Diamond Jubilee

The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall are to begin a Diamond Jubilee tour in honour of the Queen in Papua New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand in a two-week trip.

Charles and Camilla's celebration of her 60-year reign will include a traditional Aussie barbecue with outback sheep farmers and time with race goers at the Melbourne Cup.

They will also be given a sneak preview of the film The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey by director Peter Jackson.

The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh have greeted guests during a reception for organisers and supporters of the celebrations for the Diamond Jubilee at Buckingham Palace.

Gary Barlow said he and the other performers feared the summer's Diamond Jubilee Concert would be cancelled on the day amid heavy rain and the Duke of Edinburgh's health scare.

William & Kate: The South Seas Tour tells the story of the Diamond Jubilee tour that became much tougher for the royal couple then they could have expected. Mary Nightingale was on the tour with them and saw all the highs and lows.

William & Kate: The South Seas Tour is on ITV1 and ITV1HD on Sunday at 10.20pm.

The GDP figures released today suggest that the extra bank holiday for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee and the washout start to the summer did not have as much of an effect as previously feared.

Economists believe the extra bank holiday may have knocked as much as 0.5% off GDP, but the ONS said it was too early to measure the effect.

There are fears that the economy will struggle to pull out of its double-dip recession in the current quarter as the eurozone debt crisis slows global growth.

Members of the public have started gathering in the Isle of Wight to watch the The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh end their regional Diamond Jubilee tour of the UK.

The royal party will arrive in Cowes aboard the ship Leander through a parade of sail featuring a series of superyachts before being greeted with a 21-gun salute.

Electrical goods were supported by Euro 2012, which prompted sales of TVs, while laptops, e-book readers and tablet computers continued to sell well.