coronavirus health crisis which has killed nearly three hundred thousand americans. the us president—elect promised that 100 million vaccinations would be carried out in his first one hundred days in office. britain has become the first country to begin a mass coronavirus vaccination programme, with an authorized, fully tested jab. 70 hubs have been set up at hospitals around britain. 90 year old margaret keenan, got the first dose of the pfizer/biontech jab, outside of the clinical trials. —— with an authorised. boris johnson will travel to brussels on wedneday to have dinner with the president of the european commission in a last—ditch effort to reach a trade agreement. negotiations remain stuck with only weeks to go before the transition period ends at the end of december. and those are the headlines. the queen and senior members of the royal family have met volunteers and key

workers at windsor castle to thank them for their work this year. windsor was the final stop on the duke and duchess of cambridge‘s tour of britain which has provoked some criticism from ministers in scotland and wales. our royal correspondent nicholas witchell‘s report contains flash photography. it is the season to say thank you, most particularly if you're a member of the royal family charged with expressing a nation's gratitude to all of those who've made the difference in this most difficult year. and so, on the quadrangle of windsor castle, the queen was joined by members of her family for some festive cheer — seasonal music from the salvation army, and gratitude, widely sprinkled to people who've done so much during the pandemic. the cambridges, william and kate, were there. they've spent the past 48 hours on the royal train, meeting key workers in different parts of great britain. a simple enough idea, you might think, except that england, scotland and wales all have

slightly different covid—related restrictions. and as the royal train made its way to edinburgh and later to cardiff, it became clear that some scottish and welsh leaders hadn't entirely bought into the idea of a visit by william and kate. shortly before they arrived at cardiff castle this morning, the welsh health minister said he'd prefer if there weren't, as he put it, "unnecessary visits". he thought people might find it confusing. the prime minister later said the cambridges‘ tour had been a welcome boost to morale. and that, the raising of morale, is what this is all about. on the day when hope seemed a little more tangible with the start of mass vaccinations, the royal family came together to say thank you. nicholas witchell, bbc news, at windsor. now on bbc news... tom brook marks the 40th

anniversary of former beatle john lennon's murder in new york on december the 8th 1980, and assesses his powerful legacy a0 years on. archive: any doubts about the beatles‘ reception in america were dispelled the moment they touched down. friday, february 7, 1964. a pan am boeing 707 jet called clipper defiance from london taxis to its destination, 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, 4,000 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 c0 nfe re nce .

for lennon, that february gave him his first taste of new york, a city he grew to really love and moved to live in permanently in august 1971. photographer bob gruen took countless images of lennon in new york. the two 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 ono, and son sean until that fateful day a0 years ago — december 8, 1980. gunfire on that night, a disturbed fan fatally shot john lennon as he returned to the dakota 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 onjanuary 5,1980, 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 3,000 reports or packages. i have 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. i have often 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. 0no 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 when 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 located at 321 west 44th street, 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 king, the british pop empresario then living in manhattan. he told me he had heard there had 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 8th avenue 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'd 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 weiss, 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 working on john lennon. so, the scene is this. john lennon, they'd taken 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 in john's open chest. around that time, millions of americans were tuned into monday night football on the abc network, when sports commentator howard cosell 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 of 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, a 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 uher to record interviews when we went out into the field. they had great fidelity but they were rather unwieldy. and in fact, a colleague of mine used to refer to them as "clockwork handbags". anyway, i still have mine from decades ago, and the other day, i put some batteries into it. and lo and behold, it kind of worked. you can see the reels go around here. anyway, the night that john lennon died, i had this in reserve, and i got most of my interviews with a 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 live reports. it was nowjust around 6.15am in the morning in london. soon, millions of britons would hear the 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, it was easy to report. i rushed to the payphone, got through to broadcasting house, and soon i was on the air. radio 4. it's half past six. time for today. good morning from brian redhead and libby purves.

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 is our reporter, tom brook. tom, can you tell us exactly what happened ? well, as you were saying, brian, john lennon was killed two hours ago. he was returning home with his wife, yoko ono, to his home, the apartment building, the dakota apartment building. and everything is still rather confused, but we gather that he got out of a 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 continued to grow. in the days that followed, there was a mass

outpouring of grief. in new york central park, on the sunday after his death, thousands showed up for a vigil. they sing: imagine byjohn lennon today, people of all kinds, but perhaps those of my generation in particular, look back on the night of december 8, 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. # imagine allthe people...# 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, and that violent loss, that was just such a shock to so many people. lennon's greatest legacy is, of course, his music.

together with fellow songwriter paul mccartney, they formed one of the most successful music partnerships in history. broadcaster and journalist robin denselow appeared on the bbc‘s newsnight programme the day after lennon died with this assessment of the former beatle‘s professional career. john lennon was surely the most remarkable rock artist that britain has produced... 40 years on, does robin denselow 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 musically, i think an awful lot of people just remember 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've revisited lennon's death every decade since 1980, doing 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's so revered. my whole life as an artist was kind of shaped by him. and i... ican't... ..exaggerate enough the effect his music had on me. he was synthesising a lot of other things that were coming in, you know? early on, everly brothers and elvis and rhythm and blues and country music, and 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 and 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, if you look at his songs, he could be very sentimental, very loving — his last album, his odes to yoko and sean, his son. he could be absolutely vicious, as in his song about mccartney. he could be very funny, he could be a rocker, he could be a balladier, he could be almost anything, and so that was what made him so interesting. and he could be very nasty, i'm sure, and he could be very, very funny, so it was that contradiction within him 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, then the bbc‘s main early evening news magazine programme. thoughts ofjohn were clearly on yoko's mind. well, he's still alive, he's still with us. his spirit 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, a small part of central park a stone's throw from the dakota dedicated to his memory. his fans routinely gather here, often leaving flowers. that lennon's spirit is 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 aboutjohn lennon'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're all trying to work for right now. he plays: imagine byjohn lennon and lennon isn't just 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 in rock history. and now you have artists like liam gallagher of oasis and then modern bands like tame impala and cut worms who all get that very specific lennonesque vocal sound because of such a trademark. and among the new generation of young musicians influenced by lennon's work is seattle—based 26—year—old tom mcgahern.

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 of 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 that you might be 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 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 koch, then mayor of new york, spoke out at the time of lennon's death. 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.

gun—related homicide in america is now 25 times higher than it is in other developed nations. —— lennon's legacy. with issues like gun violence, a worldwide pandemic, economic meltdowns and calls for racialjustice on people's minds, many think lennon, were he alive today, would've been speaking out. 0h, there's no question. i think if lennon were alive today, i think we'd 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, i 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 was 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 the limitations of human beings. and i think 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 hung around with serious musicians, he might've developed into something extraordinary, but the possibilities are absolutely 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 street,

it is 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 his millions of fans around the world on this 40th anniversary. 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, an 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 john lennon comes to an end. on behalf of the production crew here in new york, from me, tom brook, it's goodbye, as we leave you with new york—based trumpeter jq whitcomb playing imagine.

hello there. low pressure will continue to bring more unsettled weather to our shores for the rest

of this week and very slowly, those temperatures will be creeping up as we reach the end of the week and into the weekend. now for wednesday, we'll have some showers across eastern areas. some sunshine will develop, though, behind it is this ridge of high pressure that builds in and then there will be rain pushing to western areas later on all courtesy of this new frontal system. so we'll start off rather grey, misty, murky conditions with some showery bursts of rain through this morning. they should eventually clear away, it's an improving picture with some sunshine developing though showers holding on across northeastern scotland. later in the day for northern ireland, western fringes of england, wales and practically into the south west we will see thicker cloud moving in here with outbreaks of rain. temperatures slowly climbing but again it's going to be another chilly day for most, temperatures range from to 5—7 celsius quite typically. as we head through wednesday night, we will start to see that cloud thickening up across the east as well. it looks like most of the heaviest rain will start to push across wales, the south west england, to the channel islands. elsewhere, we will hold onto quite a bit of cloud,

some light and patchy rain under clearing skies across the north, it will be quite chillier otherwise, less cold than it's been on other nights. on thursday, we are in between weather systems although we have this weather front affecting the northern half of the uk. we've got a slack airflow once again so winds will be light rather grey skies for many with some patchy light rain or drizzle, little bit heavier across scotland. could see a touch of winteriness over the high grounds. the air is still quite cool with those highs ranging from 5—8 celsius. but slowly coming up across the south west, 9—10 celsius there for cardiff and for plymouth. as we head on into friday, a more substantial frontal system spreads its way eastwards across the country. this one will bring a bit of a change to the weather, some heavier rain at times will make its way towards the eastern side of the country, winds stronger for a time, and then skies will brighten up across western areas, perhaps one or two showers here. so, it's out west where will start to see temperatures lift by the end of friday, 10—11 celsius here. a little bit less cold

further east, too. still on the chilly side — with temperatures in single figures. into the weekend, we hold onto a lot of cloud, some rain in northern and western areas. by sunday, we'll see another area of low pressure which will bring windier weather, some milder air, and also outbreaks of rain.

welcome to bbc news. our top stories: joe biden promises a hundred million vaccinations against covid in his first one hundred days as us president. i'm absolutely convinced that in the first 100 days we can change the course of the disease and change our country for the better. a 90—year—old british woman becomes the first person in the world to be given the pfizer vaccine to protect against covid—19. well, because it is free and the best thing that has ever happened. at the moment, so do, please go for it, that is what