Paper Monitor
10:48 UK time, Monday, 7 April 2008
A service highlighting the riches of the daily press.
There's something a little unsettling about the phrase "someone is trying to grab the torch from Konnie Huq", although Paper Monitor can't quite explain why it feels so. The Sun pictures the moment when the former Blue Peter presenter found herself at the epicentre of a major diplomatic incident. Among the other torchbearers it depicts are Sir Trevor McDonald, Paula Radcliffe, Kevin Pietersen and Denise Lewis.
But where, oh where, is Vanessa Mae? The million-selling classical/pop violinist with Thai/Chinese parenthood is surely the ultimate cross-cultural figure. Yet there seems to be no pictorial record whatsoever of her torch carrying duties yesterday.
To be honest, it's a struggle to find a picture of Denise Van Outen, although the Mirror and Star eventually come good on this front.
Apart from fire, the other big story of the day is ice… in this case the rare incidence of what's known as South East Snow. It's an offspring of that other climatic phenomenon Daily Express Weather. And sure enough the Express delivers with a front page headline that "Britain is colder than Alaska". And this is a really nice touch – juxtaposing a picture of Brighton beach on April 7 last year (hundreds of people enjoying the sun and unseasonal balmy weather) with yesterday's scene at the same place: a desolate scene but for two children building a snowman.
There's another instalment in the tale of the newly invigorated Travelodge publicity machine in today's Daily Mirror – with a story that Coldplay is the "preferred music choice to send us to sleep at night".
And finally, time for Paper Monitor to offload a bugbear from its school days – those people who used to mistakenly refer to Spitting Image as Spitting Images. The launch of ITV's new Sunday night satire Headcases draws comparisons to the puppet show, and sees the Independent and Times add that rogue plural.
The 
