Three minutes after ten is the time, and I think, I think I think I might owe you an apology.

I erred too far, it would seem, upon the side of caution yesterday. Alex, who has the enormous

privilege of producing the programme this week, whispered in my ear, not long before the

end of yesterday's program, about the reports of a vaccine that might tackle the worldwide

problem of COVID-19 and something rather odd happened. I quelled my sense of excitement.

I erred upon the side of caution.

I urged my friends and colleagues in the studio not to overreact.

I said during commercial breaks things like,

let's just wait until the dust has settled a bit.

Let's get a clearer bead on this.

We should, in fact,

have stopped all the clocks and let Joy be unconfined. But we didn't. Better late than

never, eh? Which I think that's the last line of my new book, which is the earliest plug I've

ever managed to get into the programme since it was published a couple of weeks ago. It's currently

four minutes after ten. I would also apologize in advance for what's about to happen. So I'm

apologising at the top of the show for not necessarily dropping the ball yesterday. You got the

news that you needed, but you perhaps didn't get the fanfares and the hallelujah chorus

that you so richly deserved. And I'm also going to apologize looking forward, whatever the

opposite of retrospective. Anyway, looking forward. I'm going to apologize for the fact that

I don't think this is going to be a very good

roadie. No, no, no, come back, come back, come back, I'm joking. Well, I'm not joking. I'm telling you the

truth, but in a slightly ironic tongue-in-cheek kind of way, because I have racked my brains,

...