a panel of experts in the united states has endorsed the pfizer biontech coronavirus vaccine for emergency use. it paves the way for approval by the us food and drug administration. the us hopes to have around a0 million doses of the vaccine ready by the end of the year. britain's prime minister has issued a warning that leaving the eu's single market and customs union, without a trade deal — is now a strong possibility. borisjohnson, said the eu's current offer was unacceptable because it would keep the uk "locked" into its legal system. talks will continue until sunday. the british actress dame barbara windsor — best known for her roles in the carry on films, has died aged 83. she later successfully crossed the generational divide, and becamejust as revered for her role as peggy mitchell, the queen vic's landlady, in the bbc drama eastenders. it's a part she played for more than 20 years. with many theatres still closed

actors are having to come up with new ways to ensure the show does go on this christmas! one company has even started staging performances from long—running west end shows in people's front gardens! as our arts correspondent david silito has been finding out. this is normally the busiest time of year in theatreland. but this year, it's not going to be so much, "it's behind you", more, "it's on your doorstep." they're coming up the road now. hey, guys, i'm elder cunningham. we've got a surprise for you! come to the door! # there's a song in the air... bert and mary poppins are in the front garden

of number 1a. meet doorstep productions. this is the real west end, real west end performers, coming to doorsteps. that's right. i mean, look at this theatre, it's closed. the palladium. i mean, it's heartbreaking. all the shows are shut. all my friends are unemployed. some of them have lost their homes. and i thought, "hang on a minute, i could get some people some work." #supercalifragalisticexpialidoc ious! # even though the sound of it is something quite atrocious. how long since you last performed in public? march 16, 2020. how's it been? it's been rough, but we're here and we're making the best of it. what does this feel like? currently, we're drenched, but it's wonderful. it's wonderful to be performing again. les miserables by the bins. it's not quite the west end, but it is work. david sillito, bbc news.

that looks fun. now on bbc news — tom brook marks the fortieth anniversary of former beatle john lennon's murder in new york on eight december 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 named clipper defiance from london taxis to its destination at terminal jfk airport in new york. there to greet the beatles, the biggest pop act of the 20th century. more screaming fans than the airport had ever seen before. 4,000 of them. screaming to americans the spirit of the most outspoken beatle, lennon, was evident the moment he arrived

as he jousted with reporters and fans at the 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 round the corner to a coffee shop and people wouldn't bother him. 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 here with his wife yoko 0no and son sean till that fatal day a0 years ago, december the 8th 1980. gunshot on that night

a disturbed fan fatally shotjohn lennon as he returned to the dakota apartment building with yoko 0no. 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 had arrived in new york ten years after lennon moved here on a twa flight from london onjanuary the 5th 1980 for 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've often wondered what his last few hours on this planet were like. #john lennon, yoko ono. # new york city are your people. i do know that he and yoko ono left the dakota late on that monday afternoon, 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 the now defunct recording studio called

the record plant at 321 west 44th st, near times square. 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 impresario then living in manhattan. he told me he'd heard there'd been a shooting at the dakota and john lennon was possibly the victim. i moved quickly leaving the apartment rapidly with a tape recorder, radio and notepad. and rushed to eighth ave to get a cab uptown. could 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 in 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 wbc 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. i was able to watch them working on john lennon. the scene was this. john lennon, they've taken all his clothes off, he's lying on his back, his feet are facing me, his head is away from me. and in a semicircle 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 where a sports commentator broke the

devastating news to the nation. an unspeakable tragedy brought 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 was a payphone. and i made a call to my bbc colleagues in london on the today programme where i once worked as 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 to record interviews out in the field. they had great fidelity but they were rather unwieldy. in fact a colleague of mine used to refer to them as clockwork handbags. anyway, i still have mine from decades ago. the other day i put some batteries into it and lo and behold it kind of works. you can see the reels go round here. anyway, the night thatjohn lennon died i got most of my interviews of a small cassette recorder and i was speaking largely to fans outside the dakota.

they were in a very emotional state. i remember some of the responses to this day. there was one young woman who told me when she heard the news she felt like she had been punched in the stomach. 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 scribbled out a voice piece for the news bulletin 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. 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. so, can you tell us exactly what happened ? 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 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 a 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. new york central park on the sunday after his death thousands showed up for a vigil. # imagine there's no heaven... today people of all kinds but perhaps those of my generation in particular, look back on the night of december the 8th1980 with great sadness. this 69—year—old lennon fan 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. it was just so tragic. he was my hero so i couldn't wait for the new album, now it was out again, starting over was playing, all these great songs. i was excited to hear his voice again. 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 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. yet they felt very personally connected. i think a lot of the things he said in his music people took very personally. it was that loss, that violent loss, it was just such a shock to so many people.

lennon's greatest legacy was of course his music. together with 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 artists that... i thought it use does rob and then slow still see leonard's stature in the same way? it has grown in that he is a legendary figure. people still write books about him. people buy books about him in large numbers still. he is one of those few heroes who has kept going and going and going. in terms of his stature musically i think a lot of people just remember him, apart from the beatles of course, forjust a few songs. give peace a chance and imagine. probably musically people have

forgotten how good he was. i 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 talent as a musician and to express how much he means to them. perhaps because he is so revered. my whole life as an artist was kind of shaped by him. and i can't exaggerate enough the effect his music had on me. he was synthesising a lot of other things that was coming in. putting on everly brothers and elvis and rhythm and blues and country music. wide open sources that

he had in his music. but as much as many others might want to praise lennon he was a complicated character. he could be difficult. he reportedly had a short temper. and he admitted he had abused women. none of this seems to have tarnished his love and peace image. he was a very complex character. in his songs he could be very sentimental, very loving. his last odes to yoko and his son sean. he could be vicious as in his song about mccartney. he could be very funny. he could be a rocker he could be a balladeer. he could be almost anything. that was what made him so interesting. he could be very nasty. iam sure. and he could be very funny. there 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 clearly on yoko's mind. he is still alive, he is still with us. his spirit will go on. you can't kill a person that easily. that is the way i feel about it. 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 most evident in the appetite for his music, his lyrics, his songs. his thoughts. there is a whole generation that wasn't alive at the time he died that 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? yes, i like the words and i like the music. and i like the rhythm and how it goes together. i think that it's about something that is very important. he's got a reputation for being a man of peace and spirituality which i think speaks to that moment today in a fundamental way. i mean the song imagine, sort of a banner song of we are all trying to work for right now. and lennon isn'tjust engaging legions of young followers, he is also continued 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. now you have artists like liam gallagher of oasis and modern bands like tame impala and cutworm who get that specific lennon vocal

sound because it's such a trade mark. # imagine all the people...#. and among the new generation of young musicians influenced byjohn lennon's work is a seattle—based 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...# just the fact that he emphasises 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 is beyond ourselves is just incredibly powerful. lennon's fans have long been drawn in by his pacifism. but his anti—vietnam war bed—in 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. i caught up with yoko 0no a few years ago. what you say to people who say that you might be naive in terms of the message, war is over if you want it? i don't think it's naive at all. i think that's the only way that we can really get some results. and we did get a result in the vietnam war. lennon may have left us with a worldview and great music but it was hoped there might be another legacy. one that has resulted from the fact he was murdered with a handgun. the mayor of new york spoke out at the time of lennon's death. all of us are here at central park are showing our distress, our upset with the fact that a deranged person who came from honolulu and brought 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 a national gun control.

but restrictions on gun ownership were not part of lennon's legacy. gun—related homicide in america is now 25 times higher than it is in other developed nations. with issues like gun violence, worldwide pandemic, economic meltdowns and calls for racial justice on people's minds, many think lennon were he alive today would have been speaking out. there is 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 is going on in this country. again i can't think of a better song than all you need is love. there is no question that the message of his lyrics is as powerful today as ever. john lennon changed people's lives by setting an example of a normal person who was trying to be better. we didn't stand up and say, i am 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. he knew the limitations of human beings. i think that people were inspired by that because it is not easy to control your anger. and yet it is 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 is highly likely that he would have moved forward as a musician. what would have happened to him had he lived? it depends partly on where he lived. a new yorker spending his time in new york. he might have developed into something extraordinary. the possibilities are enormous. john lennon still haunts my life. i now live just four blocks

north of the dakota apartment building and go passed it virtually every day. and whenever i go to my gym down on 63rd st it is part of a complex that also houses a hotel. the very hotel where lennon's killer stayed in his first night in new york. i have been giving a lot of thought tojohn lennon, what he meant 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. with those thoughts, our programme, remembering john lennon, comes to an end. on behalf of the production crew here in new york, it is goodbye, as we leave

you with a new york—based trumpeter playing imagine. music: imagine

hello again. although skies across the uk on thursday were almost uniformly grey and drab, skies like these overhead in llangollen were pretty commonplace across the country. there were, however, big temperature contrasts from place to place. in the west, we had some milder atlantic air moving in, whereas across central and eastern england, along with the whole of scotland, we had much colder continental air. in the west, temperatures reached double figures — it was actually quite mild, 10 or 11 celsius — but across central and eastern england and scotland, temperatures were more typically around 5 or 6 celsius. we only managed to get 4 in dalwhinnie in the highlands of scotland, so there were some big contrasts. those contrasts were driven, really, by this weather front that's been bringing rain eastwards over recent hours. and it's, as well, been one of those nights where the milder air has been pushing in. temperatures for some have actually been rising throughout the night as well. so for most of us, friday will get off to a relatively mild note but across eastern england, eastern scotland, there will still be some rain around. in fact, the rain will linger

in aberdeenshire pretty much all day, bringing a risk of some localised flooding. but i suspect there will, for a time in the morning, be some low cloud for north—east england and eastern scotland with some hill fog patches around. now, the skies do try to brighten up from the west but there will be plenty of showers coming through later on in the day. that milder air pushing into pretty much all of the uk, though, as we head towards the afternoon, so temperatures will be lifting across those central and eastern areas. the weekend, well, we've still got low pressure loitering on the weather charts. that will continue to bring some rain for a time across scotland. the rain quite slow to ease across eastern areas of england — none of it particularly heavy, mind you — but later in the day, we'll start to see a ridge of high pressure building in from the west and that means that we should see more in the way of sunshine for northern ireland, for wales, for western and central southern areas of england. now, that sunshine isn't going to hang around too long because the ridge is going to move away to be replaced by the second half of this weekend by low pressure. that low pressure will be bringing south—westerly winds,

so again, we should see some milder air sloshing its way in across the uk. now, sunday promises to be quite a windy day. we may well even have gales for a time around some of our western coasts. there will certainly be a lot of rain around as well and even as the rain clears, showers will follow on. temperatures, though, on the mild side, reaching a high towards the south—west of 13 degrees. that's your latest weather.

this is bbc news — i'mjames reynolds — our top stories: a panel of us experts recommends that the szier covid—19 vaccine be given approvalfor use. the fda normally follows their advice. a last minute appeal to the supreme court fails — as brandon bernard becomes the first person to be executed during a presidential transition, in more than a century. time magazine names joe time magazine namesjoe biden as its person of the year. pushing the poorest further into poverty. how coronavirus is hitting those who are already struggling — and making a hard situation even worse. and the british actress, barbara windsor, best known for her roles in eastenders and the carry on films —