intensive care in our hospitals are people who are not boosted. but the scottish parliament is being recalled to address the record numbers of covid infections in the country. high demand for covid pcr tests leaves people waiting for days and pharmacists warn of patchy supplies of rapid testing kits following changes to self—isolation rules. we don't know when these are going to be available, so it's very difficult to plan and let our patients and other people know in terms of when to come back and when it's going to be in the pharmacies. soaring energy bills, rising taxes and stagnant wages will leave millions of families struggling in 2022, according to a leading think tank. england and manchester city footballer raheem sterling says society must never let its guard down over racism in the game. now on bbc news, curtain—up on coventry. this summer, coventry�*s streets were transformed into a giant stage as it finally got to celebrate the start of a covid—delayed year as uk city of culture 2021. good morning, happy saturday, this is rachel and i hope you have had some caffeine in you already because today is going to be a very big day. the start of a summer weekend in coventry. but this is no ordinary saturday. today, the whole city will become a giant stage to mark the start of a big year as the uk city of culture. stay with us all day because we're going to make sure that you not miss a moment of this. cove ntry. it's been a long time coming. coventry won the honour back in 2017, way back before covid—19 forced their artistic director to change all of her plans. you see the track, it is down here. we cannot be bringing audiences together in large numbers or even participants, and we have had to think very differently. for a start, what is about to take place on the streets has had to be kept a complete secret. one of you is not... to avoid large crowds gathering to watch, surprise events cropping up in neighbourhoods across the whole city. we thought if people cannot come in to us, we will go out to them. it may be that they have popped out for a bit of shopping and they encounter something running past them through the city centre. it may be something turns up on their street. this cultural cocktail also streaming online and social media for people to enjoy at home. we've created an event that runs from almost dawn to dusk and is animating the entire city. # high rise above, life below, riverflow... it's eight o'clock and the city of culture celebrations begin. live on a bridge in a part of town knows as spon end. with a smattering of early birds treated to a dawn chorus featuring pauline black, lead singer of the ska revival band the selecter. coventry through and through. # river flow.# i've lived in coventry for very many years and to even be in a city that is coventry city of culture was good, but to be asked to perform at the opening ceremony, ijust thought was, wow. that was fantastic. good, it was was brilliant as well, end and the colours, lovely, and i'm glad it stayed dry for them! not pouring down rain. action! i'm bringing the hands up - and opening them out and bringing one in front of you. i'm singing the river song, i am the river as you can see, with all of this wonderful kind of blue make up and all of this flowing veil. because there is a river that runs underneath the city and of course that's kind of the life spring, the well of everything, that was the reason why they settled, because there was a river. it's like ms haversham! i know this area and i know the people around here, or some of the people around here, and to have them actually contribute to the lyrics, ijust thought wow, that's wonderful. one of those local lyricists is mark gibbons, better known as gibbo. i've lived in spon end now for about, i think, over 35 years, and it gets a bit of a bad rap, people believe all the hype that they hear about it, you know, but you come around here at night and you can hear a pin drop. the river sherbourne, it flows right past my house. all the way around, winding through the estate, comes right past the community centre and it's just, you know, if there were not brick wall there i could throw a stone in it from here. it's at the community centre that he runs a men's mental health support group. it's a place where men can come along and speak freely about whatever issues are affecting them at that time in their life. and to help him come up with some good lyrics, gibbo turned to one of the group. yeah, so the bit... put two sentences. tommy is actually a client. we brainstormed a session so he came up with loads of words and some actual lines, i mean, tommy was flowing with poetry, you know, he was freestyling, like, you know, he was really good. when speaking turns to hate as recognition of a past... you know, i've got it, i've got a few, you know, potential good bits that i think are good. ..my tree away. it's lovely, that. nice one. it's good for me, isn't it? it's good. it's just nice to have the opportunity to actually speak about the area that i live in and to highlight spon end, you know, and what, you know, what a great area it is to me. inspired by pauline�*s song, a group of young people followed the course of the river as it flows underneath the city. of course, most towns and cities were built up by a river but in coventry the river was covered over in the city centre so you might say to people, "oh, yeah, there's a river that runs through coventry" and people would say they've never seen one. so a group of young people followed thatjourney of the river, having encountered pauline singing her song on the bridge. starring in a film of the river's journey are two dancers, childhood friends nancy and louis. good? we met at school, it was the induction days we were in year 6, maybe 10 or 11 years old at this point. by the end of the day i asked her to be my girlfriend. my reply was "i'll tell you in september!" and i literally said it like that. september! she walked out of the gate and looked over her shoulder, i had to wait a whole summer to find the answer, and it was worth it because i got yes. i grew up born and bred in coventry, the city of villains, yeah! yeah, and i knew i wanted more, i knew there was a greater calling and a purpose for me out there, and i've come across dancing on the tv and i wasn't exposed to these kind of things, it wasn't, like, not that it wasn't acceptable, but it was so unconventional and so far away from me, you know? i'm from coventry and being able to be a part of it here and especially being with louis as well, like, it's just crazy. some people put coventry down and i think you have to leave it to really appreciate kind of like the resilience of the city and how strong we all are, and how diverse everyone is and how, just, we're a community. on their way into the city centre, the river runners encounter six exotically dressed energies making up the spirit of the city. all well—known coventry faces like paralympian sprinter harriet dennigan. i'm the energy of resilience, and coventry has a history of resilience linked to the blitz, so it's a great way to celebrate that and embody that. carrie and her fellow energies offer poetic pearls of wisdom. when you feel like stopping, know that your city persisted. when you feel alone, know that those who have come before you are cheering you on. they walked so you can run and you will run so that those after you will be able to fly. another of the energies is the artist and model daniel lismore, embodying the spirit of innovation. i grew up in a small villagejust on the border of coventry and all of my family are in coventry and i went to school in coventry as well and this is kind of where i grew up. it's been amazing actually. my life is so crazy and i've been travelling the world constantly and all of a sudden i'm back with my mum. close your eyes for a moment and imagine a place where creation is constant, where there is courage and space to transcend and protest. ——and to test. i think compared 18 years ago, it's been very different, people have been very positive. i rememberjust outside there i was bullied at the bus stop for being, you know, queer. all the time. and now i canjust happily walk across the city without, you know, a few smiles, a few glares but... we need to start appreciating each other. and i hope that city of culture does that. it's time that we kind of accept each other because we are all here. meanwhile, somewhere in the suburbs, people and horses are gathering. modern—day lady godivas are preparing to ride into town from the four corners of the city. we have 1a women who do extraordinary things across the city, making change within the cities with some of the city's most disadvantaged communities. people who are active, particularly during the pandemic. the original lady godiva rode naked through the streets of an 11th century coventry in protest at high taxes for the townsfolk. today's 21st century riders are more modestly dressed and most of them had to learn how to ride a horse. rena, a teaching assistant who has also founded her own theatre company, is one of them. here we go, this is delaware. i'm the kind of person that probably would ride on a horse naked if it was to fight social injustice. and kind of protest in a creative way, like lady godiva, so i think that's probably why i was nominated and selected. i've come from a community that's considered to be the lowest of the low, we're very downtrodden, we're the untouchables of india, we're seen as subhuman and those kind of ideas and ideologies carried on here in the uk and caste discrimination is still an issue and that is where my activism started. enjoy it where you can and try not to be as panicked and scared - as you might look, l try to flick a switch. i thought i had horse riding experience but no, what i rode 13 years ago was a donkey, i'm sure it was! i am excited but i'm a bit nervous because, you know, riding a horse on the streets in a procession? a lot of these ladies have never sat on a horse before, they've not even sat on a donkey on blackpool beach, so to get them on a real horse that's moving in a parade environment, with drums and trumpets and flags and people, it's going to be a challenge. so, this is toby. he's... well, he's been my mate since the start. i've been on him every time. i think we're very well matched. when i first saw him, i thought, he looks a bit slower, so i thought, please give me that one. so, yeah, good mates now. i feel really honoured to be involved, i really do feel privileged. i'm so excited! an apple for you, nice granny smith. as the lady godivas get ready, the streets reverberate to a different sound. cars, all of them at one time or another made in coventry. the motorcade stops at various points on its journey through the city. 0utleap dancers — irish, caribbean, bollywood, each routine a tribute to the different migrant communities that came to coventry to help rebuild after the destruction of the war. i think everybody on the street really needed that after the past 18 months. and just to have that happen on our street, it has cheered everyone up. yeah, i love it. i've lived on the street all my life, my parents live just six doors up. we've never seen anything like that. it's always been a friendly multicultural street, but that was just brilliant, just brought everybody together. the irish settled first, and brought with them their love of dance. two of the motorcade performers are sisters, 17—year—old grace and 14—year—old molly. we've got a very irish background, and most of ourfamily is irish, and our mum also irish danced at the same school that we dance at as well, so it was just inevitable we were going to dance, really, and carry on the tradition in the family. i placed second at the world championships and in the top five in all major competitions. i've won the american nationals twice, i won the scottish nationals, the all scotlands, the great britains, and yeah, i've been very successful. their rehearsal studio is tucked in behind the old standard triumph club, a social hub surrounded by production lines churning out cars with household names. a reminder of an industry that once employed generations of coventry workers. 0ur grandparents came over to work in the building industry, over 50 years ago and one of the things that they were involved in building was the ring road. and they set their roots here, built theirfamily here, and our whole family has just been in coventry ever since. can ijust see you pointing at the person you're going to have a connection with? during rehearsals, the sisters find themselves sharing their skills with their fellow dancers. we do our irish dancing, then we also, there is bangra dancing, ska dancing, and then there's a mash—up at the end, we get to learn parts of their dancing, which has been really fun. it's like walking for us. because we're doing it for so long. doing the steps, being taught the steps without music, it's like, yeah, i can do this. then the music comes on and you realise how fast it is. i suppose if you've trained for years and years it's easy, but i think if i don't have to do it to the music, it's fine. and then actually having to go back to the basics and teach from the very first steps, you can see the challenge on theirface. it was very difficult, but i think if i did it in slow motion, i would always get it. it was just great to watch her. i think being a part of the city of culture is an amazing opportunity and to be a part of something that is going to be so worldwide and hopefully that will go down in history is something that was amazing, to be a part of that is something that hopefully i could share that with my family in the future and they would be proud of me. rena and her fellow godivas are now on their way into the city centre, on their mission to deliver their manifesto to the city's politicians. i'm going to be so proud, i hope i represent all the voices of everybody in coventry, notjust women, absolutely everybody. so i am representing the whole city. 0n the opposite side of the city, the streets are streaming with bikes and tricycles. pedal power — one of many lifechanging innovations that coventry can take credit for. it was the first place to mass—produce a bicycle. that is something that feels really important in terms of the city's democratic heritage. we produced bicycles that meant people all over the world could cycle from a to b in a much speedier way than if they were walking. 0n the road and in the air, inspiration is everywhere! it was brilliant, really good. you don't see that kind of thing here, ever. - so it wasjust nice and refreshing to see something different. - do not know it was coming. what did you think? it was really good. laughter rena and her horse both reach their destination in one piece. and these modern—day godivas present their vision of the future to the city's political leaders. living together in cultural understanding, and embracing diversity. # remember the trees so deeply rooted _ # and spread the whole town, the roots of the tree...# pauline black's day comes to an end in broadgate, underneath the river and canopy of coffa's tree. # shelter from the storm, shade from the sun... words of hope written on the ribbons by the people of coventry. their aspirations for the future of the city. # city of mine, my flows below... legend has it that coffa's tree was a tree planted by a man named coffa, by the settlement when it was first built up by the river, so people all around could see where the settlement was and come to it with ease, and "coffa's tree" over the years apparently became "coventry. " the banners on the approaches are designed by local schoolchildren, reflecting the themes of today's event. three of them, daniel, frankie and christian, along with teacher nina, are from the coventry extended learning centre, a pupil referral unit for children struggling in mainstream education. they helped design the banner on the theme of socialjustice. i drew a mouth to project the way everybody should have the freedom of speech. a lot of our students have come here because they have been either moved or permanently excluded. the mainstream has not worked with them for whatever reason. for them to come here and be part of the banner creation is great pride for me, for them, and for their parents. because they had such a difficultjourney, butjust to be seen in a difficult light is really amazing. it makes us look like we have a really great achievement in our lives, like, showing people that we can do a lot of great stuff. that's your banner! that's your banner, the third one down. socialjustice, the eyes ofjustice. that's brilliant. doesn't that look great? yeah, yeah! seeing their banner up for the first time, a magic moment. l i feel proud because i've actually. worked on something that's actually going to be put up and so loads of people can see it. _ i feel fantastic, brilliant. all my hard work and time have went into that. i just want them to be seen as these amazing young people that they are. i'm really happy the banner is up there because whenever- i will take my friends outside | in the park, i will show them, "look what i did, - are you proud of me?" it's the best. high five! 12 hours after it began, and this day of cultural celebration is reaching its climax, a musical moment designed to unite everyone across the city. can we run it again? that would be lovely, please. composer danjones is famous for making epic compositions using ice cream vans and hot air balloons. we strategised about how we were going to deliver a piece of music that could reach all coventry citizens in the space of seven or eight minutes. so we came up with this idea of working with different radio stations, so that each radio station had a layer of music, and if people came together with all seven of those radio stations playing, they would hear the full composition. it's kind of in the model of clapping for carers, people going to their front door, going out into the garden and into the street, and sensing that communality of making something happen together. in the run—up to the premiere, some of the children who gave their voices for the composition get a sneak preview. we went into schools with a microphone and did two things. we interviewed them about the future, talking about the future. we also recorded them singing their own musical ideas, so rather than me telling them what to sing, i wanted them to tell me what to write. i then had thejob of managing to weave together all those different musical lines, and so today was the first time they heard that, the fruits of their labour. there we go. ready? three, two, one! in future i want to l be a famous singer. i wish that i could sing every day. in future i want to be a singer.|j in future i want to be a singer. i wish in future i want to be a singer. wish that i could sing my in future i want to be a singer.” wish that i could sing my whole life _ and maybe also be a paramedic. it was loud and i liked it and i really loved it. i heard myself and i said, - "i hope singing never goes away." it was good that people showed that they liked their community of the whole entire world. i was so proud of myself. i was smiling. basically, the children of coventry are taking over all of coventry�*s independent radio stations. and hopefully it will spread all the way across coventry, from the centre outwards into the beautiful suburbs. time, then, for the people of coventry to come together in their musicalfinale. we're having the street party to end all street parties. the residents of stanley road determined to make their contribution as loud as possible. we've got the street decorated, we're celebrating, city of culture! i think it will be really fascinating to see how all the different streams come together and work as one. i'm really excited to see how that's going to play. like a symphony of radios i to create one piece of music. a bit anxious, but fingers crossed it's going to sound amazing. - we've got our own devices, we're ready, we're coming out of covid and we are embracing our community, embracing our city. who cares if it doesn't sound good? we're here, we are doing it. at exactly 20:21, it is time to close the show. radio static when it's quiet, i like to imagine| like you are trying to whistle, but you can't. like you are trying to whistle, but ou can't. ~ , , .,. like you are trying to whistle, but ou can't. ~ , , .. ., you can't. when it is peaceful and auiet, i you can't. when it is peaceful and quiet. i play _ you can't. when it is peaceful and quiet, i play relaxing _ you can't. when it is peaceful and quiet, i play relaxing music. - you can't. when it is peaceful and | quiet, i play relaxing music. when it's auiet, quiet, i play relaxing music. when it's quiet. my _ quiet, i play relaxing music. when it's quiet, my mind _ quiet, i play relaxing music. when it's quiet, my mind is _ quiet, i play relaxing music. when it's quiet, my mind is so _ quiet, i play relaxing music. when it's quiet, my mind is so relaxed. l and we just stood in the middle of the road and we could hear all the different pieces of music, and yeah, it made me feel really emotional. it made me feel massively proud that i am from coventry. i was like, yes, we've got our place on the map now. you know, sometimes people or places can get— you know, sometimes people or places can get caught up in the past, but i think_ can get caught up in the past, but i think it _ can get caught up in the past, but i think it is _ can get caught up in the past, but i think it is really important to focus — think it is really important to focus on _ think it is really important to focus on the theatre and i think oven _ focus on the theatre and i think oven tray— focus on the theatre and i think oven tray has actually got lots of things— oven tray has actually got lots of things that are happening in the pipelines. —— focus on the future. in coventry, there will be parties every thursday night. there will be less people getting sick. no more coronavirus. we all should hope that we all have happy lives. and that's it. hello, the rest of the year is going to be exceptionally mild. e—mail there is coming in behind a band of rain that is moving its way north eastwards, so into the early part of this evening, it is still 15 degrees in london. around eight or so in the north—east of scotland where that rain has certainly been heavier, moving up to the northern isles, a bit of a breather, if you break semi—clad very well before it thickens as we head further into the night. more rain coming in, mainly for the western side of the uk —— a few breaks in the cloud. much madder than last night across the north—east of scotland. —— milder. we start with a lot of cloud, some rain around to. not much rain for the eastern side of the uk, we see the eastern side of the uk, we see the thickening, the wales and the west midlands and some rain returning here. for others, it will be mild, could make 17 in the south—east. again, much milder than today in northern scotland. pharmacists are warning of patchy supplies of rapid covid tests as demand from the public increases. changes to self—isolation rules have meant more people are now trying get hold of tests. it's notjust our pharmacy that's out of stock, it's many, many more pharmacies. some customers are very understanding with it, but some are getting very angry about it. we'll have the latest on what's happening with supplies. also on this lunchtime... scots are urged not to travel to england to celebrate new year because there are fewer restrictions on socialising across the border. a warning that families are facing a cost of living squeeze in 2022 — higher energy bills, tax rises and stagnant wages could all have an impact on incomes, according to a leading think tank.