Olympic Countdown - The London Philharmonic Orchestra has finished recording more than 200 national anthems for the Olympic and Paralympic Games next year. The epic challenge took 52 recording hours at Abbey Road Studios and finished with Zimbabwe on Sunday. The orchestra had only 10 to 12 minutes to sight read and record each piece. Olympic gold medallist Jonathan Edwards made a contribution to God Save the Queen, playing the last cymbal crash.
Cultural Olympiad - Sign language, hip-hop and Maori are just some of the diverse ways in which all of Shakespeare's plays will be performed at London's Globe Theatre as part of 2012's Cultural Olympiad. The theatre's artistic director Dominic Dromgoole described Globe to Globe as both "bizarre and exciting". He said it will be the first time a full Shakespeare play is performed in British Sign Language for an audience of both deaf and hearing people.
West End News - Wickedwill celebrate five years in the West End this week, having grossed £145m at the box office. The show is ninth longest running musical currently playing in the West End and the 18th longest running West End musical of all time. In December 2010, it became the first West End show to gross more than £1 million at the box office in a single week.
In The Courts - A 12-member jury has been chosen for the trial of Michael Jackson's personal doctor - more than two years after the star's death. Seven men and five women were selected from a panel of nearly 400 people. This involved completing a 30-page questionnaire about Jackson and the media coverage of his death in June 2009 in Los Angeles. Dr Conrad Murray has pleaded not guilty to charges of involuntary manslaughter. The trial is due to start today, Tuesday.
(Jim Evans)
