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Thanks, Sophie.
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Tonight on BBC London.
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Tackling corridor care with a new A &E to be built in Romford ease waiting lists for patients in East London.
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I can't tell you how much of a difference this is going to make for our patients
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and the staff and their relatives.
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It's just phenomenal.
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Also on the programme.
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The former undercover
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Met police officer who denies allegations that he had a sexual relationship with a teenage activist in the 90s.
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Plus, could cross -channel rail services finally call at Stratford International more than 20 years after it was built? And...
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Bring a book, take a book, pass it on.
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We're at the Southbank Centre for the London Literature Festival finding out all about its free book swap.
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Good evening and welcome to the programme.
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I'm Alice Bandukravi.
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First tonight, tackling the problem of overcrowded A &E departments
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and the extensive corridor care that some patients have experienced in the capital.
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The emergency department at Queen's Hospital in Romford was originally built to treat around 300 patients a day,
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yet it regularly sees more than twice that number.
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But now the trust, which runs it, has secured the money to rebuild it.
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Our political editor, Carl Mercer, has the story.
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The A &E at Queen's in Romford is always busy, and the numbers keep going up.
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For years, they've been campaigning to get a new unit, and they need one.
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Even this morning, when it was less busy than usual, there were patients being treated in the corridors ten today
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but at times when we visited last year there were up to 50.
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Wendy had been on a trolley today for more than 20 hours.
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They really help me out, they do every time.
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No more about being in a collard?
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No, no it doesn't bother me at all.
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They could do it underwater if they wanted, you know as long as they get me better.
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It's very frustrating, stressful and it's not really good for patients as well
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because you can see that there's patients in the corridor and I know.
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So, giving care in the corridor is a bit difficult compared to giving care inside.
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It's going to be easy because we can give better care there.
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So this is Queen's Hospital's A &E.
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It was built 20 years ago here in Romford but it's not really fit for purpose anymore.
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Back then it was built to cope with 325 patients every day now it regularly sees more than double that.
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Now they've got 42 million pounds from the government to build a whole new unit here.
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It will, they say, transform care.
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It's going to change so much.
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So it's going to bring daylight in.
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We haven't got natural daylight in any parts of the department.
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That's going to be a massive thing.
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We're going to have a waiting room.
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We're an emergency department without a waiting room.
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Can you imagine that?
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The difficulty that poses.
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We're going to have fit for purpose cubicle spaces.
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Our resuscitation room is going to grow in size
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so currently we at times have to treat patients who are some of our sickest
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and receive their hand over in the corridor in the resuscitation room
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which is terrible
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and we're going to have a dedicated mental health space the
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challenge of course will be to build the new unit
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while still staying open so we'll be closing bits and opening bits
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and repurposing areas over the next two and a half years
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and there will be a huge amount of disruption for this very very busy department
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but because we've designed this with staff because this is a whole hospital celebration.
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We've got all the staff behind us.
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We're going to make sure patients are safe.
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There will be disruption.
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But we're committed to making this a really good, well -delivered programme on time and we will hopefully be opening in two and a half years.
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Work's due to start in December.
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The new unit should open in 2029.
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Carmer, Sir BBC London.
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Next, the Met Police Commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, has told a public inquiry
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that a former undercover officer did not tell the truth during his evidence about an alleged sexual relationship with a teenage activist.
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In an exclusive interview with the BBC, Andy Coles, who served in the Met undercover squad to infiltrate political and protest groups,
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repeatedly denied the affair and said campaigners wanted payback for his spying.
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Here's our investigations reporter, John Einmanger.
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It's down here on the right -hand side.
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In 1992, aged 19, Jessica met Andy Davey for the first time.
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She uses an alias and partially conceals her identity.
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And so Andy used to come park his van outside here, did he?
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Yeah, it would be late in the evenings that he would come.
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And then, like, we'd struggled to get rid of him.
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One night at her flat in East London, she says they started a relationship.
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I was in different animal rights groups when I was a teenager.
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He was in the same groups.
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We were sat on the bed watching TV and then he just kissed me.
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He would stay over at our house maybe four nights a week.
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It was my first sexual relationship.
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But Andy Davey was not a fellow activist.
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He was undercover with the Met Police, gathering intelligence on animal rights groups.
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And he was not 24 as Jessica had believed.
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He was 32 and married with children.
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His real name is Andy Coles and he was, until recently, a senior public official in Peterborough.
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More than 30 years later, he has given his exclusive story to the BBC.
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OK, let's talk about Jessica then.
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I want to read a quote from what she said.
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He groomed me.
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I didn't know who he was.
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It's very difficult to describe it as a rape, but he knew that having sex with me would have been absolutely against my consent.
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So what's your response to that?
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That's her saying what she's saying.
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It's her story.
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It's not true.
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It's not true.
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Simple as that.
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Absolutely not true.
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The actions of Andy Coles
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and other undercover operatives who served with the special demonstration squad
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are now the subject of one of the longest running public inquiries.
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I swear by almighty God that the evidence I shall give
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Shall be the truth.
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His evidence
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that he had no intimate contact with Jessica was challenged by various witnesses who described him as a sex pest
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and a lech.
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And two letters written by Jessica to her friend while she was staying in France in 1992, in which she describes Andy as her boyfriend.
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He suggested we see other people, she wrote.
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In a nutshell, he wouldn't be getting enough sex.
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You'll accept that the evidence against you is compelling on this.
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I mean, even the Met Police have said that they believe Jessica is the victim.
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Of course, I understand why they'd say that, because the evidence that's provided is corroborated by people who corroborate it.
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So just to be very clear, you are saying that Jessica and these three other witnesses, they're lying.
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The handwritten letters, they're a deceit.
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That's my view, yes.
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I can't emphasise enough how antagonistic the relationships would be between a police officer and an animal liberationist.
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These are people who are furious that someone like me would be trusted
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and would be able to get into the organisation and disrupt it in the way I did.
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This is payback.
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It's pure and simple.
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People often seem to be interested in how I went from
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being a pop star to being a vicar to being a best -selling author.
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In an unlikely turn of events, Andy Cole's covert past was exposed by his famous brother,
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the Reverend Richard Coles, who wrote in his autobiography he had joined
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Special Branch and was living a double life, infiltrated into some sinister organisation.
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Do you regret him writing those words now?
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It would have been easier had he not, let's be honest, but I hold no real will.
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He's my brother and I love him deeply, so this is not an issue for me.
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The revelation forced Andy Coles to resign as the Deputy Police
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and Crime Commissioner for Cambridgeshire in 2017 team
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but as long as he remained a Peterborough councillor Jessica
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and her supporters protested every full council meeting causing
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this one the same year to be adjourned we have a situation
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there's a number of protesters in the in the gallery here
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are objecting to the presence of councillor calls they've written to charities
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that i'm involved with and said do not trust this man leaflets produced with, it's usually sack -andy coals.
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It is exhausting. Do I cut leaflet?
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What do I call sex pest Tory councillor?
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You're making it all up.
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Just a sad bunch of people.
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You lurk around in the dark, putting leaflets through people's doors.
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I think it's never going to not affect me.
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I feel like it's a personal attack.
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I feel like he's attacking my honesty.
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You have to keep fighting because it shouldn't happen to anyone else.
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In a statement to the public inquiry in September,
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the commissioner of the Met Police said the force was disappointed Andrew Coles had not told the truth about Jessica.
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He lost his council seat in 2024 and has not been re -elected.
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Well, John is here.
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John, we've done a lot of coverage of the undercover policing inquiry,
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but it's fair to say that Andy Coles is one of the key participants, isn't he?
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Yeah, he's certainly one of the more high -profile witnesses, given his celebrity connections and his political career.
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But his name has come up quite a lot during the undercover policing inquiry anyway, in the course of undercover officers' evidence.
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Because when he left the special demonstration squad in 1995, he penned the now notorious Tradecraft Manual.
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Now, this was a sort of guidebook,
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if you like, for aspiring undercover officers in the Met Police and in one notable passage under the heading, sexual liaisons.
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He wrote that it may be required for officers to have fleeting, disastrous relationships with people they were spying upon.
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Now, he insists that he was not advising officers to go and have sexual encounters with those people.
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But a good many people have.
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Some 25 officers are accused of doing just that.
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And interestingly, Andy Coles may be the only one of them who so steadfastly denies the allegations.
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OK, and what will happen now with this case?
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Well, the undercover policing inquiry goes on.
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It's now massively overrunning.
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It's cost £140 million to date.
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In fact, the Home Secretary is consulting at the moment to try to find a way to bring it to a close.
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The longest and most significant phase of evidence ended last month and now the chair,
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Sir John Mitting, will step down and he will pass the bat on to someone else.
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Before he does that, he will report on all of the latest evidence.
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We expect that will be next year, and included in that will be an assessment of who he believes is telling the truth,
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Jessica or Andy Coles.
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And just finally, Alice, it's worth saying that big changes could be afoot to undercover policing, because at this very moment,
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there is a private member's bill making its way through Parliament
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that would make it a criminal offence for covert operatives to have deceitful sexual relationships with people they're spying upon.
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OK, well, plenty to follow up with.
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John Ironmunger, thanks very much for that.
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And for more on this story, there's a documentary, Sex, Lies and Spies, available to watch now on BBC iPlayer.
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A quick look at some of today's other news now.
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Actor Noel Clark has pleaded not guilty to six sexual offences.
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The former Doctor Who and Kid Altford star is charged with two charges of sexual assault, three charges of voyeurism and one charge of exposure.
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He was granted bail and will appear at Southwark Crown Court next month.
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Wandsworth Prison is still holding inmates in unsafe, overcrowded and inhumane conditions, according to a report from the Independent Monitoring Board.
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It found on average a third of staff are absent or unavailable every day, increasing the number of hours prisoners spend locked in their cells.
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And there are more stories and the latest updates on your local BBC News website and on the BBC News app.
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The government has told the BBC that anti -Semitism in schools
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and colleges in England has reached crisis point and
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that they'll adopt all 27 recommendations made by an independent review into anti -Jewish hatred in education.
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The BBC's special correspondent, Judith Moritz, has been looking into this.
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You have visited a school, a Jewish school, in Boreham Wood in Hertfordshire.
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What have they been saying to you, Judith?
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Yeah, as part of my research into this issue, I went to a school in Boreham Wood, as you say, which is a really large campus.
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It houses children there learning from primary age through to high school and on to sixth form.
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And the first thing that strikes you when you arrive is the extreme security, two rings of steel fencing,
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CCTV cameras, security guards outside.
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And the other thing that strikes you is how normal that seems to be for everybody on site.
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You know, I spoke to children there at Yavna College and they were, you know, very clear that it's reassuring, they say, but it's normal,
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they say, they barely even notice it.
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And one of the things that this report that's been published today
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and presented to Parliament has found is that
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that level of security for Jewish schools is what they're seeing now across the country.
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And the report author described it as a disgrace that in 2026, in modern Britain, there can be such a stark difference between the way
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Jewish schools have to protect themselves and what you would expect to see at a mainstream school.
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And so how do you think these new recommendations are likely to be received?
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Well, the report makes recommendations for all schools in England, both Jewish schools and also mainstream schools and schools that have no
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Jewish children in them at all and that's
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because it's looking at the issue of anti -Semitism in terms of what can be done to improve the way
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it's handled when a school comes up against an incident.
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Is it anti -Semitic or not?
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What should they do about it?
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It should be treated now, the report says, as a safeguarding risk in its own right separate to the way other incidents may be treated.
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So it's been welcomed by the Jewish community generally.
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OK, thanks very much for that update, Judith Morris.
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Thank you.
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Now, 20 years ago, Stratford International Station was built.
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It then opened to the public three years later for southeastern services to Kent.
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And despite its name, the international platforms have remained largely unused for cross -channel services.
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But could that soon change with trains to and from Europe finally stopping there?
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Here's Leila Hayes.
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For two decades, catching the train to Paris has meant going from St Pancras.
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The 1701 departure to Paris is now ready for boarding.
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But could that all be about to change?
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The mayor now wants trains to Europe to stop here at Stratford International in East London
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and is hoping there will be money in the budget to pay for it.
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The mayor of London says he's been working closely with the government to make this station truly international for the first time.
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He says it will create jobs, investment and tourism and connect Stratford and East London directly to Europe.
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This bakery is just a few minutes walk from the station
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and the owner says for her business it would be a game changer.
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London would really shift east in the way
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that we've all been talking about it happening and I think what
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that would do for business would probably see our catering business go up tenfold.
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We've just launched our Christmas party season.
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We would probably be booked out all the time over Christmas.
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Stratford International was built back in 2006 and officially opened for domestic services to Kent three years later.
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It's hoped that by going international, one in three trains to France could stop here.
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The main benefit is actually putting Stratford on an international map.
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I think a lot of people are already choosing Stratford as their choice for the night.
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But I think going international would mean even more people hopefully spending more time in the area.
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It's thought the project would cost around £20 million.
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So what do the locals think?
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It has its pros and its cons.
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Pro is obviously more people, more money.
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Con is more people, more traffic.
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If the infrastructure is here, then why not?
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It makes it easier in the sense of you don't need to get the seven -minute train to St Pancras
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and then just swap over there.
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Those in favour say it could be the perfect recipe for Stratford.
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The question is will the government fund it?
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Leila Hayes, BBC London.
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Turning to the power of storytelling now, the London Literature Festival is underway with a book swap among events being held at the Southbank Centre.
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It comes as the Department for Education and the National Literacy Trust have dubbed this the National Year of Reading,
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aiming to reverse a decline in people reading for pleasure.
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Talua Deoye sent this report.
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The book swap is in full swing here at the Southbank's Royal Festival Hall that's part of the London Literature Festival.
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How it works is you bring a book, you write a message inside recommending it.
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I thought Wahala by Nikki May, a British -Nigerian author.
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And then you leave it and you can pick one up as well.
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This is part of a special event where there's even famous contributors, including Elizabeth Day, Jacqueline Wilson, Michael Rosen.
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So it's worth popping along.
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I've been finding out what people think about it.
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It's pretty good.
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Not that it's hard to get books these days, but it's always nice to get recommended a book.
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So it's a nice little feature.
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Instead of judging a book by its cover, as people usually do, I judge it by what the next man wrote about it.
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What did they say?
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They said it's a really...
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These people have horrible handwriting, so it's a bit difficult, but it was recommended to me.
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It's a really good swaps from the character to character.
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Fabulous book.
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So I think it's a lovely idea.
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I love reading, and I love anything that encourages reading
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and sort of like not having to buy new books is like really helpful for some people.
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The Book Swap is just one of the events running as part of the festival to share the joy of reading.
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There really is something for everyone.
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40 % of everything we do is completely free.
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We've got a really packed family programme including a live show of The Smets and The Smooths.
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A whole series of curated events curated by Dua Lipa
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and an absolute highlight for me is Dua in conversation with Zadie Smith, a really iconic London writer,
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global figure, who's going to be talking about White Teeth, the book that launched her whole career.
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And I'm so pleased to say we're joined now by children's author
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Dame Mallory Blackman.
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I see you've got a book in your hand there that you're going to be swapping.
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Tell me about it.
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It's The Colour Purple by Alice Walker.
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And there are some books that make you laugh and some
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that make you cry and some that make you think and feel and some books that change your life.
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And this book did all of the above for me and before I read this,
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I didn't know that black people could be published in this country
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because I'd never read a single book that featured a black character.
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And this is the first one I read that featured a black character and that was when I was 21.
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So this is the book that inspired me to think about becoming a published author.
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So that's why it's so dear to me.
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As a former children's laureate, are you concerned about this decline in reading?
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We've got this research from the National Literacy Trust that's saying that one in three 8 to 18 year olds,
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just one in three, read for pleasure now.
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Indeed, I think they are worrying statistics, but I do think with this national year of reading, hopefully we can address that.
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We've been addressing that.
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I do think, you know, there's so much competition for our children and our teens' attention.
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but books and stories in whatever form will always be with us
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and I think it's about celebrating the fact that books can be fun and they can be, you know, they can take you away to places
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and this is the wonderful thing about the book swap
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because it's like having a conversation with someone you'll probably never meet
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because they've left a book that really means a lot to them
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and they've said why and it's your chance to see
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if it has the same effect for you and it is a way of communicating and connecting with other people Paul,
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thank you so much for talking to us.
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My pleasure.
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The festival here, the book swap, runs until Sunday 1st November,
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and all the books that are left here will be going to the Upper Norwood Library
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so you can pick up some there.
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A day -o -yay there.
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Now, you may know him for work as varied as Quadrophenia, EastEnders, all from Blur's hit Park Life.
313
And now actor Phil Daniels is taken to the stage as Barbossa in Secret Cinema's new production, Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean, an immersive adventure.
314
It'll open early next year at a new purpose -built venue at Greenwich Peninsula.
315
Well, I sat down with Phil Daniels earlier today in our live lounge
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and started by asking him about playing a famous pirate.
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Live in the flesh, doing the play of Pirates of the Caribbean.
318
Lots of actors on stage doing their stuff a live band doing shanties
319
I thought this would be great with the audience joining in a bit now of course one of the roles
320
that people will always associate
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you with forevermore is Jimmy Cooper in Quadrophenia from 1979 first
322
of all very important question do you still have the parka
323
I don't have the parka the parka I used to live in gospel oak
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and it was stolen out the back of a car.
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I still have a few bits and pieces though I had the suit that I wore in it and I think
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Pete Townshend bought it for £10 ,000 off me for Teenage Cancer Trust so that was a nice thing.
327
People also like EastEnders and of course you did have a role in EastEnders what was
328
that like for you and what impact did that have on your career?
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So I thought I'd go a bit mainstream so I joined EastEnders The people were lovely in EastEnders.
330
I got on very well with them all.
331
I did, I think, 150 episodes the first year and about 80 the second year.
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So I had a good time doing it, yeah.
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And you mentioned this varied career.
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Talk to us about Blur and Parklife because that's also something that people associate you with.
335
Confidence is a preference for the habitual voyeur of what is known as...
336
I met Damon and we chatted and I ended up going into a recording studio.
337
I think it took about 45 minutes.
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The whole thing?
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The whole thing.
340
You've performed with Blur.
341
I have performed, yes.
342
So tell us what happened.
343
They started making it.
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They started becoming a big band.
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And they said, would you come on and do Park Life?
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So I think I started in the Shepherd's Bush Empire, that sort of size, and then it was Wembley Arena.
347
And then he said, if you want to go anywhere in the world that you fancy that we're playing, come along.
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So I went all over the world and then we ended up at Glastonbury.
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So you can actually say you've played Glastonbury.
350
Twice.
351
What can I say?
352
What's the highlight of your career so far?
353
I don't know.
354
I always think it's harder, you know, doing those plays in front of 15 people in a small theatre, you know, the Soho Poly Theatre,
355
15 people staring at you, than it is doing a song in front of 150 ,000 people with electronic music behind you.
356
Well, we wish you the very best and many more fantastic evenings at Secret Cinema.
357
Yeah, I'm sure we're going to have some good fun there.
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Some good pirate fun.
359
Oh, I...
360
Bill Daniels, thank you so much.
361
Thank you for being here.
362
Thank you.
363
Thank you.
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And that brings us to the weather now with Kate Kinsella.
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Good evening.
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The City of London skyline may have ended up looking like this with a little bit of blue sky across it,
367
but on the whole it has been very grey and damp.
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Now in that little curl, an air of low pressure is.. brought some heavy rain through today.
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It's lifting away, but as it started to do that, the wind strengthened as well.
370
So quite a blustery end today.
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This was earlier, Stoke Newington, some heavy and persistent rain.
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Now it continued through this afternoon, but eventually the cloud started to break.
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Little glimmers of sunshine meant showers and a few rainbows spotted as well.
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Now into this evening, it is mostly dry.
375
We've got some clear spells.
376
Short -lived though, because our next little system is on the way, bringing cloud and some heavy rain through the early hours.
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It should have mostly cleared by dawn tomorrow morning.
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The minimum temperature dropping down to 8 Celsius.
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Any remaining showers first thing tomorrow will disappear very quickly as
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a small little area of high pressure builds squeezing out the way.
381
So tomorrow it's a quieter day.
382
We've got some sunshine, the wind is lighter and because we've got that sunshine tomorrow the temperature feeling a little bit warmer.
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We're looking at 15 Celsius as a maximum.
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Now as we head into Thursday evening the cloud will increase.
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Now this is our first named storm of the season, storm Austin.
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It makes its way in from the south and the west bringing strong winds and some heavy rain.
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Now as it heads through Thursday night we will get that heavy rain.
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The wind it will start to strengthen but it won't be especially strong.
389
Gusty yes but the strongest of winds won't arrive until we head into Friday.
390
Minimum temperature 11 to 13 celsius.
391
It will be a mild night as a result of that storm.
392
Now through Friday we've still got some spells of rain
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but some sunny spells too but Notice the wind gusts will see them strengthen, especially through the afternoon as the storm spirals out of the way.
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The wind strengthening as it does so.
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Could see gusts of over 45 miles per hour.
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Temperature on Friday getting up to 15 Celsius, but we might get a brighter end to the day.
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Now that will clear only to make way for our next system to come in on Saturday.
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We're looking at some very wet and windy conditions for Saturday itself.
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That will clear.
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Still breezy for Sunday, but drier with some sunshine. And that's about it.
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I'll be here later with our 10 .30 bulletin.
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In the meantime, there are lots more stories on our website, as always.
403
And for now, from all of us, have a lovely evening.
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Bye -bye.
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Business EnglishDaily ConversationUniversity Students
FOR YOU
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “211026 BBC London Evening News”. This video has 404 sentences and 4650 words to shadow. The speech runs for 27:02. The speaker talks at a natural 172 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 84% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| undercover adjective | /ˌʌndə(ɹ)ˈkʌvə(ɹ)/ | Performed or happening in secret. |
| swap verb | /ˈswɑp/ | To exchange or give (something) in an non-normal exchange (for something else). |
| inquiry noun | /ɪnˈkwaɪ(ə)ɹi/ | The act of inquiring; a seeking of information by asking questions; interrogation; a question or questioning. |
| corridor noun | /ˈkɒɹɪdɔː/ | A narrow hall or passage with rooms leading off it, as in a building or in a railway carriage. |
| sunshine noun | /ˈsʌnʃaɪn/ | The direct rays, light or warmth of the sun. |
| cloud noun | /ˈklaʊ̯d/ | A visible mass of water droplets suspended in the air. |
| commissioner noun | /kəˈmɪ.ʃə.nəɹ/ | One who commissions something. |
| spell noun | /spɛl/ | Words or a formula supposed to have magical powers. |
| deny verb | /dəˈnaɪ/ | To disallow or reject. |
| mainstream adjective | /ˈmeɪn.stɹiːm/ | Used or accepted broadly rather than by small portions of population, market, scientific community, etc. |
| spy noun | /spaɪ/ | A person who secretly watches and examines the actions of other individuals or organizations and gathers information on them (usually to gain an advantage). |
| teenage adjective | /ˈtiːneɪd͡ʒ/ | Of or relating to an age between thirteen and nineteen years old. |
| activist noun | /ˈæk.tɪ.vɪst/ | One who is politically active in the role of a citizen; especially, one who campaigns for change. |
| recommendation noun | /ˌɹɛkəmɛnˈdeɪʃən/ | An act of recommending. |
| strengthen verb | /ˈstɹɛŋ(k)θən/ | To make strong or stronger; to add strength to; to increase the strength of; to fortify. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| end up verb | To bring to a conclusion. |
| find out verb | To discover, as by asking or investigating. |
| go up verb | To move upwards. |
| come along verb | To accompany. |
| come up verb | To emerge or become known, especially unexpectedly. |
| come up against verb | To face (someone, something) in a match, problem, competition or fight. |
| get up to verb | To do something, especially something that is forbidden or improper. |
| pick up verb | To lift; to grasp and raise. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- No, no it doesn't bother me at all.
- We're going to have a waiting room.
- We're an emergency department without a waiting room.
- Do you regret him writing those words now?
- What's the highlight of your career so far?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on | they've been campaigning · has been looking · have they been saying |
| “Used to” used to + verb — a past habit or state that is no longer true | used to come · used to live |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have experienced · has secured · we've designed |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | be built · was built · being treated |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 67 contractions and reduced forms, such as we're, we've, they've. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: strengthen /ˈstɹɛŋ(k)θən/, bother /ˈbɑðɚ/, sixth /sɪksθ/, gather /ˈɡæðɚ/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: sunshine /ˈsʌnʃaɪn/, commissioner /kəˈmɪ.ʃə.nəɹ/, recommendation /ˌɹɛkəmɛnˈdeɪʃən/, associate /əˈsoʊʃi.ət/, organisation /ˈɔː.ɡə.naɪˌzeɪ.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: undercover /ˌʌndə(ɹ)ˈkʌvə(ɹ)/, inquiry /ɪnˈkwaɪ(ə)ɹi/, commissioner /kəˈmɪ.ʃə.nəɹ/, recommendation /ˌɹɛkəmɛnˈdeɪʃən/, associate /əˈsoʊʃi.ət/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like undercover, swap, inquiry.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.