Browse content similar to 17/03/2017. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Hello and welcome to Midlands Today. The headlines tonight - | :00:00. | :00:08. | |
Jail for the gang who used pushbikes to carry out multi-million pound | :00:09. | :00:11. | |
burglaries on jewellery shops across the country. | :00:12. | :00:14. | |
The gang of seven left traps so the police couldn't follow them. | :00:15. | :00:17. | |
The moment a man surrendered on a Birmingham City bank. | :00:18. | :00:29. | |
How Birmingham's best known landmarks, including | :00:30. | :00:32. | |
Spaghetti Junction, owe so much to the sweat and toil | :00:33. | :00:34. | |
We've had the Gold Cup, now it's rather more sedate | :00:35. | :00:38. | |
as the world's finest shire horses get together this weekend | :00:39. | :00:40. | |
And there are plenty of signs of spring out there. | :00:41. | :00:43. | |
The weather isn't exactly on form, but there will be some | :00:44. | :00:46. | |
sunshine this weekend. I'll have a full forecast later. | :00:47. | :00:58. | |
A gang of men who stole more than ?3 million worth of jewellery | :00:59. | :01:04. | |
from shops right across Britain have today been jailed for | :01:05. | :01:06. | |
The men were recruited for their fitness - | :01:07. | :01:11. | |
they cycled to raids to avoid their cars being picked up | :01:12. | :01:14. | |
on number plate recognition systems and left traps so that the police | :01:15. | :01:18. | |
Today that all came to an end. Lindsay Doyle was in court. | :01:19. | :01:24. | |
A high-end jewellers in Stoke-on-Trent, a burglary | :01:25. | :01:26. | |
Just one carried out by a highly organised gang working together. | :01:27. | :01:33. | |
Seven men were part of a group, all from Romania, which carried out | :01:34. | :01:36. | |
11 burglaries at jewellers across the country. | :01:37. | :01:40. | |
Burglaries which netted the gang more than ?3 million. | :01:41. | :01:44. | |
That level of criminality, how highly organised, | :01:45. | :01:47. | |
the military precision they had, they actually executed | :01:48. | :01:51. | |
the sophistication and planning around it, clearly not accepted | :01:52. | :01:53. | |
It was in March of last year in the early hours of the morning | :01:54. | :01:59. | |
that the gang set their sights on Beaverbrooks, at the Pottery | :02:00. | :02:01. | |
In what became their signature, they started a fire in the entrance | :02:02. | :02:07. | |
of the centre before smashing their way into the | :02:08. | :02:10. | |
Stealing watches and rings worth ?400,000. | :02:11. | :02:16. | |
The gang members were recruited on the basis that they were young | :02:17. | :02:19. | |
and fit, spending less than two minutes in each shop, | :02:20. | :02:22. | |
making their getaway on bicycles to avoid automatic | :02:23. | :02:25. | |
We saw some stuff there we'd never seen before, | :02:26. | :02:33. | |
so fires being lit outside the shopping centre, | :02:34. | :02:35. | |
As we then started looking into it a bit more across the country | :02:36. | :02:41. | |
to see that actually, it was a real big trend | :02:42. | :02:49. | |
of a number of offences, where this approach, | :02:50. | :02:52. | |
precision, planning, had taken place. | :02:53. | :02:54. | |
Burglaries were carried out in numerous towns and cities. | :02:55. | :02:56. | |
Stratford-upon-Avon, Oxford, Milton Keynes | :02:57. | :02:59. | |
In some cases, industrial cable and chains were tied | :03:00. | :03:07. | |
across the roads, they believed police would use to follow them. | :03:08. | :03:09. | |
Sentencing Judge Glenn said the conspiracy was wide-ranging | :03:10. | :03:15. | |
and involving a significant number of individuals, some of whom have | :03:16. | :03:17. | |
not been brought to court. The offences, he said, | :03:18. | :03:19. | |
involved planning and organisation approaching military precision. | :03:20. | :03:23. | |
Judge Glenn also recommended the men be deported, saying, frankly, | :03:24. | :03:26. | |
this country has more than enough criminals of its own. | :03:27. | :03:29. | |
A final member of the gang will be sentenced at the end of the month. | :03:30. | :03:37. | |
A bank worker was held hostage in what looked like an armed raid | :03:38. | :03:40. | |
Her colleagues hid in a back room, as armed police and negotiators | :03:41. | :03:45. | |
Our reporter Joanne Writtle is outside Natwest Bank | :03:46. | :03:50. | |
Joanne, I gather an arrest has been made? | :03:51. | :03:59. | |
Yes, a man was arrested earlier this afternoon on suspicion of holding | :04:00. | :04:06. | |
that woman bank worker at gunpoint. He was taken off to hospital to be | :04:07. | :04:12. | |
assessed but he is expected to be questioned on suspicion of firearms | :04:13. | :04:15. | |
offences later. This raid took place earlier this afternoon. | :04:16. | :04:18. | |
This is the moment a man surrendered after an armed raid at a bank | :04:19. | :04:21. | |
Filmed on a mobile phone by a member of the public as the dramatic | :04:22. | :04:27. | |
events came to a close. He was then led away by police. | :04:28. | :04:31. | |
The area surrounding the bank had been cordoned off by police, | :04:32. | :04:34. | |
following reports that a female bank worker was being held at gunpoint. | :04:35. | :04:39. | |
Armed police and negotiators made telephone contact with other bank | :04:40. | :04:43. | |
workers who were hiding in a back room. | :04:44. | :04:47. | |
Shopkeepers nearby were told to close their shutters | :04:48. | :04:50. | |
Scary, to be honest, but the police were very reassuring | :04:51. | :04:57. | |
which was good and they kept everybody where they needed to be | :04:58. | :04:59. | |
so that was quite good. But obviously, we had the shutters | :05:00. | :05:02. | |
down, that was the best we could do, really. | :05:03. | :05:04. | |
Estate agency staff opposite the bank said they were shocked. | :05:05. | :05:07. | |
They were obviously making sure it was safe etc over there, | :05:08. | :05:13. | |
but there were various armed vehicles going into | :05:14. | :05:16. | |
the cornered off area. And at that point, they managed | :05:17. | :05:20. | |
to talk the guy out of it, I'm assuming. | :05:21. | :05:23. | |
It was a little bit concerning, obviously, a bit scary, | :05:24. | :05:32. | |
but we were safely tucked away in there. | :05:33. | :05:34. | |
Police say the motive is currently unclear but it does not appear to be | :05:35. | :05:38. | |
an attempted robbery. No one was hurt in the raid. | :05:39. | :05:44. | |
What's the latest there this evening? | :05:45. | :05:51. | |
A-League tonight, forensic officers still working inside the bank but | :05:52. | :05:58. | |
meanwhile, police have praised the bank staff for acting so calmly in | :05:59. | :06:03. | |
what they say was undoubtedly a very scary situation. They said | :06:04. | :06:07. | |
thankfully they manage to bring it all to an end quickly and it's | :06:08. | :06:11. | |
understood the man pulled a gun from a bag but he didn't make any threats | :06:12. | :06:16. | |
or any demands for cash. NatWest bank has said little but said they | :06:17. | :06:21. | |
are working closely with the police and thankfully, no customers were | :06:22. | :06:22. | |
caught up in raid. 19 officers and staff | :06:23. | :06:24. | |
at West Midlands Police are to be investigated for misconduct | :06:25. | :06:27. | |
following the murder of a woman in Birmingham. | :06:28. | :06:31. | |
Jacqueline Oakes was killed by her ex-partner | :06:32. | :06:33. | |
Marcus Musgrove in January 2014. The Independent Police Complaints | :06:34. | :06:37. | |
Commission has been looking into how officers handled offences committed | :06:38. | :06:39. | |
by her killer in the nine months The IPCC says there's | :06:40. | :06:42. | |
also a case to answer for gross misconduct for one, | :06:43. | :06:48. | |
now retired officer. Doctors had to pause operations | :06:49. | :06:53. | |
at the George Eliot hospital in Warwickshire today | :06:54. | :06:57. | |
because of a power cut. The lights went out in A, | :06:58. | :07:00. | |
radiology and on a number of wards for around an hour. | :07:01. | :07:04. | |
Patients being driven to the hospital by ambulance were | :07:05. | :07:08. | |
diverted to Leicester and Coventry. Extending the tram service | :07:09. | :07:12. | |
into the heart of Birmingham's shopping centre has increased | :07:13. | :07:17. | |
the numbers using it by a third. 6.6 million people | :07:18. | :07:20. | |
use the tram service. Following its expansion, | :07:21. | :07:23. | |
it now runs from Wolverhampton to the back of New Street station. | :07:24. | :07:27. | |
Latest predictions show the number of passengers could top | :07:28. | :07:31. | |
the 7 million mark by May. The Conservative candidate | :07:32. | :07:36. | |
for West Midlands Mayor Andy Street officially launched his campaign | :07:37. | :07:41. | |
today. Mr Street, who grew up in Birmingham | :07:42. | :07:44. | |
and resigned from his job as Chief Executive of John Lewis | :07:45. | :07:47. | |
to run, is promising a focus on jobs, training | :07:48. | :07:50. | |
and sorting out congestion. Elizabeth Glinka was at the launch | :07:51. | :07:53. | |
this morning and joins me now. So this is a first stab at politics | :07:54. | :07:56. | |
for the Conservative candidate? The former John Lewis boss | :07:57. | :07:59. | |
is hoping this campaign will result in him being elected | :08:00. | :08:05. | |
as West Midlands Mayor on May 4th. His campaign launch was held | :08:06. | :08:08. | |
in Birmingham this morning, and it was a pretty busy event, | :08:09. | :08:11. | |
lots of supporters there and this is a little taster | :08:12. | :08:14. | |
of his pitch for the job - a job he says is about someone | :08:15. | :08:18. | |
finally "getting a grip" in a region that in the past has lagged behind | :08:19. | :08:23. | |
London and even the north west. Here it is. | :08:24. | :08:27. | |
I'm calling it the renewal plan and what it's all about is restoring | :08:28. | :08:30. | |
the leadership of this region. Key parts of it are around | :08:31. | :08:33. | |
transport, jobs, housing and actually, all coming together | :08:34. | :08:35. | |
to make this a place This is his rather weighty manifesto | :08:36. | :08:39. | |
- all 45 pages of it, covering all kinds of detail | :08:40. | :08:48. | |
including tackling homelessness, investing in the arts and sport even | :08:49. | :08:51. | |
re-introducing the Birmingham Anyone around in the 80s | :08:52. | :08:54. | |
will remember that race around The suggestion now is that we might | :08:55. | :09:00. | |
have electric racing, reflecting the aspiration that this | :09:01. | :09:06. | |
region will lead the way So let's have a closer look | :09:07. | :09:09. | |
at some of the headlines - Training and skills - | :09:10. | :09:15. | |
Mr Street says that by 2020 - he wants zero youth unemployment | :09:16. | :09:18. | |
and those that aren't in work He wants an economy growing faster | :09:19. | :09:21. | |
than any other region - he'll act as an international | :09:22. | :09:28. | |
ambassador to attract investment. And he says he wants | :09:29. | :09:31. | |
to solve the problem of congestion on our roads - | :09:32. | :09:35. | |
he's talking new trams, re-opening train lines, | :09:36. | :09:38. | |
and supporting cycling. All impressive stuff, | :09:39. | :09:41. | |
but I put it to him that some of these lofty goals | :09:42. | :09:44. | |
were going to be pretty I will never apologise | :09:45. | :09:47. | |
for being ambitious but it's also realistic and practical. | :09:48. | :09:53. | |
If you look at youth unemployment, it's already fallen by 50% over | :09:54. | :09:56. | |
the last four years. You are the Conservative candidate, | :09:57. | :09:59. | |
we have a Conservative government. If it comes to it, are you going | :10:00. | :10:05. | |
to be prepared to stand up to that government? | :10:06. | :10:08. | |
Categorically, yes. I am the Conservative candidate, | :10:09. | :10:10. | |
I'm proud to be that, but my first loyalty is to the West | :10:11. | :10:12. | |
Midlands. It must be. | :10:13. | :10:14. | |
So I'll be banging on the door of Downing Street and saying, | :10:15. | :10:17. | |
this is what we need. Well, it's a big document and there | :10:18. | :10:20. | |
are lots of promises in here, Mr Street like the other candidates | :10:21. | :10:24. | |
now has just under seven weeks to convince voters he's | :10:25. | :10:27. | |
the man for the job. Interesting to hear talk of the | :10:28. | :10:47. | |
Birmingham Superprix. It was on live television I seem to remember and | :10:48. | :10:48. | |
the streets were packed. Thanks for joining us | :10:49. | :10:50. | |
on Midlands Today, this is our top story tonight - | :10:51. | :10:53. | |
a gang who used pushbikes to carry out multimillion pound | :10:54. | :10:56. | |
burglaries on jewellery shops It's the start of the weekend, | :10:57. | :10:57. | |
but how's the weather looking? Rebecca will be here | :10:58. | :11:03. | |
shortly with the forecast. Also in tonight's programme - | :11:04. | :11:05. | |
a record week for Cheltenham, as a nail-biting Gold Cup brings | :11:06. | :11:07. | |
the Festival to a thrilling climax. And we find out how the sweat | :11:08. | :11:10. | |
and toil of hardworking Irishmen built most of Birmingham's | :11:11. | :11:13. | |
best known landmarks. If you have a story you think | :11:14. | :11:18. | |
we should be covering on Midlands Today, we'd | :11:19. | :11:21. | |
like to hear from you. You can send an email | :11:22. | :11:27. | |
to Midlands Today at bbc.co.uk. We are also on Facebook | :11:28. | :11:29. | |
or you can tweet us - @bbcmtd. A mother and daughter | :11:30. | :11:38. | |
from North Staffordshire want to encourage other families | :11:39. | :11:42. | |
to become live kidney donors. Mum Janet Matthews says her daughter | :11:43. | :11:45. | |
Jenny has given her a "new life" The West Midlands has some | :11:46. | :11:48. | |
of the highest waiting lists in the country, | :11:49. | :11:53. | |
yet in the last year the number of live donors coming forward | :11:54. | :11:56. | |
at the Royal Stoke University hospital, where Janet | :11:57. | :11:59. | |
was treated, has almost halved. Laura May McMullan has | :12:00. | :12:02. | |
been to meet them. A mother and daughter | :12:03. | :12:06. | |
bond, now even closer. Jenny donated her kidney | :12:07. | :12:10. | |
to her mum nine months ago. It has been life-changing for me | :12:11. | :12:15. | |
because I was ready at the point I was becoming very tired, | :12:16. | :12:19. | |
my days were simply work and sleep. Janet was diagnosed with polycystic | :12:20. | :12:27. | |
kidney disease and after eight years When Maisie was born, | :12:28. | :12:30. | |
I mean she's five next month. She couldn't do much with her, | :12:31. | :12:40. | |
playing or taking her to the park. Janet is one of over 400 kidney | :12:41. | :12:45. | |
transplant patients at the Royal Stoke University Hospital | :12:46. | :12:50. | |
and there are currently 91 In the last year there's | :12:51. | :12:55. | |
been nine live donors, When someone's waiting | :12:56. | :13:01. | |
on the national list for a deceased donor they could be potentially | :13:02. | :13:07. | |
waiting quite some time. We have had somebody who's waited | :13:08. | :13:11. | |
nearly 30 years for a transplant, Boon across the West Midlands, | :13:12. | :13:23. | |
kidney patients face of the longest waiting lists in the country. The | :13:24. | :13:28. | |
number of people on dialysis is increasing by around 5% a year. | :13:29. | :13:33. | |
That's why Janet and Jenny want to raise awareness and fundraise | :13:34. | :13:36. | |
It does take about three to six months to go through all the tests | :13:37. | :13:44. | |
but then the change in all your lives is just unbelievable. | :13:45. | :13:48. | |
They're going to run and walk the Potteries half marathon in June, | :13:49. | :13:51. | |
They say what a difference a year makes. | :13:52. | :14:09. | |
You can see from the emotional response from Jenny in that report | :14:10. | :14:15. | |
just how much a chance of a better life means to her and her mum. | :14:16. | :14:19. | |
And if you want more information on kidney | :14:20. | :14:21. | |
donation, then you can look at the British Kidney | :14:22. | :14:23. | |
Patient Association website for help and advice. | :14:24. | :14:26. | |
All the excitement of the Gold Cup on St Patrick's Day in a moment, | :14:27. | :14:29. | |
but, first, all this week, the police have been cracking | :14:30. | :14:33. | |
There've been complaints that they're not only | :14:34. | :14:37. | |
charging over the odds, but some tickets are fakes. | :14:38. | :14:39. | |
Here's our Gloucestershire reporter, Steve Knibbs. | :14:40. | :14:42. | |
For the first time, people suspected of ticket touting in Cheltenham | :14:43. | :14:45. | |
are being targeted by police and licensing teams. | :14:46. | :14:47. | |
He did not have a certificate which is obviously an offence | :14:48. | :14:50. | |
and as a result, we've seized one ticket from him. | :14:51. | :14:52. | |
We've seized that as the police and we've passed his details | :14:53. | :14:55. | |
on to the borough Council to make a decision, whether he's prosecuted. | :14:56. | :14:58. | |
That ticket's for you, is it? Yes, I just bought it. | :14:59. | :15:01. | |
The teams say, if you haven't got a ticket for the races, | :15:02. | :15:04. | |
getting one on the street isn't a problem. | :15:05. | :15:06. | |
Tickets! Anyone want tickets? | :15:07. | :15:09. | |
We saw plenty of people offering tickets and selling, | :15:10. | :15:15. | |
something which is legal, but you do need a licence. | :15:16. | :15:18. | |
If you want to sell anything on the street, whether that be | :15:19. | :15:21. | |
tickets or anything, you need a street trading licence. | :15:22. | :15:24. | |
And from the work we've done this week, we know that the majority | :15:25. | :15:27. | |
of the touts out there don't have a street trading licence | :15:28. | :15:30. | |
or a pedlar's certificate from their police authority to sell, | :15:31. | :15:32. | |
so the majority of them are selling illegally. | :15:33. | :15:34. | |
This man near the racecourse admitted selling tickets | :15:35. | :15:37. | |
If you fail to have a pedlar's certificate, | :15:38. | :15:42. | |
Officials at the racecourse say complaints about ticket touts | :15:43. | :15:47. | |
are high on the list and the problem is often overpriced fake tickets, | :15:48. | :15:50. | |
and the time has come to do something about it. | :15:51. | :15:53. | |
We want our racegoers to come here and have an enjoyable time, | :15:54. | :15:56. | |
not to be pestered, having the nuisance and sometimes pretty | :15:57. | :15:58. | |
Not surprisingly, nobody suspected of touting that we spoke to wanted | :15:59. | :16:06. | |
to be interviewed on camera. Although one man did tell me | :16:07. | :16:09. | |
he was upset that his honest trade was being targeted. | :16:10. | :16:12. | |
But others were legitimate, like this man who had | :16:13. | :16:14. | |
But as the crackdown has gone on this week, | :16:15. | :16:19. | |
many of those suspected of being ticket touts | :16:20. | :16:21. | |
They've adapted, they've seen us out on the streets, | :16:22. | :16:26. | |
we've spoken to them, given them the warnings | :16:27. | :16:29. | |
they require and they've had information and paperwork. | :16:30. | :16:32. | |
But they are still out there and no doubt they are still selling. | :16:33. | :16:35. | |
This year was a soft approach - a warning to the touts - | :16:36. | :16:38. | |
but the racecourse says, eventually, they want to try | :16:39. | :16:40. | |
It's been another afternoon of celebration for the Irish | :16:41. | :16:51. | |
on St Patrick's Day at the Cheltenham Festival. | :16:52. | :16:54. | |
The Gold Cup was won by Sizing John, which is trained in Ireland, | :16:55. | :16:58. | |
to the delight of the thousands of fans who've travelled | :16:59. | :17:00. | |
Ian Winter has spent the day with them. | :17:01. | :17:04. | |
So many hurdles to be overcome, seven winners to be caught | :17:05. | :17:07. | |
on camera, thousands of pints of the dark stuff | :17:08. | :17:10. | |
First thing on Gold Cup morning and Prestbury Park | :17:11. | :17:16. | |
First race, 1.30pm, first gallop through the gates three hours | :17:17. | :17:21. | |
earlier and it is the punters in pole position. | :17:22. | :17:24. | |
30% of them from across the Irish Sea. | :17:25. | :17:27. | |
According to a study at the University of Gloucester, | :17:28. | :17:30. | |
Irish visitors will spend a whopping ?20 million here in Cheltenham this | :17:31. | :17:33. | |
week and if an Irish horse wins the Gold Cup this afternoon, | :17:34. | :17:37. | |
they will be going home with a few quid in their pocket as well. | :17:38. | :17:40. | |
This man would be a popular winner in Ireland and England. | :17:41. | :17:44. | |
Jonjo O'Neill was only 19 when he first came here in 1972. | :17:45. | :17:48. | |
He has won the Gold Cup as a jockey with Dawn Run, | :17:49. | :17:52. | |
Based in Gloucestershire he has got two runners in the day's big race. | :17:53. | :17:58. | |
How would you describe the excitement you feel on Gold Cup day? | :17:59. | :18:02. | |
I am shivering in my boots. I don't know if it is cold, | :18:03. | :18:06. | |
excitement or nerves but it is great to be here. | :18:07. | :18:10. | |
To have proper runners in the Gold Cup, that is | :18:11. | :18:13. | |
what everybody wants. I'm very lucky to have those horses. | :18:14. | :18:15. | |
The opening race produced a popular winner. | :18:16. | :18:19. | |
The champion jockey Richard Johnson from Herefordshire taking the five | :18:20. | :18:22. | |
hurdle on the 5-2 favourite Defi Du Seuil. | :18:23. | :18:25. | |
Was that a good omen perhaps for the Gold Cup ahead? | :18:26. | :18:29. | |
The racecourse was teeming with people and the Guinness Village | :18:30. | :18:31. | |
was overflowing with thirsty punters. | :18:32. | :18:34. | |
There's always an excellent buzz in the air here, | :18:35. | :18:38. | |
when a Gold Cup day coincides with St Patrick's Day. | :18:39. | :18:40. | |
The hat says it all, everyone's in a good environment, | :18:41. | :18:43. | |
Everyone's just looking forward to a good day. | :18:44. | :18:48. | |
What do you make of it all? The atmosphere? | :18:49. | :18:50. | |
It's electric. I can't get over it. | :18:51. | :18:52. | |
It's just a brilliant day, I'm loving it. | :18:53. | :18:55. | |
No wonder Clodagh was smiling, as the Irish capped a memorable week | :18:56. | :18:58. | |
with victory in the Blue Riband event, Sizing John at 7-1 | :18:59. | :19:01. | |
surged into the lead with perfect timing to leave | :19:02. | :19:04. | |
Jonjo O'Neill's Minella Rocco in second place and Richard Johnson's | :19:05. | :19:07. | |
Now, the Irish will head home, hoping they can prevent England | :19:08. | :19:13. | |
from winning back-to-back Grand Slams at Dublin tomorrow. | :19:14. | :19:17. | |
And the new statue of Sir AP McCoy will stand guard until the Gold Cup | :19:18. | :19:21. | |
Now if the galloping glamour of Cheltenham has left you needing | :19:22. | :19:37. | |
something a little more sedate - look no further than | :19:38. | :19:39. | |
The County showground is hosting 250 of the world's | :19:40. | :19:44. | |
finest shire horses - for the breed's most | :19:45. | :19:46. | |
We sent Ben Godfrey to see what's in store. | :19:47. | :19:52. | |
And no end of pressure for competitors in what's considered | :19:53. | :19:56. | |
the world's premier Shire Horse competition - | :19:57. | :19:59. | |
It's really serious business, this, because to get a horse ready | :20:00. | :20:05. | |
in terms of feed and grooming for a competition like this, it can | :20:06. | :20:08. | |
cost as much as ?2,000 a horse. This is the Concours D'Elegance, | :20:09. | :20:11. | |
it's the height of glamour for these most elegant of animals. | :20:12. | :20:14. | |
It is, I'm told, most definitely not fancy dress. | :20:15. | :20:17. | |
Earning her winner's rosette, the Dutch competitor Antoinette. | :20:18. | :20:20. | |
The way the English can organise a show like this, we don't have | :20:21. | :20:24. | |
that at home in Holland. The travel is really long, | :20:25. | :20:28. | |
it's about a 14-hour drive to Calais-Dover. | :20:29. | :20:31. | |
We came on Tuesday night and we had a day and a half to recover. | :20:32. | :20:37. | |
It's an international field but the judges are closer to home. | :20:38. | :20:42. | |
Ow! He bit me! | :20:43. | :20:47. | |
Chris Malkin will be sharpening his judging teeth | :20:48. | :20:51. | |
after breeding champion shires for decades in Market Drayton. | :20:52. | :20:55. | |
They've got to catch my eye when they come in. | :20:56. | :20:59. | |
I need to see a nice level back. I don't like to see | :21:00. | :21:02. | |
a dip-backed horse. Their legs need to be straight. | :21:03. | :21:05. | |
The front especially. A good, broad chest. | :21:06. | :21:09. | |
In the females, they've got to look like a female, | :21:10. | :21:12. | |
they've not to look like... A man, if you like. | :21:13. | :21:15. | |
This isn't just a showcase of stallions but a plea for public | :21:16. | :21:22. | |
support for the plight of an endangered animal. | :21:23. | :21:25. | |
Since the Great War, there has been a decline | :21:26. | :21:28. | |
in the shire horse and the use of the shire horse due | :21:29. | :21:31. | |
You look at your big arable farms these days, | :21:32. | :21:36. | |
they've got big tractors, they don't use the | :21:37. | :21:38. | |
So for us, roughly, around 300 foals are registered each year so for us, | :21:39. | :21:45. | |
we are still very much a breed at risk. | :21:46. | :21:47. | |
More than 250 horses will compete this weekend - | :21:48. | :21:50. | |
the Spring Show will return to the County Showground next year. | :21:51. | :21:53. | |
Ben Godfrey, BBC Midlands Today, Stafford. | :21:54. | :21:59. | |
It's the busiest road junction in Europe - | :22:00. | :22:03. | |
25 million vehicles cross over it each year. | :22:04. | :22:06. | |
When it was built, back in the 70s, the complicated network earned | :22:07. | :22:09. | |
the nickname "Spaghetti Junction". 14 roads on five different levels | :22:10. | :22:12. | |
spread over 30 acres. But what of the people who built it? | :22:13. | :22:16. | |
Ben Sidwell's been looking at the dogged teams of Irishmen | :22:17. | :22:20. | |
who worked night and day to create a much maligned wonder | :22:21. | :22:23. | |
In the 1960s and '70s, the Irish helped to build Birmingham. | :22:24. | :22:53. | |
From the Rotunda, to the Bull Ring, to Spaghetti Junction, | :22:54. | :22:56. | |
one of the most complex road systems anywhere in Europe. | :22:57. | :23:03. | |
They had very little skill, they had a hammer and a saw and that was it. | :23:04. | :23:10. | |
But they were told what to do and shown and they did it. And as you | :23:11. | :23:14. | |
can see, they did it very well. Michael Geraghty and Larry Toal | :23:15. | :23:16. | |
were just two of the thousands of young Irish immigrant labourers | :23:17. | :23:19. | |
who came to Birmingham It was all right, there wasn't much | :23:20. | :23:29. | |
money but it was all right. It was good to go to work. You have to | :23:30. | :23:37. | |
crack and I lived in one room. -- you had the crack. I had a teapot | :23:38. | :23:43. | |
and a kettle and a pan and a gas ring. | :23:44. | :23:45. | |
Chronicling the contribution made to the city by Irish | :23:46. | :23:47. | |
construction workers, "We Built This City" | :23:48. | :23:50. | |
is a new exhibition which has just opened at Birmingham Museum Art | :23:51. | :23:53. | |
The call was put out in Ireland for construction workers, nurses, for | :23:54. | :24:03. | |
ladies to work in the factories. So they come over and that's why they | :24:04. | :24:05. | |
left Ireland to come to the city. Of course the workers | :24:06. | :24:07. | |
needed somewhere to stay, which is where Maureen Munnelly's | :24:08. | :24:10. | |
mother comes in. She ran lodgings, with five beds | :24:11. | :24:12. | |
at the family house. With demand high, it often meant | :24:13. | :24:14. | |
more labourers than places to sleep. People were quite happy to share a | :24:15. | :24:26. | |
bed. My mum just went along with it. And that's how it was. The night | :24:27. | :24:31. | |
shift workers would come home and get into the beds that the dayshift | :24:32. | :24:35. | |
workers had left. 45 years on, more than two billion | :24:36. | :24:40. | |
people have used Spaghetti Junction. They and the second city have a lot | :24:41. | :24:45. | |
to thank Irish workers That's fascinating. If you want to | :24:46. | :25:03. | |
go and see the exhibition, it's called We Built This City and it's | :25:04. | :25:08. | |
on at Birmingham museum and art gallery until May 28. My daffodils | :25:09. | :25:15. | |
are right in all their glory, reaching towards the sun but looking | :25:16. | :25:18. | |
a bit anxious as I left this morning. | :25:19. | :25:25. | |
There is something for everybody in this weather forecast so stay tuned. | :25:26. | :25:31. | |
Temperatures fell to two Celsius in Brighton so it was a chilly start. | :25:32. | :25:36. | |
We've had lots of cloud, we did start to see the sun breaking | :25:37. | :25:39. | |
through that at times and this is how we started with that blanket of | :25:40. | :25:44. | |
cloud. We started to pack its way in from the north and west and where | :25:45. | :25:48. | |
it's being thickest this afternoon, we've seen some rain. It's been | :25:49. | :25:53. | |
quite heavy at times, particularly across Staffordshire but it's been | :25:54. | :25:57. | |
Gray and pretty much the end that -- to end the day. We will keep that | :25:58. | :26:01. | |
pattern of cloud, there will be rain at times and it will be quite | :26:02. | :26:10. | |
breezy. It will stay fairly mild. Still we have some rain pushing its | :26:11. | :26:14. | |
way across the north and west on the region. Elsewhere, largely cloudy | :26:15. | :26:17. | |
skies and breezy. A mild night compared to last night. We start | :26:18. | :26:25. | |
tomorrow work on a cloudy note, this waving weather front which will come | :26:26. | :26:29. | |
and go tomorrow. Thickening up the cloud at times, bringing in some | :26:30. | :26:32. | |
rain and it's a messy picture through the weekend. The rain will | :26:33. | :26:36. | |
push in across the north and west of the region, breaking down over the | :26:37. | :26:40. | |
Welsh mountains so it should make many inroads but we will see it | :26:41. | :26:44. | |
through the afternoon encroaching. Hot on the heels of Cheltenham, it's | :26:45. | :26:47. | |
the Midlands Grand National is tomorrow. Looking rather cloudy | :26:48. | :26:55. | |
around 3:30pm. They could be rain as well. It filters eastwards through | :26:56. | :27:00. | |
the day. Lots of cloud overnight into Sunday. It's staying mild | :27:01. | :27:09. | |
overnight. Sunday, we reset, similar to Saturday, we should largely keep | :27:10. | :27:14. | |
the rain at bay. Lots of cloud around, still breezy and temperature | :27:15. | :27:17. | |
still in double figures. Next week, we see them taking a tumble. Not | :27:18. | :27:21. | |
great news for your daffodils! Join us again on Monday when we'll | :27:22. | :27:25. | |
be in Herefordshire on the set of a new film version | :27:26. | :27:28. | |
of Emily Bronte's classic The film's partly been shot | :27:29. | :27:31. | |
in the village of Kilpeck and stars Herefordshire actress | :27:32. | :27:36. | |
Sha'ori Morris as Cathy. A host of Midlands extras | :27:37. | :27:38. | |
also make up the cast. I'll be back at 10.25pm | :27:39. | :27:40. | |
with our late update. Have a good evening | :27:41. | :27:44. | |
and a wild weekend. It was the most beautiful view | :27:45. | :27:46. | |
I've ever been through. For one second, I was swimming on my | :27:47. | :27:55. | |
back, and I was looking to the sky. I was swimming across | :27:56. | :28:01. | |
the Aegean Sea. I was a refugee, | :28:02. | :28:07. | |
going from Syria to Germany. This is my life, my career! | :28:08. | :28:21. | |
I did not frame him. This is my life, my career! | :28:22. | :28:22. | |
I did not frame him. | :28:23. | :28:28. |