Part 1 
Good morning and welcome to this morning's guided tour of the Roman remains in the area. We'll start our day by visiting the garrison town of Corbridge - then, this afternoon, we'll be visiting part of the wall which the Romans built to keep their enemies out of the country. The part we're going to visit is remarkably well-preserved and it's easy to imagine what it must have been like all those years ago!      The Romans actually arrived in this country in the earlier part of the first century AD, but it wasn't until the year 79 that they came to the Corbridge area. They built a series of forts and strongholds so that they could establish their position in the whole region.     What you're going to see this morning are the results of excavations which've taken place fairly recently. The first early archaeological dig was as far back as 1201 and then, believe it or not, they were looking for treasure. Unfortunately, (or perhaps fortunately for us!), nothing interesting was found, so they abandoned the site and it wasn't until the early nineteenth century that another, and much more ambitious, excavation was carried out.     The result was a number of exciting discoveries. And in the mid-nineteenth century, they discovered part of a Roman bridge and other structures, including the baths and other dwellings in the town. More recently, in fact every year since 1934, digs have taken place. These have resulted in the discovery of a large collection of sculpture, coins, pottery and small objects; and some of these have become very famous indeed. Most of them are now housed in the site museum, which we'll be visiting before we visit the site itself. Unfortunately, for security reasons, some have had to be taken to the city museum, which you'll find is about 15 miles away.     As you can see from this map, the site museum's laid out in a circle. The first half concentrates on the history of the site, and each section deals with er…well, a separate period of the site's history. You'll also find display cases of objects which would've been in use at the time. In the second half of the museum, each section's related to a particular aspect of life in the town, such as trade, domestic life and religious observance.     After visiting the museum we'll be walking round the site, and we would ask you please, to pay particular attention to any loose stones lying around the site. And keep children off the walls, as these can be extremely dangerous. At the end of the tour we'll be paying a visit to the gift shop and cafe, which you probably saw as you came in - near the site entrance and the car park.     Now, if you've left hats and sunglasses in the coach, I'd advise you to go and retrieve them now as the coach'll be locked for the next few hours and the sun's very hot today. 
Part 2 
    Interviewer: Kathy Lyle is Competition Manager for the Choir of the Year competition and she's in the studio with me now. Hi, Kathy.     Kathy Lyle: Hello there.     Interviewer: Is this something you get involved with annually then?     Kathy Lyle: Well, actually, it's a biennial competition. The first competition was in 1984 and they've been running every second year since then.     There's actually four titles to be won. There's a title for each category, and we've got three categories: Youth Choirs, where the majority of the members are aged 16 or below; Mixed Voice Choirs whose members may have soprano, bass, tenor, any kind of voice; and then we've got the third category which is a Single Voice category, either for men's or women's voices. Then we have the champion of champions. One choir out of the three will be Choir of the Year.     The closing date is 22nd January so there's still time to get an application in. You don't need to send in a tape or anything like that, just an application form. Get the form back to me and provided the choir meets our requirements, being amateur is the main one, we'll give them an audition - a chance to show what they can do.     In the audition period that runs from March to May, we go all over the country and, obviously, our primary concern is finding top-quality choral music. We'll be touring the country from March onwards, auditioning the choirs that have applied and whittling it down to eight choirs in each category for the televised finals at the end of May.     For anyone who's worried about TV coverage, that only comes in from the semi-final stage of the competition onwards. All that happens is the choirs go out and do their stuff, and the cameramen move silently and smoothly around them, getting the best shots and really it adds a little to the occasion, but it doesn't tend to put people off, in fact it usually helps them perform better.     As for prizes, each of the category-winning choirs will receive a very nice, specially made music stand. So every time they look at the conductor in future, they'll be reminded of their success in the competition. In addition to that, the overall winner will receive a further £1000 with which to buy new equipment for the choir. So, there's quite a lot to sing for, and something new for the choir in the future as well.     Interviewer: Kathy, it all sounds really exciting. Now if anyone out there sings in a choir and would like…
Part 3 
    Interviewer: No more personal space, no papers strewn around, no more half-empty coffee cups or pictures of the kids. The modern office has embraced the concept of 'hot desking'. Hot desking means no regular desk to call your own, just a locker for your things and a rush each morning to claim your desk for the day. I have with me, Peter Potter, hot desker himself in a large multinational company and Lois Coleshill, a Personnel Officer who's distinctly lukewarm about the idea. Peter, tell us how it works.    Peter: Well, we share a space, in our little group, where we're able to plug in our portable computers; we have telephones with code numbers so that we can have our calls redirected to whichever desk we happen to be at, and it allows us to work in a very flexible way. We can decide where we wish to work on any particular day and take our work with us.    Interviewer: And Lois, why do you think this wouldn't work?    Lois: I have a lot of concerns about what hot desking would actually mean for many people. For example, in a lot of companies with hot desking, it becomes very competitive about who gets the best desks. Our experience is that it's the people, for example, who are best able to leave home early in the morning who grab the best desk.    Peter: I mean, who cares? It isn't really a matter of whether you get the best desk or not. I mean, there are many more important things at stake in a busy office than that. A well-designed office shouldn't have a best desk in any case. There's no reason why they shouldn't all be the same.    Lois: Well, I'm sorry, people care terribly. One of the things, I mean, I've done quite a lot of surveys, asking people about what they want from work, and they've shown that things about the work environment, things like who you sit next to at work, or is it by the window, is it noisy and all those things are tremendously important to workers.     Interviewer: Doesn't that present you with a problem, Peter, that it goes against those feelings?    Peter: I think our experience is that the advantage it gives people is that it enables them to plan their day in such a way that actually being in the office becomes largely immaterial. For example, if I need to stay at home for a morning, I'm able to plug into the computer network from home, I don't need to go into the office at all.     Interviewer: So, isn't Peter talking about something that gives people greater freedom?    Lois: That's fine if you're talking about what Peter's talking about, which is people who have portable computers and can work from home, but a lot of companies that talk about hot desking aren't companies like that, they're companies where you have to be in the office. One of the things that's leading to a lot of job insecurity now amongst people is the extent to which we have lost the socialising role of the workplace. Workers are becoming more isolated and that's quite worrying.    Peter: I think that's a view I have to echo; we still have to ensure that we build office environments in which people can fully socialise and feel a full part of. We have a team area for that reason, and people do keep their personal things there.     Lois: I'm still very unconvinced by hot desking. I mean the whole way in which work is becoming much more flexible and less collective is actually quite a concern because for many young people the workplace has been where people go to learn how to deal with other people, learn life skills, as opposed to work skills, especially as people seem to be working longer and longer hours and work takes up more of their lives. I think it's terribly sad if the workplace is becoming dehumanised; it's areal worry for me.    Peter: Well, I think you're probably overstating the case rather there, actually. Hot desking is about the efficient organisation of space and time; there's no reason why it should lead people to be less sociable. It certainly hasn't in our office. You get to sit next to different people, rather than the same person all the time, so you get to make new friends.    Lois: But it's the loss of security that upsets people, it's the not knowing how things are going to be, or where you're going to end up each day. People do find it very upsetting.    Peter: I think it probably just depends on the person then, because none of us feels that.    Lois: I think we must inhabit very different worlds actually.     Interviewer: Lois, Peter, I'm afraid that's all we have time for today.
Speaker 1
Well, we got there late unfortunately. The problem was that Dave couldn't find a parking space anywhere.We drove around for ages. I don't think we realised just how popular it was going to be. We nearly didn't bother you know. Last month's was such a disappointment - there wasn't much to see and not many people turned up. But this time it was the complete opposite. There were all kinds of food, a huge fish section, clothes, miscellaneous stalls with goodness knows what. Apart from it being almost impossible to make progress past the stalls we quite enjoyed it. 
Speaker 2
Yes, Pete and I go quite regularly now. He wasn't too keen to begin with but over the last few months we've both got completely hooked. However, we were a bit unlucky last weekend. We were expecting great things and we'd been looking forward to it for ages. "This was going to be the big one. We set off early, got the gear ready the night before, but after a couple of hours the weather set in. Couldn't see a thing. The visibility was down to about ten metres. There was no way we were going to reach the summit so we just had to abandon it. Discovered we'd lost one of our ropes when we got back home, just to cap it all. 
Speaker 3
I haven't been for ages. It was a real treat for me. Of course, before I was married I used to go several times a year, but I don't think I've been now since nineteen ninety-four. It's not that my wife objects to it, it's just, well, I don't know. I suppose I feel a bit guilty going off at the weekend. But it's good fun - I love seeing all the big names. Mind you, not a lot happened. Nothing to clap or cheer about, but it didn't seem to matter. It was just being there, encouraging the players and despairing when they got it all wrong. 
Speaker 4
We felt it was a good opportunity to celebrate. Occasions like this don't happen every day and everyone was in a good mood so we thought why not? The thing is we wanted it to be different, something that we'd always remember, something to round off a perfect day. Jamie had heard about this interesting place by the harbour where you sat on cushions and you prepared your own dishes. It sounded different so we set off for there. When we arrived the manager had already heard about our success and even though he was busy, he still managed to find plenty of room for us all. 
Speaker 5: 
I was on my own at the weekend and I suppose I was a bit restless. You know, I've been working hard recently. I needed to get out in the fresh air and so I just headed off into the country. It was great - a beautiful day. It reminded me of when my father used to take me fishing. Well - I fancied a quick dip and so, as no-one was around, I just stripped off and plunged in. It was marvellous, but I got a bit over ambitious. Before I knew it, I was more than a mile out. It took me a very long time to get back and when I reached the shore again I lay in the sun for ages to get my breath back.