our home editor mark easton considers the legacy of the generation that brought victory in europe three—quarters of a century ago. the essex village of dedham is chocolate—box britain, symbolising the way of life defended in the war and the freedom celebrated on ve day. 75 years on, and lockdown dedham is looking to its oldest resident to help rekindle the spirit that saw the country through some of its darkest days. 99—year—old marjorie west, like captain tom moore before her, is raising money for the health service by walking up and down her garden path — 5,000 metres, completed today. i'm thinking about the people that gave up their lives in the war and thinking about the captain that did his war, and i must try and do the same.

a toast to marjorie west! mum... marjorie is part of the greatest generation — renowned for their sense of duty, resilience and humility. you accepted it and you just hoped that it would help win the war, because i love my country. after herfirst husband, a spitfire pilot, was killed in 1942, marjorie signed up for the wrens. the trading depot sees to it that the sailor girls are proud to belong to the feminine side of the senior service. i knew i had to go and help. i felt that he had given his life, and i still had a life, so i could use it. marjorie ended up in the top—secret command centre planning for d—day. she saw it as a job. the french saw it as deserving of their country's highest order of merit, legion d'honneur. you felt you had to do

what you were given to do and peace would come. let the flags fly for ve day, for courage, for sacrifice and for marjorie. all: we support marjorie! she's never given up. she's just really generous and compassionate in the nhs and what they're doing at the moment. cheering social distancing has brought communities closer — the restrictions on liberty an emphatic reminder of what freedom means. cheers! cheers to the generation that channelled the wickedness of war to imagine goodness in peace, to build the much—loved national health service. it comes out of the wartime spirit of sacrifice and actually putting other people first. so, in a way, when we clap on thursday, we're also clapping the vision of that generation? yes, absolutely right. village shopkeepers told me how the qualities of the wartime generation still shine through.

it wasn't that generation that was doing the panic—buying. for example, we sell two chickens for £7 — that's the offer — and they would buy one and say, "i must leave one for someone else." it's resilience, mental fortitude that they bring, and it also just helps uplift the community as well. three generations in one household paused to give thanks for war‘s end — mary, 98, who was there, her daughter and grandchildren. thinking about the sort of freedoms that, you know, are being curtailed at the moment, you know, i hope it's making us sort of more appreciative of the kind of things that, you know, your generation really had to fight for. it wasn't as bad as this! ve day was a comma, not a full stop. the hardship would continue long after the guns fell quiet, but it is a moment to remember the spirit of the generation that saw it through. even if you did a small thing, it was something. maybe that's a message for now too?

yes. mark easton, bbc news, dedham. some thoughts on the legacy of that wartime generation. now on bbc one, time for the news where you are. hello to viewers in the uk joining those around the world. it's now time for us to take a first look at the national and international front pages

in the papers. hello and welcome to our look ahead to what the papers will be bringing us tomorrow. with me are rachel cunliffe, comment and features editor at city am, and jason beattie, assistant editor at the daily mirror. tomorrow's front pages. we start with the sun. it commemorates the anniversary of ve day with a photograph of buckingham palace 75 years ago, with crowds out to celebrate the end of the war morphing into a much quieter version today. the telegraph shows her majesty with a photograph of her father, king george vi, as she gave her address to the uk earlier. the express, too, focuses on ve day and the queen's message: "0ur streets are not empty, they are filled with love." the times looks to the uk prime minister boris johnson's address to the nation on sunday. it says travellers coming

into the country will be quarantined for two weeks to avoid a second peak. the financial times looks at the stark reality of unemployment in the states because of coronavirus as the pandemic forced 20.5 million americans out of work in april. the guardian's front page says ministers‘ plans for schools to reopen at the start ofjune have been called into doubt after unions insisted they wouldn't consider a return without a coronavirus "test and trace" regime in place. the new york times looks at the life of residents of a town spilt by the belgium/netherlands border. businesses on the belgian side remain closed while businesses on the dutch side have reopened. let's make sense of it all and begin. hello, both. the lines are working. we will start with the sun newspaper. this, i'm told by experts who know, is called a wraparound front page, front and back. rachel cunliffe, did you watch the queen's

speech? i did not, i'm afraid, because i was having a toast in the garden to the ve day celebrations, doing our own sort of personal lockdown celebration, but we have just gone back and wash it out and read the quotes. just like the earlier coronavirus address that she did, back in march or early april, it was really just did, back in march or early april, it was reallyjust getting the tone spot on. ijust think it is so moving and emotional to have a monarch at this time who was alive and can remember, was there 75 years ago, and to have her mirroring the exact beach that her father gave all those years ago —— exact speech. it's a way of reaching back to the past and its that connection for many of us who feel really, really strongly about what was done for us back then. it's really nice to have that link back with the past with

her majesty. jason, let's look at the daily telegraph, which features the daily telegraph, which features the queen on the front page, with that quote. i suppose one of the interesting things is the queen, although she is 94, she is in seclusion but she is actually speaking number than she has ever done, really, in her 68 year long rain. it is quite remarkable that a woman in her90s, rain. it is quite remarkable that a woman in her 90s, as you say, isolated in windsor castle, has such a very kind of year for the singing the tune the rest of the country is humming. it's very impressive. and twice now, she's given these speeches, and both times she's managed to kind of encapsulate the public view probably better than any politician has, which is quite a knack and it's rather well worded. asa knack and it's rather well worded. as a journalist today, i read her

speech today, and i noticed... 0h, those two lines. i wonder which one they will go for. one was the, the streets are not empty, they are filled with love. the other one was never give up, don't despair. some have gone with one, some of gone with the other. it is about 50-50. i should just say, jason. i also had an embargoed copy. i was so terrified of reading something, i did not... rachel, when you saw this speech and you saw the speech from a month ago, do you get the sense this is riddled by advisers or has this got the imprint of the queen herself? it's definitely got a lot of advisers working on it because we are charting every tricky waters at the

moment and the queen has done a fantastic job throughout her moment and the queen has done a fantasticjob throughout her reign of never being too political but never seeming to come down either for or against ever various clinical parties are asking for. that's a very difficult balance to strike, particularly in such challenging times, so i'm sure it went through many redrafts in order to make sure there was nothing in there that could be misread that said, ijust heard a woman in her 90s, she has lived through a huge amount of this country's history, she has been the face of this country's history for mortal generations, and i really got the sense that she was trying on some of that experience and some of the crises that she has lived through and seen the inner workings of power throughout in order to get the tone any message right at this vertical time. this is of course an international press review, we are broadcasting on bbc world news, so we will look at some international papers, starting with frankfurter

allgemeine, angela merkel standing in front of the war memorial and, jason, of course this is a significant day, ve day, for germany as well. in germany, this is considered a liberation from the nazis, ve day. a very striking photograph of merkel, looking kind of... she is not a woman of many emotions, looks very contemplative, next to the germany president, steinmeier. and you can almost read into the photograph the kind of national pain and contortions they've had for the last 75 years. it isa they've had for the last 75 years. it is a difficult moment for them. made more, gated by being —— made more completed by the reunification. in east germany, the day was marked for a long time, it's only been re ce ntly for a long time, it's only been recently marked in the rest of the

country. and as you say, they have now, what was a moment of national shame is now a new moment where they try to celebrate democracy and this is actually one of the things i think we need to remember. you had early before we went under, the broadcast from germany, from france and elsewhere, but this was the reunification of europe and the sort of great peace, they call it, an incredible achievement of the decades of warfare we have that on this contact. rachel, obviously a significant moment for germany. they have had different experiences from us have had different experiences from us in the war and it seems in this country, we are using the war as our guide for the pandemic. i know your august and not a foreign correspondent based in germany, but you get the sense germany also wants to use the or as a guide or are they thinking of other ways to guide themselves through this? the war

obviously has a very particular place in the british psyche and other european countries but not just germany, don't seem to have that quite the same way. we have been using blitz spirit as a message for a number of things over the past five years, some of the more releva nt tha n five years, some of the more relevant than others. i have got the sense the coverage in germany of the covid—i9 crisis has been perhaps a bit more scientific and they have drawn on their culture of industrial prowess m ore drawn on their culture of industrial prowess more for that. this on merkel and the way that she is commemorated there, i had not realised this is the first time ever there is been a national holiday in berlin to commemorate ve day. usually emotionalfor me berlin to commemorate ve day. usually emotional for me because at the end of may, me and my family we re the end of may, me and my family were meant to be going to berlin to visit my grandparents lived before they were forced to leave their

homesjust they were forced to leave their homes just before the war. and now berlin is for the first time ever marking the stay as a public holiday, and the way they are celebrating it as a commemoration and separation of democracy was particularly emotional for me. rachel, i do hope you get the chance to reschedule that trip. jason just picking up on some of the points that rachel has made. when we look at the last couple of months of coverage here in britain, it seems oui’ coverage here in britain, it seems our road map is memories of world war ii, the blitz spirit, the dunkirk spirit, everyone getting together. that, we have used as a road map. just a thought out there. is it useful to have an armed conflict is the goal —— as a road map to get three pandemic?‘ conflict is the goal —— as a road map to get three pandemic? a lot of the leg has been evocative of the second world war —— a lot of the language. it is difficult because we are trying to wade through this and

we need to remember the last time the country was challenged in this way you can understand why. my slight nagging feeling on this, and this is kind of an odd thing about but my grandfather served in the war. he never talked about it. and he deliberately did not talk about it. and actually, a lot in that generation did not because they wanted to move the country forward and there'sa wanted to move the country forward and there's a slight irony that subsequent generations have kept alive, but the actual people who served in war, actually, a lot of them wanted to forget. it is interesting, in a way. they on ve day were looking to the future, that we are looking back towards them for examples. we'll move onto ft weekend

now. and