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Cradock in the News: At the Cradock Annual Patriotic Salute in Portsmouth, small business vendors and food trucks set up shop, a DJ played music and about 13 kids rode bikes and scooters, parade-style, around Afton Square … Read more on: “Cradock” – BingNews
Cradock in the News:
At the Cradock Annual Patriotic Salute in Portsmouth, small business vendors and food trucks set up shop, a DJ played music and about 13 kids rode bikes and scooters, parade-style, around Afton Square …
Read more on: “Cradock” – BingNews
Cradock in the News: After nearly a year under some degree of lockdown restrictions, businesses in Leicester – the UK city that was the first to be plunged into a local lockdown – are more than ready to open their doors … Read more on: “Cradock” – BingNews
Cradock in the News:
After nearly a year under some degree of lockdown restrictions, businesses in Leicester – the UK city that was the first to be plunged into a local lockdown – are more than ready to open their doors …
Read more on: “Cradock” – BingNews
That Was the Year That Was – 2002 Image by brizzle born and bred The aura of terrorist assaults loomed large in 2002 with deadly attacks in Bali, Moscow and the Middle East. Meanwhile, the U.S. hunted al Qaeda in Afghan caves, prepared to face off Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and fended off snipers around …
That Was the Year That Was – 2002
Image by brizzle born and bred
The aura of terrorist assaults loomed large in 2002 with deadly attacks in Bali, Moscow and the Middle East. Meanwhile, the U.S. hunted al Qaeda in Afghan caves, prepared to face off Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and fended off snipers around its capital — all as the dust continued to settle from the catastrophic events of September 11, which marked its one-year anniversary.
More than three weeks of terror culminated October 24 with the early morning arrest of two men at a Maryland rest stop, ending a wave of sniper attacks that turned suburban gas stations and strip malls near the nation’s capital into hunting grounds. Authorities say John Allen Muhammad, a Gulf War veteran, and John Lee Malvo, a 17-year-old from Jamaica, shot and killed 10 victims and wounded three others in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. Authorities later linked the pair to earlier shootings in Atlanta, Georgia; Montgomery, Alabama; and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
The year 2002 was the one in which the United States gave the United Nations a chance to avoid a war. But as the year ended it seemed that the UN’s chance was disappearing. On 19 December the United States declared Iraq in "material breach" of Security Council resolution 1441 and war loomed early in the new year. Mr Bush chose the UN route. Many had thought that President Bush would not turn to the United Nations. But he did.
On 7 December, a day before the deadline, Iraq produced its declaration, in which it denied having any nuclear, chemical or biological weapons. But the United States and Britain said that the declaration was not good enough. It failed to explain, they said, what had happened to prohibited chemical and biological agents previously unaccounted for.
For many Russians the abiding and dark memories of the year will be, the shocking images of the Moscow theatre siege. Few in the Russian capital will ever forget the shocking images of the Moscow theatre siege – the masked Chechen gunmen, wielding Kalashnikovs and hand grenades. Their female accomplices were almost more terrifying, covered from head to foot in black, their veils bearing Islamic slogans, their waists wrapped with belts full of explosives. And for ordinary Muscovites today, there is definitely a sense of looking around more carefully, a slight feeling of uneasiness when in a crowded public place – a scar on the city’s psyche that will take some time to heal.
UK News
A look back at the major UK stories of 2002. In the Queen’s Golden Jubilee year, the Royal Family suffers two bereavements. Two UK government ministers quit and the prime minister’s wife is forced to explain her dealings with a convicted fraudster.
On 10 December, a tearful Cherie Blair apologises for the embarrassment she caused in buying flats in Bristol with the help of convicted fraudster Peter Foster. The statement fails to halt the media storm surrounding the controversy.
On 13 November, the first national firefighters’ strike for 25 years begins with troops attending hundreds of call-outs within hours. The 48-day strike over pay is followed by another eight day walkout, before the industrial action is halted ahead of renewed negotiations.
On 10 May, a train ploughs off the tracks at Potters Bar station, Hertfordshire, killing seven people and injuring 70 more on the train and the platform. A decision on a public inquiry into the crash is not due to be made before spring 2003.
It’s a funny old game!
The Queen experienced hers a couple of years back, but 2002 was truly David Seaman’s annus horribilus. England’s ‘number one’ had more balls over his head than a juggling troupe – and even a trim of his famous pony-tail failed to do the trick. Seaman’s only saving grace came courtesy of his daughter’s obsession with Teletubbies, which prevented him seeing the constant replays of that free kick.
Manchester United misfit Juan Veron was another who admitted to a Tubby fixation – although Laa-Laa and Tinky Winky probably make more sense than a Fergie team talk. Unlike Veron, Ronaldo enjoyed a glorious World Cup – even if he didn’t manage to score off the pitch. A 40-day nookie ban for the Brazilian players worked wonders, with the buck-toothed boy gleefully announcing after the final that he would "be having sex in a few moments".
Ronaldo didn’t do so well on the haircut front, his bizarre triangle creation vying with David Beckham’s dead chicken and Christian Ziege’s landing strip for football’s worst barnet. Thank God for David Seaman, they chorused.
Elsewhere, an excited dairy farmer named one of his herd Beckham. Still, no more ridiculous than calling your second-born Romeo. Meanwhile, in the land of the suits, Keith Harris left the FA (Orville is tipped to return as chief executive) – and the good people of Hartlepool elected the football club’s monkey mascot H’Angus as mayor.
Thankfully the Commonwealth Games raised a titter, in the shape of intrepid Kenyan cyclists George and Arthur – who went for a practice ride on the M61.
Luckily, they came away unharmed – which is more than can be said for Seaman.
What’s on TV ?
Reality TV dominated the tabloids and ITV digital went bust but 2002 also brought us 24, Six Feet Under, Tipping the Velvet, the Great Britons debate and… primetime Bargain Hunt. As soon as we were out of Christmas 2001 the TV brought us what can only be described as an eclectic mix. New BBC chat show Johnny Vaughan Tonight started off as a clone of America’s David Letterman on BBC One and BBC Choice. A new series of Sex In The City continued to be a hit on Channel 4 but Big Train, the daft sketch show on BBC Two, has been almost forgotten.
ITV1’s Pop Idol reached its big final in February after what seemed like six months. The BBC launched an awful lot of TV and radio channels in 2002 and in February the big news was CBBC and Cbeebies, while March brought BBC Four – a conscious attempt to mimic BBC Radio 4, which almost killed off digital satellite channel Artsworld.
Ted and Alice on BBC One was a peculiar mix of romance and science fiction that escaped most but made fans of many.
Initially much more successful, though it did tail off, was ITV1’s The Forsyte Saga. Channel 5 grabbed all the ex-Top Gear staff for Fifth Gear while the BBC finally brought us The Falklands Play, shown 15 years after it was first commissioned. Reality TV continued with The Edwardian Country House on Channel 4.
Channel 4 also gave us the tremendous The Book Group comedy and the series that reassembled the original cast of Auf Wiedersehen Pet was a hit for BBC One.
April was also the month that Rise started on Channel 4 – and flopped, although access to the Big Brother 3 contestants from May gave it a short-lived boost. ITV Digital viewers were not so happy that month as their screens went blank. Channel 4 gambled that V Graham Norton could work five nights a week – and it did. Frasier ran its so-so reunion of the Cheers cast on the same channel while BBC One measured our IQ in Test the Nation.
Ant and Dec starred in A Tribute To The Likely Lads on ITV1 but only managed to mimic the original. Hot real time US thriller 24 continued to stop our hearts on BBC Two. All through the summer The West Wing continued to be tremendous and was joined on Channel 4 by Six Feet Under, the instant-hit cult US drama.
In July, James Bolam was chilling in ITV1’s Shipman, but the drama itself was surprisingly limp. Comedian Peter Kay’s second run of Phoenix Nights on Channel 4 was a hit in August. BBC One had the luck to have finished Ella and the Mothers – about IVF – as news of an IVF mix-up broke.
Daytime hit Bargain Hunt moved to prime-time on BBC One but the move went to its head and the result was surprisingly dire.
ITV1’s I’m a Celebrity – Get Me Out of Here had an unwieldy title but, although modelled on the Survivor reality TV format, at least did not have the word "survivor" in it. Nobody expected a celebrity version to do well, but it did. Documentaries on all channels marked the anniversary of the World Trade Centre destruction throughout a sombre September. The BBC’s revamped The Saturday Show was relaunched yet again but apart from new presenters and a Saturday Top of the Pops, it looked the same. Channel 5 became Five.
Partly to escape watching ITV1’s Popstars: The Rivals, 12 people managed to get into BBC One’s Fame Academy and for a while in October it looked like only their families were watching the show.
Michael Palin darted around the Sahara very quickly for the BBC, while the audience for Fame Academy grew very slowly. Ratings for The Office boomed for its second run on BBC Two and nosedived for Mr Right on ITV1, both entirely on merit.
BBC Two protested that Tipping the Velvet was not lewd but more people cared about its Great Britons poll – and Freeview, the replacement for ITV Digital, started at the end of the month. Months after it appeared here on MTV, The Osbournes became a hit on Channel 4 in November.
But a much greater hit for the channel was Jamie’s Kitchen, while we also saw Dead Ringers become a TV series, The Life of Mammals and Celebrity Big Brother. BBC and ITV pulled back from direct competition and gave us Daniel Deronda and Dr Zhivago on different nights.
Almost no-one watched BBC One’s The Project about New Labour, but it was good. Amazingly, BBC Two’s I’m Alan Partridge was not. Fame Academy finally became a hit in December, if not in ratings then at least critically, as showdowns saw some great characters like Ainslie and Malachi depart. More quietly, C4 began music show Born Sloppy and admitted Rise needed surgery as it dropped presenters.
BBC Two’s Wit ended the year with a marvellous performance by Emma Thompson as a cancer victim.
A Golden Jubilee tinged with sadness
It will be remembered as the year of two funerals and a jubilee and for the strange saga of the Crown v Burrell the butler. It was a year when the critics of monarchy were confounded by the public’s commitment to the institution, and the supporters of monarchy confused by a court case and the ripples which flowed from it. In the early weeks of 2002 there were widespread predictions that the Golden Jubilee was going to be a wholesale flop.
Those who offered such an analysis either ignored or were ignorant of the fact that precisely the same sort of predictions had been made in the early months of the Silver Jubilee year of 1977. On that occasion Britain was in the grip of a major financial crisis and, it was suggested, no-one would have the time, money or inclination for something as frivolous as a jubilee. But as spring gave way to summer the crowds came out. It happened in 2002 in much the same way as it did in 1977. Of course there were differences. Britain is different. Our attitude to the monarchy is different.
It would be strange if that wasn’t the case and, frankly, inconceivable after the turbulent times the royal family has put itself through in recent years. But what we witnessed in the early part of 2002 seemed to be the response of a country which remains essentially monarchist by instinct or, at the very least, which remains respectful of and grateful to this particular monarch for the qualities which she has embodied for the past 50 years.
Without question the death of the Queen’s younger sister, Princess Margaret, in February and – most especially – the death just seven weeks later of her mother helped to crystallise Britain’s feelings about its monarchy. Emotions which had, to an extent, lain dormant in recent years were re-kindled. The Queen Mother was in her 102nd year when she passed away on the Saturday of the Easter weekend. It was not unexpected, but for many it was still a shock. And despite her "eccentricities" (she was extravagant with cash and champagne, suspicious of change and had a view of the world rooted in the days of the British Empire) she represented those facets of the monarchy which a great many Britons still cherish. The most important of these is the ability to connect a country with its past history.
And so it was perhaps not so surprising that so many people made the journey to Westminster Hall and waited for so many hours in the cold to pay their respects at her coffin. It was – as many noted at the time – her final, perfectly timed gesture of support to the family she had joined nearly 80 years earlier.
Suddenly, it seemed, Britain had re-discovered its affinity with the royals, and there – a few weeks later – was another elderly, silver haired lady beginning her Golden Jubilee tour of Britain and symbolising precisely the same qualities of continuity and dutifulness. The crowds came out in the fishing communities of the south west; the former pit villages of the north east and in many of the big towns and cities across the United Kingdom (though it must be said that Glasgow and Edinburgh seemed a little half-hearted).
There were parties, pageants, concerts and services of thanksgiving. And to cap it all a million people gathered on the Mall to wave their flags and cheer as the Queen and her family made one of the most triumphant balcony appearances of her reign.
It seemed that the monarchy had finally put the bad times behind it. It was even being suggested that the Queen was coming round to the idea of Mrs Camilla Parker Bowles as a possible future daughter-in-law. But then came the case of Regina v Burrell and one of the most bizarre trials to have been played out in the Number One court of the Old Bailey. It ended with a spectacular example of Queen’s evidence and a welter of questions and suspicions.
Mr Burrell, the former butler to Diana Princess of Wales, was cleared of theft and exonerated. The royal family wasn’t so fortunate. The trial has re-kindled an impression of an institution which is beset with problems (most of which, it must be said, are focused on St James’ Palace) and which, once again, is being buffeted by hostile waters.
Soham’s summer of sorrow
Until this year, few people in Britain had even heard of Soham. This small community in the fens of Cambridgeshire had never before been the focus of such intense news coverage. All that changed on a summer’s evening, when two schoolgirls went out for a walk and never returned home.
In the following days, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman became the focus of a nation’s anxiety. The image of the two friends, wearing their matching David Beckham football shirts, burned into people’s minds as they followed the desperate search. The photograph was all the more poignant because it had been taken just minutes before they disappeared. At first there were hopes that the girls had simply wandered off, perhaps to meet someone, and would turn up safe and well. But in everyone’s mind was the possibility – the probability – that they had been abducted.
Cases of children being snatched off the street are still mercifully rare, and consequently make headlines. But the disappearance of two girls, together, was unprecedented. The intensity of the media coverage only increased the sense of foreboding.
Thirteen days after Holly and Jessica vanished, the worst fears of their parents, the police and the public were realised. The bodies of the two girls were discovered in a ditch at Lakenheath, in the neighbouring county of Suffolk, just eight miles from their homes. An inquest was told they had died somewhere else, before being taken there. Further details will only be revealed when the man accused of their murder goes on trial at the Old Bailey. Ian Huntley, who is 28 and a former caretaker, has been examined by a psychiatrist who declared him fit to stand trial.
His 25-year-old girlfriend, Maxine Carr, a former teaching assistant, is charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice.
2002 Timeline
January – Ford unveils its all-new Fiesta supermini, which is due on sale in March. It is announced that a record of 2,450,000 new cars were sold during 2001, breaking the previous record set in 1989. The Ford Focus was Britain’s best selling car for the third year running.
14 January – The end of the Foot and Mouth crisis is declared after 11 months.
8–24 February – Great Britain competes at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, and wins 1 gold and 1 bronze medal.
9 February – Princess Margaret, the Queen’s younger sister, dies after suffering a stroke at the age of 71.
15 February – Funeral of Princess Margaret takes place at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor.
18 February – Thoburn v Sunderland City Council decided.
19 February – Ford ends 90 years of British car production with the loss of more than 2,000 jobs after the last Fiesta was made at its factory in Dagenham. However, the plant will be retained for the production of engines and gearboxes, and Ford will continue to make commercial vehicles at its plant in Southampton.
20 February – Andrew Aston, a 29-year-old Birmingham cocaine addict, is sentenced to 26 concurrent terms of Life imprisonment – officially the longest prison sentence imposed on any criminal in England and Wales – for murdering two elderly people in robberies and attacking 24 others.
27 February – Ryanair Flight 296 catches fire at London Stansted Airport.
March – Vauxhall unveils the all-new Vectra family car, which is due on sale in Summer.
11 March – BBC 6 Music, the first new BBC Radio station in decades, is launched.
21 March – Amanda Dowler, 13, goes missing on her way home from school in Surrey.
22 March – A woman known as "Miss B", who was left quadriplegic last year as a result of a burst blood vessel in her neck, is granted the right to die by the High Court.
29 March – Coal mining in Scotland, which has a history stretching back more than 800 years, comes to an end with the closure of Longannet coal mine in Fife after it floods and the owners go into liquidation, putting more than 500 people out of work.
30 March – Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, dies aged 101 at Royal Lodge, Windsor.
4 April – Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother’s funeral procession from the Chapel Royal at St James’s Palace to Westminster Hall to lie in state.
9 April – Funeral of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother takes place at Westminster Abbey, London. The burial takes place at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor.
23 April – A badly decomposed female body is found in the River Thames; it is feared to be that of Amanda Dowler.
24 April – The body found in the River Thames is identified as that of 73-year-old Mrs Maisie Thomas, who was last seen alive near her home in Shepperton just over a year ago and whose death is not believed to be suspicious.
25 April – Two 16-year-old twin brothers are cleared of murdering 10-year-old Damilola Taylor, who was stabbed to death in South London 17 months ago.
29 April – As part of her Golden Jubilee celebrations, the Queen dines at 10 Downing Street with the five living prime ministers who have served under her; Tony Blair, John Major, Margaret Thatcher, James Callaghan and Edward Heath. She is also joined by several relatives of deceased former prime ministers, including Clarissa Eden, Countess of Avon, widow of prime minister Anthony Eden.
1 May – Airdrieonians, of the Scottish Football League Division One, go into liquidation with debts of £3million. They are the first Scottish senior side to go out of business for 35 years.
4 May – Arsenal win the FA Cup with a 2–0 win over London rivals Chelsea in the final.
8 May – Arsenal win their second double in five seasons (and the third in their history) after a 1–0 away win over defending champions Manchester United.
10 May – Potters Bar rail crash in Hertfordshire kills 7 people.
£5million-rated striker Marlon King, of Gillingham F.C., is jailed for 18 months after being found guilty of handling a stolen £32,000 car.
24 May – Falkirk Wheel boat lift opens in Scotland, also marking reopening of the Union Canal for leisure traffic.
27 May – Former leader of the Liberal Democrats Paddy Ashdown appointed as the international community’s High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina.
28 May – Stephen Byers resigns as Secretary of State for Transport.
2 June – The England national football team’s World Cup campaign, hosted jointly by Japan and South Korea, begins with a 1–1 draw against Sweden.
3 June – The "Party in the Palace" takes place at Buckingham Palace, London for The Queen’s Golden Jubilee celebrations.
4 June – The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh ride in the gold state coach from Buckingham Palace to St Paul’s Cathedral for a special service marking the Queen’s 50 years on the throne. In New York, the Empire State Building is lit in purple for her honour.
7 June – England beat Argentina 1-0 in their second World Cup group game, with the only goal of the game being scored by captain David Beckham.
10 June – First direct electronic communication experiment between the nervous systems of two humans carried out by Kevin Warwick in the University of Reading.
12 June – England qualify for the knockout stages of the World Cup despite only managing a goalless draw against Nigeria.
15 June – England beat Denmark 3-0 in the World Cup second round and reach the quarter-finals for the first time since 1990. Ironically, the far-right British National Party had declared its support for all-white Denmark before the World Cup due to the England team featuring black players.
21 June – England’s hopes of winning the World Cup are ended by a 2–1 defeat to Brazil in the quarter-finals.
25 June – Jason Gifford (27) is shot dead by armed police in Aylesbury after brandishing a shotgun and a machete in a residential street.
July – London City Hall is opened on the south bank of the River Thames, designed by Norman Foster.
1 July – Rochdale Canal, crossing the Pennines, reopened throughout for leisure traffic.
3 July – Decapitation of a statue of Margaret Thatcher: a man decapitates a statue of the former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on display at the Guildhall Art Gallery in London.
5 July – The Imperial War Museum North in Manchester, designed by Daniel Libeskind, opens.
8 July – John Taylor, a 46-year-old parcel delivery worker from Bramley in Leeds, is sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of 16-year-old Leanne Tiernan. Leanne was last seen alive in the city centre on 26 November 2000 and her body was found in the Yorkshire countryside nine months later. Police believed that Taylor may have been responsible for other unsolved sex attacks and murders in the Yorkshire area, and the trial judge has warned Taylor to expect to spend the rest of his life in prison.
9 July – Clydebank F.C. of the Scottish Football League Second Division become defunct after a takeover by the owners of the new Airdrie United club, who take their place in the Scottish league and continue the tradition of senior football in the town of Airdrie following the recent demise of Airdrieonians, whose stadium they will play at.
12 July – Ribble Link waterway opened for leisure traffic.
13 July – Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art opens in the converted Baltic Flour Mill at Gateshead.
22 July – Rio Ferdinand becomes the most expensive player in English football when he completes his £29.1million move from Leeds United to Manchester United.
23 July – Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Wales, elected to be the successor of George Carey as Archbishop of Canterbury.
Leicester City F.C. move into their new 32,000-seat Walker’s Stadium, named under a sponsorship deal with Walker’s Crisps, after 111 years at Filbert Street. It is officially opened by former England striker Gary Lineker, who was born locally and started his playing career with the club.
25 July – The Commonwealth Games, hosted by Manchester are opened by the Queen. The event also marks the opening of the City of Manchester Stadium, which will host the games. It will be partly remodelled after the games are over to become home of Manchester City F.C. from August 2003.
30 July – Heavy rain overnight results in the floods in Glasgow.
August – An outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in Barrow-in-Furness results in seven deaths and 172 cases throughout the month, ranking it as the worst in the UK’s history and fifth worst worldwide.
4 August – 10-year-old girls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman go missing in Soham, Cambridgeshire.
5 August – Police and volunteers in the Soham area begin the search for Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.
7 August – Police investigating the case of the two missing Soham girls seize a white van in nearby Wentworth and admit they are now looking at the case as a possible abduction.
12 August – A possible sighting of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman is reported by a local taxi driver who claims to have seen the driver of a green car struggling with two children and driving recklessly along the A142 into Newmarket on the evening the girls went missing.
13 August – Two mounds of disturbed earth are found at Warren Hill, near Newmarket, in the same area where screams were reported on the night that Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman went missing. It is initially feared that the mounds of earth were the graves of the two girls, but a police examination fails to uncover any link to the girls.
16 August – Ian Huntley, caretaker of Soham Village College, and his girlfriend Maxine Carr, are questioned in connection with the disappearance of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, but are released after seven hours in custody.
17 August – Following the recovery of items of major interest to the police investigation, Ian Huntley and Maxine Carr are re-arrested on suspicion of murder as police admit for the first time that they fear the missing girls are now dead. Several hours later, two "severely decomposed and partially skeletonised" bodies are found in the Lakenheath area; they have not been identified but police say that they are likely to be those of the two missing girls.
21 August – Ian Huntley, detained under the Mental Health Act, is charged with the murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman. His girlfriend Maxine Carr is charged with perverting the course of justice. Both are remanded in custody. Meanwhile, police confirm that the two bodies found at Lakenheath are those of the two girls.
20 September – Police confirm that human remains found in woodland near Fleet in north Hampshire are those of Amanda Dowler, who went missing in Surrey six months ago. A murder investigation is launched.
22 September – An earthquake in Dudley is felt throughout England and Wales.
1 October – Main provisions of National Health Service Reform and Health Care Professions Act (of 25 June) come into force in England, including renaming and merger of existing NHS regional health authorities to form 28 new strategic health authorities, and introduction of Primary Care Trusts to be responsible for the supervision of family health care functions.
9 October – A judge decides that Ian Huntley is fit to face prosecution for the Soham Murders.
14 October – The Northern Ireland Assembly is suspended following allegations of spying in "Stormontgate".
23 October – Estelle Morris resigns as Secretary of State for Education, explaining that she did not feel up to the job.
25 October – Memorial service held at St Paul’s Cathedral for the victims of the Bali bombing, which killed 26 UK citizens.
1 November – Diana, Princess of Wales’ former butler, Paul Burrell, is cleared of stealing from the princess’ estate after it was revealed that he had told The Queen that he was keeping some of her possessions.
13 November – Firefighter’s strike begins.
15 November – Moors Murderer Myra Hindley dies in West Suffolk Hospital at the age of 60 after being hospitalised with a heart attack. She was in the 37th year of her life sentence and had spent the last decade attempting to gain parole, having been told by no less than four Home Secretaries that she would have to spend the rest of her life in prison, having previously increased her minimum term from 25 years to 30 years during the 1980s, and then to a whole life tariff in 1990. Media sources report that the Home Office will soon be stripped of its power to set minimum terms for life sentence prisoners, and Hindley had been widely expected to gain parole in the near future as a result.
20 November – German anatomist Gunther von Hagens conducts a public autopsy in a London theatre; the first in Britain in more than 170 years.
40 years after the first James Bond film was made, the 20th film is released in British cinemas as Pierce Brosnan bows out as Bond in Die Another Day after four films in seven years.
23 November – The Miss World beauty competition is held in London after rioting in the Nigerian capital Lagos prevent it being hosted there.
24 November – Home Secretary David Blunkett rules that four convicted child murderers should spent at least 50 years in prison before being considered for parole. This ruling means that Roy Whiting, Howard Hughes, Timothy Morss and Brett Tyler are likely to remain behind bars until at least the ages of 92, 80, 79 and 81 respectively.
26 November – Politicians in England and Wales lose their power to set minimum terms on life sentence prisoners after the European Court of Human Rights and the High Court both ruled in favour of a legal challenge by convicted double murderer Anthony Anderson. Anderson had been sentenced to life imprisonment in 1988 and the trial judge recommended that he should serve a minimum of 15 years before being considered for parole, but the Home Secretary later decided on a 20-year minimum term.
30 November – Girl band Girls Aloud are formed from the five female contestants who win the ITV talent show Popstars The Rivals.
10 December – Sydney Brenner and John E. Sulston win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with H. Robert Horvitz "for their discoveries concerning ‘genetic regulation of organ development and programmed cell death’".
Cherie Blair apologises for the embarrassment she caused in buying flats with the help of convicted fraudster Peter Foster.
12 December – The latest MORI poll puts Labour four points ahead of the Conservatives on 37%, while the Liberal Democrats are enjoying a new high in popularity with 24% of the vote.
15 December – On the Record, the BBC’s flagship political programme, finishes after 14 years on air.
19 December – Shaied Nazir, Ahmed Ali Awan and Sarfraz Ali all convicted of the racist murder of Ross Parker in Peterborough.
Stuart Campbell, a 44-year-old builder from Grays in Essex, is found guilty of murdering his 15-year-old niece Danielle Jones 18 months ago. Danielle’s body has never been found. It is then revealed that Campbell, who is sentenced to life imprisonment, has a string of previous convictions including keeping an underage girl at his home without lawful authority in 1989.
22 December – Sound of the Underground, Girls Aloud’s first single, is the UK’s Christmas number one.
BedZED (Beddington Zero Energy Development), the country’s first large-scale zero energy housing development, of 99 homes in Beddington, London, designed by Bill Dunster, is completed.
Over 50% of the UK population (well over 30 million people) now has internet access.
Car sales in Britain reach a record level for the second year running, now exceeding 2.5 million for the first time. The Ford Focus is Britain’s best selling car for the fourth year in a row, and Ford Motor Company retains its lead of the manufacturers for British sales, which it has held since 1975. Ford has a total of four model ranges among Britain’s top 10 selling cars, for the first time since 1989. Vauxhall, Peugeot, Renault and Volkswagen also enjoy strong sales.
Television
BBC One
16 April – Cutting It (2002–2005)
21 April – Born and Bred (2002–2005)
13 May – Spooks (2002–2011)
14 May – The Experiment (2002)
6 September – Fame Academy (2002–2003)
23 November – Daniel Deronda (2002)
BBC Two
20 October – Great Britons
16 December – Raven (2002–2010)
BBC Choice
7 November – 15 Storeys High (2002–2004)
CBBC Channel
24 February – UK Top 40 (2002–2005)
31 August – Dick and Dom in da Bungalow (2002–2006)
ITV
8 January – Footballers’ Wives (2002–2006)
11 May – The Vault (2002–2004)
9 July – Shipman
25 August – I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! (2002–present)
A Is for Acid (2002)
Up on the Roof (2002–2005)
27 October – Foyle’s War (2002–2015)
7 November – Russian Roulette (2002–2003)
14 November – Harry Hill’s TV Burp (2002–2012)
24 November – Doctor Zhivago (2002)
Channel 4
29 April – RI:SE (2002–2003)
Channel 5/Five
5 August – BrainTeaser (2002–2007)
Living TV
25 May – Most Haunted (2002—2010)
BRIT Awards
The 2002 BRIT Awards winners were:
Best British Male Solo Artist: Robbie Williams
Best British Female Solo Artist: Dido
Best British Group: Travis
Best British Album: Dido: "No Angel"
Best British Dance Act: Basement Jaxx
Best British Newcomer: Blue
Best International Male: Shaggy
Best International Female: Kylie Minogue
Best International Group: Destiny’s Child
Best International Newcomer: The Strokes
Best International Album: Kylie Minogue – "Fever"
Best British Video: So Solid Crew – "21 Seconds"
Best British Single: S Club 7 – "Don’t Stop Movin’"
Best Pop Act: Westlife
Outstanding Contribution: Sting
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That Was the Year That Was – 1988 Image by brizzle born and bred 1988 The Hubble Space Telescope Goes into operation to explore deep space and is still in full use today mapping our universe. A bomb is exploded on Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie in Scotland on December 21st . Also Prozac …
That Was the Year That Was – 1988
Image by brizzle born and bred
1988 The Hubble Space Telescope Goes into operation to explore deep space and is still in full use today mapping our universe. A bomb is exploded on Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie in Scotland on December 21st . Also Prozac is sold for the first time as an anti-depressant, some of the great movies that year included Rain Man, Die Hard and A Fish Called Wanda.
In the early 1980s, Britain had just begun to slough off its reliance on packet mash and tinned pineapple. With Delia, we discovered kiwi and cranberries; trend-setting restaurants proliferated and "seasonality" started to mean something again. The British tend to mainline on nostalgia, but who hankers for the traditional British culinary experience? Prawn cocktail, steaks that should have been sent to a burns unit, serviettes, frozen food, fondue, gateau festering on pudding trolleys, sliced bread…
In 1988, these were just some of our favourites. "Foreign" meant French. "Vegetarian" meant omelette. "Modern British" meant Garfunkel’s. Food wasn’t invented in Britain until 1987, the year the River Café opened in West London. In the provinces, it was later still. Nostalgia is a dish best served never.
Culinary innovations aside, 1988 boasts no seismic cultural shift – unlike, say, 1966 or 1977. It might have witnessed acid house’s Second Summer of Love, but for most people it was the year Bros stole hearts, Neighbours became must-see after-school viewing and England crashed out of the European Championships in the first round.
Before the deregulating 1990 Broadcasting Act, there was no satellite television in this country. In 1988, British film was in good shape, thanks to the artistically stimulating output of the still-new FilmFour. Spitting Image still mattered, thanks to unbeatable material from the Thatcher government, which was also being wound up by ITV’s documentary Death on the Rock. It was a time before the insane pressures of the global market, when films and TV programmes were made for their own sake, not pitched at demographics.
In 1988 the City of London was coming out of the Big Bang. The deregulation and competition that ensued has transformed London into the biggest international capital market, with banks such as HSBC and the Royal Bank of Scotland taking their place among the world’s best.
1988: when Kylie, Cliff and Ghostbusters ruled
Best-selling single
Cliff Richard’s Mistletoe & Wine
Best-selling album
Kylie Minogue’s Kylie
Highest-grossing movie
Rain Man
Oscar winner
Bernardo Bertolucci, who won nine Oscars for The Last Emperor.
Video game
Super Mario 3 is released. It goes on to sell 18m copies and spawn a television show.
The price of a pint of beer
Around £1
Children’s toys
Ghostbusters toys sell out – with the Slimer toy (complete with bubbles) particularly popular.
Births
Tinie Tempah
Alexandra Burke
Princess Beatrice
Michael Cera
Deaths
Divine
Kenneth Williams
Nico
Roy Orbison
Marriages
Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick
Patsy Kensit and Dan Donavan
Michael J Fox and Tracy Pollan
Mike Tyson and Robin Givens
1988: Jumbo jet crashes onto Lockerbie
A Pan Am jumbo jet with 258 passengers on board has crashed on to the town of Lockerbie near the Scottish borders. Initial reports indicate it crashed into a petrol station in the centre of the town, between Carlisle and Dumfries, and burst into a 300-foot fireball. Hundreds are feared dead as airline officials said flight 103 was about two-thirds full with 255 adults and three children on board. Rescue teams have confirmed there are many casualties at the scene including townspeople who were on the ground. The Boeing 747 left London Heathrow at 1800 GMT bound for New York’s JFK airport. Shortly after 1900 the flight disappeared from radar screens at Prestwick Air Traffic Control Centre.
At 1908-hrs there were reports by the Civil Air Traffic Control Authorities of an explosion on the ground 15 miles north of the Scottish border. Details of the accident are still unclear but there are unconfirmed reports the plane has ploughed into cars and houses. An eyewitness said the aircraft has hit a central part of the town in a residential area. "There was just a terrible explosion, you just couldn’t describe it," he told the BBC. "It is just impossible to approach the town but at the time it went up there was a terrible explosion and the whole sky lit up. "It was virtually raining fire – it was just liquid fire."
Parts of the town are being evacuated and a hall has been converted into a refuge centre. Dumfries and Galloway Hospital, about 20 miles away, is on emergency alert.
Ambulances from southern Scotland and Cumbria have been sent to the scene. The RAF has sent personnel and helicopters from Scotland and Northern England, along with mountain rescue teams to help police. The A74 has been cordoned off after police reported several parked cars on fire. It is thought the plane would have been flying at about 31,000 ft over Lockerbie when it exploded.
In total 259 people aboard the flight and 11 on the ground died in the crash which took place 38 minutes after take-off. The debris from the aircraft was scattered across 845 square miles and the impact reached 1.6 on the Richter scale. The subsequent police investigation was the biggest ever mounted in Scotland and became a murder inquiry when evidence of a bomb was found.
Two men accused of being Libyan intelligence agents were eventually charged with planting the bomb. Abdelbaset ali Mohmed al-Megrahi was jailed for life in January 2001 following an 84-day trial under Scottish law, at Camp Zeist in Holland. His alleged accomplice, Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah, was found not guilty. In 2002 Al Megrahi’s appeal against conviction was rejected.
1988: IRA gang shot dead in Gibraltar
The IRA has confirmed the three people shot dead by security forces in Gibraltar yesterday were members of an active service unit. They are reported to have planted a 500lb car bomb near the British Governor’s residence. It was primed to go off tomorrow during a changing of the guard ceremony, which is popular with tourists.
The three – two men and a woman – were shot as they walked towards the border with Spain. Security officers say they were acting suspiciously and the officers who carried out the shootings believed their lives were in danger. The three dead have been named as Daniel McCann, 30 and Sean Savage, 24, both known IRA activists and Mairead Farrell, 31, the most senior member of the gang who had served 10 years for her part in the bombing of a hotel outside Belfast in 1976.
The Ministry of Defence confirmed last night military personnel had opened fire on three terrorist suspects. It said no weapons had been found at the scene. The shooting happened in mid-afternoon. One eyewitness said he had seen a man in jeans holding a pistol in both hands. He said the man was only four feet from one of those he killed. Police sealed off the area for several hours after the shooting. A robot was brought in to defuse the car bomb and troops patrolled the streets. Local residents were warned to stay indoors. The terrorists’ target was the band and guard of the 1st Battalion Royal Anglian Regiment, which arrived in Gibraltar recently after a tour of duty in Northern Ireland.
Army intelligence officers have been expecting an IRA attack on a military target for some months after a series of setbacks for the Provisionals. Reports say 20 members of the IRA have been killed in the past 15 months. The Independent’s Ireland correspondent, David McKittrick, said 1987 was "a bad year" for the IRA. They lost eight active service members in an SAS ambush in Country Antrim. He has raised speculation yesterday’s killings in Gibraltar may also have been the work of the SAS.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7MBqTw2vl0
1988: Three shot dead at Milltown Cemetery
A gunman has killed three mourners and injured at least 50 people attending a funeral for IRA members shot dead in Gibraltar. It is understood he also threw four grenades into the crowd of 10,000 people gathered around the Republican plot at Milltown Cemetery in Roman Catholic west Belfast. The casualties have been taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast in a fleet of private vehicles and 10 ambulances. Eyewitness reports describe mourners gripped with panic, screaming and shouting while others collapsed to the floor.
The initial shot was mistaken for an IRA salute as the dead, Mairead Farrell, 31, Daniel McCann, 30, and Sean Savage, 23, were buried. But shortly after 1300 GMT as the last of the three coffins was lowered into the joint grave, another shot was fired. Another shot was quickly followed by two blasts 50 yards away which is said to have sent black smoke and earth into the air. Several more shots were fired amid a burst of what is thought to be grenades.
Funeral stewards made repeated appeals for calm as the course of reconciliation in Northern Ireland faced another setback. There are some reports the man was then pursued by hundreds of youths oblivious to the danger.
The Northern Ireland Secretary Tom King, has condemned the attacks and appealed for calm, echoing calls from other political quarters including Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams. But Mr Adams accused the RUC of collusion in the attack. The RUC had agreed to stay away from the funeral after representations from the Roman Catholic church and political leaders. The Ulster Defence Association, the largest of the Protestant paramilitary organisations, denied any part in the attack. It added the outlawed Ulster Freedom Fighters had no part in today’s events either.
The funerals were for three IRA members shot dead by British special forces in Gibraltar, where they were planning an attack on the British garrison. A lone loyalist gunman, Michael Stone, was chased by mourners at the cemetery but was arrested by police. The east Belfast man had been active on the fringes of loyalist para-militarism before the Milltown killings and was ultimately sentenced for a total of six murders when he eventually came to trial. The Ulster Freedom Fighters member was sentenced to a minimum of 30 years imprisonment by the trial judge.
But he was released in 2000, despite massive outrage, after serving 12 years under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. In November 2006 he had his release licence suspended after he was arrested for bursting into Stormont claiming to have a bomb. He was charged with attempting to murder Sinn Fein’s Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness and with possessing an imitation firearm.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFfhkdHIVgA
Corporals Wood and Howes killed by IRA 1988
When two corporals in the British Army inadvertently drove into the midst of a republican funeral, their car was set upon by the crowd. They were dragged out and beaten before being shot dead by members of the IRA. These brutal killings marked the conclusion of a period of 14 days that was to prove one the darkest of Northern Ireland’s Troubles. The incident was filmed by television cameras and the images have been described as some of the "most dramatic and harrowing" of the conflict in Northern Ireland.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhfgQOLSrTQ
1988 Timeline
January – Elizabeth Butler-Sloss becomes the first woman to be appointed a Lord Justice of Appeal.
3 January – Margaret Thatcher becomes the longest serving British prime minister this century, having been in power for eight years and 244 days.
4 January – Sir Robin Butler replaces Sir Robert Armstrong as Cabinet Secretary, on the same day that Margaret Thatcher makes her first state visit to Africa when she arrives in Kenya.
5 January – Actor Rowan Atkinson launches the new Comic Relief charity appeal.
7 January – Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock calls for a further £1.3 billion to made available for the National Health Service.
9 January – One of the worst incidents of football hooliganism this season sees 41 suspected hooligans arrested at the FA Cup third round tie between Arsenal and Millwall at Highbury.
11 January – The government announces that inflammable foam furniture will be banned from March next year.
14 January – Unemployment figures are released for the end of 1987, showing the 18th successive monthly fall. Just over 2,600,000 people are now jobless in the United Kingdom – the lowest total for seven years. More than 500,000 of the unemployed found jobs during 1987.
22 January – Colin Pitchfork is sentenced to life imprisonment after admitting the rape and murder of two girls in Leicestershire in 1983 and 1986, the first conviction for murder in the UK based on DNA fingerprinting evidence.
22 January – Peugeot’s 405 saloon, winner of the European Car of the Year award, goes on sale in Britain.
23 January – David Steel announces that he will not stand for the leadership of the new Social and Liberal Democratic Party.
24 January – Arthur Scargill is re-elected as leader of the National Union of Mineworkers by a narrow majority.
28 January – The Birmingham Six lose an appeal against their convictions.
1 February – Victor Miller, a 33-year-old warehouse worker from Wolverhampton, confesses to the murder of 14-year-old Stuart Gough, who was found dead in Worcestershire last month.
3 February – Nurses throughout the UK strike for higher pay and more cash for the National Health Service.
4 February – Nearly 7,000 ferry workers go on strike in Britain, paralysing the nation’s seaports.
5 February – The first BBC Red Nose Day raises £15 million for charity.
7 February – It is reported that more than 50% of men and 80% of women working full-time in London are earning less than the lowest sum needed to buy the cheapest houses in the capital.
13 – 28 February – Great Britain and Northern Ireland compete at the Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada, but do not win any medals.
15 February – Norman Fowler, Secretary of State for Employment, announces plans for a new training scheme which the government hopes will give jobs to up to 600,000 people who are currently unemployed.
16 February – Thousands of nurses and co-workers form picket lines outside British hospitals as they go on strike in protest against what they see as inadequate NHS funding.
26 February – Multiple rapist and murderer John Duffy is sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommendation that he should never be released.
1 March – British Aerospace launches a takeover bid for the government-owned Rover Group, the largest British-owned carmaker.
3 March – The SDP merges with the Liberal Party to create the Social and Liberal Democratic Party. Its interim leaders are David Steel and Robert Maclennan. The merger means that the Liberal Party has ceased to exist after 129 years.
4 March – Halifax Building Society reveals that year-on-year house prices rose by 16.9% last month.
6 March – Operation Flavius: A Special Air Service team of the British Army shoots dead three unarmed members of a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) Active Service Unit in Gibraltar.
7 March – Margaret Thatcher announces a £3 billion regeneration scheme to improve a series of inner city areas by the year 2000.
9 March – It is revealed that the average price of a house in Britain reached £60,000 at the end of last year, compared to £47,000 in December 1986.
10 March – The Prince of Wales narrowly avoids death in an avalanche while on a skiing holiday in Switzerland. Major Hugh Lindsay, former equerry to the Queen, is killed.
15 March – Chancellor Nigel Lawson announces that the standard rate of income tax will be cut to 25p in the pound, while the maximum rate of income tax will be cut to 40p from 60p in the pound.
16 March – Milltown Cemetery attack: Three men are killed and 70 are wounded in a gun and grenade attack by loyalist paramilitary Michael Stone on mourners at Milltown Cemetery in Belfast during the funerals of the three IRA members killed in Gibraltar.
17 March – The fall in unemployment continues with just over 2,500,000 people now registered as unemployed in the UK. However, there is a blow for the city of Dundee, when Ford Motor Company scraps plans to build a new electronics plant in the city – a move which ends hopes of 1,000 new jobs being created for this city which has high unemployment.
19 March – Corporals killings in Belfast: British Army corporals Woods and Howes are abducted, beaten and shot dead by Irish republicans after driving into the funeral cortege of IRA members killed in the Milltown Cemetery attack.
29 March – Plans are unveiled for Europe’s tallest skyscraper to be built at Canary Wharf. The office complex will cost around £3 billion to build and is set to open in 1992.
9 April – The house price boom is reported to have boosted wealth in London and the south-east by £39 billion over the last four years, compared with an £18 billion slump in Scotland and north-west England.
10 April – Golfer Sandy Lyle becomes the first British winner of the US Masters.
21 April – The government announces that nurses will receive a 15% pay rise, at a cost of £794 million which will be funded by the Treasury.
24 April – Luton Town FC beat Arsenal in the Littlewoods Cup final at Wembley 3-2. The match was won in the 92nd minute with a goal by Brian Stein after Luton had come back from being 2-1 down and goalkeeper Andy Dibble saving a penalty in the 79th minute. Luton scorers Brian Stein and Danny Wilson. Attendance 96,000
May – The first 16-year-olds sit General Certificate of Secondary Education examinations, replacing both the O-level and CSE. The new qualifications are marked against objective standards rather than relatively.
2 May – Three off-duty British servicemen are killed in The Netherlands by the IRA.
6 May – Graeme Hick makes English cricket history by scoring 405 runs in a county championship match.
7 May – The proposed Poll tax, which is expected to come into force next year, will see the average house rise in value by around 20%, according to a study.
14 May – Wimbledon F.C., who have been Football League members for just 11 seasons and First Division members for two, win the FA Cup with a 1–0 win over league champions Liverpool at Wembley. Lawrie Sanchez scored the winning goal in the first half, while Liverpool’s John Aldridge missed a penalty in the second half. In Scotland, Celtic beat Dundee United 2-1 in the Scottish Cup final with two late goals from Frank McAvennie to complete the Scottish double.
19 May – Unemployment is now below 2,500,000 for the first time since early 1981.
House prices in Norwich, one of the key beneficiaries of the current economic boom, have risen by 50% in the last year.
24 May – Local Government Act becomes law. The controversial Section 28 prevents local authorities from "promoting homosexuality". Local authorities are also obliged to outsource more services, and dog licences are abolished (except in Northern Ireland).
Albert Dock in Liverpool reopened by Prince Charles as a leisure and business centre including the Tate Liverpool art museum.
31 May – the BBC controversial film, Tumbledown is broadcast despite Ministry of Defence concern.
2 June – U.S. President Ronald Reagan makes a visit to Britain.
11 June – Some 80,000 people attend a concert at Wembley Stadium in honour of Nelson Mandela, the South African anti-apartheid campaigner who turned 70 on that day and has been in prison since 1964.
15 June – Five British soldiers are killed by the IRA in Lisburn.
16 June – More than 100 English football fans are arrested in West Germany in connection with incidents of football hooliganism during the European Championships.
18 June – England’s participation in the European Football Champions ended when they finished bottom of their group having lost all three games.
23 June – Three gay rights activists invade the BBC television studios during the six o’clock bulletin of the BBC News.
July – The Freeze art exhibition is held at Surrey Docks in London Docklands, it is organised by Damien Hirst and is considered significant in the development of the Young British Artists.
5 July – The Church of England announces that it will allow the ordination of women priests from 1992.
6 July – Piper Alpha disaster oil rig in the North Sea explodes and results in the death of 167 workers.
A contractor’s relief driver pours 20 tonnes of aluminium sulphate into the wrong tank at a water treatment plant near Camelford in Cornwall, causing extensive pollution to the local water supply.
18 July – Paul Gascoigne, 21-year-old midfielder, becomes the first £2 million footballer signed by a British club when he leaves Newcastle United and joins Tottenham Hotspur.
28 July – Paddy Ashdown, MP for Yeovil in Somerset, is elected as the first leader of the Social and Liberal Democratic Party.
28 July – Paddy Ashdown an ex-Royal Marine commando is elected leader of the Social Democrats and Liberal Democrats.
29 July – Most provisions of the Education Reform Act come into effect in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Act introduces Grant-maintained schools and Local Management of Schools, allowing schools to be taken out of the direct control of local government; a National Curriculum with Key Stages; an element of parental preference in the choice of schools; published league tables of school examination results; controls on the use of the word ‘degree’ by UK institutions; and abolition of tenure for new academics.
31 July – Economists warn that the house price boom is likely to end next year.
1 August – A British Army soldier is killed by IRA terrorists at Inglis Barracks in North London.
2 August – Everton F.C. pay £2.3 million for West Ham United striker Tony Cottee, 22, breaking the national record set six weeks ago by Paul Gascoigne’s transfer.
8 August – The first child (a girl) of TRH The Duke and Duchess of York is born at Portland Hospital in London. She was fifth in line to the throne until the birth of Prince George of Cambridge on the 22 July 2013. She is currently sixth in line.
14 August – Scunthorpe United F.C.’s Glanford Park is opened; the first new stadium to be built by a Football League club since the 1950s. Their last game at their original ground, Old Showground, was on 18 May.
18 August – Ian Rush becomes the most expensive player to join a British club when he returns to Liverpool F.C. for £2.7 million after a year at Juventus in Italy.
20 August – Six British soldiers are killed by an IRA bomb near Belfast. 27 other people are injured.
22 August – New licensing laws allow pubs to stay open all day in England and Wales.
The Duke and Duchess of York’s 14-day-old daughter is named Beatrice Elizabeth Mary.
29 August – 14-year-old Matthew Sadler becomes Britain’s youngest international chess master.
31 August – Postal workers walk out on strike over a dispute concerning bonuses paid to recruit new workers in London and the South East.
3 September – Economic experts warn that the recent economic upswing for most of the developed world is almost over, and that these countries – including Britain – face a recession in the near future.
9 September – The England cricket team’s tour to India is cancelled after Captain Graham Gooch and seven other players are refused visas because of involvement in South African cricket during the apartheid boycott.
13 September – Royal Mail managers and Union of Communication Workers representatives agree a settlement to end the postal workers strike.
17 September – 2 October – Great Britain and Northern Ireland compete at the Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, and win 5 gold, 10 silver and 9 bronze medals.
24 September – The house price boom is reported to be slowing as a result of increased mortgage rates.
30 September – A Gibraltar jury decides that the 3 IRA members killed on 6 March were killed "lawfully".
October – Vauxhall launches the third generation of its popular Cavalier family saloon.
9 October – Labour MP and Shadow Chancellor John Smith, 50, is hospitalised with a heart attack in Edinburgh.
12 October – As Pope John Paul II addresses the European Parliament, Ian Paisley heckles and denounces him as the Antichrist.
13 October – The House of Lords rules that extracts of the banned book Spycatcher can be published in the media.
18 October – Jaguar unveils its new Jaguar XJ220 supercar at the Motor Show. It is set go into production in 1990, costing £350,000 and being the world’s fastest production car with a top speed of 220 mph.
27 October – Three IRA supporters are found guilty of conspiracy to murder in connection with a plot to kill Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Tom King.
28 October – British Rail announces a 21% rise in the cost of long distance season tickets.
2 November – Victor Miller is sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Stuart Gough.
4 November – Margaret Thatcher presses for freedom for the people of Poland on her visit to Gda?sk.
9 November – The government unveils plans for a new identity card scheme in an attempt to clamp down on football hooliganism.
15 November – The Education Secretary, Kenneth Baker, says that the national testing will place great emphasis on grammar.
30 November – A government report reveals that up to 50,000 people in Britain may be HIV positive, and that by the end of 1992 up to 17,000 people may have died from AIDS.
A bronze statue of former prime minister Clement Attlee, who died in 1967, is unveiled outside Limehouse Library in London by fellow former prime minister Harold Wilson.
3 December – Health minister Edwina Currie provokes outrage by stating that most of Britain’s egg production is infected with the salmonella bacteria, causing an immediate nationwide fall in egg sales.
6 December – The last shipbuilding facilities on Wearside, once the largest shipbuilding area in the world, are to close with the loss of 2,400 jobs.
10 December – James W. Black wins the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with Gertrude B. Elion and George H. Hitchings "for their discoveries of important principles for drug treatment".
12 December – 35 people are killed in a collision between three trains at Clapham in London.
15 December – Unemployment is now only just over 2,100,000 – the lowest level for almost eight years.
16 December – Edwina Currie resigns as Health minister.
19 December – The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors publishes its house price survey, revealing a deep recession in the housing market.
PC Gavin Carlton, 29, is shot dead in Coventry in a siege by two armed bank robbers. His colleague DC Leonard Jakeman is also shot but survives. One of the gunmen gives himself up to police, while the other shoots himself dead.
20 December – The three-month-old daughter of the Duke and Duchess of York is christened Beatrice Elizabeth Mary.
21 December – Pan Am Flight 103 explodes over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, Dumfries and Galloway killing a total of 270 people – 11 on the ground and all 259 who were on board. It is believed that the cause of the explosion was a terrorist bomb.
Inflation remains low for the seventh year running, now standing at 4.9%.
1988 in British television
4 January – BBC1 moves the repeat episode of Neighbours to a 5:35pm evening slot, the decision to do this having been made by controller Michael Grade on the advice of his daughter.
6 January – All ITV regions network Emmerdale Farm in the Wednesday and Thursday 6.30pm slot.
11 January – The first episode of the game show Fifteen to One airs on Channel 4.
25–29 January – TV-am airs a week of live broadcasts from Sydney to celebrate Australia’s bicentenary.
5 February – Comic Relief airs its Red Nose Day fundraiser on BBC1.
13–28 February – The 1988 Winter Olympics are held in Calgary, Alberta and broadcast to television audiences around the world.
15 February – Red Dwarf makes its debut on BBC2.
20 February – London’s Burning makes its debut as a regular series on ITV, having been developed from Jack Rosenthal’s original 1986 film.
19 March – Two off-duty British soldiers are killed after stumbling into an IRA funeral procession in Belfast. Footage of the incident is captured by journalists and widely broadcast.
22 March – Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher tells the House of Commons that journalists have a "bounden duty" to assist the police investigation into the corporals killings by handing over their footage. Many have refused to do so fearing it could place them in danger.
23 March – Film of the corporals killings is seized from the BBC and ITN under the Prevention of Terrorism and Emergency Provisions Acts.
4 April – The original series of Crossroads airs for the last time on ITV. It returns in 2001 before being axed again in 2003.
6 April – ITV’s chart show The Roxy airs for the last time.
15 April – The Pogues perform their controversial hit Streets of Sorrow/Birmingham Six – a song expressing support for those convicted over the Guildford and Birmingham pub bombings – on the Ben Elton Channel 4 show Friday Night Live. The song is cut short, however, by a commercial break.
28 April – ITV broadcasts Death on the Rock, a hugely controversial episode of Thames Television’s This Week current affairs strand, investigating Operation Flavius, which resulted in the SAS killing three members of the IRA in Gibraltar on 6 March.
16 May – The youth strand DEF II is launched on BBC2.
30 May – Debut of Charles Wood’s screenplay Tumbledown about the experiences of Scots Guard Robert Lawrence, who was left paralysed after being shot in the head by a sniper at the Battle of Mount Tumbledown during the Falklands War.
8 June – Television presenter Russell Harty dies aged 53.
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch announces to the British Academy of Film and Television Arts his intention to launch a new news service. Sky News is launched at 6.00pm on 5 February 1989.
11 June – The Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute concert is staged at Wembley Stadium, London, and broadcast to 67 countries and an audience of 600 million. It was broadcast on BBC 2.
23 June – Three gay rights activists invade the BBC studios during a six o’clock bulletin of the BBC News.
19 July – The Bill broadcasts the first episode of its fourth season and switches to a year-round serial format.
3 August – Brookside is moved from Tuesdays to Wednesdays which means the soap can now be seen on Mondays and Wednesdays.
31 August – ITV airs a version of The Hound of the Baskervilles starring Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke.
8 September – Channel 4 drops plans to invite Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams to appear on an edition of its late night discussion programme After Dark following
objections from other contributors.
17 September–2 October – The 1988 Summer Olympics are held in Seoul, South Korea and broadcast to television audiences around the world.
30 September – Television presenters Mike Smith and Sarah Greene are seriously injured in a helicopter crash in Gloucestershire.
3 October – The magazine programme This Morning makes its debut. It is presented by Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan until 2001.
19 October – Home Secretary Douglas Hurd issues a notice under clause 13 of the BBC Licence and Agreement to the BBC and under section 29 of the Broadcasting Act 1981 to the Independent Broadcasting Authority prohibiting the broadcast of direct statements by representatives or supporters of 11 Irish political and military organisations. The ban lasts until 1994, and denies the UK news media the right to broadcast the voices, though not the words, of all Irish republican and Loyalist paramilitaries. The restrictions – targeted primarily at Sinn Féin – means that actors are used to speak the words of any representative interviewed for radio and television.
25 October – As the 25th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy approaches ITV airs the two part documentary The Men Who Killed Kennedy, a film which explores discrepancies and inconsistencies in the US Government’s official version of events.
2 November – In the House of Commons, an amendment introduced by the opposition Labour Party condemning the government’s decision over the broadcasting ban as "incompatible with a free society" is rejected, despite some Conservative MPs voting with Labour.
Evacuation, an episode of ITV’s The Bill features one of the series early prominent events – an explosion at Sun Hill police station.
8 November – BBC1 airs Episode 523 of Neighbours featuring the wedding of Scott Robinson and Charlene Mitchell, which is watched by 20 million viewers.
13 November–18 December – The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, one of C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, is aired as a six-part TV serial by the BBC, featuring actors including Ronald Pickup, Barbara Kellerman and Michael Aldridge.
23 November – The BBC science fiction series Doctor Who celebrates its 25th anniversary and begins the three part serial Silver Nemesis.
24 November – Frank Ruse, a left-wing Labour councillor for Liverpool City Council accompanies Liverpool’s Pagoda Chinese Youth Orchestra to London for an appearance on Blue Peter. He is given a Blue Peter badge, but later receives a BBC headed letter requesting its return. The letter (later discovered to be a forgery) claims the programme had been approached by the office of Labour leader Neil Kinnock expressing concern that a councillor with hard-left views had been given a Blue Peter badge. Upon receiving the returned badge, the BBC writes back to Ruse stating that it had not sent the letter. The incident prompts Ruse to start an enquiry to find out who sent the hoax letter.
26 November – Tugs a children’s model animated series made by Clearwater Features (the company behind the first two seasons of Thomas the Tank Enigne & Friends) debuts on ITV.
1 December – ITV’s ORACLE Teletext service launches Park Avenue, a teletext based soap opera. It is written by Robert Burns and runs until ORACLE loses its franchise at the end of 1992.
3 December – Comedian Steve Tandy wins New Faces of ’88.
11 December – Launch date of the Astra Satellite. The satellite will provide television coverage to Western Europe and is revolutionary as one of the first medium-powered satellites, allowing reception with smaller dishes than has previously been possible.
13 December – Central airs the final episode of Sons and Daughters making it the first ITV region to complete the series.
22 December – BBC1 airs Civvy Street, a spin-off episode of EastEnders set during World War II.
25 December – The final edition of It’s a Knockout to air on BBC1 is another celebrity special, It’s a Charity Knockout From Walt Disney World, featuring teams of celebrities from the United Kingdom, United States and Australia. The series returns to S4C in 1991.
26–30 December – As part of a Christmas special, Channel 4 soap Brookside airs five episodes over five consecutive days.
Ulster Television in Northern Ireland is the last in the ITV network to begin 24-hour transmission.
BBC1
3 January – First of the Summer Wine (1988–1989)
3 May – 4 Square (1988–1991)
30 May – Tumbledown
3 September – Noel’s Saturday Roadshow (1988–1990)
12 September – Stoppit and Tidyup (1988)
18 September – On the Record (1988–2002)
17 October – Playdays (1988–1997)
20 October – Charlie Chalk (1988–1989)
29 December – You Rang, M’Lord? (1988–1993)
BBC2
15 February – Red Dwarf (1988–1999, 2012–present)
9 May – DEF II (1988–1994)
18 October – Colin’s Sandwich (1988–1990)
ITV
4 January – After Henry (1988–1992)
20 February – You Bet! (1988–1997)
London’s Burning (1988–2002)
16 April – All Clued Up (1988–1991)
19 July – Wheel of Fortune (1988–2001)
26 July – I Can Do That (1988–1991)
3 September – The Hit Man and Her (1988–1992)
6 September – Count Duckula (1988–1993)
3 October – This Morning (1988—present)
24 November – Children’s Ward (1988–2000)
26 November – TUGS (1988–1989)
1 December – Park Avenue on ORACLE (1988–1992)
3 December – How to Be Cool (1988)[14]
Channel 4
11 January – Fifteen to One (1988–2003, 2013–present)
23 September – Whose Line Is It Anyway? (1988–1998)
Charts Number-one singles
"Always on My Mind" – Pet Shop Boys
"Heaven Is a Place on Earth" – Belinda Carlisle
"I Think We’re Alone Now" – Tiffany
"I Should Be So Lucky" – Kylie Minogue
"Don’t Turn Around" – Aswad
"Heart" – Pet Shop Boys
"Theme from S-Express" – S’Express
"Perfect" – Fairground Attraction
"With a Little Help from My Friends" – Wet Wet Wet / Billy Bragg
"Doctorin’ the Tardis" – The Timelords
"I Owe You Nothing" – Bros
"Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love For You" – Glenn Medeiros
"The Only Way Is Up" – Yazz and the Plastic Population
"A Groovy Kind of Love" – Phil Collins
"He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother" – The Hollies
"Desire" – U2
"One Moment in Time" – Whitney Houston
"Orinoco Flow (Sail Away)" – Enya
"First Time" – Robin Beck
"Mistletoe and Wine" – Cliff Richard
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