Cómo cargar datos JSON en el componente Angular2

Después de ejecutar muchos tutoriales en tinterweb, finalmente comencé a intentar construir algo útil para mí usando Angular2 y me encontré con mi primer problema. Parece que no puedo cargar datos JSON en mi componente de servicio.

mi archivo people.json se almacena en una carpeta llamada datos en la carpeta superior.

people.json

"people":[
    { age: 40, name: "Jordan Houston" },
        { age: 38, name: "Robert Eastham" },
        { age: 23, name: "Josh Beh" },
        { age: 23, name: "Joseph Canina" },
        { age: 24, name: "Alexandra Wilkins" },
        { age: 22, name: "Kiersten Costanzo" },
        { age: 23, name: "Ku Sherwood" },
        { age: 25, name: "Arta Halili" },
        { age: 24, name: "Patrick Cooney" },
        { age: 23, name: "Z.A. Perr" },
        { age: 18, name: "Tyler Mulligan" },
        { age: 26, name: "Dennis Dempsey" },
        { age: 32, name: "Francis Yeager" },
        { age: 23, name: "Phil Belardi" }
]

Creo que mi problema radica en friends.service.ts

friend.service.ts

import {Injectable} from 'angular2/core';
import {Http, HTTP_PROVIDERS} from 'angular2/http';

@Injectable()

export class FriendService { 

    friends:Array<any>;

    constructor(private http:Http) 
        {
            //console.log(">>friend.service.ts:constructor--")
            http.request('./data/people.json')
                    .subscribe(response => this.friends = response.json()));
    }

        getFriends()
        {
            //console.log(">>friend.service.ts:getFriends--")
            console.log(this.friends)
            return this.friends
        }   
}

friend.service.ts se usa dentro de friend.component.ts

friend.component.ts

import { Component } from 'angular2/core'; 
import { FriendService } from 'app/friend.service';

@Component({
    selector: 'my-friends',
      providers: [FriendService],
        styles: [`
             div { 
                 background-color:#EFEFEF;
                 margin-bottom:15px;
                 padding:15px;
                 border:1px solid #DDD;
                 box-shadow:2px 2px 2px 0 rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.3);
                border-radius:3px;
            }
        h2 { 
            text-align: center;
        }
    `],
    template: `
        <h1>Hello from the {{ componentName }}!</h1>
        <div *ngFor="#f of friends">
            <h3>Name: {{ f.name }}</h3> 
            <h4>Age: {{ f.age }}</h4> 
        </div>
    `
})


export class FriendComponent {

    componentName: 'FriendComponent';

        constructor(private _friendService: FriendService) 
        {
        this.friends = _friendService.getFriends();
    }
} 

esto vive dentro de main.ts

main.ts

import { Component } from 'angular2/core';
import { bootstrap } from 'angular2/platform/browser';

import { FriendComponent } from 'app/friend.component';
import {HTTP_PROVIDERS} from 'angular2/http';


@Component({
  selector: 'my-app',
    directives: [FriendComponent],
  styles: [`
  h1 {
    color:#545454;
    background:#02A8F4;
    padding:15px;
    box-shadow:2px 2px 2px 0 rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.3);
  }
  `]
  template: `
  <div>
  <h1>Hello from the {{componentName}}.</h1>
  <my-friends></my-friends>
  </div>
  `
})
export class AppComponent {
  componentName: 'AppComponent'
}

bootstrap(AppComponent,[HTTP_PROVIDERS])

... y aquí está la página de índice ...

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
  <script>document.write('<base href="' + document.location + '" />');</script>

  <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
  <!--Add Bootstrap CSS Styles-->
  <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/bootstrap/3.3.6/css/bootstrap.min.css">

  <!-- IE required polyfills, in this exact order -->
  <script src="https://cdnjs.,cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/es6-shim/0.34.1/es6-shim.js"></script>
  <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/systemjs/0.19.20/system-polyfills.js"></script>
  <script src="https://npmcdn.com/angular2/es6/dev/src/testing/shims_for_IE.js"></script>

  <!-- Angular polyfill required everywhere -->
  <script src="https://code.angularjs.org/2.0.0-beta.8/angular2-polyfills.js"></script>

  <script src="https://code.angularjs.org/tools/system.js"></script>
  <script src="https://code.angularjs.org/tools/typescript.js"></script>
  <script src="https://code.angularjs.org/2.0.0-beta.8/Rx.js"></script>
  <script src="https://code.angularjs.org/2.0.0-beta.8/angular2.dev.js"></script>
  <script src="https://code.angularjs.org/2.0.0-beta.8/router.dev.js"></script>
  <script src="https://code.angularjs.org/2.0.0-beta.8/http.dev.js"></script>

  <script>
      System.config({
        transpiler: 'typescript', 
        typescriptOptions: { emitDecoratorMetadata: true }, 
        packages: {
          'api': {defaultExtension: 'ts'}, 
          'app': {defaultExtension: 'ts'} 
        } 
      });
    System.import('app/main')
          .then(null, console.error.bind(console));
  </script>

</head>
<body class="container">

  <my-app>Loading...</my-app>

</body>
</html>

Cualquier ayuda sería muy apreciada;)

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