What should I buy to hook up my Compaq laptop to my Panasonic Viera 720P HD TV?

I have a Compaq CQ61-420US 15,6" notebook/laptop computer that I'd like to hook up to my Panasonic Viera XL Series TC-L26X1 26" 720P LCD HDTV so I can view photos, downloaded videos and hear MP3 music on my TV from my computer. What is my best bet to buy cables that will do the job (for video and audio). I was checking out VGA cables at Amazon.com and am not sure just what I need so any advice you experts can give me will be much appreciated (and may help others who want to do something similar).

Wasn't sure where to post this question but here seemed the best place.

1.8M HDMI Male to SVGA VGA M Converter A/V Cable Lead: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics
for Video, and
3.5mm Jack to 2 x RCA Phono Stereo Audio Cable 3m Lead: Amazon.co.uk: Musical Instruments
for Audio

Thanks Terry, even though I'm in the USA and deal with Amazon in the US. BTW: I use Cox Cable with both the laptop computer and TV.

Terry is in the UK - but he wasn't providing you the link to buy from necessarily, just to show you what to buy.

What I eventually ended up doing was buy a $40 video converter from Amazon plus a HDMI cable; I connected one end of the VGA cable from my laptop to the converter VGA slot and the HDMI cable from the converter to the HDMI on the back of my HDTV plus an audio cable from the laptop to the converter. It seems to work OK for such an inexpensive converter although it acts finicky sometimes. It does narrow the width of the resolution on my computer screen a bit but does show up widescreen on the TV. If I move the computer a few inches I seem to get green interference lines on the TV screen and have to unplug the VGA connection and plug them in again and tighten them and it works OK again. Also there is no on/off switch so I have to unplug the converter when I'm not using it.

Now a question: I have several cable premium channels that I pay a monthly fee for and can record movies or TV shows/specials on my DVD recorder for my own personal collection. One of the cable stations, EPIX also has an internet
only streaming service called EPIX HD, which has several novies from the 1940's and 1950's that is not shown of their cable station that I'd like to record on DVD-R for my own collection but I haven't been able to find anyway to do this. I've checked orbit downloader, stream Transport and other downloaders but none seem to work. GetFLV says you can record EPIX HD but reviews say it's a scam to get your money. Is there a way to record EPIX HD on my computer I'm not aware of? It's so crazy that I can record movies from EPIX on my cable service but not on my computer!

I am sure if EPIX wanted you to be able to record the Stream from your PC, they would allow for the items to be downloaded. Trying to record the stream will most likely violate your Terms of Use with the company and could get your service suspended, as could recording the shows from their TV Channel as well while not using their DVR Service.