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The first pictures have been released from the stage adaptation of Shakespeare in Love.

The adaptation of the Oscar-winning 1998 movie is currently in previews at London's Noël Coward Theatre.

It has been adapted for the stage by Lee Hall (Billy Elliot) and features a company of 28 actors and musicians.

It is directed by Declan Donnellan and designed by Nick Ormerod, and tickets are on sale now.

Tom Bateman plays William Shakespeare and Viola de Lesseps is played by Lucy Briggs-Owen.

Anna Carteret plays Queen Elizabeth and Tony Bell takes on the role of Ralph.

"Everyone who loves the theatre loves what Tom Stoppard and Marc Norman created with the miracle that is Shakespeare in Love," said Thomas Schumacher, President and Producer of Disney Theatrical Productions.

"It is a Valentine to the Theatre and what better way to celebrate that than to turn to consummate theatre artists; Declan, Nick, Lee and...

London, Sept 06: Meet a British professor, who has won a gong for training a tortoise how to yawn.

Dr Anna Wilkinson, 30, at the University of Lincoln spent six months train a red-footed tortoise called Alexandra to yawn on command, while proving that other tortoises could not do the same.

The resulting study, entitled 'No Evidence of Contagious Yawning in the Red-Footed Tortoise', last week won the physiology award at the Ig Nobels, handed out by the science humour magazine Annals of Improbable Research for studies that "first make people laugh, then think".

Wilkinson said the award would 'contribute.

Stalwart of the TV police series Juliet Bravo

Noel Collins, who has died of cancer aged 74, was a linchpin of the police series Juliet Bravo throughout its entire six-series run. As Sergeant George Parrish, he was familiar for his "Yes, ma'am" response to consecutive uniformed inspectors Jean Darblay (Stephanie Turner) and Kate Longton (Anna Carteret). Parrish and his male colleagues were seen adjusting to working with a female boss in the BBC programme, which was launched a decade before the more hard-edged Prime Suspect – although four months after ITV's The Gentle Touch, which starred Jill Gascoine as a detective inspector.

The pace of life was slow in Juliet Bravo, whose title came from a police call-sign. The series (1980-85), set in the fictional Lancashire town of Hartley and described by one television critic as "Dixon in skirts", was also notable for being the flipside to its creator Ian Kennedy-Martin's previous,...