getting worse, more than half a million were reported for repair last year according to research. thousands more prisoners are to get phones in their cells under plans to tackle violence and boost rehabilitation. and now on bbc news victoria derbyshire looks back on some of the memorable moments from her programme in 2018. including tracking dementia patients to see how the disease has affected their lives and an interview with the mother of a nine—year—old boy who she says killed himself after being bullied for being gay. hello, welcome to our programme. over the next half an hour will bring you some of the most exclusive interviews and original stories that we've broadcast over the last year. we start with a tv first, a live programme from a pupil referral unit in north london. we were there in february after we uncovered a big rise in the number of primary school children in england being excluded

from mainstream schools and being referred to so—called prus — up 34% over the last four years. it's a big day for kayden. his first with a new class at hawkswood pupil referral unit. he's only six, yet he's in danger of being permanently excluded from his mainstream school. well, i did really bad stuff. like pushing other people and punching some people and sometimes kicked them. kayden, you are very good at that. he's recently, from what we understand, been on a reduced timetable, so he wouldn't be in class all day. do you know why you did that? i don't know. i think they got me in a really bad mood. people do that sometimes.

so our aim would be to get him back into a mainstream classroom where he can be there all day and accessing the curriculum like all of his peers. he's in a class with four other children in the same boat. today's the first time they've all been together. 0k. hey! that's it. when they all first came in, i think they were a bit bubbly and a bitjumpy because theyjust needed to feel secure in this space and they needed to feel secure with me. and the new environment is testing one of kayden's triggers. noise. she called me a baby! no, ididn't! yes, you did. liar, liar, pants on fire. nicholas. you don't like noise, do you? no. your hands to yourself, and you were hurting people. that's why my grandad got ear defenders, to block off every single noise. you need to speak nicely to your

friends and if you can't do that... scared by the noise, kayden has started to act up. kayden, we're going to move you out of this area. look what you've done. what do you want me to do? look what, you made me... show me. no, no! are you done? i just want to be left alone! leave me alone! i just want to be left alone! kayden, i can take you to the blue chair. i want to just be left alone. why can't i be left alone? you want to be left alone? it's not safe for me to leave you here. i want to. i can leave you alone, but not here. yes. here is not the place. i can leave you alone inside the classroom on the blue chair. i don't...!

you know you're not allowed to hit me. i don't even care! 0k, well, i do care. i don't care! it's not nice for me. kayden, why are we here on the floor? are you able to use your words and tell me what's happened? ok, that's fine but this isn't a very safe place to be, in the middle of the corridor. i don't care! oh, you don't need to care. you just need to know that we do. he almost ran from the noise, and it... i would say it distressed him and then that led on to undesired behaviour. i know that he wanted a little bit of peace and quiet to calm down. yeah. kayden, can we go to a safer place than the corridor where it's a bit quieter? he was kind of stuck in the moment. and so you try a few different tactics. can i show you something before we go? i'm going to show you something. in here. and i said, "oh, have you seen our new library? do you want to go in?" and that was it. he came right out of it. and that's my favourite book.

oh, no way! that's your favourite book? are you serious? oh, my goodness, right. that's lego batman. do you know what we're going to do? that was distraction. in that moment, that's what brought him down again. remember, if you have a story you think we should be covering, do get in touch with us. you can e—mail our programme at victoria@bbc.co.uk. dementia is described as one of the most pressing health issues of our time. in march, we revealed that by the middle of this century, 1.3 million people will be living at home with dementia in this country. three years ago we gave video cameras to three people who had various forms of the disease and asked them to film their lives. this year, we went back and asked them to do the same. this is the story then, of what it's like to live with alzheimer's disease, from the minds of the people most affected. wendy mitchell was diagnosed with alzheimer's atjust 57, in 2013.

in her first set of video diaries three years ago, she was still working as an nhs administrator. this is where i had my first experience of what dementia can do to your brain. at the time, i came out of my office and i didn't have a clue where i was. i decided to walk away and down the corridor, hoping that no one would come out and notice there was something wrong. and so i went through the end door and into the wash room. because that was the only door that was a locked door. it showed someone at an earlier stage, someone less hesitant than i am now, and simply talking normally. whereas now i have to think more

about the words that are coming out of my mouth. wendy had to give up work earlier than she really wanted, she moved from a town house in york to a small village near one of her daughters. when i moved, all the houses looked the same, and i'd get confused as to which one i lived at. i would constantly walk up my neighbour's path. so, to make it clear which house was my house, i simply put forget—me—not tiles each side of my door, to show me which one was mine. i always liken it to untangling a fine necklace.

if you're having a good day, you can sit and untangle the knots one by one. if you are having a bad day, it is like when you are feeling impatient, and you simply cannot untangle the knots and the more you try, the more knotted it becomes. i always tell myself it is not me, it is the disease. and i simply sit quietly and wait for the fog to lift. yeah, i stopped answering the phone, i don't know, properly a year, probably more. when i answered it, people can't see me, so they can't see me thinking. i now prefer to e—mail or text.

when i type, it is as though dementia has never entered my life because that part of me isn't broken yet. if you are going to give one piece of advice to someone who has just been diagnosed with dementia, what would it be? i always think of it as, yes, it is definitely a bummer of a diagnosis to get but if you can think of it as a different life, a life of adapting to the challenges that dementia throws at you, then it can still be filled with laughter and adventures and almost a new way of living. keith oliver was diagnosed with alzheimer's in 2010. in the first set of video diaries

he filmed for us he had just retired as a head teacher in canterbury. for some time i have struggled to remember if i have cleaned my teeth, shaved, combed my hair in the morning when i get up. so what i now do is i put everything out of the box, use it and as i have used it place it back in the box again. i have changed in some ways and some of those changes have been brought on by dementia. i see the same person who physically looks like me, who is saying the things that i was saying at the time, and i still believe in. but now i feel less able to express myself as well as i did then. my books have always been important in my life, both way of relaxation and learning. now, i guess i'm a hoarder of books.

it is getting harder. i read a lot but remember very little. i even don't remember what books i bought, there are occasions i go into a book shop and sometimes i've brought the book home and realised, i've got home, i have read it before. last time around i finished the interview by asking if you were going to remember our conversation, will you remember this conversation? again, it's the same answer really. i will remember how this conversation made me feel. the actual subject matter that we talked about? no, i won't. christopher has been living with alzheimer's for more than a decade now. his wife veronica filmed this first

set of video diaries outside their home in dorset three years ago. at some point, it hits you there, that's when you've got to decide what you're going to do. yeah, so you have to cope. you have to cope, yes. there you are, there's us. do you recognise us, darling? you're looking severe, looking rather like a magistrate there! that's you talking. we're now in the car. the seat belt is always a bit of a mystery, put your belt on, darling. can you put your belt on? put your belt on. your belt. 0h. put your belt on. here, that is right. that is right. that's right.

like everything, this gets forgotten every single time. well done, you have done it. well done. without that disabled badge? life would be a lot more stressful, yes. when we first got the blue badge, i was a little bit feeling golly, it says disabled on it, and christopher doesn't look disabled, so i was sort of half thinking somebody might one day accost us, which happened. you're not disabled, this man said, as we were parking. so i left christopher on the pavement and i trotted down the pavement and i said to him, repeat that. and then i said it louder. very slowly he mumbled, "you're not disabled". i said, "you change places with me, for 24 hours". in august, in a uk first, we spoke exclusively to the mother of a young american schoolboy called jamel miles. he was nine when he took his own

life, after she said, he was bullied for being gay. leia rachelle pearce made an emotional appeal on our programme for people everywhere to treat gay children the same as every other child. i'm a mess and if it wasn't for my daughters, i honestly don't know what i would do. tell us about your little boy. what was he like? he was magic. this little boy could walk into any room and make any person feel so loved and so special. he had this pizzazz about him. he wasjust magic. if you feel bad, he would do anything to take your pain away, just to make you happy. and is the toy that you're holding significant? oh, it's my son's bee. it's my son's bee.

he cut off the ears so it would be different, like him. he cried for this toy. i didn't want to get it for him because i was, like, "i'm not spending $10 on a little beanie baby". but he looks at me with his beautiful brown eyes and he was, like, "please!" and i was, like, "fine". and he sleeps with it every night. he took showers with it. so i've got to make sure i keep it by me. when did he tell you that he wanted to come out at school? he didn't say he wanted to come out at school. he just said he was proud of who he was and he didn't mind telling people. i'm pretty sure he told someone who got that whole persona of, "oh, that's not ok", and decided to pick on him. i've sat here and seen kids pick on kids for less. so i'm pretty sure hejust told one person and itjust spread and it became a worse situation. and that happened, as far

as you know, when he went back to school ten days ago? yeah. when he was coming home each night, did you pick up on anything? no. he would come home and give me a hug, tell me he loves me, steal my phone. he would take my laptop, go hide in his little fort that he made, and he would just play on his games. he was building a little game. after he was done, he would come in my room and lay with me and hog my tv. and yet four days after going back to school, you found his body. yeah. it's unimaginable for most people watching you, having to go through that. i don't think it's fair to go through it. i don't want no one

else to go through it. that image of seeing him like that is burned into the back of my brain and it hurts. because i hadn't ever seen my baby like that. i don't want anyone else to see their baby like that. it's not right. i think it was your eldest daughter, your 1a—year—old, who told you that jamel was being bullied because of being gay. what was she able to tell you? my son came home and told her the kids at school were telling him to kill himself. he didn't come to me. it hurts because i would have understood and i would have defended him. but him and his older sister were, they were just so close. he would tell her everything. what have the school said to you? they actuallyjust called me today. they said they are going to work

on suicide prevention. i told them, before we work on suicide prevention, we need to stop bullying because the bullying is what is leading to the suicide. so instead of skipping over the bullying and just going straight to the suicide, we need to start at the bullying and correct it. do you know if the school were aware that your little boy was being bullied for being gay? i know they were aware he was being bullied. i know they were very aware he was being bullied. who do you hold responsible for the loss of your son? i do. i feel responsible because as a mother, i should have felt his pain. i should have known he was hurt and i didn't. ifeel responsible because i didn't see the pain in my baby's eyes. but if he didn't say anything to you, how would you suspect that?

because i'm his mamma and i should have just known. and i didn't. it's my fault i didn't know. what is your message to young, gay children, gay teenagers, who may be watching now? i would tell them they're beautiful and they're special and there's nothing different that... ..about them that should be pointed out and made them feel any type of way other than loved. we are all different and our differences are what makes us equal because it's the one thing we all have in common. we are supposed to embrace each other. regardless of if they are gay or not, they should all feel loved. they should all feel beautiful and they should all feel special, welcomed and warm. they should feel like wherever they go, people will treat them special and equal and no

different than another. what would you say to parents who are watching you now? teach your kids love. teach them it's ok to have differences because we are all different. nobody‘s the same and if we were all the same, this world would be so boring. our uniqueness is our differences and our differences are what make us equal. teach your kids more compassion. teach them more respect. teach them to be more accepting of each other. teach them it's ok, if you don't like something or someone it's ok to be quiet and just walk away and keep it to yourself. you don't always have to say mean things or rude things to people. it's ok to walk up to someone and just look at them and tell them, "you're special", or "you're beautiful", because everybody needs words of encouragement. every new development

on brexit seems, on occasion, to drive either side further apart and the debate becomes even more polarised. we decided to find out if there was any consensus when it came to leave or remain. so we invited two high—profile names, unknown to each other and on opposite sides of the debate out to lunch. a brexit blind date. i'm going to wet myself, i'm so nervous. who is this? it looks like super mario! hello! hi. hello, aisleyne. how do you do? you're very dapper! well, i'm not really, actually, i'm just dressed for work! where shall i put this? and how do i look? well, you look very smart. thank you. and what do you do, aisleyne? my main income is i'm a property developer. right...

but i started on reality tv. oh, god, you didn't, did you? oh, god, i did, and i'm very proud of it! big brother. yes, my youngest son was very into big brother, which i thought was dreadful. 0h, he'll be a fan of me, then, babe — trust me. i left home at 15, so i was homeless. just all of this stuff, and i didn't want to be a statistic, i didn't want to be on benefits, struggling, so what i'm trying to say is, throughout my 20s and 30s, i didn't give politics any thought, really, i was too busy trying to better myself, but now, as i've got older, i'm starting to pay more attention, and starting to understand it a little bit more. so you are talking to a novice, really. you know, we could have a wonderful time over lunch. oh, yeah? really, darling? not how you're... i'm onlyjoking! we could actually have a wonderful time, completely ignoring the bbc and the cameras and just not talk

about brexit, and they could do nothing about it. do you know what, though? i love being around people like you, because i know that you can educate me, and it's interesting for you to get my opinion as well. so let's do a little bit of brexit. so you think we should stay part of the eu? well, unfortunately, i don't know that we can anymore, i think we've probably burnt our boats. and i'm happy about that. yeah, and i understand that you are, because you're a brexiteer and you voted for it. but the reason that i did that was, you know, nothing to do with them and us, it's to do with us being able to fix our own problems, you know, our nhs, ourteachers are underpaid, overworked, everything is stretching at the seams, and i believe that we put so much money into the eu, and we are propping up other countries when we need to really fix our problems at home. i've worked in the health service for 40 years

of my professional life. thank you for your service. so i feel... no, don't patronise me. no, that is not... is that patronising? i didn't mean it patronisingly! i wasjust being nice. all right, 0k, thank you. the move to brexit is putting the health service under massive strain, and we have no way of training the number of doctors that we need in this country, or the number of nurses that we need in this country, and that is going to cost more than we can afford. but we can still have european and doctors and nurses come over... they're not coming, they're leaving, they're leaving. yeah, i understand that they're leaving, but once we're in control, we can invite them from all over the world we so need them. let me just take my own laboratory. my own laboratory, a few years ago, had about a hundred people in it. in that laboratory, there were 19 european languages. not one of those people have stayed in the united kingdom, they've all left because... since brexit? because of brexit. we don't have a single european in my lab anymore. they might change their mind,

it's not factual... they will not change their mind. they might! forgive me, i know them, they're my employees. ok, but why? forgive me, i'm not trying to dispute your experience... no, i don't really have an experience, it's just opinion. well, then its opinion against what's factually happening. you understand insecurity, you've been insecure yourself, you know what it's like to be out of a job. yes, yes. but you don't know about scientists' careers — why should you? now who's being patronising? no, i'm not being patronising. brexit is doing my head in, but i mean we're balls deep in it now, we've voted for brexit, and we've just got to get on with it. i agree with that completely. thank you so much for watching. we are back live onjanuary the 7th. in the meantime, you can watch films on our programme page bbc.co.uk/victoria. see you soon. if you've been affected by this

programme, details of organisations offering information and support are available online. hello there. good morning. a fairly quiet weather picture over the next few days. a bigger area of high pressure is going to be firmly in charge of conditions but we had some rain this morning across scotland but as you can see from the recent rainfall radar imagery, that is clearing away, a few showers here and there across scotland. also some mist and fog this morning, as well, but most of it is clearing away and we will have a bit of brightness developing across england and wales.

for many, it will stay quite cloudy across england and wales. the best of the sunshine will be northern ireland and scotland this afternoon. with some fairly light winds, it might feel quite pleasant with temperatures way above the average for the time of year. 10—11. through this evening, and tonight, a clear speu this evening, and tonight, a clear spell but rain will move into scotland, eventually northern ireland. some of it could be heavy but it will weaken as it goes into northern areas of england. those are the overnight temperatures, above freezing, so a frost free start to the weekend. high pressure is still with us and that will dominate western europe at the moment with high pressure like this, the winter going around in a clockwise direction, so you can see the air comes all the way in from the south, so we comes all the way in from the south, so we keep the mild conditions throughout the weekend with temperatures staying above the average. we start off with the rain moving southwards across northern england, wales and the midlands and

that will clear away. a lot of cloud in the morning, with bright skies and sunshine developing particularly toward scotland and eastern areas and more breeze across scotland on saturday compared to today. lighter wind in the south and a mild afternoon. temperatures, 12—13. sunday, a bit of rain affecting the far north of scotland. another dry day on sunday. not a great deal of change. quite a lot of cloud in the morning. some sunshine across eastern scotland. those temperatures once again getting up into double figures. then we closed 2018 with this area of high pressure still with us. cloud just rotating around that area of high pressure, if you weather fronts in the far north of scotland, bringing rain to the northern isles but for most, for new year's eve, if you are heading out at midnight, it's going to be largely dry, quite a bit of cloud, patches of mist and fog here and there, as well, but fairly benign

conditions going into 2019. bye bye. this is bbc news. i'm carole walker. the headlines at 11am: three men have been found guilty of the murder of five people who died after an explosion in a shop in leicester in february. the music retailer hmv is about to go into administration putting more than 2,000 jobs at risk. after a surge in the number of migrants crossing from france — calls to step up patrols in the english channel. potholes are getting worse — more than half a million were reported for repair last year, according to research. and coming up — thousands more prisoners are to get phones in their cells under plans to tackle violence and re—offending. ministers say the measure will help inmates to maintain family ties and reduce tension on wings.