his version of the witches by roald dahl brought his work to a new generation of children. he made films which were unpredictable and made producers and distributors uncomfortable. he could be driven. on one film the crew threaten to walk out when he filmed for 2h hours nonstop. but no other british director could match nic roeg's visual imagination or his skill at wrong footing, bewildering and delighting audiences. next on bbc news, it's time for click. the californian wildfires are the deadliest the state has ever seen.

they have claimed the lives of more than 80 people, hundreds are missing, and whole towns have been destroyed. but as residents tried to escape, the firefighters did what they always do: they ran towards the danger. it is a profession that relies on courage, dedication, and, increasingly, the latest science and technology — to find out how fires behave and how to beat back the flames. and if you want to be a firefighter, this is where you learn your craft. the international fire training centre in darlington, in the north of england. this is where brave firefighters come from around the world to learn the latest techniques in fighting all kinds of blazes. they can simulate a huge variety of fire scenarios here.

oil rigs, industrialfires, that's an overturned fuel tanker, and they can select any size of aircraft, from the smallest to the largest. that is an airbus a380, and this is a boeing 747. and it is notjust about gearing up and grabbing the hose. every fire is different. and each needs to be treated intelligently to make sure that you — and the people you're trying to save — have the best chance of survival. wow. oh my goodness. they're using the water as a protective shield. so they're keeping the two fires apart using the water. keeping the left hand one at bay and then extinguishing

the right one before we deal with the left. this centre tries to make each scenario as realistic as possible. not just the fire, but the treatment of the casualties, too. it is fascinating to see the science behind firefighting. for example, in a kerosene fuel fire, water won't put it out. this cone of water controls the blaze so that another firefighter can come in with a powder extinguisher. that is what finally tames the flames. and once they're gone, does that mean the job is done? well, that is where this thermal imaging camera comes in, to see what our eyes cannot. so once it looks like the fire is out, you still have to cover the area in water, just in case there are some hotspots. you can see here the vent at the top of this engine is still white hot, according to this thermal imaging camera. and there are many other ways to detect and deal with fires, and lara lewington has been looking at some of them. for the past two years,

half of the uk's fire brigades have been deploying these drones. they focus on the safety of firefighters and their on—board cameras can provide much greater visibility, which means a better understanding of a fire and the way that it's spreading. using the drone we can get pretty much an instant overview of the whole fire in less than five minutes. then we can move our machines and firefighters around like chess pieces, really, all controlled by drone footage. it brings benefit as we can see fires as they are developing. the team here have also used them for rescues and searching for people in quarries or water. the hd camera can clearly zoom in on a face up to a mile away. but of course when it comes

to the spread of fires, what has happened recently in california is at the forefront of our minds. the university of westminster is researching a system that combines sensors on the ground and those in a drone. the aim? a solution for wildfires. these solar powered prototype sensors are tracking carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, oxygen, humidity, temperature, gps, and altitude. the aim is to combine them into one miniaturised cost—effective version they could be deployed en masse in areas susceptible to wildfires, providing immediate feedback. if there is something, they will alert all their neighbours also, forming to a network. alert taken, take measurements, convey to the master node, which then conveys it further up to the server, which alerts the drones, which gives a visual.

it comes with all the information it has got from the drones, the ground sensors, and it is what the wind speed and it knows what the wind speed and direction is, what the temperature variations are, and where the fire will be. then it makes a release from the air and then you have the heavens opening and these lovely pellets flying in and hitting the target when it the fire is. and you can fight fires day and night, 2a hours a day, with no visibility. meanwhile, this is the stinger. it can pierce through metal and pretty much any roof, dramatically blasting foam or water into the heart of the blaze. the quantity and force about water is pretty incredible. this pumps a thousand litres a minute, with even more powerful a minute, with an even more powerful

jet to the side, capable of 4.5 times that. it has an on—board thermal imaging camera to assist with that precision. blackburn is currently the only fire service using it now. i'm told it costs over £600,000. but as costs come down and the technology evolves, this next generation of firefighting will become the norm. i'm at leicestershire fire and rescue, the first service in the country to invest in virtual reality. their hope is money will be saved by replacing some of the expensive training techniques with br alternatives. i've seen the demo and the fire looks quite intense so don't think it is one i will be used to when it

comes to virtual reality which isjust having a nice time. let's see. all the scenes in the training are scanned from the real world. for instance, this arson hotspot investor is a good reference for investigators looking for clues. it's the inside of a destroyed smoke alarm. ijust need to say, the environment is, like i'm standing on ash. it feels very real. teleportation. oh, my gosh. there is a body down there. if you enjoy the training, you will get more out of it. if you train in the virtual reality environment, the retention rate is 75%. most of the talks i do on road safety or powerpoint, we tend to make 5%. you can see why we are looking at this because our training is going to be enhanced so much. if you want to go 10 seconds forward, you can do it

on the controller, just skip forward and fast—forward the fire. you remember from the scene you saw a minute ago, that monitor was melted. you can see how it physically affects things that are not even burning yet. then the idea is, when it stops, we show the people putting out the fire, and you get the ability to dive straight back in the scene and you are in that same burn scene. seeing the impact of the fire is pretty remarkable. it went pretty quickly. part of the reason this experience feels so intense is the realism. for leicestershire fire and rescue, this was important, that they move away from gamification and into real life. they have been working with a company called rivr, to make this happen. both cameras and lasers photograph in real life, 360—degree scenarios up to thousands of times.

we've seen how fire services are using virtual reality but what about other first responders? here at the defence science and technology laboratory, they are hard at work on how police might use virtual reality in ourtraining. number 7 ferguson house, call a report for a violent disturbance. i can see some feet already. people wouldn't expect to put the police and virtual reality together. why is it so important police are interacting with technology in this way? you can replicate one—off events, an event which could be a dangerous or hazardous environment, you can recreate as a one—off and people would never get the opportunity to rehearse that but in vr, we can, we can give them that vehicle and the opportunity to do a one—off scenario and do it safely. oh, my gosh.

ok, i'm going to see if she is alive. she has obviously taken some pills. there is a heartbeat here. i can definitely see already how it could be used, in the way that a lot of games are, really, to open up your mind to possibilities around crime, why people may have committed criminal activities, those kind of questions are definitely there already. yeah, that was more enjoyable than the fire one, i think, which perhaps shouldn't be my takeaway but i could go back into that world where as the fire scene, ijust wanted to get out. that's it from the international fire training centre. the following fresh and comes highly recommended. it is an iplayer right now. we are going to put a load more footage and photos from this place up on social media.

don't forget, we're live on facebook and twitter at bbc click. thanks for watching, we will see you soon. harlow north west scotland fenerbahce fur sunshine and it will tomorrow, thanks to an easterly flow. most of the cloud stays in the east and south on with it today we have had outbreaks of rain are showers and through this evening and tonight we will have showers to the south coast of ingrid, into the east of scotla nd south coast of ingrid, into the east of scotland and north east england and maybe a few in northern ireland later. temperatures getting into low single figures and close to freezing. parts about north—west angen freezing. parts about north—west anger, northern ireland and the west of scotland, maybe a touch of frost

going into the morning. still this easterly flow in the morning, north of england, pushing on the breeze into northern ireland. some clipping the far south—east, east anglia. elsewhere variable cloud, clear spells, quite a bit of dry weather away from the showers and still the easterly breeze, stronger wind in scotla nd easterly breeze, stronger wind in scotland compared with today and overall tomorrow it will feel cooler thanit overall tomorrow it will feel cooler than it has done today. that is your latest forecast. this is bbc news. i'm lukwesa burak. the headlines at lipm. theresa may heads to brussels as the eu says it's ready to sign the brexit withdrawal agreement. the spanish prime minister drops his threat to derail the summit, saying britain has given him assurances over the future of gibraltar. dup leader has attacked the deal

saying that it would lead to differences between northern ireland and great britain. let me be very clear. that is not in the national interest. french police use water cannon and tear gas against demonstrators in paris who are demanding a cut in fuel prices. a us government report warns that unchecked climate change will cost the country hundreds of billions of dollars