good afternoon. one of britain's best known entertainers, des o'connor, has died at the age of 88. the comedian, singer and television star died yesterday in hospital following a fall at his home in buckinghamshire. during a career spanning almost 70 years, he was known for hosting prime—time shows and for his friendship with the comedy duo morecambe and wise. our arts correspondent david sillito looks back at his life. i've kept a list of the insults against des o'connor. des o'connor was in the 70s famous, a star, and on morecambe and wise,

the butt of hundreds of gags. but the singer and comedian took it all with good grace. eric, i'vejust heard some good news. ernie, what good news? eric, des o'connor's got a sore throat. nothing seemed to dent that clean cut, deep tanned optimism. numbertwo, ernie, des o'connor is a self—made man. eric, i think it's very nice of him to take the blame. # be sure it's true when you say i love you, love you, love you...#. his interest in show business had started at the raf. he had been a butlins redcoat and learned his craft struggling to get laughs in theatres such as the windmill, with an audience that had come for the naked flesh more than the comedy. this fellow was always in, every day, in the front row, and on about the third house of the fourth day, iforgot, i dried, just couldn't remember what was next, and this fellow said, you tell the one about the parrot next.

thanks very much! # loneliness, alone you will always find me #. by the 60s, he had star billing. he made more than 1000 appearances at the palladium and recorded 36 albums. the son of a dustman from london's east end, he'd gone from a childhood blighted by rickets to tv stardom, but he was never going to be one of the cool gang. an old lady came up to me one day at the stage door. she said, mr o'connor, i have enjoyed your show. she said, here's £5. could you send me your new lp? so, isaid, you can get it for £3 at the shop. you don't have to give me five. she said, no, the last time i went into the shop and ask for a des o'connor lp, the guy said, you're kidding. as the decades rolled by, he remained an almost ageless fixture in the schedules. he married four times. his fifth child arrived

when he was 80. he was never really fashionable, and so never fell out of fashion. it was a career of 60 years of professional, unflappable, good—natu red charm. you have my word. that's good enough for me. and when the joke was on him, he was always the first to laugh. des o'connor, who's died, aged 88. the founder of biontech — which has developed a coronavirus vaccine — says its impact will not be felt significantly until the summer. professor ugur shahin stressed that this winter would still be tough, but with a high vaccination rate, life could be back to normal in a year's time. this winter will be hard. we will not have a big impact on the infection numbers

with our vaccine in this winter. the bigger impact will happen until summer. the summer will help us anyway because the infection rate will go down in summer. and what is absolutely essential is that we get a high vaccination rate before autumn—winter next year. 0ur correspondent richard galpin is here. what else did he have to say? the professor and his wife have been very much in the limelight obviously in recent days, having announced that they developed the first coronavirus vaccine, which is absolutely essential globally. and today, the professor has been giving more details. he has been speaking to the bbc, including this very big claim that the world could be back to normal by next winter. as a result of this vaccine being rolled out. he is saying it's notjust because the symptoms, it stops the

symptoms and infected people, but because he claims the vaccine could cut the spread of the virus by 50%, and that is an absolutely enormous claim, which is still to be substantiated, obviously. he is also saying that they don't know yet how long the immunity provided by the vaccine will last. that is a crucial issue. and they also don't know how effective the vaccine will be in protecting elderly people, another very crucial issue. essentially, they need to get much more data so they need to get much more data so they can answer many of these questions, in particular about how the vaccine is working in the body. like mike richard, thank you. —— richard, thank you. the environment secretary george eustice says he believes it "should be possible" to reach a trade agreement with the eu as talks are set to resume in brussels this week. he admitted there were still "sticking points". it comes as ireland's foreign minister has warned there would be no deal if the british government

pushed ahead with legislation that would allow the uk to break international law. 0ur political correspondent, jonathan blake, reports. day after day this week, the eu's chief negotiator, michel barnier, has arrived for talks on a trade deal with the uk but, at this late stage, there has been little sign of progress. both sides maintain they want to do a deal in time for the deadline of december 31st and, as far as the uk is concerned, it should be straightforward. the prime minister last week said we really needed to re—energise and the eu needed to focus and refresh their mandate in these final weeks because, yes, on many areas, progress has been made and agreements exist, and a lot of text has been drafted. there are these sticking points around, for instance, fisheries, around state aid rules. they can be resolved, we are not asking for anything miraculous, we are really asking for what other countries, like norway and canada, already have. arriving in brussels today for more talks in the coming week, the uk's chief negotiator, lord frost, said there had been some

progress in a positive direction in recent days but added the two sides might not reach agreement, and that either way, people and businesses must prepare for the change that is coming on the 31st of december. the departure of dominic cummings as the prime minister's senior adviser makes no difference to the government's position, it claims. 0ne eu country is clear a breakthrough is needed for a deal to be done. this is very difficult but it's also very doable and i think the consequences of not getting a trade deal and a future relationship deal of course, which goes beyond trade, because there is a whole range of other things that the eu and the uk need to facilitate each other on as well, the consequence of not getting a future relationship agreement in place before the end of the year i think is very, very significant for britain and ireland in particular, but also for a number of other eu countries as well. time is running out... the government is trying to ram home the point that,

deal or no deal, change is coming. exactly what rests on the outcome of negotiations. jonathan blake, bbc news. the prince of wales has become the first british royal to take part in events to mark germany's national day of mourning. this morning, prince charles laid a wreath alongside the german president, before giving a speech at the central remembrance ceremony in which he is expected to urge nations to stand up against intolerance. lewis hamilton has won the formula one world title for a seventh time, equalling the all—time record. he secured the championship with victory in the turkish grand prix today, in conditions which tested the drivers to the limit. joe wilson reports. it's lights out and away we go! when formula i meets a slippery track, suddenly it's like ice, like that. valtteri bottas spins out! one of the early spinners, the black mercedes of valtteri bottas,

theoretically lewis hamilton's rival for the world title. all hamilton really had to do was keep going and trust his car. the brakes aren't working, man. the track was drying but not dry — there's a big difference. ask max verstappen. but for hamilton, everything was working. he didn't need to win this race... lewis hamilton takes the lead. ..but he always needs to win. hamilton's 94th grand prix victory was its own triumph. lewis hamilton wins the turkish grand prix! he has won more races than anyone, now a seven time world champion, the same as michael schumacher. that's the journey. that's for all the kids out there who dream the impossible! statistically, put simply, number one. joe wilson, bbc news. that's it for now. the next news on bbc one is at six o'clock. bye for now.

good afternoon. lewis hamilton sealed a record—equalling 7th world title at turkish grand prix today — with another sensational performance, as he continues to dominate and dazzle formula one. it was another record extending race win too for the british driver, who came from 6th on the grid today. let's get some more reaction now, from our fi correspondentjennie gow. i think she's not quite with us just at the moment. but we are trying to establish the connection is they are, but it did seem very much inevitable that hamilton would go on to wind today so we should try to get some reaction from jenny gao as

soon as get some reaction from jenny gao as soon as we can get some reaction from jenny gao as soon as we can but get some reaction from jenny gao as soon 3s we can but we get some reaction from jenny gao as soon as we can but we will come back to that when we can. —— gow. dustinjohnson will tee offjust before half past two our time, knowing that the masters championship is his to lose. the world number one has a four shot lead going into the final round at the augusta national as he bids to don the famous green jacket for the first time. johnson carded a 65 with an eagle, five birdies and no bogeys on his way to a commanding lead at the top of the leaderboard. abraham ancer, cameron smith and sung—jae im are all four shots further back on 12 under par. i've got a good game plan, i'm not going to change it. i need to go out and play well because there are a lot of good players right around me, so as we lot of good players right around me, so as we all know here, if you get it going, you can shoot some low scores, so it going, you can shoot some low scores, so i will need to go out and play a really good round of golf you wa nt to play a really good round of golf you want to wind.

there's been more history for britain's adam peaty today... the olympic champion has broken the 100 meters breastroke world record, for the first time in his career. peaty — who's in the black cap near the top of the screen — set a time of 55.49 in the semi—finals of the international swimming league. he does hold the longcourse world record in both the 50m and 100m breastroke, but hasn't held a short course record until now. ireland's katie taylor underlined her status as the world's best — as she defended all four of her belts at wembley arena last night. and then promised her best is yet to come taylor beat the spaniard miriam gutierrez, who was previously unbeaten, on a points decision — but in truth that never looked in doubt with the champion in control throughout, and sending gutierrez to the floor in round four. promoter eddie hearn called her the greatest ever in women's boxing. hard to disagree. not such a good night for britain's kell brook though. he lost in four rounds to terence crawford in las vegas.

crawford retained his wbo world welterweight title. it was in the fourth where former ibf welterweight champion brook, was caught by a right hand from the american who then landed a flurry of shots before the referee stepped in, and stopped the fight. the win means 33—year—old crawford is unbeaten in 37 fights. more reaction to the formula i world lewis hamilton won a seventh world title to equal the record winning the turkish grand prix. an incredible driver. possibly the greatest as many are saying on social media. let's get more reaction from jenny gow who joins us. it seemed inevitable he was going to win. we spoke about how he's been dominating and has been unstoppable but where does this rank among his other titles? what he did today in

the race was pretty impressive because he started in sixth place and at one point was spinning all over the shop, it looked like he would not be in a position to challenge for the win today before himi challenge for the win today before him i suppose valteri bottas spun several times so he was never going to challenge hamilton to the championship alive and hamilton was masterful today in his display. we managed to make... and won by over 30 seconds. it was a very impressive win to add to a very impressive season to add to a very impressive career. how does this compare to michael schumacher‘s seven? how do people compare lewis hamilton to schumacher smack he was another great of his era. it's interesting because that conversation begins now about who was the greatest of all time and it's impossible to know because comparing one error to

another is so difficult with schumacher achieving brilliant things with ferrari, getting the seven world titles and no one thought anyone could ever do better than that. hamilton himself said he didn't think you could pass that record and purity is with seven world titles, and this one was important to him because of the motivation behind his season. he came into it with a different mindset, all about black lives matter and the old formula i recognising that not only is he the only black man in the championship and has ever given in formula i at this level but we need to do more in diversifying and helping the world, and hamilton is shouting that from the highest platform. what is his desire to go on and achieve more in the sport? he has flirted with potentially leaving mercedes. the sport? he has flirted with potentially leaving mercedeslj don't think he is going on to be honest with you, you may say it every now and then but i think he

will definitely be an formula i for a while to come. he was willing, he loves driving and he loves racing. he was excited by the challenge of starting six and collecting that win so starting six and collecting that win so for me it's an open goal next year, he can win an eighth world title with relative ease because mercedes are so dominant and he is in such good sport, and the questions come along about how long he can stay in formula i. will you wa nt to he can stay in formula i. will you want to go off and do something lazy, be rock star? who knows. for me, you will keep setting records as long as can because he loves it. hoof finally, could today possibly mark the start of a career in management hoof ment for england's record goal—scorer wayne rooney? he's one of four caretaker coaches to take temporary charge of derby county . after the championship side sacked manager philip cocu last night. rooney, who's in a player—coach role, will help oversee training along with shay given, liam rosenior and justin walker. derby are rock bottom

of the table with just one win from their first 11 games. that's all the sport for now. you can find much more on the bbc sport website including all the build up to today's nations league matches. england, scotland, wales and northern ireland are all in action. more on now on the news that one of the best known entertainers, des 0'connor has died at the age of 88. during a career spanning almost 70 years, he was known for hosting prime time shows and for his friendship with the comedy duo morecambe and wise. earlier i spoke to the tv presenter gyles brandreth who was regularly in dictionary corner on the quiz programme countdown which was presented by 0'connor for a number of years.

he really was a very, very nice man, the best company. i knew him for over a0 yea rs the best company. i knew him for over a0 years and back in the 70s and 80s, used to slightly resent... allow you enter along with it, the morecambe and wise joke because it might more famous and he was very lova ble might more famous and he was very lovable about it, but it worries him in some ways because he thought maybe people didn't realise he really was a singer and he did have 36 albums, five in the top a0, number one hit with i might pretend, he sang with sinatra, streisand and was a good thing. but he was also an extra terry all—round entertainer and he was afraid of easily relaxed. it was the ultimate professional and thatis it was the ultimate professional and that is why he worked from his time asa that is why he worked from his time as a redcoat until a year or two ago in his mid—80s, still touring with his one—man show and two—man show aged a t5, still up there singing, dancing, telling jokes, being easy,

being self—deprecating and he really was the best of a kind. almost one is tempted to say the kind they don't make any more, that kind of versatility in the world of entertainment, singing, telling jokes, running chat shows and quiz shows. extraordinary range. he was particularly brilliant at chat shows, he had a lot of them in the television crew your began in 1963, then for a0 years, he had lots of different variety shows. you brought in the best in people as so generous and relaxed that you relaxed with him and he wanted you to succeed. he really was just a decent and nice quy: really was just a decent and nice guy, incredible, and i don't think you'll find anybody in the world of entertainment you have a thing to say against theirs oh, except that they loved him. that show got such a huge audience what he was starring on endless tv shows at a time when television was getting massive

audiences. a lot of people watching this will have been brought up in the 1960s when you first that the des 0'connor show, there were only two channels to watch so you could get 15-20,000,000 two channels to watch so you could get 15—20,000,000 people tuning in for you and he was so easy to be with, so pleasant to be with, that he was any sense the entertainer from next but because he made seems so, it made it difficult to see that he could play anywhere. you could do pantomime at the london palladium, glasgow, las vegas, he could do it all effortlessly a nd glasgow, las vegas, he could do it all effortlessly and he was very skilful. lawyers acting for two hundred women in england — who claim they have been severely harmed by a sterilisation device — have begun legal action against the manufacturer. the small coil, called essure, was implanted to prevent pregnancy. similar lawsuits are already under

way in the united states. sophie hutchinson, reports aches and pains all over. but no one will listen because it's just women's things. tracey, laura, di and kim are among tens of thousands of women across the world who say they've been severely harmed by the medical sterilisation device essure. ijust started to heavy periods, migraines, which i'd only ever had when i was pregnant, so they were hormonal. my back was so painful i'd wake up in the middle of night with pains in my hips and my back and it was just...i'd wake up crying. this is essure, a tiny metal coil. it's now been withdrawn from the market but in 2002, it was promoted as an easy, non—surgical procedure, a new era in sterilisation. it was inserted into the fallopian tube where it was meant to cause

scarring, blocking the tube and preventing pregnancy. but far from the promise of no surgery, these women have now had, or are waiting to have, hysterectomies in order to remove the device. it's easy to get it done. it's easy to say, you know, "have this, it's wonderful". but then the fallout, there's nobody there. there's no support apart from, you know, people that we found ourselves. there's. .. no—one will listen because it's just women's things. essure's manufacturer bayer has just set aside £1.2 billion to settle claims from 39,000 american women who say they've been harmed by the device. that's prompted a legal case here. this solicitor has started court action on behalf of 200 women in england who say essure has caused them severe suffering. the reports that have come out from the american proceedings,

are that conceptus and bayer were failing to report adverse events, so that's when they become aware that there's a problem with the device and that's something that we're going to look at very, very carefully indeed. bayer strongly refutes those allegations and stressed it has never violated regulations around complaints. it said, "we take all adverse events seriously and the company stands behind the safety and efficacy of essure following two decades of research". but some doctors who fitted essure remain sceptical and say the monitoring of new medical devices is inadequate. we learned from the mesh problems, we have learned from the breast implants, we have learned from essure device that if you put materials in the body for a long time, we need more information with long follow—ups on what it does to the body, and to be honest, we don't know. and for those who've suffered, more information could have changed everything. it's been really hard. notjust physically, but mentally.

ifeel my children have missed out on a lot and it makes me feel guilty because if i hadn't had essure, then i wouldn't be where i am now. life would be very different for me and my children. that report was from our health correspondent sophie hutchinson. we have had a tweeting from donald trump about the election. he does sayjoe biden has won but it's not exactly concession, he says he won the election was rigged, no vote watch as our observer is allowed, vote tabulated by radical left wing privately owned company dominion with a bad reputation and bomb

equipment that couldn't even qualify for texas which i won by a lot, the fa ke for texas which i won by a lot, the fake and silent media and more. that is the latest on the election from donald trump and his claims of vote rigging, unsubstantiated and unproven, but he continues to make those claims, so saying the elder joe biden has won but only because the election was rigged. the government has announced a0 million pounds of extra funding for green projects, which it says will enhance england's natural environment and create or support thousands of jobs. some of the money will be invested in the creation of new national parks. the funding is part of a plan for a green recovery from the pandemic. here's our environment analyst, roger harrabin. this the lake district, one of britain's favourite landscapes. this scapes. it looks wild but that is an illusion. the diversity of habitat and species on these naked hills has been depleted over centuries by overgrazing sheep. the government wants to bring back the wildlife here to its previous state. it also wants to restore peat bogs

and woodlands which capture the carbon emissions that are overheating the planet. £a0 million is being provided for charities to put thousands of boots on the ground to bring back the nature. green campaigners welcomed the cash but they say that last chunk of £a0 million was oversubscribed seven times. every little helps but, let's be clear, £a0 million is a drop in the ocean compared to the £1 billion investment that's needed every year, year—on—year, to rebuild our natural infrastructure in this country. unless we do that, unless we turn around the declines of our species and habitats in this country, we are going to see the foundation for our food security, our water security, our health and our economy eroding away. meanwhile, next year the government will designate new national parks, like the yorkshire dales, and ten long—term landscape recovery projects will be initiated to restore wilder landscapes. the prime minister is said to be turning towards green initiatives like this to signal a move to kinder policies. roger harrabin, bbc news.

time for a look at the weather. the weather is set to cause us disruption to the course of today, with a deep area of low pressure driving our weather. outbreaks of the heavy rain at times and also some strong winds. especially towards the south. that deep area of low pressure setting to the north of the uk but the south of that you see all these eyes are bars that we the winds and a couple of weather fronts moving their way through as well, so heavy rain earlier across the south—east which will peel away towards the afternoon, then rattling around with no are really immune to catching outbreaks of rain and for

scotla nd catching outbreaks of rain and for scotland and northern ireland, the rain not quite as heavy but it will be persistent and slow moving in places. further south, the wind got this afternoon up to 60—70 mph or more. even in land, gusts of up to a0 mph, and enough to bring down small trees and they on the road. noticeably cooler than we've seen recently. then sell outbreaks of showery rain lingering. mostly drive further south, start off with a breeze to keep things frost free with overnight temperatures falling to 5-9 c with overnight temperatures falling to 5—9 c for with overnight temperatures falling to 5—9 cfor up to with overnight temperatures falling to 5—9 c for up to more cosmic weather will be in between areas of low pressure, so clearing to the north—east with the next one lining up north—east with the next one lining up in the atlantic but then just a bump of slightly higher pressure so though we are going to see some high pressure, it will be breezy but not

as windy as today and some outbreaks of rain moving in. and those winds will pick up. it remains unsettled into middle parts of the week so tuesday into wednesday, the next area of low pressure and this front sweeping in. then it will be all change towards the end of the week. the mild and unsettled conditions get cleared away with the open doors for this called air to move in from the north. unsettled on stormy times, turning a bit quieter but also colder till the end of the week. goodbye for now.