some time, attracted early retired housebuyers | :01:32. | :01:35. | |
from more affluent parts of the country, its reputation for gourmet | :01:35. | :01:39. | |
food and a slower pace of life making it attractive. But the | :01:39. | :01:42. | |
average house price is now �240,000 - 14 times the average income of | :01:42. | :01:51. | |
�17,000 - according to a report by the National Housing Federation. | :01:51. | :01:53. | |
Making it tough for 28-year-old estate agent Jamie Tulloch, | :01:53. | :02:01. | |
struggling to get on the property ladder here at all. He's paying | :02:01. | :02:05. | |
�500 a month in rent with his girlfriend as they save to buy | :02:05. | :02:11. | |
their first home. It is a bit depressing. But of course, you know, | :02:11. | :02:16. | |
that is the situation we are in. Can't do much about it so you just | :02:16. | :02:21. | |
need to keep saving and eventually, hopefully I'll have enough for a | :02:21. | :02:24. | |
deposit. Although the average house price here is �240,000, a typical | :02:24. | :02:26. | |
two-bedroom starter home is �100,000 to �120,000, according to | :02:26. | :02:33. | |
this estate agent. In fact, 75% of sales here are to people moving in | :02:33. | :02:43. | |
from other areas, often London. lot of avoid young people here to | :02:43. | :02:49. | |
move away for College, University. -- a lot of our young people. It is | :02:49. | :02:53. | |
more towards the fact that there are not as many jobs in the area | :02:53. | :02:58. | |
for alloy young people, to encourage them to stay in the area. | :02:58. | :03:03. | |
-- for our young people. I am looking to buy a house. But it is | :03:03. | :03:09. | |
hard. To earn a decent wage is really difficult at this time, for | :03:09. | :03:12. | |
young people especially. After South Shropshire, the Malvern Hills | :03:12. | :03:15. | |
is the next least affordable place to live, the average home costing | :03:15. | :03:18. | |
just under 14 times the average wage. Next is Stratford-on-Avon, | :03:18. | :03:22. | |
Herefordshire and Wychavon, in Worcestershire. At the other end of | :03:22. | :03:24. | |
the scale is Stoke-on-Trent, but the average price is still five | :03:24. | :03:34. | |
:03:34. | :03:35. | ||
times the average wage. I think what we need is much more attention | :03:35. | :03:39. | |
from a government on housing issues to get more products in place to | :03:39. | :03:42. | |
help people save for homes and build more houses sell it becomes | :03:42. | :03:48. | |
more affordable for them to buy, went or go on social housing | :03:48. | :03:53. | |
waiting lists. -- to rent. estate agent we spoke to sold half | :03:53. | :03:56. | |
of the houses on this affordable homes development on a part- | :03:56. | :03:59. | |
ownership basis, where residents own a percentage. The other half | :03:59. | :04:03. | |
are rented out. For Jamie Tulloch, owning a home is a long way off. He | :04:03. | :04:07. | |
was brought up in Ludlow and has his sights set on being able to | :04:07. | :04:11. | |
stay here. Well, let's go live now to | :04:11. | :04:14. | |
Westminister and speak to Loreley Burt, the MP for Solihull, who | :04:14. | :04:16. | |
hosted a reception today where that National Housing Federation report | :04:16. | :04:21. | |
was launched. Thank you for joining us this evening. We've heard | :04:21. | :04:24. | |
there's a huge gap between average wages and average house prices and | :04:24. | :04:28. | |
banks not lending. Buying a home is simply out of reach for many, isn't | :04:28. | :04:34. | |
it? It is a real challenge and as a coalition government, what we are | :04:34. | :04:40. | |
looking to do is getting a mortgage indemnity scheme to encourage | :04:40. | :04:45. | |
builders to build new homes for buyers and they can get up to 95% | :04:45. | :04:50. | |
of the value of their home to borrow. So I think that will be | :04:50. | :04:54. | |
helpful but there's a huge problem here and I don't think we need to | :04:55. | :05:03. | |
underestimate it, really. What about part ownership? What is the | :05:03. | :05:07. | |
Government doing to encourage that? With regard to social housing, they | :05:07. | :05:12. | |
do have a special ability to borrow and also I have been talking to | :05:12. | :05:18. | |
companies today who are able to use sources like pension funds, who | :05:18. | :05:23. | |
want to invest in long-term borrowing. So I think there are a | :05:23. | :05:27. | |
number of avenues opened and we are keen to help and support in any of | :05:27. | :05:33. | |
those areas. There has been a lot of talk about building new homes. | :05:33. | :05:38. | |
Do you think that will impinge on the green belt? And there are many | :05:38. | :05:42. | |
empty properties that could be renovated? Yes, and we are taking | :05:42. | :05:48. | |
measures to help restore empty properties as well. A lot of things | :05:48. | :05:52. | |
we can do to properties to make them habitable. People of those | :05:52. | :05:56. | |
properties are we really need to help with those renovations as well. | :05:56. | :06:06. | |
:06:06. | :06:06. | ||
Thank you for joining us. Thanks for joining us this | :06:06. | :06:09. | |
Wednesday evening. Still ahead tonight, Harry Potter stars open a | :06:09. | :06:14. | |
brand new teenage cancer unit. A soldier accused of trying to set | :06:14. | :06:17. | |
fire to a mosque has admitted being a member of the English Defence | :06:17. | :06:20. | |
League and the British National Party. Simon Beech is charged with | :06:20. | :06:23. | |
arson after allegedly carrying out an attack on the mosque in Stoke- | :06:23. | :06:27. | |
on-Trent. He's accused, along with Garreth Foster, of running a pipe | :06:27. | :06:30. | |
into the building from a nearby gas meter. Our Staffordshire reporter, | :06:30. | :06:34. | |
Liz Copper, has been in court. Members of the Regent Road Mosque | :06:34. | :06:37. | |
Committee were in court to hear Simon Beech and Garreth Foster deny | :06:37. | :06:41. | |
any involvement in the arson attack. Simon Beech, a serving soldier at | :06:41. | :06:44. | |
the time of fire, said he'd joined the English Defence League when he | :06:44. | :06:51. | |
joined the Army. He said the EDL was against Muslim extremists. He | :06:51. | :06:54. | |
was asked about comments he'd posted on his Facebook page. He'd | :06:54. | :06:58. | |
written, "They burn our poppies, we burn their place. Burn the lot of | :06:58. | :07:04. | |
them out". Mr Beech said he didn't accept his views were extreme. He | :07:04. | :07:07. | |
was also asked about a text message he'd sent to Garreth Foster, who's | :07:07. | :07:12. | |
standing trail alongside him. It was sent around a month before the | :07:12. | :07:18. | |
fire and read, "Eh-up, lad, up for blowing up that...hole?". He said | :07:18. | :07:22. | |
the message didn't refer to the mosque but a fox hole near his home. | :07:22. | :07:26. | |
Mr Foster said he'd never picked up the message. This was the scene at | :07:26. | :07:29. | |
the mosque following the fire in December last year. It caused | :07:29. | :07:33. | |
damage put at more than �50,000. Both men admit visiting the | :07:33. | :07:37. | |
building but said they did so to look for timber. They both said | :07:37. | :07:40. | |
they'd seen the emergency services at the scene but they hadn't been | :07:40. | :07:45. | |
responsible in any way for the fire. Paul Spratt, for the prosecution, | :07:45. | :07:48. | |
put it to Mr Beech that the arson was a revenge attack and he'd | :07:48. | :07:53. | |
wanted to show he was a man of action. Mr Beech denied the | :07:53. | :08:03. | |
prosecution's claims. During their evidence, the men were both asked | :08:03. | :08:08. | |
whether they were racist. They said they were not. Both men deny arson | :08:08. | :08:13. | |
and the jury is expected to begin considering its verdict tomorrow. | :08:13. | :08:18. | |
There have been more long delays on the region's main rail route today. | :08:18. | :08:21. | |
Thousands of rush-hour commuters were caught up in the chaos on the | :08:21. | :08:24. | |
West Coast Main Line after overhead cables were brought down by a train | :08:24. | :08:27. | |
between Wolverhampton and Stafford for the second time in 24 hours. | :08:27. | :08:34. | |
Ben Godfrey reports. There appeared to be more coaches | :08:34. | :08:39. | |
and trains at Wolverhampton Railway Station this morning. 4,000, this | :08:39. | :08:45. | |
was a third Russia of going nowhere fast. -- for thousands of people, | :08:45. | :08:51. | |
this was a third at rush-hour. has taken quite long. The coach was | :08:51. | :08:56. | |
a bit tight. Everything is a bit tight. The traffic is horrendous | :08:56. | :09:02. | |
but at that time of the morning, that is how it will be. Today, we | :09:02. | :09:07. | |
learned the live cables which fell on to a passenger train yesterday | :09:07. | :09:11. | |
morning had received repairs the night before. But another train on | :09:11. | :09:16. | |
the line near Penkridge pull them down again. The line reopened at | :09:16. | :09:20. | |
10am this morning, only after engineers worked through the night, | :09:20. | :09:25. | |
battling high wind. 36 hours of delays and an apology from Network | :09:25. | :09:30. | |
Rail. I apologise to everybody who has been affected because we have | :09:30. | :09:35. | |
had a period where, for virtually 36 hours, there or no trains at all | :09:35. | :09:39. | |
between Stafford and Wolverhampton. But even this morning, even the | :09:39. | :09:44. | |
station manager was off the platform, helping to direct traffic. | :09:44. | :09:47. | |
And Ben Godfrey joins us now from Stafford station. That's a very | :09:47. | :09:50. | |
busy stretch of line up to Manchester and down to Birmingham | :09:50. | :09:56. | |
and London. Is it finally running smoothly this evening? Yes. Some | :09:56. | :10:01. | |
relief as it is running more smoothly. Still the odd delay but | :10:01. | :10:05. | |
customers have many questions. Let's talk to Keith Lumley, from | :10:05. | :10:10. | |
Network Rail. Let's talk about the Monday-night repairs. Clearly, they | :10:10. | :10:15. | |
were not affected if the cabling came down again on Tuesday morning? | :10:15. | :10:21. | |
We have got to establish exactly what a cause that -- what caused | :10:21. | :10:24. | |
that, so we will be looking at things like the trains themselves | :10:24. | :10:29. | |
as well as the power lines and allow equipment, associated with | :10:29. | :10:38. | |
those things. -- our equipment. you do not know what has caused it? | :10:38. | :10:42. | |
No. Our parity is to get passengers moving again so they can get where | :10:42. | :10:52. | |
they need to go. -- priority. the end of last month, signalling | :10:52. | :10:57. | |
problems and people on coaches. At the end of November, the same thing. | :10:57. | :11:02. | |
People deserve a better service? Yes, and we need to find out what | :11:02. | :11:06. | |
caused this, so we are doing investigations. Some of this is out | :11:06. | :11:11. | |
of our control, as we have had cable fed incidents. But we will do | :11:11. | :11:17. | |
our best to get things moving as soon as we can. Things nearly back | :11:17. | :11:21. | |
to normal but a very busy time, so customers need to expect a good | :11:21. | :11:28. | |
service wherever they are heading. The lawyer for Birmingham City | :11:28. | :11:32. | |
Football Club's owner Carson Yeung has said he plans to deny a series | :11:32. | :11:35. | |
of money-laundering charges filed against him. Mr Yeung appeared in | :11:35. | :11:37. | |
court in Hong Kong again today, over allegations that he illegally | :11:37. | :11:41. | |
laundered �59 million through his bank account. Earlier, I spoke to | :11:41. | :11:44. | |
our reporter Andrew Wood in Hong Kong and asked him what happened at | :11:44. | :11:52. | |
today's hearing. This was a prefix trial conference. -- a pro-trial | :11:52. | :11:58. | |
conference. We heard today that the trial is probably going to start | :11:58. | :12:03. | |
later in December and Carson Yeung's lawyer said he will contest | :12:03. | :12:08. | |
the charges. The prosecution things it has a strong case relating to | :12:08. | :12:14. | |
mysterious amounts of money, it says, inside Mr Yeung's account. So | :12:14. | :12:18. | |
things seem to have been cleared away and we wait for the trial to | :12:18. | :12:22. | |
start at the end of this month. you tell us more detail about what | :12:23. | :12:28. | |
this case hinges on? The original or rest goes back to June, when | :12:28. | :12:34. | |
Carson Yeung was arrested at his luxury home, which is one of the | :12:34. | :12:38. | |
most expensive places in the world to live. He was arrested by | :12:38. | :12:42. | |
officers from the Hong Kong narcotics department, the drug | :12:42. | :12:47. | |
squad. He has been charged with five counts of having money which | :12:47. | :12:50. | |
they reckon and alleged came from what they called indictable | :12:50. | :12:57. | |
offences and the proceeds of some criminal act. Mr Yeung's lawyers | :12:57. | :13:02. | |
say it is a very weak case and there are any number of reasons why | :13:02. | :13:06. | |
A businessman should have lots of cash in his account. But the | :13:06. | :13:10. | |
prosecution thinks it has a strong case. When will the trial start, | :13:10. | :13:15. | |
and if he is found guilty, what sort of sentence could he expect? | :13:15. | :13:20. | |
It could start before Christmas but we are awaiting an exact date. If | :13:20. | :13:25. | |
Poppy were found guilty, a typical custodial sentence would be around | :13:25. | :13:32. | |
five years. -- if he were found guilty. He has not been granted | :13:32. | :13:40. | |
bail... Sorry, he has been granted bail but cannot leave Hong Kong, so | :13:40. | :13:45. | |
he will not be seen Birmingham any time soon. | :13:45. | :13:49. | |
The digger company JCB is to create 350 jobs, at least 100 of them in | :13:49. | :13:55. | |
Staffordshire. The new jobs will come as part of a �31 million | :13:55. | :13:57. | |
engine development project. The Government's awarded the company | :13:57. | :14:01. | |
�4.5 million towards the scheme from its Regional Growth Fund. The | :14:01. | :14:04. | |
other jobs will be created at JCB plants in Derbyshire and North | :14:04. | :14:06. | |
Wales. Elsewhere, a Midlands newspaper | :14:06. | :14:12. | |
group has announced that it's cutting 50 more jobs. The Midland | :14:12. | :14:15. | |
News Association, which publishes the Express & Star and the | :14:15. | :14:18. | |
Shropshire Star, is shedding 50 posts across the company after what | :14:18. | :14:20. | |
it has called an extremely challenging year. The new | :14:20. | :14:23. | |
announcement comes on top of 90 redundancies announced at the | :14:23. | :14:26. | |
company earlier this year. A brand new unit opened in | :14:26. | :14:29. | |
Birmingham today to help treat some of the 400 young people who are | :14:29. | :14:32. | |
diagnosed with cancer every year in this region. The Teenage Cancer | :14:33. | :14:35. | |
Trust unit will provide care and support for young people and their | :14:36. | :14:39. | |
families. It replaces the charity's unit at the old Queen Elizabeth | :14:39. | :14:41. | |
Hospital and complements existing units at Birmingham Children's and | :14:41. | :14:44. | |
Royal Orthopaedic Hospitals. Today's opening ceremony was | :14:44. | :14:47. | |
performed by two of the stars from the Harry Potter films. Katie | :14:47. | :14:50. | |
Rowlett's report contains flash photography from the start. | :14:50. | :14:53. | |
After years of tireless fundraising, the magical moment of its opening, | :14:53. | :14:57. | |
with a little help from some former wizards. You may know them better | :14:57. | :15:01. | |
as Fred and George Weasley, from the Harry Potter films. In real | :15:01. | :15:04. | |
life they're James Phelps, he's the one with the long hair, and Oliver | :15:04. | :15:14. | |
Phelps, with the short, who grew up in Sutton Coldfield. It is like a | :15:14. | :15:18. | |
normal hospital ward, that is the great thing about it. Because we | :15:18. | :15:23. | |
are from the area, it is a huge honour to be invited to do this. | :15:23. | :15:27. | |
There are 17 of these units across the country. Three are in | :15:27. | :15:30. | |
Birmingham. The trick? That even through treatment, they let | :15:30. | :15:33. | |
teenagers carry on being teenagers, helping them have access to the | :15:33. | :15:43. | |
:15:43. | :15:44. | ||
So its design always has teenagers in mind, even giving parents the | :15:44. | :15:51. | |
chance to ask for the music to be turned down, just like home. Beth | :15:51. | :15:53. | |
Hosking, who's 22 and from Worcester, has leukeimia and has | :15:53. | :16:02. | |
been in and out of hospital for the last year. Having the wireless, you | :16:02. | :16:08. | |
can sit on Facebook all afternoon. It takes your mind off it. In other | :16:08. | :16:13. | |
wards comedy was that there thinking, I feel rubbish. So it is | :16:13. | :16:20. | |
a big difference. This unit replaces the one at the old Queen | :16:20. | :16:22. | |
Elizabeth Hospital. The 12-bed facility took three years to build, | :16:22. | :16:25. | |
costing more than �370 million, funded entirely by donations. | :16:25. | :16:29. | |
have been very fortunate but it gets much harder to get the money | :16:29. | :16:32. | |
in that we have had before. nearly three quarters of teenagers | :16:32. | :16:37. | |
with cancer survive. While in treatment, this facility allows | :16:37. | :16:40. | |
young adults to take control over their lives while they are in a | :16:40. | :16:46. | |
hospital environement that largely takes control over them. That does | :16:46. | :16:51. | |
look rather super. And much needed. A great idea. | :16:51. | :16:55. | |
Still ahead this evening, taking a trip back to a snapshot of the 70s, | :16:55. | :17:00. | |
when petrol was 16p a litre and smoking a pipe was all the rage. | :17:00. | :17:03. | |
And with warnings in force, and snow, ice, winds and rain back on | :17:03. | :17:06. | |
the agenda, it's a busy weather story this week. Make sure you | :17:06. | :17:16. | |
:17:16. | :17:16. | ||
There was a Royal seal of approval today for a shooting club bringing | :17:16. | :17:18. | |
new sporting opportunities to the blind and visually impaired in | :17:18. | :17:22. | |
Birmingham. They use sound instead of sight, and it hasn't stopped | :17:22. | :17:25. | |
them hitting the bullseye, as Nick Clitheroe reports. | :17:25. | :17:28. | |
When Mark Vincent and Elaine Chappell turned up to the shooting | :17:28. | :17:31. | |
range in Birmingham this morning, there was a new recruit beside them. | :17:31. | :17:35. | |
The Duke of Kent was trying his hand at target shooting for the | :17:35. | :17:38. | |
blind and visually impaired as he opened a range set up by the 49th | :17:38. | :17:45. | |
Rifle and Pistol Club with a grant from Sport England. Mark Vincent | :17:45. | :17:55. | |
:17:55. | :17:56. | ||
was a keen shooter before losing his sight. Shooting him by life is | :17:56. | :18:03. | |
an incredibly relaxing pastime. -- in my life. I find the absorption | :18:03. | :18:07. | |
required to do the shooting using the audio system incredibly | :18:07. | :18:14. | |
relaxing. The ultimate aim will be to enter into the national | :18:14. | :18:23. | |
competitions and see how we go up against other people. Elaine, too, | :18:23. | :18:26. | |
was finding the centre of the target, so I decided to have a go, | :18:26. | :18:29. | |
with the guidance of Ken Nash, from the National Small-Bore Rifle | :18:29. | :18:33. | |
Association. The sight on the rifles is detecting v light on the | :18:33. | :18:39. | |
rifles. The picture then goes down. Down a bit more. Excellent. Not too | :18:39. | :18:42. | |
bad, but there were words of encouragement from Elaine to keep | :18:42. | :18:51. | |
me trying. I think the first time, I was 45 out of 100. And my best | :18:51. | :18:55. | |
has been 86. The Duke's final duty was to unveil a plaque to mark the | :18:55. | :19:03. | |
occasion, but we still didn't know his best score. I hope you would | :19:03. | :19:13. | |
:19:13. | :19:14. | ||
not ask me that! That is remarkable! | :19:14. | :19:17. | |
The waiting is almost over. Tonight, the winner of this year's BBC | :19:17. | :19:20. | |
Midlands Sports Unsung Hero Award will be announced at a special | :19:20. | :19:27. | |
ceremony in Birmingham. 12 months ago, it was 74-year-old boxing | :19:27. | :19:30. | |
coach Pat Benson from Small Heath in Birmingham who carried off the | :19:30. | :19:33. | |
Award, for dispensing his wily advice to thousands of boxers for | :19:33. | :19:38. | |
over 40 years. Tonight five more of the region's Unsung Heroes line up | :19:38. | :19:41. | |
to succeed him by becoming our ninth winner - and also win a place | :19:41. | :19:44. | |
at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year event in Manchester later | :19:44. | :19:50. | |
this month. Ian Winter joins us now. Ian is everything ready to go? | :19:50. | :19:54. | |
are making a few sound checks and everything is looking very festive. | :19:54. | :20:00. | |
The tree is up. This is the trophy everybody would like to get their | :20:00. | :20:06. | |
hands on tonight. Let's have a quick look at all five finalists. | :20:06. | :20:14. | |
Give us a wave! Let's just remind you how these five made it onto the | :20:14. | :20:24. | |
:20:24. | :20:28. | ||
From Coventry, Godiva Harriers, this is Bill. He joined the club at | :20:28. | :20:35. | |
18 and has helped Kaunas marathon runners over the world. -- | :20:35. | :20:41. | |
countless marathon runners. His passion is very appreciated by a | :20:41. | :20:45. | |
his fans. From Mr bowls club, it is Norman. | :20:45. | :20:52. | |
When he is not bowling, he is umpiring or making sure the website | :20:52. | :21:02. | |
:21:02. | :21:03. | ||
is up to date. And then we have another bill. If | :21:03. | :21:09. | |
it wasn't for him, the Han would saints might never have had a pitch | :21:09. | :21:16. | |
to play it on. Whenever there is a sporting challenge, she will fix it. | :21:16. | :21:22. | |
-- he will fix it. And Derek, from a local swimming | :21:22. | :21:28. | |
club. He has been a champion for years for swimming for the disabled. | :21:28. | :21:38. | |
:21:38. | :21:41. | ||
Hundreds will testify this. And finally, Bill. Five days a week | :21:41. | :21:46. | |
he is down at the club, indoors and outdoors, encouraging keen rowers | :21:46. | :21:49. | |
of all ages to reach their potential on the water. It is a | :21:49. | :21:54. | |
tough job for the judges to pick one winner from five outstanding | :21:54. | :22:02. | |
finalists. A tough job indeed. Let's speak to Dave, who is no | :22:02. | :22:07. | |
stranger to these unsung heroes. They are the backbone of sport in | :22:07. | :22:13. | |
this country. It started with the support of an unsung hero of and | :22:13. | :22:20. | |
without them, sport would collapse in this country. You must have had | :22:20. | :22:24. | |
dreams of competing in games when you win younger? And inspirational | :22:24. | :22:30. | |
people? Many, and one of the first was a man called Chris when I was | :22:30. | :22:36. | |
13, 14, 15. He made us laugh. He was a physiotherapist and took us | :22:36. | :22:41. | |
into the sport and made it a joy. But also made us want to work hard | :22:41. | :22:47. | |
and be the best we could be. He was my first hero of. You know what a | :22:48. | :22:51. | |
difficult job the judges have had. We will talk to you later, I am | :22:51. | :22:56. | |
sure. The winners will be unveiled later and we will reveal the winner | :22:56. | :23:00. | |
on our late bulletin tonight at 10:25pm. Thank you. Looking forward | :23:00. | :23:05. | |
to it. Now, as promised, we are taking a | :23:05. | :23:11. | |
trip back in time do the 1970s, when trousers were a little wider | :23:11. | :23:16. | |
and Ford Cortinas ruled the roads. We have footage showing a snapshot | :23:16. | :23:21. | |
of life back then. Our reporter has been to take a look. | :23:21. | :23:26. | |
It was a time when smoking a pipe was all the rage and a Ford Cortina | :23:26. | :23:32. | |
on the driveway was the car to be seen with. It is these ordinary | :23:33. | :23:41. | |
snapshots of 1970s Stourbridge that John has brought to life. You have | :23:41. | :23:46. | |
all these televisions? Yes, they are a continuation between the | :23:46. | :23:51. | |
central idea of the exhibition, and that is looking at the overlooked. | :23:51. | :23:54. | |
They occupy a dominance based in the home and we take them for | :23:54. | :24:02. | |
granted. Taken in the mid- 1970s, when the UK was experiencing a | :24:02. | :24:06. | |
heatwave and petrol costs 16p a litre, these voters are being shown | :24:06. | :24:13. | |
for the first-time at Birmingham's Ikon Gallery. Photos have been | :24:13. | :24:21. | |
resurrected. It is a great way of showing a snap shot from the mid- | :24:21. | :24:27. | |
70s of ordinary people in ordinary situations. For years and years, 38, | :24:28. | :24:31. | |
apparently, I haven't seen the photograph since then, it does | :24:31. | :24:36. | |
bring back memories. What a terrific place! But it is not just | :24:36. | :24:43. | |
the photos that tell his story. John used a traditional wooden and | :24:43. | :24:49. | |
brass camera from the 1880s to create a sense of occasion. They | :24:49. | :24:54. | |
were taken on a plate camera so the images behind the lens were upside | :24:54. | :24:58. | |
down and back to front, and there was another challenge. John? | :24:58. | :25:02. | |
biggest challenge was the length of exposure. About half a second, | :25:02. | :25:07. | |
which is quite a long time for people to sit still. And so each | :25:07. | :25:12. | |
portrait forms the exhibition called Middle England. But for John, | :25:12. | :25:18. | |
there is a bigger mission. The show is about life in small towns. The | :25:18. | :25:24. | |
kind of world we all living in this country. Four decades on, his | :25:24. | :25:27. | |
reflection on the ordinary has brought to life the mundane moments | :25:27. | :25:34. | |
so many of us share. And you can see the exhibition | :25:34. | :25:37. | |
until the end of January and Birmingham's Ikon Gallery. | :25:37. | :25:47. | |
:25:47. | :25:50. | ||
Now, she has already warned us Yes. Things are already turning | :25:50. | :25:57. | |
tricky, with wind, ice and rain. The Met Office have issued an early | :25:57. | :26:01. | |
warning and this covers the period from tomorrow night until Saturday, | :26:01. | :26:06. | |
mainly with the risk of ice. But we have very cold conditions, with | :26:06. | :26:13. | |
that sleet and snow showers. Before it turns colder, it will be milder, | :26:13. | :26:19. | |
so the main features tomorrow are rain and wind. For tonight, we | :26:19. | :26:23. | |
start off with clear skies for the region, so quite cold for many with | :26:23. | :26:30. | |
the risk of icy stretches on untreated roads. That is where we | :26:30. | :26:34. | |
have the showers earlier. Later in the night, in preparation for the | :26:34. | :26:42. | |
rain, we will have cloud thickening up, introducing rain into western | :26:42. | :26:46. | |
and southern parts. We could have gusts of wind up to 50 miles an | :26:46. | :26:53. | |
hour. The ground frost should disappear by the middle of the | :26:53. | :26:57. | |
morning tomorrow. The rain will turn quite heavy tomorrow and with | :26:57. | :27:01. | |
the wind, it will seem even worse. Temperatures are into double | :27:01. | :27:05. | |
figures tomorrow, at around 11 degrees. That then clears tomorrow | :27:06. | :27:09. | |
night and that is when we could see some snow trickling down from the | :27:09. | :27:14. | |
Cheshire Gap into the north of the region with a further risk of ice. | :27:14. | :27:20. | |
That is from Friday into Saturday. Here are the headlines: David | :27:20. | :27:23. | |
Cameron is under increasing pressure over a new EU treaty. Most | :27:23. | :27:28. | |
is coming from his own MPs. And too expensive and out of reach | :27:28. | :27:32. |