orospakr@aegir:~$ php
<?
function unhtmlentities ($string) {
   $trans_tbl1 = get_html_translation_table (HTML_ENTITIES);
   foreach ( $trans_tbl1 as $ascii => $htmlentitie ) {
       $trans_tbl2[$ascii] = '&#'.ord($ascii).';';
   }
   $trans_tbl1 = array_flip ($trans_tbl1);
   $trans_tbl2 = array_flip ($trans_tbl2);
   return strtr (strtr ($string, $trans_tbl1), $trans_tbl2);
}

echo(unhtmlentities('What&#039;s happening in the riding?'));
What&#039;s happening in the riding?orospakr@aegir:~$