Hello, Peter here. I hope you all had a safe Bonfire Night, although the weather didnt lend itself to fireworks in Hull as it was very misty. We have the BBC Open Centre decked out as a World War 2 bunker and with the sound of the fireworks last night made it even more authentic!
The late Michael Crichton I was interested to read Michael Crichtons obituary and about the works of futuristic fiction that made him one of the world's most successful novelists. He was also one of the richest, having thrilled millions with such works as Westworld, The Terminal Man and The Andromeda Strain. In the 1990s he had America's number one movie (Jurassic Park), its number one bestseller (Disclosure) and its top TV series (ER). His reputation suffered in 2005 when he was chided by members of the US Congress for his scepticism over climate change. Born in Chicago in 1942, Crichton was the eldest of four children. The son of a journalist, he always saw writing as a normal occupation even though he was a medical student at Harvard. He stood at 6 foot 9 inches tall and always ate the same meal for lunch when working to maintain concentration. A trip to Disneyland inspired him to write and direct the 1973 film Westworld, in which robots at an amusement park run wild. His involveme! nt with Hollywood continued with the 1978 thriller Coma, about a hospital that kills its patients in order to harvest their organs. He would also draw on real life, using his own experiences to inform the long-running medical drama ER and basing Disclosure on an actual case of male sexual harassment. Divorced four times, he made headlines in 2002 when he was tied up and robbed at gunpoint at his home in Santa Monica, California. He also had a taste for the ghoulish, beginning his 1988 memoir Travels with the legend: "It's not easy to cut through a human head with a hacksaw." How awful! But there you go the famous author, Michael Crichton has died aged just 66. Classic Car for Christmas? On a lighter note, if you fancy treating yourself to an early Christmas present, I read today that 99 classic cars were up for grabs recently at the Automobiles of London auction but was not a place to stick your hand in the air, unless you had very deep pockets. In fact, with two vintage Ferraris both making £2.26m, it was often not a place to nod your head, raise your eyebrows, wink, or even cough, while the 1965 Ferrari 250 LM Berlinetta and 1959 Ferrari 250 GT Tour de France Berlinetta sold for £2.26m, and the McLaren F1 made £2.53m - an all-time high for that car - one lucky bidder picked up a 1935 Lancia for £9,000 and you could have even got a 1954 Fiat for £2,750. I think that is more in my price bracket! Have you every bought something unusual at an auction? (Maybe even not meaning to!). I would love to hear from you if you have. Multi-Platforming Multi-platforming is BBC jargon for doing lots of things at once, (TV, radio and online for example) and I am going to be doing just that from next week when I will be starting my lunchtime show on BBC Radio Humberside every weekday 12-2pm from Monday. Thanks to Christine Ingham for her enquiry and I am pleased to let you know that I will still be on the sofa for Look North every evening at 6.30pm. I hope you will be able to join me. Take care 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. Your email address will be held by the BBC and kept confidential, and will only be used in relation to this newsletter. You will be given the option to unsubscribe from this newsletter each time you receive it. Please visit the BBC's Privacy & Cookies Policy (www.bbc.co.uk/privacy) for more information.
