A BBC newsreader who signed off his final broadcast with a blast at the corporation's managers as "pygmies in grey suits wearing blindfolds" revealed yesterday he had planned his final volley for several days.
Alan Towers (58) told viewers of Saturday's BBC1 Midlands Today evening bulletin: "After 25 years I am leaving the BBC. When I joined it was led by giants. Now it's led by pygmies in grey suits wearing blindfolds. How sad."
The veteran newsreader's comments prompted a flood of calls to the BBC's regional centre at Pebble Mill, Birmingham, to support him.
Two obsessed stalkers who have plagued BBC TV presenter Toyah Wilcox with violent threats have been tracked down by police to Germany. The actress has turned her home near Salisbury in Wiltshire into a fortress since the problem began.
Police said today they had been working alongside the German authorities and Interpol in efforts to bring charges against the two men.
Displaying grace under pressure before a boisterous, beer-swilling crowd, Bart Barton, an insurance adjuster from Deerfield Beach, Florida, won the annual Ernest Hemingway look-alike contest in Sloppy Joe's Bar in Key West.
Barton, white-bearded, amply girthed and dressed in a cable-knit fisherman's sweater and khaki shorts just like Papa used to wear, beat 20 other finalists who shambled onto the stage of Hemingway's old haunt on the island's Duval Street on Saturday night. The contest was the highlight of the Hemingway Days Festival.
The late writer's sons said Key West's exuberant event demeaned his legacy by portraying him as a drunkard and slob. They also demanded a share of the profits of the festival.