Timeslip moment again...
We've managed to escape the Gattaca programme, and suddenly find ourselves in another world entirely - the dying embers of 1998, the year of Dana International, Tony Blair, DVDs, Matthew Shepard, war in Kosovo, Mohamed Al Fayed, the IRA bomb in Omagh that killed 29 people, Titanic, Bittersweet Symphony, Ron Davies, Robbie Williams, the MMR vaccine controversy, Bob the Builder, "Free Deirdre", BMW takeover of Rolls Royce, Perfect Day, the Swissair Flight 111 crash, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Hurricane Mitch, "Hayley Patterson" in Coronation Street, George Michael's Outside, Monica Lewinsky, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, All Saints, Cher's Believe, Michael Owen, Sliding Doors, B*Witched, Charlotte Church, Huw Edwards, Brimful of Asha, the Nagano Winter Olympics, General Pinochet, Madonna's Frozen and the suicide of Justin Fashanu; the births of Windows 98, Shawn Mendes, the Akashi Kaikyō Bridge, Paris Jackson, the European Central Bank, the two pound coin, the Human Rights Act and Google Inc.; and the year Frank Sinatra, Tammy Wynette, Roddy McDowall, Alice Faye, Patricia Hayes, Lloyd Bridges, Dermot Morgan (Father Ted), Jerome Robbins, Sonny Bono, Frank Muir, Daniel Massey, Jack Lord, Francis Durbridge, Enoch Powell, Catherine Cookson, Falco, Joan Hickson, Lew Grade, Shari Lewis, Linda McCartney, Maureen O'Sullivan, Florence Griffith Joyner, Cozy Powell, Britain's last tin mine South Crofty, Hammond Innes and Kevin Lloyd (aka "Tosh Lines" in The Bill) all died.
In the news headlines in December '98? John Hume and David Trimble were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their part in securing the Good Friday Agreement, President Bill Clinton ordered airstrikes on Iraq (while at the same time, impeachment proceedings against him were launched), the controversial Hugo Chávez was elected President of Venezuela, Space Shuttle Endeavour docked with the International Space Station, Khmer Rouge leaders issued an apology for the genocide in Cambodia in the 1970s, and three kidnapped British tourists were killed in Yemen during a gun battle to free them; and after Xmas came The Great Boxing Day Storm, which brought parts of the UK to a standstill. In our cinemas: Babe: Pig in the City; Dancing at Lughnasa; The Prince of Egypt. On telly: Carol Vorderman performing as Cher on Celebrity Stars In Their Eyes, Dinnerladies, Cold Feet, and the last ever episode of World in Action after 35 years.
And in our charts this week twenty-two years ago? The Spice Girls' so-called "song for Geri" Goodbye was the Xmas Number 1, and jostling for space in the rest of the Top 10 were Big Breakfast presenters Denise Van Outen and Johnny Vaughan covering Kylie and Jason, Cher, B*witched, Steps, Honeyz, Bryan Adams and Mel C, Billie Piper and - gulp! - Jayne McDonald. But soon to knock the Spicy Ones off their exalted #1 perch (after only one week!) for the New Year was a far more entertaining number, as featured in that year's cartoon sensation South Park...
I hope you're all singing along...