hello this is bbc news. the headlines... brexit talks between the uk and the eu will resume on sunday after a phone call between boris johnson and the president of the european commission — but both sides say significant

differences still remain. whilst recognising the seriousness of these differences, we agreed that a further effort should be undertaken by our negotiating teams to assess whether they can be resolved. more rapid testing is introduced in areas in the highest tiers of restrictions in england — but there are concerns about their accuracy. a large—scale coronavirus vaccine roll—out begins in russia — but the sputnikjab is still undergoing mass testing. a 28—year—old man has been charged with attempted murder after a baby girl was found seriously injured at a property in blackpool three people have been taken to hospital after an explosion at a house in west yorkshire. now on bbc news... tom brook marks the 40th anniversary of former beatle john lennon's murder in new york on december eighth 1980, and assesses his powerful legacy a0 years on.

any doubts about the beatles reception in america were dispelled the moment they touched down. friday, february the 7th, 1964, a pan am boeing 707jet caught clipper defiance from london taxis to its destination at a terminal atjfk airport in new york. there to greet the beatles — the biggest pop act of the 20th century — were more screaming fans than the airport had ever seen before. ever seen before, 4000 of them. screeching and screaming. to americans, the spirit of the most outspoken beatle, john lennon, was evident the moment he arrived as he jousted with reporters and fans at an airport press conference. for lennon, that february gave him his first taste of new york, a city he grew to really love

and move to living permanently in august, 1971. photographer, bob, took countless images of lenin in new york photographer, bob, took countless images of lennon in new york and the men grew to become friends. he very much enjoyed the freedom of new york, maybe some people would wave to him, but he could go around the corner to a coffee shop and people wouldn't bother him. you know, he felt very comfortable living here. in his last seven years in the city, this was his home, the dakota apartment building on manhattan's upper west side. he lived there with his wife, yoko oh no, and sunshine, until that fateful day a0 years ago — december the 8th, 1980. gunfire. on that night, disturbed fan shot john lennon as he returned as he returned to his apartment building with yoko oh no.

as he returned to his apartment building with yoko ono. as news of his death spread, it traumatised millions around the world, nearly everyone can remember exactly where they were when they first got word that he had been killed. as a young journalist working for the bbc in new york, i became intimately involved that night in reporting on lennon's death. i'd arrived in new york ten years after lennon moved here on a twa flight from london on january the 5th, 1980, to do a temporary stint as a radio news and current affairs producer. much of the time in the bbc news bureau reading the teletype machines while eating lunch, but it was an exciting time, covering the democratic and republican conventions in 1980. in my career with the bbc, i have probably filed some 3000 reports or packages. i've interviewed nearly every living big—name movie star, but whenever i meet people, all they want to know is what was it

like to cover the death ofjohn lennon? i never knew the man, but i do feel a real kinship with him and have offered wondered what his last few hours on this planet were like. # john lennon and yoko ono. # new york city are your people.# i do know that he and yoko ono left the dakota late on that monday afternoon and headed south, they may have gone down central park west which, today, with its grand apartment buildings overlooking the park looks much like it did whenjohn lennon was alive. to him, new york city was the capital of the universe. lennon's destination that monday afternoon was a now defunct recording studio called the record plant at 321 west 44th st, not far from times square. phone rings. sometime after 10pm that night, my phone started to ring.

i was living in an apartment, a tiny shoe box for which i paid $400 a month on horatio street in greenwich village. hello? 0n the phone was a colleague, jonathan cain, the british pop empressariou then living in manhattan. he told me the herd there been a shooting at the dakota and that john lennon was possibly the victim. i moved quickly, leaving the apartment rapidly with a tape recorder radio and notepad. i rushed to eighth ave to get a cab uptown. can you take me to the dakota apartment building? the cab couldn't go fast enough. i loved lennon's music, beatlemania and john lennon were a big part of my youth. this is how i looked on my first official bbc id card in 1976. i had been a bit of a hippie, it shows, i was just the kind of person to have embraced john lennon and yoko ono. as i travelled up to the dakota, lennon's music was on my mind, he just made an album, double fantasy after a five—year break. across town at the roosevelt

hospital where lennon had been taken after being shot was wabc tv news producer, alan wiess, who lay injured in the emergency room after a motorbike accident opposite a room where doctors were working on lennon, trying to resuscitate him. the door was open and i was able to watch them work onjohn lennon. so, the scene is this, john lennon, they take all his clothes off, he's lying on his back, his feet are facing me, his head is away for me. and in a semi circle around him are the medical staff. and at least one of the doctors has his hands injohn‘s open chest. around that time, millions of americans were tuned into monday night football on the abc network, when sports commentator, howard casale, broke the devastating news to the nation. an unspeakable tragedy confirmed to us by abc news in new york city, john lennon, outside of his apartment building on the west side of new york city, the most famous perhaps

of all the beatles, shot twice in the back rushed to roosevelt hospital, dead on arrival. so i set about doing myjob. remember, in those days, there was no internet, no mobile phones, no texting, so i rushed down the street to this point right here, where there once stood a payphone, and i made a call to my bbc colleagues in london on the today programme where i once worked as a producer to let them know what was going on. i spoke to the overnight editor, quite an excitable fellow, he was agitated and so was i. after all, former beatle being murdered on the streets of new york was a major news story.

in those days, we used these rather big west german tape recorders made by a company called euer to record interviews when we went out into the field. they had great fidelity, but they were rather unwieldy, as clockwork handbags. anyway, i still have mine from decades ago, and the other day, i put some batteries into and lo and behold, it kind of works. you can see the reels go around here. anyway, the night thatjohn lennon died, i have this in reserve and i got most of my interviews of the small cassette recorder, and i was speaking largely to fans outside the dakota, and they were in a very emotional state. i remember some of their responses to this day. there was one young woman who told

me that when she heard the news, she felt like she'd been punched in the stomach, and that to me is a very accurate way of describing the emotional response to lennon's death. after i fed the interviews, it was time to do the life reports. after i fed the interviews, it was time to do the live reports. it was nowjust around 6:15am in the morning in london, soon, millions of britons would hear that shocking news. i had scribbled out a voice piece for the news bulletins and practised it but, to be honest, i was a novice. i had been trained in news journalism by the bbc, but i was not exactly a hard news person. but the story was so dramatic and it was easy to reports. i rushed to the payphone, got through to broadcasting house and soon i was on the air. radio four, half past six, time for today. good morning from brian redhead and libby purvis. the former beatle, john lennon,

has been shot dead outside his home in new york. 0n the line now from outside the apartment building where the murder took place as our reporter, tom brook. time, can you tell us exactly what happened ? well as he was in, brain, john lennon was killed two hours ago, he was returning home from with his wife, yoko ono, into his home, the apartment building, the dakota apartment building, and everything is still rather confused, but we gather that he got out of the car and there was an altercation about an autograph. shots were then fired, several shots, he was very badly wounded and the police squad car took him to hospital and he was pronounced dead upon arrival. it was a very emotional assignment. i remember at one point saying, "of course, now lennon is dead." and i did feel a very big lump in my throat. outside the dakota, the crowds of fans continue to grow. in the days that follow, there was a massive outpouring of grief. in new york central park, on the sunday after his death,

thousands showed up for a vigil. they sing imagine. today, people of all kinds, but perhaps those of my generation in particular, look back on the night of december the 8th 1980 with great sadness. 69—year—old lennon fan, anne, will never forget. it was a bad day. i heard it on the news. and i didn't believe it. i had to listen to it again and again to make sure i wasn't dreaming. it was bad. it was a bad day. i felt as if someone from my own family had died and it was just so tragic. he was my hero, so i couldn't wait for the new album and now that it was out again, starting over was playing,

and all these great songs. i was excited to hear his voice again, and then he was so sadly taken away from us. they sing imagine. there was a palpable sense of loss, but why was the grief so extreme? it was definitely more pronounced than that brought on by the untimely death of other pop—culture figures like whitney houston or michaeljackson. john lennon in a way connected very emotionally with his fans. people mostly know john through his music or some of his interviews, and yet, they felt very personally connected. i think a lot of the things he says in his music, people took very personally. and it was that loss, violence loss, that was just such and it was that loss, that violent loss, that was just such a shock to sony people. lennon's greatest legacy is of course his music. together with fellow songwriter,

paul mccarty, they formed one ——together with fellow songwriter, paul mccartneyy, they formed one of the most successful music partnerships in history. broadcaster and journalist, robin desnlow appeared on the bbc‘s newsday programme that after lenin died with this assessment of the former beatles professional career. john lennon was surely the most are markable records that 40 years on, does robin desnlow still see lennon's stature in the same way? it's grown in that he's a legendary figure, people still write books about him, people buy books about him in large numbers still, so he's one of those few heroes who have kept going and going and going. in terms of his stature musicly, i think an awful lot of people just member him, apart from the beatles of course, for just a few songs, give peace a chance and imagine. so i think probably musically, people have forgotten how good he was. i revisited lennon's death ever decade since 1980 during special programming,

and i've always found it relatively easy to get big names in the industry to reflect on his talents as a musician and to express how much he means to them, perhaps because he so revered. my whole life as an artist was kind of shaped by him. and i... ican't... ..exaggerate enough the effect is music had on me. his music had on me. he was synthesising a lot of other things that were coming and you know? pulling on the everly brothers and elvis and rhythm and blues and country music. it was very wide open sources that he had for his music. but as much as any of us might want to praise lennon, he was a complicated character who could be difficult. he reportedly had a short temper and he admitted he had abused women, but none of this seems to have tarnished his love and peace image.

he was a very complex character. i mean, they love songs, they could be very sentimental, very loving, as his last album, his odes to yoko and sean, his son, he could be obsolete vicious, as his song about mccartney. he could be very funny, he could be a rocker, he could be almost anything, and so that is what made them so interesting, and he could be very nasty, i'm sure, and he could be very very funny. so there was that contradiction within that made him such an interesting character. two years after lennon died, i returned to the dakota to interview yoko ono. the interview was broadcast on nationwide, than the bbc‘s mean ——the interview was broadcast on nationwide, then the bbc‘s main early news and magazine programme. thoughts ofjohn were clearly on yoko's mind. well, he's still alive, he's still with us, his spirits

will go on, you know? you can't kill a person that easily. that's the way i feel about it, yeah. in new york, the most obvious memorial to lennon is strawberry fields, the part of central park a stone's throw from the dakota dedicated to his memory. his fans routinely gather here, often leaving flowers. but lennon's spirit that's still alive is of course most evident in the appetite for his music, his lyrics, his thoughts. there is a whole generation that wasn't alive at the time he died who have become his fans. last year, beatles songs were streamed online 1.7 billion times, almost half by people under 30. it is remarkable how many young people know about lennon. what is it that you like about john lennons's music in particular? do you like the words that he uses? yeah, i like the words and i like the music and, yeah. and i like the rhythm and how it all goes together. i think that it's about something that is very important. he's got a real reputation for being

a man of peace and spirituality, which i think speaks to the moment today in a pretty fundamental way. i mean, the song imagine is sort of a banner song of what we are all trying to work for right now. he plays imgaine. and lennon isn'tjust engaging legions of young followers, he's also continuing to influence musicians from the time he was alive right up to the present day. the sound of his voice, he has one of the truly great voices an rock history, and are you have artists like liam gallagher of oasis and the modern bands like tame bands like tame impala and cut worms who all get that very specific lennon vocal sound because of such a trademark. he sings imagine. and among the new generation of young musicians influenced by lennon's work is seattle based's 26—year—old tom. he's drawn to lennon by the way he thought about the world. # you may say i'm a dreamer.

# but i'm not the only one. i thinkjust the fact that he emphasised love and peace and this idea of striving for something that doesn't currently exist. i still see that message as something that we need. the idea, feeling, or thinking about something that's beyond ourselves is just incredibly powerful. lennon's fans have long been drawn in by his pacifism, by his anti—vietnam war bed ins for peace. he was a political figure targeted for deportation by the nixon administration for his anti—war views. he and yoko ono were sometimes criticised for being naive in their approach to world affairs. a matter i brought up with yoko ono a few years ago. what do you say to people who think you might have been naive in terms of the message,

"war is over if you want it." i don't think it was naive at all. i think that's the only way that we can really get some results. and we did get the result in the vietnam war. lennon may have left us with a worldview and great music, but it was hope there might be another legacy, one that resulted from the fact that he was murdered with a handgun. ed karch, then mayor of new york, spoke out all of us here in central park are showing our distress, our upset with the fact that a deranged person who came from honolulu and bought a gun in honolulu and came to the city of new york and struck down a world personality was able to do that, and the only way to stop it is to have national gun control. but the restrictions on gun ownership weren't part of london's legacy. unrelated homicide in america is now 25 times higher than it is in other

developed nations. with issues like gun violence, a worldwide pandemic, meltdowns and calls for racial justice on people's minds, many think lennon, where he alive today, would've been speaking out. 0h, there's no question. i think if lennon were alive today, i think we would be hearing his voice very loudly, trying to call our attention to the incredible divide and polarisation that's going on in this country. again, can't think of a better song than "all you need is love." so, there's no question that the message of his lyrics is as powerful today as back then. i thinkjohn lennon changed people's lives by setting an example of a normal person who is trying to be better. he didn't stand up and say, "i'm perfect, "and you should be like me." he said, "you should be like you, but you should try to be better. "you should try not to hurt people, you should try to control your anger."

he didn't say do it, he said try it. you know? he knew that there were limitations of human beings. and people were inspired by that because it's not easy to control your anger. and yet, it's easy to try. john lennon, had he lived, would never have been able to recreate the huge excitement and hysteria that accompanied the beatles early years, but it's highly likely that he would've moved forward as a musician. what would've happened to him had he lived? it depends partly on where he lived. he was a new yorker, he was spending his time in new york. had he ended up with serious musicians he might've developed into something extra but the possibilities perhaps would've been enormous. john lennon still haunts my life, i now live just four blocks north of the dakota apartment building, and go past it virtually every day. and whenever i go to my gym down on 63rd st, it's part of a complex that also houses a hotel, the very hotel where lennon's killer stayed on his first night in new york.

i've been giving a lot of thought tojohn lennon and what he means to people like myself, and is millions of fans around the worlds on this 40th anniversary. he remains a hugely talented musician and many people's eyes he remains a hugely talented musician in many people's eyes and a great iconic figure in the history of 20th century pop culture. he is a true british original, and authentic voice, he certainly isn't a fake. to millions of people, he is still very much part of their lives. as yoko ono puts it, "his spirit still lives on." "you cannot kill a person that easily." so, with those thoughts, our programme, remembering lennon comes to an end. on behalf of the production here in new york, for me time bro, on behalf of the production here in new york, from me tom brook, it's goodbye as we leave you with new york—based trumpeter, mr whitcombe playing imagine.

hello there, we've had a vigorous area of low pressure that's brought us area of low pressure that's brought us wet weather over the last few

days and some sleet and snow, however, that's moving way, for the next few days, things will turn a little more settled, drier, remaining cold, we also have a chance of frost, ice and some fog two. bob could be an issue as well sunday morning across the southeast quadrant of our country, a bit of low cloud here, need rain across the south coast will clear, and showery for easter and skeleton northeast and glenn will also tend to fizzle out. by sunday afternoon to my think many places will be dry, with variable cloud, samaria stingray, but also sunny spells around. 3—80 . now through sunday night from stays largely dry, again come under clear skies come it's going to turn cold with some frost, some fog and perhaps even some ice developing. now come into the new week, for monday, it looks like we are in between two weather systems. at this weather system over the north sea will impact the weather for tuesday onwards. so it will turn more u nsettled onwards. so it will turn more unsettled thanks to this. but in the

short—term, certainly for monday, it looks like it's going to be a cold day, frosty starts, there will be some fog around, some low cloud, could stay cold grey in some areas all day. a bit of sunshine though further west. around 5—6 , we will start to see when and rain turning to the east coast of the uk, and that means for the rest of the week, it turns more unsettled with low— pressure it turns more unsettled with low—pressure beginning to take over. this picture moving out of monday and tuesday, this low over the north sea drifts its way westwards we think into much of the united kingdom, particularly central and northern areas could be the south of england that could remain dry and a little bit of sunshine. the winds will pick up and turned very windy in fact across northern areas, bands of rain showers spinning around this area of low pressure, could see some snow as well, some sleet over the high ground, the pennines and also scotland. temperatures generally ranging between 5—8 degrees in the south, given some sunshine here. there are area of low pressure sticks around as we head on into

wednesday as well, but it starts to fail, that means it's going to be weakening across the country. so conditions will slowly improve through the day. so we will start off fairly windy, rather cloudy across many areas. oui’ off fairly windy, rather cloudy across many areas. our breaks of rain around, but for part two of the day, i think those showery bursts of rain begin to ease down along with the winds. a legacy of cloud, we could see a bit of brightness here and there. stay tuned for the forecast for those details. temperatures ranging from around 6-8 . temperatures ranging from around 6—8 . still, the air is chilly. as we move into thursday, could see this area of low pressure pushed into the near continent. that affect southern britain for a while, little bit windier, generally come the theme is to stay unsettled for the rest of the weekend into the following weekend. as the jet stream will be reinvigorated and taking aim toward the uk, and that will steer weather system towards our shores. friday, we could see another su bsystem friday, we could see another subsystem brings some wet and windy weather. there is a chance into the following weekend, it will be be in between weather systems, so some dried interludes at times for

another area of low pressure will sweep in off of the atlantic. so changeable for the rest of the new week, could see some dry interludes at sometimes, noticeable stamina called site, but as we had on into the following become of the nude area of low pressure, that will bring —— new area, and a chance for something a little bit milder, particularly across the south.

good evening and welcome to bbc news. coming up in five minutes, reeta chakrabati will be here with a bulletin of the day's news. and at 10.30pm, we'll be taking a first look at the front pages of sunday's newspapers. but first, the uk and eu have tonight announced that they have agreed to return to the negotiating table to try to agree a post—brexit trade deal. prime minister boris johnson and european commission president ursula von der leyen made the decision during a phone call late this afternoon. ursula von der leyen had this to say after the call. translation: whilst recognising the seriousness of these