the group, which is called the european search group, they are putting a garda van theresa may. if they lose faith in her, they will knife her. so she should be worried. —— are putting a guard around theresa may. the transition will be the status quo. i don't know what they're getting at here. very quickly. the mail on sunday we cannot ignore this. top tories in chinese cash for brexit for —— who furore. it is your story about undercover reporters. it is channel 4 saying this. it will be a dispatchers programme. -- it is —— it is going to be a dispatches story. it was a sting. they said somebody along to entrap mps to say

something naughty. the mps realised what was going on. the programme, coming out tomorrow night, which really we will have to watch to see what this is about, had targeted angela lansbury, and peter lilley. they deny any wrongdoing. absolutely. or they are saying is cani influence brexit? and it'll open up the question of should mps have a second job. the bigger question about this story is the foreign aspect. —— can you influence brexit? it seems like there isn't much of a story, given the fact it has all been denied. we shall have to watch tomorrow, as you say. thank you both. that's it for the papers tonight. don't forget you can see the front pages of the papers online on the bbc news website. it's all there for you — seven days a week at bbc.co.uk/papers — and if you miss the programme any evening you can watch it later on bbc iplayer. thank you, kate and sebastian. goodbye a car bomb in paris.

a widow returns to the western isles, joined a widow returns to the western isles, joined before long by a detective and with two women trying to work out what happened and why. and their lives are intertwined. a thriller by peter may called i'll keep you safe. a puzzle where they cling to the old ways. a puzzle and a story that twists and turns and for him, another international bestseller. welcome. a rather obvious question: what makes a good thriller, peter? a good question!

i have no idea! you know it when you see it? i think that's exactly right. there is no formula. if you knew what the formula was, you would have a bestseller with every book you wrote. i think engaging the reader more than anything else. it is not just about thrillers but any story you are telling. you set yourself a problem, as over a couple of pages of the book you have to give us a scottish gaelic glossary, otherwise no—one understands the names. a large part is set in the western isles. it is needed the guide. it is quite a thing to do, isn't it? it is. in my days working in television, i filmed in the western isles for five months a year for five years and got familiar with the sound of gaelic. i still don't speak it.

but i can generally know how to pronounce names and words. but most don't as i think that the gaelic alphabet is 18 letters. so it is strange combinations of letters to make a single sound. two of the main characters, with the gaelic spelling of ruari and niamh but you have to get into the sound world? you do, yes. otherwise they are repeating in their heads a mispronounciation from the start. that would be unfortunate. what you want to do in evoking the place, it's strange largely flat contours, it's bleakness but it's beauty that can hold you in a trance on a fine day, which, there are not that many of on the west coast of lewis. but it's a very haunting place, isn't it? it is. i filmed up there at a daily schedule, you were at the mercy of the elements the whole time. they were rarely in your favour.

so, it was hard, hard work. it makes such an impression on you. the minute you step off the plane there, you are struck by the wind. the wind never stops. it is there the entire time. very few trees! let's talk about the plot. as i said at the beginning, there is an explosion. a car explosion. a bomb. that's in paris. we can say that much. then we are off. what we have is a contrast between a contemporary world, with which we are familiar, strange, violent events interrunting —— with which we are familiar, strange, violent events interrupting the modern pattern of life, then we go back to a old way of life where people are clinging to making cloth in the old way, talking with a language that is shrinking in its usage, quite fast. there is a wonderful contrast between the two worlds. it was of great interest to me. i went there 30 years ago.

it is like going back to the way i knew the islands when i first went and the way that they were. they had not really changed in almost centuries. it's sad to say that in a way it has changed a bit over the last 30 years. when i first went there were no flights on a sunday, no ferries on a sunday. nothing was open. you could not eat or get petrol. everything was shut. now that's all changed. in a way it's a shame, the loss of the lewis sabbath. it was a special day. they held on to that in a way that nowhere else had. the contrast in the book is very much a part of it. what we have is the picture of two women, one, niamh, who has lost her man in this explosion, who has gone back and of course is grieve—stricken. and the detective, also a woman, who follows her. and of course has her in her sights. so they are opposing women

but they find themselves at the end of the day drawn on to the same path. it's a sort of classic plot device. i don't mean it is fake but it's one of the fundamental plot devices, isn't it? yes, two women from very, very different back grounds and experiences, arriving, ultimately, in the same landscape in the same culture. and having to function? yes, well, absolutely. niamh is suffering from grief, obviously a deeply—felt grief, and re—examining everything. as a writer of this kind of novel, you know, a good page—turner, one where people are involved in inexplicable events that they have to work very hard to unravel, frankly, how do you keep the tension going? it's about what makes you tense as a writer. it's a journey.

when you are writing a book, it's a journey you go on yourself. if it is a boring or a dull journey, it will not work for the reader, will it? that's right, you have to feel some of that excitement? exactly. i was doing an interview with bbc radio scotland, doing a location radio interview on the isle of lewis, talking about the blackouts, the first book that i had set up there. we went to a slipway in a tiny harbour in the north—east coast, i had set a scene there in the book. it was a scene that i had never originally planned to do. it was a bridging scene between two scenes that i had worked out that i was going to write about. it turned into an extraordinarily emotional experience for me writing it. i was sitting there, with tears running down my face. my wife shouted dinner was ready, and asked what was wrong, i was like... and yet when we went back

to the location interview, it was built around a couple of boats, and there were the same boats that were there ten years earlier. i choked up talking about it. the emotion was so real. what you are saying, it is fundamental, in writing this kind of book, in this one place, it is so important, the atmospherics of a territory, you can't fake it, and if you try you will fail. i think that is absolutely right. and because i'm not from the islands, there was always a risk, i suppose, that i was doing, what i was doing what some kind of parody of what i saw, what i experienced. i remember clearly when the black house came out, worrying how it would be received on the islands.

how were the islanders going to receive it, never mind the critics. there is a sequence that happens, involving ten men from the northern part of the island that go out to a rock in the atlantic and fish and i had done research with them and written of the experience and literally after the book came out i got an e—mail from the head of that group, i saw it was from him, dodds, mcfarlane, and i opened it up. he said that he and the boys had read the book and that they loved it. it was a big sigh of relief. and when people begin this book, they should make an effort with the gaelic glossary at the beginning of it will make all the difference. indeed. peter may, author of

i'll keep you safe, thank you very much. thank you,jim. something marred on the way over the next few days. the way things feel at the moment, you may need some convincing. —— something mild on the way. the cold is in place over the country. the mild air is on its way. before it arrives we have one problem to deal with, a band of wet weather sliding in. remember that cold air remains in place so that will turn to snow. it will also bring ice in places during sunday. if you are travelling, bearing mind in central and northern parts of the uk there could be disruption. anywhere from wales, the midlands, north woods, especially over high ground, this wet weather is likely to turn to snow. —— anywhere from wales, the midlands, and north. this

will wind out, and much of the wintry weather will turn to rain. significant snowfall over scotland, especially over the north—east and high ground. down to the south—west, more likely rain by the end of the afternoon. temperatures across northern ireland on lifting late in the day. temperatures just want or two degrees the central uk and east anglia. for the south west and south wales, this will all be rain because temperatures will be in double digits. it'll be windy across many parts. into monday we lose most of the rain and what is left of the snow. this band of rain will continue to flirt with southern areas. most spots starting the day on monday above freezing. a milder feel to the weather. apart from this area of rain scraping along the south coast, monday does not look bad. lots of dry weather. some spells of sunshine. large areas of

cloud. patchy rain and drizzle for western coastal areas. those temperatures between five to 10 degrees. that is the story for the week ahead. for the most part, mild airdominating. week ahead. for the most part, mild air dominating. something colder never too far away from northern areas. on tuesday and wednesday, down in the south highs of 12 or 13 degrees. cooler in northern areas. there will be some wind and rain at times. through the week ahead, a milderfeel, but there times. through the week ahead, a milder feel, but there will be some wet and windy weather, as well. this is bbc news.

the headlines at 11: the motion is not agreed to. us senators blame each otherfor the budget row, which has shut down the government, on the first anniversary of donald trump's inauguration. senior democrats say the president is impossible to negotiate with. america knows this is the trump shut down. only the president can end it. gunmen in afghanistan attack a major hotel in the capital, kabul — police there have been fighting to regain control of the building. turkey launches an assault on kurdish fighters in northern syria — opening up a new front in the conflict. north korea will send 22 athletes to compete in three sports at the winter olympics in south korea in february

and fans at stadiums across the country remember