New Zealand born actress Nyree Dawn Porter has died, aged 61. Her death was sudden, as she has not been suffering any long term illness.
Miss Porter is best known for her performance as Irene in the 1960s TV drama The Forsyte Saga, based on the novels by John Galsworthy. It was an international hit, being seen by over 160 million people worldwide.
Her last appearance onstage was in 1999 when she appeared alongside Corin Redgrave and Kika Markham in Noel Coward's Song of Twilight at the King's Head.
Entertainer Sir Harry Secombe has died at the age of 79. He began to have radiothearpy for prostate cancer in 1998 and had a stroke in 1999, which is when he decided to retire.
He is probably best remembered for the anarchic radio comedy series The Goon Show, which ran from 1951 to 1960. With him in the show were Michael Bentine, Peter Sellars and Spike Milligan. One of his greatest fans was the Prince of Wales who said that he was "one of the great life enhancers of our age and gave pleasure and constant happy laughter to so many of us throughout his life."
An all-round entertainer, he was both comedian and singer (he once described his voice as not so much "bel canto" as "can belto"), and he created the role of Pickwick in the stage musical of that name in 1963. He also appeared in the films Oliver! and Song of Norway.
He was a committed Christian and, being Welsh, had a strong chapel background. The work which most recently brought him before the public was his presenting of two religious TV shows, Songs of Praise for the BBC and Highway for ITV. He was knighted for services to entertainment and charity in 1981.
A new 400-seater theatre is to be built in the Welsh town of Wrexham. A Lottery grant of £3.9m has been given towards the total cost of £4.5m. The theatre is a joint project of Wrexham Council, Yale College Wrexham and the Wrexham Arts Association.
The Shaw Theatre in London's Euston Road, once the home of the National Youth Theatre, is to reopen in May. It is unlikey that the Shaw will be used for theatre full-time: present proposals suggest that it will be more economic to split the time 50/50 between performances and conferences.
The theatre closed in 1994.
A new agency designed to promote touring music, dance and drama around theatres and arts centres in Wales, Creu Cymru - Asiantaeth Teithio i Gymru/The Touring Agency for Wales, has been launched. Creu Cymru means "Creative Wales": the agency's aim is to co-ordinate tours and guarantee work for touring companies, which means that there should be a much wider range of touring product available for Welsh venues and, because of economies of scale, it should be cheaper.
Part of its job will be to encourage the development of work which originates in Wales, whether in English or Welsh.
Membership currently stands at 31, which includes all of the major theatres and arts centres in Wales, and it is hoped that the figure will continue to grow.
Creu Cymru is based in Aberystwyth.
The Society for Theatre Research's Theatre Book Prize for 2000 has been awarded to Nicholas de Jongh, theatre critic for the "London Evening Standard", for his book Politics, Prudery and Perversion ... Censorship 1906-68.
The National Lottery Heritage Fund has give a grant of £3.85m to the Hackney Empire for its restoration. This matches the funding already raised by the private sector and refurbishment will begin next month.