BBC's famous soap, The Archers, blazed a trail to Glastonbury yesterday for an unusual birth. Cast and producers from Radio 4's Middle England saga set up camp at the pop festival to record background ambience for the early arrival of Kate Aldridge's daughter.
Scenes were recorded close to Glastonbury's stone circle and then played down the line to London in time for last night's episode. Played by Kelly Bright, single mother Kate (20) initially blamed an indigestible festival beanburger for her discomfort when she went into labour three weeks early.
Archers researchers discovered babies are born at Glastonbury almost every year, and the festival has on-site medical facilities able to cope with emergencies.
French President Jacques Chirac yesterday praised South Africa's Archbishop Desmond Tutu on the third and final day of a whistle-stop tour of the country. "Archbishop, I salute in you a man . . . who was and is the conscience and inspiration of South Africa, a man of dignity," Chirac told Tutu before awarding him France's Legion of Honour medal at a reception at a wine estate near Stellenbosch. Chirac has already visited Namibia as part of his mission to forge closer ties with southern Africa.
Princes William and Harry are to visit the island grave of their mother, Princess Diana. It will be the first time they have been to the island on the Althorp estate in Northamptonshire together since the princess was buried there last September. A spokeswoman for Earl Spencer, the princess's brother, said a date for the visit had been agreed between the earl and the royal family.
Former Beatle George Harrison (54) has spoken for the first time of his battle to beat throat cancer. "I'm not going to die on you folks just yet. I am very lucky," he told the News of the World.
Last month doctors gave Harrison the all-clear after he had undergone weeks of radiation therapy on a cancerous lump on his neck.