Winds of change
Twelve miles off the Kent and Essex coast, construction begins this year on London Array, the largest offshore wind farm in the world. With 341 turbines, installed over a four-year period, it will eclipse the 100-turbine wind farm in Thanet, and aims to generate up to 1,000 MW of electricity, sufficient to power 750,000 homes.
Seen it all all before?
As the world braces itself for the eighth, and final, Harry Potter movie, the entertainment industry continues to operate on the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" principle. So expect further outings from Kung Fu Panda, Iron Man, Cars, Transformers, Spy Kids, X-Men, Mission Impossible, Pirates of the Caribbean and Scream.
In the same vein, the trend of recycling films into musicals continues, with both Shrek and Ghost set to get the treatment this year. However, with music by Andrew Lloyd-Webber, lyrics by Tim Rice, a starring role for Michael Crawford and a Dorothy selected from a reality TV show, the new musical version of The Wizard of Oz surely can't fail to be London's latest theatrical blockbuster, opening on 1 March.
And who needs new blood when Take That continue to set pulses racing? The original boy band have shrugged off their differences and will be hitting the road on their first tour as a five-piece since 1995. Fans snapped up more than a million £55 tickets in 24 hours in October, and 11 dates were added due to popular demand.
The main events
This year's major sporting attraction is undoubtedly the Rugby World Cup, to be held in New Zealand from 9 September to 23 October. The largest sports event ever to have been held in the country, it's expected to cost around £150m to run and should generate around £135m in ticket sales. For the first time a team from Russia features among the 20 competing nations.
The ICC Cricket World Cup takes place in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh from 19 February to 2 April, and its organisers will be hoping that headlines will be made by performances on the pitch rather than by unseemly betting scams off it. And the promoters of the inaugural Indian Grand Prix will be hoping that the new circuit near Delhi will be completed in time.
blog comments powered by
