A dancing gorilla video has gone viral with more than one million people viewing the pirouetting primate.

13 April 2016 Last updated at 10:30 BST
Helen Fairhead captured the charming footage of the three-year-old gorilla, called Lope, on a visit to Twycross Zoo in Leicestershire.
More than one million people have watched the video on Facebook with hundreds leaving comments.
The zoo's director of life sciences Dr Charlotte Macdonald said Lope's "dance" is evidence of him playing - an important aspect of young apes' behaviour.


The family of a Prestwick man killed in a crash on the A77 between Stranraer and Portpatrick have said they cannot describe their "sense of loss".

They issued a statement via police following the death of Jim Harvey on Thursday.
He died when his motorbike was involved in a crash with a car.
His family said that while they were still coming to terms with their loss it was some comfort that he had died doing what he loved.
"At the age of 64, Jim was still living every day to the fullest," the statement said.
"His love and absolute passion for motorbikes really expressed his personality and outlook on life.
"He loved the freedom and enjoyed the thrill of the open road."


US bankers have written to Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew asking him to push for transparent Brexit negotiations in the interests of market stability.

They said Brexit "consequences are likely to be significant".
Highlighting Britain's role in the global financial system, they warn Brexit could affect jobs in the financial industry and beyond.
In a June referendum, the UK voted to leave the EU causing global uncertainty over the fallout of the separation.
In their letter, the bankers also said US companies in the UK rely on "passporting rights" between the UK and the remaining EU member states to allow UK-based firms to operate freely across the economic bloc.
They added that millions of people in the US are employed by UK and EU companies and called for a "smooth" transition period to give firms time to get used to changes in trade and investment.
All you need to know about Brexit
UK's Brexit vote: what has actually happened so far?
Brexit: 'No substantive talks for 12 months'
In the months since the UK vote to leave the European Union, markets around the globe have seen increased volatility with investors nervous about uncertainty in Europe.
The pound plunged on the day after the vote and has remaining at record low levels since then.
In their letter, the bankers stress that "for the prosperity of the US and world economies" it was vital that uncertainly was "kept to a minimum" and that existing trade ties were "disrupted as little as possible."
The signatories ask for:
The letter is signed by the chiefs of the American Bankers Association, the Financial Services Forum, the Financial Services Roundtable and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.
Exit negotiations between London and Brussels have not yet begun and the uncertainty of the timeline has added to business uncertainty.
Substantive Brexit talks between the UK and the rest of the EU are unlikely to start much before the end of 2017, a former European Council president earlier this month told the BBC.
Herman Van Rompuy said negotiations were unlikely until a new German government was formed after next September's election.


Postal unions are threatening to ballot for industrial action after Royal Mail said it would close its defined benefit pension scheme in 2018.

The postal service said that the pension plan was currently in surplus, but it was not sustainable.
Royal Mail contributes about £400m a year, but it said this would have to increase to more than £1bn by 2018.
The Communication Workers' Union condemned the move, and threatened to ballot its members for strike action.
However, Royal Mail, which was privatised in 2012, said there was little alternative to closing the scheme.
"We have concluded that there is no affordable solution to keeping the plan open in its current form," the company said.
"Therefore, the company has come to the decision that the plan will close to future accrual on 31 March 2018, subject to trustee approval."
The defined benefit scheme was closed to new members in 2008, but 90,000 postal staff have continued to contribute.
The CWU said its members - including sorting and delivery staff - could lose up to a third of their future pensions as a result of the change.
A 50 year-old earning £25,000 a year and retiring at 65 would lose £4,392 a year, or more than £100,000 over the course of their retirement, it said.
"The CWU has made clear that any attempt by the company to impose change without agreement will be met with the strongest possible opposition, including a ballot for industrial action," said Ray Ellis, the union's acting deputy general secretary.
"We will not stand by and watch the company abandon the pension promises it made at the time of privatisation which threatens our members with massive cuts to their future pension benefits and insecurity and poverty in retirement."
The Unite union, which also has members working for Royal Mail, said the closure was a cause of "serious concern".
"We will study the implications of today's announcement very carefully and consider all the options going forward," said Unite officer Brian Scott.
"If we don't achieve a satisfactory outcome, we can't rule out an industrial action ballot on this issue."
The current Royal Mail pension scheme is based on a worker's average pay throughout his or her career, known as "career average".
But the company wants members of the scheme to change to a defined contribution plan - in which the company and staff contribute to a pension fund with no guarantee of eventual income levels.
However, it said that it was working with unions on a sustainable and "affordable solution".


Real Madrid moved back above Barcelona to the top of La Liga by winning at Osasuna in a match overshadowed by an awful injury to Tano Bonnin.

The bottom club's full-back broke his leg in a first-half challenge by Isco.
Cristiano Ronaldo slotted a shot under goalkeeper Salvatore Sirigu to put the visitors in front, but Sergio Leon ran clear to chip an equaliser.
Isco then darted on to a loose ball to steer a shot inside the far post, and Lucas Vazquez chipped in a late third.
A few minutes before Isco's goal, Real wing-back Danilo was carried off with an ankle injury, having been caught by David Garcia, Tano's replacement.
Real's victory moved them a point ahead of Barcelona, with two games in hand, hours after Luis Enrique's side had gone top by winning 6-0 at Alaves.
It was an untidy performance from Real, who looked uncomfortable with the 3-5-2 formation that manager Zinedine Zidane chose to go with at first.
They looked far better when they reverted to their usual 4-3-3 set-up after Danilo was replaced by James Rodriguez.
Keylor Navas, the visitors' keeper, had to be sharp on several occasions, getting down to push aside Fausto Tienza's deflected shot when the game was goalless, and saving well as on-loan Newcastle forward Emmanuel Riviere fired at goal on the turn just before half-time.
Navas was on form again shortly after half-time as goalscorer Leon cut in from the right to hit a left-footed curler towards the far corner, and dived full length to his left to save the striker's 20-yard shot in the final 10 minutes.
Sirigu, the goalkeeper Osasuna signed on loan from Paris St-Germain in January, reacted brilliantly at the other end to stop Karim Benzema at point-blank range in the first half, and prevented Ronaldo getting his second as he ran clear in the final 20 minutes.
Sadly, though, the game will be remembered chiefly for the injury to Tano, in what looked nothing worse than a committed challenge by Isco.
It was clear immediately that the defender had broken his leg, and both sets of players were visibly upset by the incident.
Osasuna, on their third coach of the season in Petar Vasiljevic, look certain to be relegated at the end of the season, but can take encouragement from a spirited performance in defeat.
Match ends, Osasuna 1, Real Madrid 3.
Second Half ends, Osasuna 1, Real Madrid 3.
Goal!  Osasuna 1, Real Madrid 3. Lucas Vázquez (Real Madrid) right footed shot from the right side of the box to the centre of the goal. Assisted by Marcelo.
Goran Causic (Osasuna) is shown the yellow card.
James Rodríguez (Real Madrid) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Goran Causic (Osasuna).
Attempt missed. Lucas Vázquez (Real Madrid) left footed shot from very close range is too high. Assisted by James Rodríguez.
Attempt saved. Emmanuel Rivière (Osasuna) right footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Jaime Romero.
Substitution, Real Madrid. Mateo Kovacic replaces Isco.
Foul by Lucas Vázquez (Real Madrid).
Oier (Osasuna) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Attempt saved. Sergio León (Osasuna) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the bottom right corner. Assisted by Nikola Vujadinovic.
Attempt missed. Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid) left footed shot from outside the box is high and wide to the left. Assisted by James Rodríguez.
Isco (Real Madrid) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Foul by Goran Causic (Osasuna).
Casemiro (Real Madrid) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Oier (Osasuna).
Offside, Real Madrid. James Rodríguez tries a through ball, but Cristiano Ronaldo is caught offside.
Attempt missed. Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid) header from the left side of the six yard box is close, but misses to the left. Assisted by James Rodríguez with a cross following a corner.
Corner,  Real Madrid. Conceded by Salvatore Sirigu.
Attempt saved. Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid) right footed shot from the left side of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Marcelo with a through ball.
Delay over. They are ready to continue.
Delay in match Jaime Romero (Osasuna) because of an injury.
Substitution, Real Madrid. Lucas Vázquez replaces Karim Benzema.
Isco (Real Madrid) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Jaime Romero (Osasuna).
Offside, Real Madrid. Nacho tries a through ball, but Cristiano Ronaldo is caught offside.
Goal!  Osasuna 1, Real Madrid 2. Isco (Real Madrid) right footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom left corner.
James Rodríguez (Real Madrid) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Foul by James Rodríguez (Real Madrid).
David García (Osasuna) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Substitution, Osasuna. Raoul Loé replaces Fausto.
Foul by Casemiro (Real Madrid).
Emmanuel Rivière (Osasuna) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Attempt missed. Alex Berenguer (Osasuna) right footed shot from more than 35 yards is high and wide to the right.
Substitution, Real Madrid. James Rodríguez replaces Danilo because of an injury.
Delay over. They are ready to continue.
Delay in match Danilo (Real Madrid) because of an injury.
Foul by Raphael Varane (Real Madrid).
Sergio León (Osasuna) wins a free kick on the left wing.


Cardiff City winger Kadeem Harris has signed a new two-year contract to remain a Bluebird until 2019.

Harris, 23, made 38 appearances for Cardiff last season and flourished under manager Neil Warnock.
However, he had been linked with a move away as his contract expired this summer.
"Last year I did finally get a chance to prove myself. There's a lot more to come from me and I'm glad that I can now show what I can do," Harris said.
"The manager has spoken to me personally and told me that he's expecting more goals from me in future.
"I'm definitely going to be working on that. I'm thankful that he's given me the chance and hopefully I can repay him.
"I'm delighted. I can officially say that I'm a Bluebird for a further two years."
Cardiff CEO Ken Choo added: "Kadeem is one of our brightest young talents and we're delighted to have secured his future at Cardiff City.
"He impressed last season and we're hoping to see him continue his development over the next two years."


Leicester winger Riyad Mahrez has dismissed his team's chances of winning the Premier League, despite being top.

The Foxes narrowly avoided relegation last season but are two points clear at the summit after 15 games.
But Mahrez, who took his goal tally to 11 with Saturday's treble at Swansea, is more concerned at getting the eight more points needed to reach 40, a total usually enough for survival.
"I don't think we can win the league," he told BBC World Football.
"We just need to get the 40 points and then after that we will see."
The Algeria international's form, along with that of 14-goal team-mate Jamie Vardy, has been instrumental in Leicester's rise.
"I'm not surprised because I knew I could do the things that I have done," Mahrez, 24, added.
"Football is just confidence. When you start scoring and you carry on it gives you more confidence so maybe that has helped me."
Marseille president Vincent Labrune reportedly dismissed the idea of the French club signing Mahrez when the player was suggested to him as a potential target in December 2014.
"Do you really think that Leicester players now have a place at Olympique Marseille?" Labrune is quoted as saying. "I don't put up with people taking me for a sucker."
"He thinks what he thinks. I know what I am, I know what I'm doing in the football, I know what I can do," Mahrez said.
"The people who don't know football - I don't want to speak about them.
"Everyone's not going to love you. Sometimes some people love you, some people hate you, some people don't like your football. That's life so I don't care, I don't mind."


A vast deep-sea container port is being built 20 miles down the River Thames from London, in Thurrock, Essex - but how will it fare when it opens next year?

"According to the GPS [Global Positioning System], we're about 400m [1,300ft] out into the Thames. Here we're on the newest part of England," says the director of civil engineering at the London Gateway project, Andrew Bowen, as he parks on a recently deposited mound of sand and points to a ship surrounded by pipes in the middle of the Thames.
"The dredger is just offshore and is pumping material to create the new land," he says.
The dredger is like a floating vacuum cleaner, sucking up sand and silt from the river bed to deepen the river channel ready for large ships. It then deposits the material on the building site to create land on which the deep-sea port can be built.
London Gateway is being built by the Dubai-owned company DP World at a cost of Â£1.5bn ($2.35bn), on the site of a former oil refinery in Essex.
The first ships should start arriving by the end of next year and when it is completely finished it will be able to unload six of the biggest container ships in the world at the same time.
Most of the port's customers will be bringing imported goods from China and the Far East to retailers in the UK.
London Gateway chief executive Simon Moore says: "We're just 20 miles away from Europe's largest economic zone, so this is the closest that we can really get to London."
He says the London Gateway plan is reminiscent of hundreds of years ago when London had a flourishing port nearer the city.
"We're bringing London and the UK's hub port back home again to the River Thames."
But Neil Davidson, a ports expert with the consultancy company Drewry, who has worked for London Gateway, is cautious about the new London port, which gained planning permission before the global financial crisis hit.
Listen to the full report on Radio 4's In Business on Thursday, 2 August at 20:30 BST and Sunday, 5 August at 21:30 BST.
You can listen again via the Radio 4 website or World of Business download.
Listen to In Business on the Radio 4 website
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"The timing isn't ideal because London Gateway is coming on stream just when the economy is flat. And this is one of the problems," he says.
"The public inquiry for London Gateway was 10 years ago. Well, 10 years ago the outlook for the UK container port industry was very, very different."
But London Gateway is more than just a port. The developers are also building what they claim will be Europe's biggest logistics park - a huge area set aside for warehouses to handle the imported cargo.
At the moment, whatever their ultimate destination, most of the goods imported into the UK are taken by road, and some by rail, to big distribution centres in the Midlands, the traditional logistics hub for the country.
However, at present some goods are being driven north from southern ports to Midlands distribution points, only to be sent down south again.
London Gateway is hoping some companies will want to move their distribution centres to the park at the new port and in doing so, change the logistics map of Britain.
However, whatever gains London Gateway makes, other areas of the UK could lose out - notably the Port of Felixstowe in Suffolk, 75 miles away, which has dominated British container trade for the past 30 years.
Clemence Cheng, managing director of the Central Europe division at Hong Kong-based Hutchison Port Holdings, which owns Felixstowe, says it welcomes competition but Felixstowe will still be the bigger port, even when London Gateway is fully finished.
Felixstowe also recently opened a deep-sea terminal to take the largest vessels.
Mr Cheng rejects the argument companies will be attracted to London Gateway by its closer proximity to the South East and London.
"Now when you look at it, will a manufacturer want to take their truck load of cargo on the M25 motorway, [or] through a very congested railway to go back into London?
"We're the port for Britain. We're not only for London - London is 70 miles away from Felixstowe - but we're servicing the entire country."
The ports get their business from the giant shipping lines that use them, but London Gateway has not yet signed up any shipping companies as clients.
The Danish-owned Maersk is the biggest container ship operator in the world, but it is currently committed to Felixstowe.
Maersk's UK and Ireland operations manager, Mark Cornwell, says London Gateway will be "an outstanding facility", but Maersk remains committed to Felixstowe.
The world economic outlook is uncertain for everyone at the moment and the
          shipping industry is facing a tough year
.
However, some British ports, such as the Port of Tyne in the north-east of England, have produced record profits in recent years and ports expert Neil Davidson is confident the prospects for ports are better than for their shipping-sector customers.
"Container shipping is a much more homogenous industry, whereas ports are much more unique in what they can offer, and the profitability reflects that."
In Business will broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Thursday, 2 August at 20:30 BST and Sunday, 5 August at 21:30 BST.
You can listen again on the Radio 4 website or via the World of Business download
.


The idea that dogs are more intelligent than cats has been called into question.

Japanese scientists say cats are as good as dogs at certain memory tests, suggesting they may be just as smart.
A study - involving 49 domestic cats - shows felines can recall memories of pleasant experiences, such as eating a favourite snack.
Dogs show this type of recollection - a unique memory of a specific event known as episodic memory.
Humans often consciously try to reconstruct past events that have taken place in their lives, such as what they ate for breakfast, their first day in a new job or a family wedding.
These memories are linked with an individual take on events, so they are unique to that person.
Have you got a clever cat or dog? Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk with your pictures and videos.
Saho Takagi, a psychologist at Kyoto University, said cats, as well as dogs, used memories of a single past experience, which may imply they have episodic memory similar to that of humans.
"Episodic memory is viewed as being related to introspective function of the mind; our study may imply a type of consciousness in cats," she told BBC News.
"An interesting speculation is that they may enjoy actively recalling memories of their experience like humans."
The Japanese team tested 49 domestic cats on their ability to remember which bowl they had already eaten out of and which remained untouched, after a 15-minute interval.
They found the cats could recall "what" and "where" information about the food bowls, suggesting they had episodic memory.
The researchers suggest cats may remember for much longer periods than the short time tested.
And they say cats can match dogs on various mental tests, including responding to human gestures, facial expressions and emotions.
Saho Takagi said the research may have practical applications.
"Understanding cats more deeply helps to establish better cat-human relationships," she said.
"Cats may be as intelligent as dogs, as opposed to the common view of people that dogs are much smarter."
Prof Laurie Santos, of Yale University, said the experiment nicely shows that cats are remembering information about where they searched before and also which locations used to have food.
"It opens the door to new studies examining how long cats' memories can be and whether they also remember richer episodes in their own life as humans do," she added.
Experiments have shown dogs also appear to have memories linked to specific times and places.
The same team of Japanese scientists previously found that in similar tests, dogs had memories of food bowls from which they had eaten.
And last year, a team from Hungary found that dogs were able to recall their owner's actions, even when they were not specifically instructed to do so.
The research is published in the journal, Behavioural Processes.
Follow Helen on Twitter.


Holyrood's Brexit minister has claimed the UK government "forgot" to tell him the date for when it was going to trigger Article 50.

Prime Minister Theresa May said the UK would start the process of leaving the European Union next Wednesday.
The announcement will set in place a two-year negotiation process.
But Michael Russell, who is leading the Scottish government's Brexit talks with Westminster, said he only found out the date when it was reported by the BBC.
Mrs May had previously said that Article 50 would be triggered by the end of March, but the exact date was only confirmed on Monday.
Mr Russell, who is a member of the Joint Ministerial Committee (JMC) on EU negotiations, tweeted: "Thank you @BBCNews for letting JMC members like me know that #Article50 is to be triggered next week".
He added that the UK government "somehow forgot to inform us".
Fiona Hyslop, the Scottish government's external affairs secretary, also said she had not been informed about the Article 50 date.
A spokesman for First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: "The fact the UK government failed to properly and fully inform all of the devolved administrations on the plans for triggering Article 50 speaks volumes - and totally exposes as empty rhetoric Westminster's language about equal partnership."
Mrs May said she had discussed the Article 50 notification with Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones during a visit to Swansea on Monday morning.
She told S4C: "We have been talking with the Welsh government for the past few months and with the other devolved administrations about the process, about the timetable.
"I have always said it would be before the end of March and we will continue talking to them."
Asked later why Mrs May had not informed the Scottish government before announcing the Article 50 date, the prime minister's official spokesman said: "What we have done today is set out the date when we are triggering Article 50.
"As the PM has said, there will be opportunities between now and the actual triggering for more discussions with the devolved nations."
Scottish Conservative MSP John Lamont said the SNP was guilty of finding "any excuse to complain about a perceived slight".
He added: "It is only a week since Nicola Sturgeon announced her plans for an unwanted, divisive second referendum out of the blue with no prior notice to anyone."
Britain's ambassador to the EU, Sir Tim Barrow, informed the office of European Council president Donald Tusk on Monday morning of the prime minister's plans.
It means the UK is expected to leave the EU on 29 March 2019.
The announcement comes amid increasing tension between Edinburgh and London over Brexit after Scotland's first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, announced plans to seek to hold a second independence referendum in the wake of the Brexit vote.
Scottish government ministers insist the result gives them a "cast-iron mandate" to stage a second independence referendum.
That is based on the party's manifesto for the 2016 Holyrood elections stating that the referendum should be held if there was a "material change in circumstances" from the 2014 ballot, citing the example of Scotland being removed from the EU against its wishes.
Scotland voted by 62% to 38% in favour of the UK retaining its membership of the EU. The UK as a whole backed Leave by 52% to 48%.
A majority of MSPs are expected to support Ms Sturgeon's call for a fresh referendum to be held in a vote at Holyrood on Wednesday - which will see her government formally request a section 30 order from Westminster, enabling a legally binding referendum to take place.
However, Mrs May has already said "now is not the time" for another ballot on the future of the UK to be held.
And Scottish Secretary David Mundell has insisted that the UK government "will not be entering into discussions or negotiations about a Section 30 agreement" and that any request "at this time" will be declined.


Derbyshire and Leicestershire were both knocked out of the One-Day Cup at the group stage as rain prevented a result at Derby.

Neil Broom led the way with the bat for Derbyshire before the rain arrived, hitting 90 from 86 deliveries.
Billy Godleman also added 66 from 86 balls to help the hosts reach 260-6 from their 50 overs.
Only two balls were bowled in Leicestershire's innings before the weather forced the teams off.
The result meant both teams finished on seven points in the North Group table, with Derbyshire seventh and Leicestershire one place behind.


Triathlons are tough at the best of times, but one competitor in the Dublin city event got more than he bargained for when he and a deer collided.

Photographer Erik Scraggs snapped the moment Shane O'Reilly was struck by the animal as he cycled in Phoenix Park.
Mr O'Reilly from Blackrock in County Dublin told Irish broadcaster RTÃ‰ that he was left with a cracked helmet following the incident on Sunday, but managed to carry on.
The park is home to around 500 deer.
"The helmet definitely saved me," Mr O'Reilly added.
"Apart from that, my shoulder was a bit sore and I had a headache."
The competitor completed the race in two hours 25 mins.
Mr Scraggs told the BBC he never thought deer would "try and leap over the cyclists".
"I had a feeling they might make their way across the cyclists' path, so I tracked them though my lens," he said.
"I never envisaged that they would actually try and leap over the cyclists. It all happened so fast, It was a really heavy crash.
"It was a relief to see the competitor get back to his feet and continue."
It is understood the deer has also recovered.


The former Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer joins me for lunch, where we chew over the fate of the Labour party and his battle to lose weight.

We're squashed into the corner of rather a noisy cafÃ© and he is munching his way through a couple of apples washed down with Diet Coke. Not the most indulgent lunch.
He has been on a diet for more than four years and has lost a great deal of weight.
Something I want to ask him about after the politics.
"I'm trying to be composed," Lord Falconer tells me. "But I feel very, very anxious about it."
The former Lord Chancellor is talking about the two recent by-elections, Stoke and Copeland. Both were Labour seats, Stoke they won, Copeland they lost to the Conservatives.
"Does it wake you up at night?" I ask him, "Yeah, It does".
He is relieved that they beat UKIP in Stoke but believes UKIP are in decline and worries about which party their supporters will turn to.
"A Copeland has never happened in my political lifetime. Copeland is basically a Labour seat, it's been a Labour seat for ever and ever and ever.
"It's not because what we are saying is wrong. For example, on anti-austerity we're in the right place. It's that our voices are drowned out."
Until last June he was shadow Lord Chancellor but resigned in the post-Brexit Labour meltdown, along with many of his colleagues.
Back then he called for the Labour leader to quit, now he is solidly behind Jeremy Corbyn, but says that they now need to concentrate on Labour policies, such as immigration.
"It's got to be clear that the Labour party has a clear and identifiable policy on immigration which recognises our obligation as a national UK party to promote the economic interests of the UK population.
"And that means restricting immigration from the EU, just as we restrict immigration from the non-EU."
The former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair, a close friend of Lord Falconer's, recently called for people to rise up against Brexit.
It was a speech which the Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell was not best pleased with. He wrote that a "soft coup" was underway, which involved elements inside the Labour party and the Murdoch media empire trying to undermine Jeremy Corbyn.
I ask Lord Falconer about it. He is hesitant at first.
"I don't know, I mean we've got to just work together to make progress in relation to all of this.
"I can't explain it to you.  Unity in relation to what the party is offering is really important, it doesn't mean that people can't express views about particular policy areas.
"I think it's wrong to say that an ex-prime minister expressing a view about Brexit is part of something else. Let's not go there.
"We've got to have a message that we all share, that we all talk about."
We order our pudding, for me a banana, for Lord Falconer yet another apple.
He sticks to his diet with the single minded determination of someone who is terrified of returning to his previous 16 stone. He is now under 12 stone.
"It's a stunning change. I was completely defeatist about the whole thing. I was obviously a fat person in my 60s. The best I could hope for was gradually creeping up to 20 stone in my 70s.
"But I feel so much better, I feel so much more confident."
He is clearly delighted. His diet consists of eating only apples and drinking Diet Coke during the day and eating whatever he likes in the evening.
He says his constant anxiety of returning to his former larger self keeps him going on the diet.
"I've got to keep on getting below 12 stone all the time. My family think I am mad."
I ask him if he is becoming obsessive.
"I am obsessive about it. If I have a big meal in the evening I think, 'God, I'm really fat.'"
"I don't think I am anorexic, but unless I remain anxious about the weight being put on, how will I not just start eating again? Because I like eating."
I ask him if his wife worries about him going too far.
"Yes she does, but this current equilibrium is where we have got to," he says.
Before he goes I ask him about his other anxiety - the future of the Labour party. Does he worry they might not get into power again?
"I do feel so strongly, we've got to back in. We've got to get back in. We've got to really try.
"I worry profoundly about what will happen if Labour does not get back in. I've seen that we're between 14 and 18 percentage points behind in some polls and that doesn't feel like we are standing on the verge of power at the moment."
Becky Milligan's series of interviews with politicians, At Lunch With... is available as a podcast.


Plans have been drawn up to repair an historic bridge which links two Borders towns.

The Old Tweed Bridge was opened by Sir Walter Scott in 1832 and it was the main link between Selkirk and Galashiels for 140 years.
However it fell into a state of disrepair following the opening of the nearby A7 crossing of the river.
Transport Scotland has submitted plans to Scottish Borders Council to carry out extensive repairs to the bridge.
In its proposal to the local authority, the roads agency claimed the bridge, was "structurally unsound".
It once carried the old A7 but now only pedestrians and cyclists can use the bridge.
Transport Scotland wants to remove the spandrel walls to build a new concrete saddle over the arches before rebuilding the structure.


A Tory activist was given a key campaigning role despite warnings of his past "aggressive and bullying conduct", an inquiry has found.

Law firm Clifford Chance said complaints had been made about Mark Clarke on seven occasions before the party had investigated his behaviour.
The report was prompted by the suicide of activist Elliott Johnson, who said Mr Clarke and others had bullied him.
Mr Clarke has called the allegations in the report "wholly untrue".
He declined to be interviewed by Clifford Chance, although his solicitors told the inquiry he was continuing to co-operate with police investigating Mr Johnson's death.
Ray Johnson, Elliott Johnson's father, has told the BBC that - after reading the first few pages of the Clifford Chance report into bullying within the Conservative Party - he believes the investigation to be a "whitewash".
He also declined to take part in the Clifford Chance probe and has called for an external inquiry into the allegations.
Mr Johnson killed himself in September 2015, a month after he wrote to Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ) complaining of an incident at a public house, where Mr Clarke was said to have been "rude and aggressive" towards him.
That complaint was investigated, and eventually resulted in Mr Clarke being expelled from the party for life.
The inquiry, which was commissioned by the Conservative Party and is published on its website, found no evidence that either Grant Shapps or Lord Feldman, co-chairmen of the party at the time, were aware of specific allegations of Mr Clarke bullying young people before August 2015.
Investigators say they identified 13 individuals who had been alleged to be victims of bullying, harassment or inappropriate conduct by Mr Clarke, and found evidence that seven of those complaints had been reported to CCHQ prior to Mr Johnson's complaint.
None of those complaints resulted in an investigation by the party's Disciplinary Sub-Committee.
Several of the complaints were, at least in part, dealt with by Mr Shapps's chief of staff, Paul Abbott, the report says.
According to the report, Mr Abbott "worked closely with Mr Clarke to attempt to coordinate the activities of RoadTrip 2015" - the campaign being run by Mark Clarke to bus young activists around the country in support of Conservative candidates.
In one case, Mr Abbott met the alleged victim and said the allegation "sounded quite bad" but that he did not consider them a "hugely reliable" witness. That complaint was not investigated.
When they interviewed him for the RoadTrip role, Mr Shapps and Mr Abbott had been aware of a confidential CCHQ file on Mr Clarke, compiled when he was a 2010 general election candidate, which included reports of "aggressive and bullying conduct", the report says.
On 13 August 2014, Mr Shapps told the party's campaign chief, Sir Lynton Crosby, who was concerned about Mr Clarke using the title "director of RoadTrip", that he was aware of Mr Clarke's reputation but the view had been taken that he was a "difficult individual who delivered".
Mr Shapps resigned as international development minister in November last year over the allegations, saying that "alarm bells" should perhaps have rung sooner and as the man who appointed Mr Clarke, when he was co-chairman, the "buck should stop with me".
According to the Clifford Chance report, Mr Shapps viewed RoadTrip 2015 as an "opportunity for rehabilitation" for Mr Clarke and believed that working with him on the project was a "'calculated risk' to be taken to help build the campaign network".
The report finds that Lord Feldman, who was replaced as party chairman in Theresa May's reshuffle, "was informed of a few instances of potential misconduct" by Mr Clarke, but not of allegations of bullying or harassment.
In response to the report, the Conservative Party said it was establishing new procedures for handling complaints by volunteers, including a dedicated hotline and training for relevant party employees.
New Conservative Party chairman Sir Patrick McLoughlin said: "The death of Elliott Johnson was a tragedy, and our thoughts remain with his family and friends.
"As we address the findings of this report, I want to make clear that there can be no place for bullying behaviour in our party, and we all have a responsibility to act when it occurs.
"The actions we are taking today will continue to ensure that volunteers, who are so vital to our party, can flourish."
In a statement, Mr Clarke's solicitors said: "The police investigation into Elliott Johnson's death and other inquiries are ongoing, and it is not appropriate to respond to allegations until the end of those processes.
"However, the allegations made against Mr Clarke in the Clifford Chance report are wholly untrue and unsubstantiated. Many are based on totally fabricated media reports. All these allegations are vehemently denied."


Singer Ed Sheeran has announced he is "taking a break" from social media as he is "seeing the world through a screen and not my eyes".

Writing on his Instagram account, the singer explained he was "taking the opportunity of not having to be anywhere... to travel the world".
He also confirmed to fans that his third album is "on its way" and "is the best thing I have made thus far".
Sheeran has 16 million Twitter and 5.5 million Instagram followers.
He has just completed a world tour of his number one album x (pronounced "multiply") in Auckland, New Zealand.
Before the final show, he also tweeted that he was "buggering off for a while".
His world tour saw him play three sold out dates at London's Wembley Stadium.
His second album x topped the chart in the UK, Australia and the US and was nominated for album of the year at the Grammys. It won the Brit award in the same category.
Sheeran recently set up his own label, Gingerbread Man Records, and signed newcomer Jamie Lawson - whose album topped the UK chart - and Northern Irish singer Foy Vance.


After a young girl's parents were told to "shut her up" on a flight home, what's the opinion of others who've been on planes with children?

Nicola Colenso's eight-year-old daughter Yasmin has Sturge-Weber syndrome, a rare condition affecting the skin, brain and eyes.
Yasmin was crying on the flight from Ibiza to Manchester when a woman told Ms Colenso and her partner Rick Murray to "shut that child up".
The irate Ms Colenso then took to Facebook to shame the intolerant traveller - a post which has been shared nearly 100,000 times.
Emotions were clearly running high - but in the cold light of day, should either party have been more tolerant?
I'm sure this is a very unpopular opinion but I think the woman who complained had a point.
I'm sorry the little girl has problems, but it is the family's responsibility. If they knew she would be upset by the flight and cause a commotion, they shouldn't have taken her on it.
Having an eight-year-old "in meltdown" sounds dreadful for all of the passengers.
Children who don't behave - whether they won't or can't - shouldn't be inflicted on others.
I've travelled with my son, who has autism. Because it's not a physical disability, people are unaware of his problems and assume he's badly behaved and I'm a bad mother.
I know more than anyone how disruptive he can be, but he's not being naughty, he's doing his best to cope with unfamiliar surroundings, sounds and sights.
In a perfect world, other passengers would be understanding, but I'm conscious that it's not a perfect world.
At the end of the day, what other people think of my son's "bad behaviour" is irrelevant.
As a dad of three children, I do try to keep them as quiet as possible, but if one becomes ill, what do you expect?
I'm sick to death of people with stupid comments about "keeping kids under control".
Most parents do. As for when a child is unwell, give compassion not condemnation.
The passenger may have been extraordinarily exhausted when she spoke up, and quite frankly, we only have one version of this story and it's from the parent. I'm quite sure there is probably more to it.
Furthermore, "a meltdown" sounds like a behaviour issue and if it was simply anxiety, surely the parent has medication for her daughter's bouts of anxiety.
Parents today make every excuse under the sun for their little darlings.
I've been on flights where my seat was pummelled constantly by the child behind me. I asked several times for the child to stop and the mother barely made any effort at all. The father was completely oblivious. Finally, I turned around and said, "could you please make your child stop?" Her response was that it was my fault for sitting in that seat.
The entitlement mentality of today's parents is astounding.
The shaming of the woman online is by far worse than what the lady on the flight did.
No one else been stressed/tired/snappy on a flight? Then the parent goes online to nationally shame a lady who probably thought better of her actions after she got off the flight.
The world doesn't revolve around this woman and her child. Yes - the lady on the flight could have behaved better. Yes - she was rude.
Does she deserve to be the victim of this national "witch hunt"?
No.
I sympathize with the parents and am sorry about the girl's condition however I can understand the passenger's torment.
I myself had a 24-hour journey listening to five babies crying one after the other. It was an agonising long flight.
Perhaps the airlines could have children and baby friendly flights and separate flights with adults only.
My wife and I live in Australia with five kids, and flying with them when they were young was a chore and a half.
We - and our now grown children - are always tolerant and help where we can with other families when travelling, as we all remember people who were kind to us in the past.
And hey....when a kid melts down they melt down - there's nothing you can do.
For goodness' sake - children are children, and you can't expect them to act like miniature adults.
And if their fare is paid, they're just as entitled to be on a plane as anyone else.
People who are not parents don't get it.
Kids are noisy and excitable and yes, they can have meltdowns. But intolerant people should just calm down themselves - after all, they're meant to be the grown ups.
People have been saying maybe airlines should have special "adults-only" or "family friendly" flights, but I disagree with that.
Why shouldn't I have the right to take my family on holiday? They're not second-class citizens and no doubt special flights would increase the cost of a family holiday.
The lady whose daughter was making a noise was in the right. People need to be more understanding and less obnoxious.


Wales secured the European Championship Rugby League title by beating Ireland 30-4 in Bray on Saturday.

The Welsh, needing only a draw to clinch the European title for the first time in five years, all but secured victory by half-time with a 22-0 lead.
Dalton Grant, Lewis Reece, Steve Parry and Rhodri Lloyd scored first-half tries for John Kear's Wales side.
Elliot Kear added a second-half try for the visitors with Callum Mulkeen replying for Ireland late on.
Courtney Davies kicked 10 points for Wales, whose victory secured them the title at the expense of France, who defeated Scotland 32-18 earlier on Saturday.
Grant's try edged Wales ahead after Davies kicked a penalty deep into Irish territory.
And after Liam Finn and Elliot Cosgrove had both threatened the Wales line, the visitors broke away for a second try when Reece reacted first after Casey Dunne had dropped a high ball.
With Ireland wasting further promising attacking opportunities, they were made to pay with Parry and Lloyd both crossing for the Welsh before the break.
Kear punished more poor Irish defending in the second half as Davies added to his haul of kicked points.
Ireland's sole score came in the 72nd minute as Mulkeen touched down in the corner, but it was scant consolation for the well-beaten home side as Wales celebrated.
TEAMS
Ireland: Grix, Hargreaves, Mulkeen, Cosgrove, Dunne, Johnston, Finn, Hadden, Beswick, Ambler, Bridge, Hope, Roberts
Subs: Keyes, Mulhern, Peacock, Gill
Wales: Kear, Williams, Channing, Roets, Drant, Olds, Davies, Walker, Parry, Kopczak, Lloyd, Reece, Joseph
Subs: Evans, Farrer, Burke, Grace


London Irish players Andrew Fenby and Tom Guest have announced their retirement from professional rugby.

Winger Fenby, 30, a qualified chartered accountant, played for Newcastle and Scarlets before joining Irish in 2013.
Former Harlequins back-row Guest, 31, brings a 14-year playing career to a close having won the Premiership, European Challenge Cup and LV= Cup.
Injuries restricted him to just two Premiership starts this season, his second with London Irish.
Fenby scored two Premiership tries this term as well as a hat-trick against Edinburgh in the European Challenge Cup pool stage.
"I have really enjoyed my time with London Irish and it's with a heavy heart I've come to make this decision and pursue a new opportunity," he said.
Guest made more than 200 appearances for Quins and scored three times for the Exiles and admitted retirement was a tough decision to take.
"There are a lot of experiences that will live long in my memory, and I am grateful to have played rugby at the highest level for many years," he added.


Finds from an archaeological dig at the birthplace of Jane Austen are beginning to reveal details of the author's early home life.

Volunteers excavated the field in Steventon in the Hampshire countryside in 2011 where the village's old rectory once stood.
The process of cleaning and interpreting the finds has yielded a clearer idea of what the house looked like and even what the family ate their meals off.
Austen was born in the village where her father was rector in 1775, and lived there for 25 years. It was there she drafted stories which were eventually published as Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility.
The house was demolished soon after her family moved to Bath.
The land returned to meadow but was never ploughed, raising the prospect of a successful dig for any remains or household artefacts.
Source: BBC History
See an Austen handwritten manuscript
View paintings held by Jane Austen's house
Contemporary records and an initial geophysical scan of the ground was used to identify the exact position of the house. No visible signs of the building remained, aside from a blocked-off well.
Project director Debbie Charlton, of Archeo Briton, said: "It was nerve wracking when the first bricks appeared. We weren't 100% sure we were in the right place when we started."
One mystery has already been solved. Although the original shape of the building was recorded on a local map in the early 1800s, historians have never been sure which contemporary illustration of the house was more accurate.
"We've been able to see its size, exact location and place it more precisely into the landscape," said Ms Charlton.
The unearthed foundations show the house to be most like the one published in the memoirs of Austen's nephew. One painted later by another family member showing a picket fence has now been discounted.
Maureen Stiller, of the Jane Austen Society of Great Britain, said fans had long wanted to know more about the house in which their heroine was born.
"Jane Austen devotees are eager to see the places Jane knew or wrote about - it's about being able to visualise it when you are standing there," she said.
With 500 shards of pottery alone to be washed, catalogued and interpreted, Ms Charlton is still in the midst of completing a "giant jigsaw puzzle" about the house's history.
The volunteers unearthed small pieces of broken china, storage jars, wine glass stems, clay pipes dating from before the Austens' residency, as well as more than 1,000 nails.
Nails give clues to the type of beams used in the house, while plates with the famous blue willow pattern show what the family would have eaten off.
"They were absolutely from Jane Austen's time and shows they were up there following fashions in china," said Ms Charlton.
While Austen's books reflect the glamour of regency society, the initial studies of the finds of pottery and storage utensils have revealed a more down-to-earth existence of the family.
Ms Charlton said: "They certainly weren't well off. They... were very much part of the village life. It was a working house and they took care of themselves.
"You get the impression they were a hard-working family - they were into the good life."
"Her stories were not what her own life was like. Whereas Pride and Prejudice is about rich gentlemen and young ladies, her life seems more normal.
"She must have been drawing on her imagination and experiences of visiting and meeting people, rather than her own, more day-to-day existence.  It starts you off on a trail, where was she gathering all these experiences?  It's got everyone talking and thinking."
Ms Stiller said: "You have to think about where she was living. This was an isolated village, roads were impassable in bad weather. I find it astonishing she had such a big social life."
It is hoped the finds will go on display at Basingstoke's Willis Museum when a full study has been completed. A detailed report on the dig is due to be released later in 2013.


"We've come to see the helicopter," said two friends matter-of-factly as they waited for Rahul Gandhi to arrive at a political rally in Ghaziabad, near Delhi, this weekend.

The atmosphere was a little flat, with the warm-up speakers struggling to provoke much return volume from a crowd that contained more than a few dozing heads.
It was in stark contrast to an open-air rally in Delhi a few days earlier for Mr Gandhi's main challenger, Narendra Modi, where supporters chanted his name with frenzied devotion for hours before his arrival.
But as the first thwack, thwack of the rotors sliced through the warm afternoon over Ghaziabad, there was a surge of excitement.
Congress party supporters leapt onto chairs for a better view. Nearby rooftops filled with local people straining to see the helicopter descend.
They were all empty again though by the time Mr Gandhi started speaking.
In his defence, he was on opposition turf in this mixed urban constituency - the incumbent is a senior figure in Mr Modi's BJP.
But it was a discouraging start for the latest scion of the Gandhi dynasty to front the Congress party, already weighed down by the perception that it is on the ropes after a decade in power.
The party is gambling on making him the sole face of its campaign, in effect airbrushing out the people who have actually been running the country and are most associated with the corruption scandals and wheezing economy that have brought the Congress low.
Neither his mother and party leader, Sonia Gandhi, nor the prime minister, Manmohan Singh, feature on its core election posters, leaving Mr Gandhi's youthful features, often trendily unshaven, beaming out alone.
But although he looks cheerful on the posters, he hasn't seemed so happy in person about being the frontman.
In his only television interview so far (his only interview in the 10 years since he became an MP) Mr Gandhi gave the impression he was doing the job because his birth gave him no choice, rather than because of any ambition. And his performance was widely slated.
Even now, he is not officially Congress' prime ministerial candidate - reportedly at his mother's insistence, which Mr Modi seized on as proof of the party's "imminent defeat".
Speaking in public Mr Gandhi comes across well and as a likeable and caring man.
There was real affection for him among many in the audience.
"We need him because he is young, not like the old men in the cabinet," said one enthusiastic supporter in the separate women's enclosure at the front.  "He is the only male politician who understands the issue of women's safety," said another.
They clapped when he pointed to the enclosure and reeled off one of his regular lines, that "India will not be a superpower until it empowers its women".
He promised to improve India's creaking education system and that "everything made in China today would be made in India tomorrow".
But the applause was polite rather than adoring.
His problem is that the Congress has had 10 years to do all this - even if he wasn't in charge.
And if it is defeated in May, many predict the end of the Gandhi family's grip on the party too.


So, we have had a morning of political reaction to Google's tax deal with Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC), which the BBC led on last night.

The Conservatives are saying it is a "vindication" of their approach to call for multi-nationals to pay more tax in the UK.
Labour are not convinced the deal amounts to very much at all and want the details published.
I think two things are significant.
First, Chancellor George Osborne appeared to have his eye on Facebook when he told me this morning he "expects more companies to follow suit".
The tech firm faced a barrage of criticism when it was revealed it paid £4,000 in corporation tax, in 2014.
My sources have suggested that so far the company sees no reason to change its tax structures, which are perfectly legal.
Secondly, when I asked the chancellor whether details of the Google deal should be published the direction of travel was clear.
"I think a very important principle in our system is that people's tax affairs are confidential between themselves and our independent HMRC," he replied.
It doesn't appear Mr Osborne will be backing shadow chancellor John McDonnell's call for HMRC to open its books on this deal.
Mr McDonnell told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that he would raise the issue in the House of Commons on Monday.
He has described the amount Google is paying as "relatively trivial".
Mr Osborne doesn't want to be dragged into the question of whether Google is paying enough.
"Let's be clear, decisions on our individual taxes are for our independent HMRC," he told me.
"The HMRC says that is the right amount of tax for the profits made by Google."
And that, he thinks, is that.


Foreign fighters believed to be linked to so-called Islamic State are among militants killed in a southern Philippine city, officials say.

The military has been conducting air strikes in Marawi, on Mindanao island, after it was overrun by jihadists.
The region is a stronghold for the local Maute group, which has pledged allegiance to IS.
Analysts say it is a rare admission by authorities that foreigners are now fighting alongside local militants.
President Rodrigo Duterte said the presence of foreign fighters was proof that IS had gained a foothold on Mindanao.
Officials said that six jihadists, including Indonesian and Malaysian citizens, were killed as the army continued its operation in Marawi, a mainly Muslim city in Lanao del Sur province.
Fighting erupted after the army tried to capture top militant leader Isnilon Hapilon, a leader of the Abu Sayyaf militant group. He has pledged allegiance to IS and Philippine Solicitor General Jose Calida said IS had designated him its leader in the Philippines.
When the raid failed, dozens of gunmen came out on to the streets of Marawi, reportedly flying IS flags. Buildings were burned, prison inmates freed and hostages taken as the militants battled troops across the city.
At least 11 soldiers and 31 militants had been killed, a military spokesman said. It is not clear if any civilians are among the dead. Thousands of residents have fled from the city.
"We were preparing for exams and we could hear the gunfire and bombs," one student who evacuated told Reuters news agency. "We were so scared and so were our Muslim brothers and sisters. We were sure they would get to us."
President Duterte imposed martial law in Mindanao on Tuesday in response to the violence.
Martial law allows the use of the military to enforce order, and the detention of people without charge for long periods. Mr Duterte said it was needed to safeguard national security.
Mindanao is home to several Muslim rebel groups fighting for greater autonomy. The main ones are now holding peace talks with the government but some smaller, more hardline groups remain active.
Links between some of these groups and those from Indonesia and Malaysia go back many years, predating the formation of IS.
But Mr Calida, the solicitor-general, said domestic rebels had subscribed to the ideology of IS and the situation was evolving.
"What is happening in Mindanao is no longer a rebellion of Filipino citizens. It has transmogrified into an invasion by foreign fighters," he told a news conference. "They want to make Mindanao part of the caliphate."
The admission confirms what observers see as moves by IS targeting Muslim-majority parts of the southern Philippines to establish a stronghold in South-East Asia.
"It is clear that the number of men from both Indonesia and Malaysia who have travelled to Mindanao has increased over the past year," Sidney Jones, director of the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict in Jakarta, told the BBC.
"And it's crucial that the government acknowledges that there is a serious IS problem in the Philippines," she said, saying much better co-ordination between local and national authorities was needed to deal with the situation.
She warned that images of militants in Marawi were already having an impact on social media, working as PR for the militant groups. "There's a lot of praise and enthusiasm," she said.
A Philippine military spokesman, however, said that while the groups in Marawi were inspired by IS, they had not seen "any concrete evidence of material support from IS".
With fighting ongoing in Marawi, Mr Duterte said on Friday he was willing to talk to the militants. "My message mainly to the terrorists on the other side is we can still solve this through dialogue," he said.
But he has also indicated that martial law could be expanded to the rest of the country if he felt it was necessary, a potentially controversial move in a nation that spent almost a decade under martial law under Ferdinand Marcos.
On Friday, former President Fidel Ramos, who served under Marcos but then helped oust him, warned against the use of martial law.
"Let us not talk about spreading it to the... rest of the Philippines. Let's talk about confining it to the part of Mindanao and making it smaller and smaller," he said.


Union leaders have held a four hour meeting with managers at a Llangefni poultry plant amid fears over 300 jobs could be axed.

On Friday it was made public the 2 Sisters factory in the Anglesey town is considering cutting an entire shift.
The company employs about 800 people at the chicken processing facility.
One union official described morale as "very very low", saying it is now feared 200 agency jobs could be lost along with about 116 employees.
The 2 Sisters Food Group bought the factory from Dutch firm Vion in March 2013, and three months later announced it needed to increase production with an extra shift, bringing in an additional 300 posts.
Paddy McNaught, the regional organiser for Unite, said the company was planning to cut production at the factory.
"It's not been very promising news," he said following the meeting. "I think the company today have clarified the situation slightly in terms of numbers.
"We still believe we're looking at potentially over 300 people will be taken out of this business here at Llangefni.
"We've got somewhere in the region of 201 agency workers, as we believe it of today, and those will be going, plus a further 116 direct employees."
The company confirmed on Friday some roles were at risk of redundancy as it looked to "simplify" its business to sustain the quality of its products.


Winning the FA Cup could buy time for Louis van Gaal to succeed at Manchester United, says former England striker Alan Shearer.

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Van Gaal, 64, has faced criticism as United have struggled in the Premier League and failed to reach the Champions League knockout stage.
But his side reached the FA Cup fifth round with a 3-1 win at Derby.
"When Arsenal won the FA Cup it kept them going and gave Arsene Wenger a bit of time," said Shearer.
Arsenal manager Wenger was heavily criticised by some Gunners supporters before ending a nine-year trophy drought by winning the 2014 FA Cup.
The Frenchman admitted in the build-up to the following season that success had "lifted the pressure", with his team going on to retain the trophy by beating Aston Villa at Wembley last May.
Wenger's team are now challenging for the Premier League title, and BBC Sport analyst Shearer believes winning the FA Cup could also have a positive effect for both Van Gaal and United.
"Without this competition you could imagine the calls that Wenger would be having to answer," said Shearer, 45. "It's a similar situation now for Manchester United."
The Red Devils are fifth in the Premier League, five points adrift of fourth-placed Tottenham as they aim to secure Champions League qualification for next season.
Van Gaal's side were eliminated after the group phase of Europe's premier club competition this season, dropping into the Europa League.
And former United goalkeeper Peter Schmeichel said the FA Cup is their only hope of salvaging an unsatisfactory season.
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"If they had lost at Derby the season would have been finished," said the 52-year-old Dane, who watched the game as a BBC Sport summariser.
"I can't remember any point in Manchester United's history when the season has been finished in January."
Van Gaal is aiming to lead United to a record-equalling 12th FA Cup success, but says the competition does not hold any more importance to him than either the Premier League or Europa League.
The Red Devils have not won the FA Cup since beating Millwall in the 2004 final under Sir Alex Ferguson, while no player in the current squad has an FA Cup winner's medal.
"The Premier League is important and the FA Cup also because it is the greatest cup in English history," said Van Gaal.
"We haven't won it for a long time. We dream of it but after two wins you cannot say we shall win the trophy because a lot of clubs want to win it.
"I want to win it but I want to win every match. There's no question of that."


The UK government rejected Nicola Sturgeon's paper of Brexit proposals saying it could cause "significant disruption" to trade within the UK.

A letter from Brexit Secretary David Davis rejecting the proposals has been published for the first time.
He said there were "clear barriers" to the idea of Scotland staying in the single market via the EEA or EFTA.
Scottish Brexit minister Mike Russell replied underlining the "fundamental importance" of the single market.
He said there was "every reason to suggest that with the necessary political will and commitment" the issues raised in the letter could have been addressed.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon published the proposals in December 2016, arguing it was possible for Scotland to remain in the European single market even after the rest of the UK left.
Her 'Scotland's Place in Europe' paper said a "flexible" approach could see Scotland maintain its place in the single market through the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and the European Economic Area (EEA).
The SNP leader insisted this option did not prioritise the European market over continued free trade across the UK, but said it would "safeguard both".
Mr Davis replied to the proposal on 29 March, the day Prime Minister Theresa May formally triggered Article 50 starting the process of the UK's exit from the EU.
In the letter, Mr Davis said the London and Edinburgh governments "share many of the same objectives", noting that "a substantive programme of work" had gone into examining Ms Sturgeon's proposals.
He said he was "disappointed that the Scottish government has called for another referendum on independence before we were able to discuss the outcomes of this good work, that was entered into in good faith".
On the specific matter of the singe market, he said there were "clear barriers" to making the Scottish government proposal a reality.
He wrote: "Scotland's accession to EFTA, and then the EEA, would not be deliverable and, importantly, would require the consent of all EFTA and EU member states.
"Any divergence between EU and UK law - as a result, perhaps, of new EU regulation - could lead to the creation of new barriers to trade within our union, which could take the form of additional controls and checks on trade within the United Kingdom.
"Given that trade with the rest of the UK is worth four times trade with the EU, I do not believe that such significant disruption to the internal UK market is in Scotland's - or the UK's - best interests. And Scotland's businesses could face a confusing mix of regulatory regimes."
In response, Mr Russell noted "frustration" at the way talks between the governments had gone.
He wrote: "It is important to re-state the fundamental importance the Scottish government places on membership of the European single market as distinct from the UK government's ambition of having access - or partial access - to this market.
"Scotland's Place in Europe clearly sets out this distinction and the damage to Scotland's economy and society that will occur if Scotland's single market membership is jeopardised.
"In relation to the specific points you raise regarding the proposals, there is every reason to suggest that with the necessary political will and commitment these issues could have been addressed. Indeed there were no insurmountable issues raised in the engagement between officials that took place over the last two months.
"While we welcome your commitment to 'close engagement with the Scottish government and other devolved administrations' we must reiterate our view that these should be meaningful, based on trust, openness and a genuine sharing of options and policy positions as well as data, and must give real opportunities to influence the process."
There also was a row over the publication of the document after Scottish Secretary David Mundell claimed that the Scottish government had asked for it not to be released, something a spokesman for Mr Russell denied.
The letters were subsequently published in correspondence to Holyrood's Europe committee.


Manchester City defender Martin Demichelis has been charged by the Football Association over alleged betting offences.

The Argentine, 35, is accused of committing 12 breaches relating to matches between 22 and 28 January 2016.
Demichelis has until 17:00 BST on 5 April to respond to the charge.
However, there is no suggestion that the charge relates to any of the 25 league and cup games in which he has featured for City this season.
New rules that came into force for the 2014-15 season mean players and coaches are prevented from betting on any worldwide footballing activity.
The FA has the power to fine or suspend any person found guilty of a rule breach.


The business case for the expansion of the Ulster University's Magee campus has been sent to the Minister for Employment and Learning Stephen Farry.

The preferred option would see student numbers in the city increase by more than 5,000 over the next 10 years.
In August, Mr Farry said plans to expand the Londonderry site were "off the table" due to budget cuts.
The business case was presented to the city's strategy board last week.
The consultants were commissioned by Derry City Council, the Ulster University, the urban regeneration company Ilex and the lobby group U4D in March.
The report sets out the need for increased student numbers, the potential benefits and the obstacles it might face.
It said the plan would cost Â£20m a year to implement but that it would bring double that amount to the Northern Ireland economy.
It also said that it would create 260 jobs across Northern Ireland, including 170 in the north west.
The report weighed up a number of options but recommended one that would see the number of full time undergraduates at Magee almost double to 6,000 by 2021.
It would also see 750 more students at the North West Regional College over a similar time frame.
Whether the Northern Ireland Executive can find the initial investment to adopt the plan remains to be seen.


British sprinter Mark Lewis-Francis has joined the GB Bobsleigh set-up in a bid to reach both the Rio 2016 summer and Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics.

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Lewis-Francis, 33, who won Olympic gold as part of the 4x100m relay team at the 2004 Athens Games, missed Beijing 2008 and London 2012 through injury.
The GB Bobsleigh team finished fifth at both the 2014 Sochi Games and at last season's World Championships.
"I can be a great track athlete and a great bobsleigher," he told BBC Sport.
"My problem has always been my start and hopefully bobsleigh can help me improve that because I'd love to make the Rio 2016 team."
Lewis-Francis insists though that bobsleigh will be his major focus as he is determined to add to his Olympic medal collection.
"Some of my greatest moments have come in team events, like the 4x100m relay [in Athens], so bobsleigh plays to my strengths," he said.
The 2010 Commonwealth relay gold medallist has also been impressed by the talent he has seen in the British team.
"I watched the last Winter Olympics on the TV and was very intrigued, but I've found it's not as easy as it looks and I have so much respect for the guys here," he said.
"They [GB] already have a good team and I'm a big lad, I'm strong, I still have a little bit of fast-twitch fibre left too so perhaps with a bit of MLF speed in there we can finish a bit better than fifth."
Lewis-Francis' former GB team-mates Simeon Williamson and Joel Fearon are already part of the British bobsleigh setup, whilst fellow 2004 Olympic gold medallist Jason Gardener competed in the 2008 GB Bobsleigh championships.
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Other ex-sprinters who have previously made the switch include Marcus Adam, Allyn Condon, former world champion GB bobsleigher Nicola Minichiello and Beijing Olympian Craig Pickering.
"I was quite surprised when I came here and saw a lot of people that I used to line up against and race," he said.
"There's a lot of young sprinters here as well so you can see the making of the switch from athletics to bobsleigh and I think it's good for the sport."
USA sprinter Lauryn Williams won Olympic relay gold at London 2012, before partnering Elena Meyers-Taylor to a second-place finish at the Sochi Winter Olympics last year.
GB Bobsleigh performance director Gary Anderson hopes Lewis-Francis can make a similar difference for the British team.
"To win an Olympic medal in 2018 we need to have one of the quickest start times in the world, we were near that in Sochi but just need that little bit more," he told BBC Sport."
On Lewis-Francis, Anderson said: "He is an Olympic champion and has taken to the bobsleigh training really well - it's an exciting time for the team."
The Commonwealth 100m silver medallist's eldest child, Romeo, was less than a year old when the men's 4x100m relay team secured victory over the USA in Athens.
"Most of my kids are too young to remember 2004," he reflected, and added that a medal "would be amazing and a dream come true.
"To have another moment where they can actually watch it and see their daddy actually doing something amazing - that would be great for me."
Lewis-Francis has made impressive progress since joining the team for pre-season training in Bath in August and has been selected for the team push start trials in Switzerland later in September.
He is expected to make his debut on ice next month with the bobsleigh American Cup series a possible target in late October.


Cardiff Devils will face Swiss, Czech and Swedish opposition in the 2017/18 Champions Hockey League.

The Elite League champions were pitted against HC Davos from Switzerland, Bili Tygri Liberec of the Czech Republic and Sweden's Vaxjo Lakers in Group E after Wednesday's draw in Cologne.
Each team plays the others in their group home and away, with the top two teams progressing to the last 16.
Group E top seeds the Lakers were beaten in the semi-finals last year.
Nottingham Panthers, who qualified by winning the Continental Cup, face the champions of Switzerland Bern, Mountfield of the Czech Republic and Finnish side Turku in Group F.
The opening games of the competition are scheduled to be played on Thursday, 24 August and the group stage finishes on Wednesday, 11 October.
Devils head coach Andrew Lord is excited with his group and looking forward to the competition.
"We have drawn three great clubs and I am looking forward to the challenge of the CHL," said Lord.
"I am sure our fans will be excited to see these teams play us in Cardiff, and for those looking to travel there are three great places to visit.
"The group we are in is tough but, in reality, they are all tough.  It's the Champions Hockey League and we didn't plan, hope or expect to somehow get an easier draw.
"No matter who we would have drawn, you can look and see how tough the group would be.  We wanted to get teams and places that our fans would want to see play at home and away."
With 16 teams qualifying for the play-offs, four rounds are required to determine the European club champions.
The first three knock-out rounds - which start on Tuesday, 31 October - are all two game, home and away, aggregate-scoring series.
The one-game final is set for Tuesday, 6 February 2018.


New images of how Aberdeen FC hopes a new stadium on the outskirts of the city will look have been released.

The stadium and training facilities would be built at Kingsford, close to the Aberdeen bypass, near Westhill.
The Yes to Kingsford Stadium group believes the 20,000-seat venue would be a vital step forward, however there has been opposition.
An exhibition will be held at Pittodrie on Thursday from 15:00 to 21:00, at the AAM Suite in the Richard Donald Stand.
George Yule, executive vice chairman of AFC, said: "The glories of our past and solid footing of our present cannot sustain the club in the future and that is why we embarked on a new journey some four years ago - a journey that will take us to long-term success and sustainability, on and off the pitch.
"We will be providing a stadium that supports our ambition and meets the expectations of our fans alongside outstanding community sports facilities."


Wonder Woman has a new club of kicking, whirling and above all fierce fans - and some are just five years old.

Parents of these superheroes-in-training have spoken to the BBC, after a teacher shared stories of her kindergarten class emulating the action hero.
Wonder Woman, which is being released in cinemas in June, tells the story of Diana, a warrior princess trained by her aunt to fight to save the world who leaves her matriarchal magic island home to fight in World War One.
The character, who was first conjured up in 1941 by DC Comics, is famous for her superhuman strength and fighting abilities.
The film has been hailed by some critics as a feminist breakthrough and it broke records for the biggest domestic debut by a female director.
"My six-year-old girl started practising that badass 'leg sweep' after watching the film", one dad tweeted, referring to Wonder Woman's slick spin-and-kick move.
Pictures of determined girls posing as warriors have been tweeted by proud mums.
But Wonder Woman fandom is not just for girls.
"Boys can be Wonder Woman too," one six-year-old told his mum Jessica Gutteridge, who lives in Vancouver.
"Jasper's very entranced with her bullet-deflecting wrist guards, so he started leaping around pretending he was under fire and repelling bullets," Jessica explained.
Jasper loved Wonder Woman's power so much that he asked Jessica to pretend she was Wonder Woman teaching him how to fight "like an Amazon", referring to the warrior people she comes from.
Other kids are playing a longer game.
Rosie, who is five, is a picky eater - her parents normally cajole her to eat more, telling her, "It will make you strong".
But after the family, who live in Toronto, Canada, watched Wonder Woman, Rosie has no trouble finishing her dinner.
"The angle, 'It will make you strong like Wonder Woman' seemed to make a light bulb go on in her head and she chows down."
"Strong like a princess" wouldn't have worked but that's the Wonder Woman effect!" Rosie's mum Gabrielle Domingues explained.
"Until seeing Wonder Woman on the screen Rosie didn't have a role-model that she could truly identify as the ideal combination of both 'tough' and 'soft'.
"It has permeated how she is looking at daily elements of her life from choosing not to step on an ant, to confidently sparring with her brother, to comforting a friend scared by thunder.
"Just last night she said out of the blue, 'I thought girls were always weak, but actually we're strong plus lots of other things, even trouble-makers in a good way,'" said Gabrielle.
With these kids in training to save the world, we can rest assured we're in safe hands.
By Georgina Rannard, UGC & Social news


A water filter which absorbs anything from copper and fluoride to bacteria, viruses and pesticides has won a prestigious African innovation prize.

Its inventor, Tanzanian chemical engineer Askwar Hilonga, uses nanotechnology and sand to clean water.
He told the BBC his invention should help the 70% of households in Tanzania that do not have clean drinking water.
The prize, worth Â£25,000 ($38,348), was the first of its kind from the UK's Royal Academy of Engineering.
Head Judge Malcolm Brinded said, "His innovation could change the lives of many Africans, and people all over the world."
Latest African news updates
The sand-based water filter that cleans contaminated drinking water using nanotechnology has already been trademarked.
"I put water through sand to trap debris and bacteria," Mr Hilonga told the BBC's Newsday programme about the filter.
"But sand cannot remove contaminants like fluoride and other heavy metals so I put them through nano materials to remove chemical contaminants."
He said that before one filter costs $130 but, after winning the Â£25,000, he will buy materials in bulk and the cost will reduce.
"For people who cannot afford water filters, we have established water stations where people come and buy water at a very very low, affordable price," he added.
Mr Hilonga explains on his YouTube video from 2014 that other resins can remove up to 97% of  micro-organisms but his target was to produce nano-filter "that can 99.999% of micro organisms, bacteria and viruses".
His family regularly suffered from water-borne diseases growing up in rural Tanzania, so when he graduated from his PhD in nanotechnology in South Korea he started looking at nano materials that would be suitable for water purification, he told Technology4Change.
The Royal Academy of Engineering aims to help sub-Saharan African engineers to develop solutions to African challenges into businesses.
Mr Hilonga and the three runners-up, who received Â£10,000 each, have already spent six months developing a business plan.


A gunman has opened fire on the police headquarters in the US city of Dallas, before fleeing the scene in what appeared to be an armoured vehicle.

A police chase led to a tense standoff in a car park for several hours, until police shot the suspect through the front windshield of the van.
Police say the suspect is dead, but have not confirmed the man's identity.
Two bombs left outside the Dallas police HQ in Texas, and two more bombs found inside the van, have detonated.
The motive for the attack is not clear. No officers have been hurt.
Police say the suspect's van caught fire as officers detonated two pipe bombs in the vehicle.
The gun attack on the police headquarters began at about 00:30 local time (05:30 GMT) on Saturday.
Initially, police quoted witnesses as saying that as many as four suspects were involved - however, Dallas Police Chief David Brown subsequently said it appeared that only one gunman was involved.
He said that following the shooting, the suspect fled in the van, ramming a police car.
A police chase ended in a car park in Hutchins, about nine miles (14km) from central Dallas.
The van, which was disabled using a police rifle, appeared to have gun ports built into its sides.
Police say the suspect was a white male, but his identity has not been confirmed.
Mr Brown said the suspect had given his name as James Boulware, and officers had attended three incidents of domestic violence involving a man with that name in the past.
"The suspect has told our negotiators that we took his child and we accused him of being a terrorist, and that he's going to blow us up. And then cut off negotiations."
At 05:07, police snipers shot through the front windshield of the van, Mr Brown said.
Police then sent in a robot equipped with a camera to confirm that the suspect had died, and detonated explosives found in the van.
Residents near the police headquarters had been evacuated as a precaution while specialist teams dealt with other explosives left nearby.
One of the bags exploded as a robot tried to move it.
Dallas police said they successfully detonated another device found under a police truck outside the headquarters, while a third package found in a rubbish container had been cleared and was not an explosive.
Maj Max Geron from Dallas police said one officer searching for explosives had almost tripped over one of the bags that exploded.
"Some officers say we are very lucky. I believe we are blessed that our officers survived this ordeal," Mr Brown said.
Joshua Guilbuad, who lives near the police headquarters, told the BBC he was woken by the gunshots.
"It sounded like approximately 200 gunshots going off across the street."
He said police told him and his flatmates to evacuate the building and shortly afterwards there was "a huge explosion which shook the glass in the windows".


Websites have been warned they could be exposed to eavesdroppers, after researchers discovered a new way to disable their encryption protections.

The experts said about a third of all computer servers using the HTTPS protocol - often represented by a padlock in web browsers - were vulnerable to so-called Drown attacks.
They warn that passwords, credit card numbers, emails and sensitive documents could all be stolen as a consequence.
A fix has been issued.
But it will take some time for many of the website administrators to protect their systems.
The researchers have released a tool that identifies websites that appear to be vulnerable.
They said they had not released the code used to prove their theory because "there are still too many servers vulnerable to the attack".
As yet, there is no evidence hackers have worked out how to replicate their technique.
An independent expert said he had no doubt the problem was real.
"What is shocking about this is that they have found a way to use a very old fault that we have known about since 1998," said Prof Alan Woodward, from the University of Surrey.
"And all this was perfectly avoidable.
"It is a result of us having used deliberately weakened encryption, which people broke years ago, and it is now coming back to haunt us."
The researchers, cybersecurity experts from universities in Israel, Germany and the US as well as a member of Google's security team, found a computer server could be vulnerable to attack just by supporting 1990s-era encryption protocol SSLv2 (Secure Sockets Layer version 2), even if in day-to-day use it employed more modern encryption standards to scramble communications.
In practice, older email servers would be more likely to have this problem than the newer computers typically used to power websites.
But many organisations reuse encryption certificates and keys between the two sets of servers.
The researchers dubbed the flaw Drown - an acronym for decrypting the Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA) algorithm with obsolete and weakened encryption.
"Operators of vulnerable servers need to take action," they wrote.
"There is nothing practical that browsers or end-users can do on their own to protect against this attack."
The SSLv2 protocol was deliberately weakened because, at the time of its creation, the US government wanted to try to restrict the availability of tough encryption standards to other countries.
It has since eased its export limits, but the effects live on.
"The problem is that while clients - such as [web] browsers - have done away with SSLv2, many servers still support the protocol," blogged Prof Matthew Green, from Johns Hopkins University.
"In most cases this is the result of careless server configuration.
"In others, the blame lies with crummy and obsolete embedded devices that haven't seen a software update in years - and probably never will. "
To mount a successful attack on a website would still require a considerable amount of computational force.
But, the researchers said, under normal circumstance, hackers could rent the required capacity from Amazon's cloud compute division for as little as $440 (Â£314).
In addition, because many of the servers vulnerable to Drown were also affected by a separate bug, a successful attack could be carried out using a home computer.
"This form of the attack is fast enough to allow an online man-in-the-middle style of attack, where the attacker can impersonate a vulnerable server to the victim," the researchers wrote.
"We were able to execute this form of the attack in under a minute on a single PC."
The researchers said many popular sites - including ones belonging to Samsung, Yahoo and a leading Indian bank - appeared to be vulnerable.
Prof Woodward said the team's test had also indicated a problem with bbc.co.uk.
"The weakness is actually in the old Pop3 server," he said.
"Few people still use Pop3, but it means that things like your password reset server could theoretically be eavesdropped upon."
Read more from our Cybersecurity Alert special index


Women aged 16-24 have "significantly lower" levels of mental wellbeing compared to other age groups, according to annual health figures.

The Scottish Health Survey found levels of mental wellbeing for all other age groups were similar, with little difference between men and women.
Women in the 16-24 age group also reported higher levels of self-harm - 23% compared to 18% of men.
Five thousands adults and 1,421 children were surveyed for the report.
The annual figures examined health, alcohol and tobacco intake, diet and physical activity. Those surveyed were also asked about cardiovascular conditions and diabetes, as well as injuries and accidents.
Other findings include:
Taking the pulse: How healthy is Scotland?
Researchers also found that the proportion of children exposed to smoke in the home reduced from 11% in 2014 to 6% in 2015.
The Scottish government's target was to reduce exposure to 6% by 2020.
Public Health Minister Aileen Campbell said: "It's tremendous news that we've seen such a dramatic reduction in the number of children exposed to second-hand smoke in the home - meeting our target five years ahead of time.
"We launched our Take it Right Outside campaign because we know how harmful these chemicals can be for children's lungs."
Ms Campbell said she was also pleased to see the health survey report an increase in the proportion of children at a healthy weight.
She added: "However, I recognise we have much more work to do to improve Scotland's public health. Many of these indicators are static, or not improving as quickly as we want.
"This government is committed to bringing forward new strategies for obesity, mental health, oral health and alcohol. We also remain committed to introducing minimum unit pricing to tackle the damage which high strength low cost alcohol causes in our communities."
Despite the higher proportion of children at a healthy weight, Cancer Research UK said the number of young people overweight or obese in Scotland was still "shocking".
Prof Linda Bauld, the charity's cancer prevention expert at the University of Stirling, said: "This is a huge worry for the health of the nation. If left unchecked, obesity will lead to a rising tide in ill-health, including cancers, and become a crippling burden on the NHS.
"The Scottish government must take steps to protect youngsters from being bombarded by junk food marketing on TV, as well as the barrage of supermarket multi-buy offers on sugar and fat-laden food and drinks."
The Scottish Conservatives said the report exposed the SNP's "abject failure" to improve the health of Scots, with no change in diet, exercise or mental health since 2007.
The party's sport spokesman Brian Whittle, said: "There is one very clear message from this report - the SNP has failed on health.
"It has been in sole charge of the brief for almost 10 years now, and in that time its initiatives, announcements and education programmes have failed."
Scottish Labour's inequalities spokeswoman Monica Lennon said: "It's appalling that young women in Scotland have significantly lower levels of mental health, with almost a quarter having self-harmed.
"The Scottish Health Survey also reveals a postcode lottery with children and young people in the most deprived communities more likely to have lower levels of good mental health."
The Scottish Liberal Democrats said the increase in the number of adults reporting symptoms of depression underlined the need for "transformational investment" in mental health service provision.
"We urgently need a step-change in the way we treat mental health, starting with a new strategy and record levels of funding," said the party's health spokesman, Alex Cole-Hamilton.


Nigerians love their tomatoes, so their culinary life has been hit hard by soaring prices across the country caused by a pest wiping out crops.

In some markets you can pay as much as $2 (£1.40) for a single tomato.
The prices have been steadily rising since March - and last month a state of emergency was declared in the tomato sector of one state.
"This tomato crisis is no joke. My mom's friend grows tomatoes and sent us a little box and my mom looks like she's going to cry," one tweeter said this week.
Halima Umar, a journalist in the BBC's Abuja bureau who colleagues say is an excellent cook, says she used to buy a basket of tomatoes a week - but now her family is having to get used to life without them.
"I've tried using preserved tomatoes in sachets as an alternative, but they turn stews sour - and are also expensive because they're imported," she said.
Nigerian food blogger Dunni Obata tried to help out by tweeting a link to her tomato-less stew.
"@DooneysKitchen to the rescue… hoping the price of substitutes don't go up," one person tweeted.
Other recipes are also being shared, including by Olapeju Aiyegbayo, who runs the catering company Zurielle's Pot in Ibadan.
She has helpfully posted videos on her Facebook page, showing how to prepare them.
Though not everyone who has experimented with the various recipes has been so complimentary about how things turned out. One man complained, not naming names: "This lady just messed up my rice and beans with this tomato less stew... shame on everybody responsible for this tomato crisis."
Ms Obata explains why stews are ubiquitous in Nigerian cooking.
"Wherever in the world a Nigerian is, there is bound to be a stew in the fridge. Even people who don't cook, manage stew," she explains on her blog Dooney's Kitchen.
Nigerian chef and food writer Nky Iweka, who calls herself "the executive Mama Put" - after the colloquial name for food stall vendors in Nigeria - said someone once told her that "Nigerian tomato stew (sauce to the rest of the world) is one of the world's culinary wonders".
"I'm inclined to agree. I use it in all manner of ways: To make bolognaise, as a pizza base, to eat with boiled rice, plantain or yam and of course to make our beloved jollof rice," she told the BBC.
"So when I read about the tomato shortage in Nigeria, I understood their despair."
Why is there a tomato crisis?
BBC journalist and tomato farmer Nasidi Adamu Yahaya explains:
The pest is actually a moth called the Tomato Leaf Miner, or Tuta Absoluta and it first appeared in early March. It has mainly affected states in the north: Jigawa, Kano, Kaduna and Katsina, but has also caused mayhem in Plateau and Lagos.
I have some land in Kano, from which I can produce about 30,000 tomatoes - that's about 2,000 big baskets. I was lucky because I planted early and managed to harvest all the fruit by mid-March, but you can harvest until May and those who planted a little later, like my best friend, have lost nearly all their crop.
The moths ravage the whole plant - leaves, tomatoes and stalk. They're like termites devouring wood.
It has cost the sector millions of dollars and affected 80% of farmers. But there is hope for the next season, as the Nigeria's National Research Institute for Chemical Technology has told the BBC that it has developed a pesticide that should eradicate the ravenous moths.
However, Ms Iweka, says the fact that tomatoes have become a culinary staple is ironic as they are not native to Nigeria.
"Traditionally, we would not have used tomatoes in any of the wide variety of dishes we have: Yam pottage, bean casserole, okro soup, oha soup, onugbu soup, nsala soup."
It's the love of rice that has led to the tomato anguish, as "most Nigerians eat rice at least once a day", she says.
"However, we do have other sauces that can be eaten with rice: Ayamase stew, thickened fisherman's soup, curry, various vegetable soups, bean casserole."
And the four quoted cooks have given the BBC permission to reproduce their recipes to help Nigerians through this time of "tomato-geddon".
Ingredients: Two red bell peppers (about 550g); seeded and quartered, one large onion (about 200g); peeled and quartered, one small onion (about 60g), peeled and thickly sliced, one scotch bonnet chilli, about 8g (or to taste optional); four tablespoon fresh thyme; 300ml groundnut or other vegetable oil.
Instructions
Liquidise the bell peppers, quarter onion and chilli (optional) with little water - aim for a fairly chunky mixture. Place oil and sliced onions in a pan and fry until the onions turn black. Remove and discard them. Turn down the heat and fry the tomato puree for a minute or so and then add the thyme and liquidised vegetables.
Continue to fry the stew on a low to medium heat for about 20-30 minutes and the mixture will reduce. You will know it's ready when the oil floats to the top. Any  additions such as cooked/fried meat, fish or chicken should be made now. Cook for a further five-10 minutes to heat them through.  Drain the oil and serve
Ingredients: Three onions; eight to 10 potatoes; one medium cabbage; six carrots; four cloves of garlic and a few chicken breasts.
Instructions: Boil chicken pieces and set aside, then boil some small potatoes, drain and set aside. Heat the oil in a pan on a medium heat, add onions, garlic and carrots. Cook for eight minutes stirring continuously then add a small amount of chicken broth, now add the chicken pieces and the boiled potato. Add salt and seasoning. Reduce the heat and mix in corn flour with water and pour in. Then add some shredded cabbage and allow to simmer for few minutes. Serve with rice, spaghetti or anything you like. Serves five.
Ingredients: Tatshe (red bell peppers); shombo pepper (long red chilli) use half or all; a few ata rodo (scotch bonnet or habanera pepper) - the bigger ones are not as hot as the small; ginger; three or four fairly large onions; half an iru (fermented locust bean) - if you like iru for fuller flavour use all and garlic is good alternative if you don't like iru; vegetable oil; ike eran(hump of the cow); palm oil (optional but good to use if the stew is too hot.
Instructions: Blend all the ingredients into a smooth paste then check the taste.  Here you can add more ata rodo (scotch bonnet) if it's not hot enough. Place in a pot and bring to the boil this intensifies the pepper mix and develops the rich red colour. Heat the oil and add chopped onions, add more iru if you want and extra garlic. Add the boiled pepper and allow to fry until thickened. Lighten with beef stock or fried meat. Taste and then add more seasoning as need.
Ingredients: One kilo of beef; one or two shombo pepper (long red chillies); one medium sized onion: two or three tatashe's (bell peppers); a piece of ginger; palm oil; groundnut oil; salt; seasoning cube; two or three pieces of rodo (scotch bonnets).
Instructions: Cut up the beef, season, cook on medium heat with half a cup of water; de-seed and rinse the peppers. (Keep seeds if you want a hot stew). Blend peppers until smooth then in a separate pot add one cooking spoon of groundnut oil and one cooking spoon of palm oil. Next add the piece of peeled ginger for flavour then pour in the blended peppers. check the beef, it should be tender, sieve the stock and pour into the stew. Cook on a medium heat for 15-20 minutes stirring occasionally. After 15 minutes add the beef, reduce the heat and simmer for 5-10 minutes. Turn off the heat and let cool for two minutes.