greg doran, i thank you so much forjoining me on hardtalk. thank you very much indeed.throuthuly, and statistics came through this week to show that it was the driest on record in some southern and eastern parts of the uk, and there's little sign of any rain here for the rest of the week and into the weekend. but it's notjust been dry across the south and east. across the whole of the uk, through the summer so far — the meteorological summer, june, july — we've had just over 100mm of rain, whilst during the whole of the summer — so another month, august, added on — we'd normally expect to see about 240mm, so we're way off that. it has been dry across many parts, but obviously exceptionally so in the south, and with this high pressure moving in, over the next few days, that's going to keep our weather fronts at bay, and it means the dry weather persists. rain will fall, but mostly in the north. this shows the accumulations over the next 3—4 days, and we do expect some rain for northern ireland and for scotland, but very little across the south and east, where we need it.

greg doran, thank you so much forjoining me on hardtalk. thank you very much indeed.ll has not been distributed evenly across the uk in the last five weeks or so. in hampshire where there is a hosepipe ban in force. at the moment we've had no rain in 0diham since the start ofjuly, whereas in the highlands there's been almost ten inches of rain and we've seen a few spots of rain and drizzle today in western scotland. that's why the temperatures here have been a bit lower, but on the whole a warmer afternoon than it was yesterday with temperatures widely into the mid 20s across england and wales in the sunshine. 0vernight tonight we'll have clear skies in many places. we'll see a little more rain approaching the far north west of scotland by the end of the night. but ahead of it, those temperatures will fall away to around 11 or 12 degrees. there are some much warmer nights on the way later on in the week. this is how we start the week, though, and we've got some rain. and, again, it's in the highlands and islands of scotland, but elsewhere it's going to be dry, nothing

greg doran, i thank you so much forjoining me on hardtalk. thank you very much indeed.f hampshire and the isle of wight and there are further bans on the way for other areas of south—east england and south wales. try again today for the majority of england and wales, but across north wales, northern england, north midlands, scotland and northern ireland, we have seen sunny spells and passing showers. when will it rain next in those parched areas. i have been struggling to find an answer. we might see rain in about ten days or even longer, maybe as long as two weeks. but any significant rain is probably going to be towards the last 3rd of august, certainly a long time away. looking at the weather picture overnight, showers clear up but we will see a band of rain moving into the north—west of scotland. but that is not where we need the rain at the moment. temperatures overnight, eight to 12 degrees. we have this fresh, low humidity air across the country and is another day where most of us stay dry with sunshine. the exception of scotland where we will see rain at times a

greg doran, thank you so much forjoining me on hardtalk. thank you very much indeed.e move through the weekend and into next week — we're expecting heatwave conditions certainly for england and wales. nights and days will become warmer. if it's rain you're looking for, most of that will be reserved for the north of the uk, as you can see here, particularly western scotland — barely any across england and wales here. it's expected to stay dry throughout. now for part two of the weekend, england and wales seeing the lion's share of the sunshine. more cloud for scotland and northern ireland, probably eastern scotland not faring to badly with the sunshine. but there'll be some splashes of rain around, particularly western scotland where it'll stay quite breezy. high teens here, low—20s in eastern scotland, and up to around 28 celsius across the southeast of england. little change as we head through sunday night — it stays rather cloudy, quite breezy across the northwest of the country, some splashes of rain in towards the western isles. further south, lengthy, clearskies,

greg doran, i thank you so much forjoining me on hardtalk. thank you very much indeed.ad into friday and the weekend. for most of us, it's going to be predominantly dry. yes, there is some rain in the forecast, but it'll fall in the form of hit—or—miss showers, and most of that is expected in western and northern scotland. indeed, the weather fronts that have been crossing the country in the last few days mostly fizzle away by the time they reach southern parts of the country. so, here, it remains bone—dry, and this high pressure, which will be building across the uk and europe, will be responsible for bringing some very warm weather, some hot weather towards the end of next week. so, the short term, then — a few showers around western scotland, around the irish sea as well, but elsewhere, it's a case of clear spells or clear skies. temperatures around 14 in london, but in rural spots of scotland, five degrees possible on friday morning, so a bit of a nip in the air there in the north. let's have a look at friday — a northwesterly breeze, scattered showers for scotland,

greg doran, i thank you so much forjoining me on hardtalk. thank you very much indeed.to get hotter as well. these are the more comfortable temperatures that we have been seeing this afternoon. highs in the mid 20s across the south—east of england. not particularly warm in scotland and northern ireland, still some rain in the north of the country and that will continue into the night. it will slip down across the night. it will slip down across the western side of scotland and it will be light and patchy. elsewhere dry with clear skies and temperatures in rural areas dipping down to eight celsius. breezy tomorrow in scotland with western scotland seeing light rain or drizzle. drierand brighterthe drizzle. drier and brighter the further east. drizzle. drierand brighterthe further east. some cloud and sunshine for northern ireland and the far north of england, and lots of sunshine across the rest of england and wales. it is continuing to heat up in the strong sunshine, so temperatures reaching the mid 20s in the south—east, up to 26 or 27 celsius. across england and wales

well, my guest today is the just—retired artistic director of the royal shakespeare company, greg doran