Hello its Peter here and welcome to Fridays Levy letter. I hope your days going well and youll be able to join me tonight for the final programme of the week on BBC One at half past six. On the programme tonight, well have more about the extraordinary story of a young man who is believed to have died playing "chicken" with traffic.
Well have the heartless theft of British legion charity boxes. Robbers have pinched the poppy funds, and well bring you the very latest. Well also see the young violin prodigy who is performing for Prince Charles and Camilla. Shes only ten years old, and well have more on her in the programme. Alan Johnson will put his cards on the table about his desire to be deputy prime minister. Well be speaking to him on the programme. So we could have another Deputy Prime Minister from Hull, which would be fantastic. And, Nobbut a Lad is the title of his new book, its about his childhood days in the 1950s and early 60s, he is of course the one and only Alan Titchmarsh. He was born and bred in Ilkley in West Yorkshire, and hell be joining me as my guest tonight on Look North on BBC One at half past six. Mobiles The dreaded mobile phone! Wherever you go, the phone is always ringing, or somebodys on the phone, or one of these annoying things where somebody wanders around with their what do they call it? Blue chip, or Bluetooth on, talking in the middle of nowhere with an enormous earpiece on in their ear, bigger than I have to wear on the TV. Well one of the last sanctuaries from the mobile phone has finally gone. Air passengers will be allowed to use their handsets on one particular airline from early in January. The air line is called Emirates, it has flights including services between London and Dubai, and its introducing the technology across its entire fleet. Its rivals, including Ryanair and Air France, are also planning to use in flight mobiles in the not too distant future. So if you thought you had to switch off your phone on planes, well not for long. Children in Need Dont forget Children in Need night is a week today, in the evening from 7 Oclock. Our big party is at The Deep. If you want to come down youre more than welcome to do so, we look forward to seeing you there. If youve got a check to present, then well see you there. And coming Sunday its An Evening with Peter Levy in aid of Children in Need at the Hull Truck Theatre. If youve got tickets, I look forward to seeing you, and stay around after the show and well meet up and have a chat. If you havent got tickets, it is a sell out, but there might be some returns if you want to give the Hull Truck Theatre box office a ring. I look forward to seeing you there on Sunday Evening. Dogs Well the benefits of exercise for dogs are well known, but now it seems that walkies could be just as good for their owners. Research has revealed that the daily task of walking the dog could ward off depression and loneliness. The study, by the University of Portsmouth, who are obviously very busy, found that Britains 6.2 million dogs motivate their fifteen million owners to exercise every day, even when they dont feel like it. Can you believe that? A university has found that if you have a dog, it motivates the owner to go for a walk, even if they dont feel like it, because dogs need a walk. Its amazing, isnt it what these university boffins are able to do. The owners reported that the exercise gives them a better overall sense of well being. So well done to the University of Portsmouth for that study telling us something we didnt know. Gillian As you know now, I followed the old Gillian McKeith diet from the start of the year. Now we are eleven months on, well Britons fed up with a diet of TV shows about healthy eating are going nuts over treats, once considered strictly for the birds. Programmes such as You Are What You Eat with Gillian and Celebrity Fit Club are fuelling a boom in the sale of nuts, seeds, and dried fruit. Who started that off at the start of the year? I think it was me! Well were expected to spend more than £500 million on healthy snacks this year, an increase of 50% since 2001. If youd said to me a year ago that in my cupboard Id have pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and poppy seeds, I wouldnt have though it was possible. I have now, sprinkled over anything going. And do I feel any different from last year when I used to come home and just eat a packet meal? No I dont. House Prices The Levy letter is obsessed with house price stories, so lets just finish this one off as I read it today. The property boom has finally catapulted average prices through the £200,000 barrier. The average price of a semi in this country is £211,000. This is an average price, obviously its a lot cheaper around here because we are extremely lucky, and a house around here is a very good investment. Well thats it from me today. Dont forget that whatever youre doing at the weekend, have fun. If you know somebody whos not signed up the Levy Letter and you think theyd like one then point them in the direction of one of the two addresses at the bottom of the page, and get them to sign up and of course well have another Levy Letter on Monday. If they sign up over the weekend theyll get their first Levy Letter on Monday lunchtime. Thanks very much indeed, have a very good weekend, and if youre coming on Sunday I look forward to seeing you at the Hull Truck Theatre. Bye. Peter And for the latest news and more where you live, go to: http://bbc.co.uk/humber and http://bbc.co.uk/lincolnshire ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the BBC Look North newsletter, go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/england/looknorthhull/newsletter/newsletter_index.shtml, enter your email address in the unsubscribe box. 1.94.4
