BBC sounds music radio podcasts hello.
Welcome to part two of newscasts Weekend Bender, if you don't get the gag, let me explain.
Laura and Paddy are off this weekend, so I'm filling in.
And we decided to experiment with a bit of a new format where each episode is me sitting down and having a fairly long chat with one other person about an interesting aspect of their life.
And by pure coincidence, both episodes feature a man called Ben.
So we thought, why not make the virtue of it and call it the newscast weekend bender?
So here is part two of the bender.
Today's Ben is Ben Houtchen, Lord Houghtchen, who is the conservative mayor of Teez Valley in the northeast of England.
He is 37 years old and he won his first election as mayor of Tees Valley in 2017.
And as such, he became a poster boy for a new kind of conservatism, one that was picked up and run with by Boris Johnson, and one which some people think maybe could get the Conservatives back into government sooner rather than later.
So here is my conversation with Ben Houthin.
Mister mayor.
Newscast newscast from the BBC.
Hello, Mister Mayor.
Hello.
Thanks for having me on.
Well, thanks for coming on.
Or actually, should I call you Lord Houghton?
How do you feel about being a lord?
Ben is just fine.