1982

Top Selling Singles

1. Dexy’s Midnight Runners – Come On Eileen
2. Irene Cara – Fame
3. Survivor – Eye Of The Tiger
4. Tight Fit – The Lions Sleeps Tonight
5. Culture Club – Do You Really Want To Hurt Me
6. Musical Youth – Pass The Dutchie
7. Eddy Grant – I Don’t Wanna Dance
8. Goombay Dance Band – Seven Tears
9. Paul McCartney With Stevie Wonder – Ebony And Ivory
10. Jam – Town Called Malice/Precious

Christmas No.1: Renee and Renato – Save Your Love

Top Selling Albums

1. MICHAEL JACKSON – THRILLER
2. EAGLES – EAGLES GREATEST HITS VOLUME II
3. ERIC CLAPTON – TIMEPIECES: THE BEST OF…
4. FOREIGNER – RECORDS
5. PHIL COLLINS – HELLO, I MUST BE GOING
6. JOHN MELLENCAMP – AMERICAN FOOL
7. TOTO – TOTO IV
8. ALABAMA – MOUNTAIN MUSIC
9. HANK WILLIAMS, JR – GREATEST HITS .
10. CULTURE CLUB – KISSING TO BE CLEVER

At the Box Office

1. E.T. The Extra Terrestrial
2. Annie
3. Mad Max 2
4. Rocky III [clip]
5. Death Wish II
6. Poltergeist
7. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
8. Firefox
9. TRON
10. Blade Runner

Cost of Living

Average house price	£33,000
Average salary	£7,117
Average car price	£4,232
Petrol	£1.64 /gallon (41p/litre)
Pint of beer	61p
Packet of 20 Cigarettes	95p
Pint of milk	20p

In the News

• Prime Minister – Margaret Thatcher (Conservative)
• Mark Thatcher, son of the Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, disappears in the Sahara desert during the Paris-Dakar rally. Then found 6 days later.
• TVS (Television South) is launched [ident]
• Korean cars are imported to Britain for the first time with the launch of the Hyundai Pony,
• Tabloid Newspapers started running daily Bingo – increasing sales by 4 million copies daily
• Unemployment in the United Kingdom is recorded at over 3 million people for the first time since the 1930s
• The European Court of Justice rules that schools in Britain cannot allow corporal punishment against the wishes of parents.
• Laker Airways collapses, leaving 6,000 passengers stranded, with debts of £270million
• Opening of the first Next clothing store – at the time specialising in womens clothing
• Falklands War begins as Argentina invades the Falkland Islands
• Britain’s first test tube twins, are born at the Royal Free Hospital in London.
• Michael Fagan breaks into Buckingham Palace and is apprehended after entering the royal bedroom
• Opening of the first Next clothing store, a rebranding of the merged Joseph Hepworth and Kendall chains
• The DeLorean car factory in Belfast is put into receivership.
• Pope John Paul II’s visit to the United Kingdom, the first by a reigning pope. remember the PopeMobile?
• Twenty pence coin first issued into circulation
• The Mary Rose, flagship of Henry VIII of England that sank in 1545, is raised from the Solent.

On the Telly

• Cagney & Lacey
• Dynasty
• Wogan
• The Late, Late Breakfast Show
• Emu’s World
• Shine on Harvey Moon
• Hill Street Blues
• Clive James on Television
• Countdown
• Brookside
• The Paul Hogan Show
• Treasure Hunt

In Music

• The Smiths formed in Manchester by Johnny Marr and Morrissey.

Top Selling Christmas Toys

• Stompers Truck
• G.I. Joe Figures
• BMX Bike
• Glo Worm
• Commodore 64

Gadgets

• The first compact disc (CD) player hit the market and changed the way people listened to music.
• Sinclair ZX Spectrum
• BBC Micro
• VHS Video Recorders

Script

• 🎙️ “The average UK house price was around £27,000… and a pint of milk cost about 17p.”
• 🎙️ “The biggest-selling single in the UK was Come On Eileen by Dexys Midnight Runners.”
• 🎙️ “This was the year the compact disc — the CD — first arrived and promised ‘perfect sound forever’.”
• 🎙️ “A pint of beer in the UK cost around 70p.”
• 🎙️ “The Falklands War dominated British headlines and brought huge public attention to Margaret Thatcher.”
• 🎙️ “People queued to buy the brand-new Sinclair ZX Spectrum home computer.”
• 🎙️ “The UK charts were packed with acts like Culture Club, Duran Duran and ABC.”
• 🎙️ “Arcades were full of kids playing Pac-Man and Donkey Kong.”
• 🎙️ “The average UK annual salary was around £7,000.”
• 🎙️ “People recorded songs from the radio onto cassette tapes — usually with the DJ talking over the intro!”
• 🎙️ “One of the biggest films at the cinema was E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.”
• 🎙️ “Home entertainment meant VHS video recorders… and arguments over whether VHS or Betamax was better.”
• 🎙️ “The phrase ‘computer game addiction’ started appearing in newspapers for the first time.”
• 🎙️ “A brand-new Ford Sierra looked futuristic compared to older boxy cars.”
• 🎙️ “Fashion meant leg warmers, shell suits, ra-ra skirts and very big hair.”
• 🎙️ “People still used phone boxes regularly — and many homes only had one telephone.”
• 🎙️ “The launch of Channel 4 gave Britain a brand-new TV channel for the first time in years.”
• 🎙️ “Music fans were buying albums by Michael Jackson, including the newly released Thriller.”
• 🎙️ “A cinema ticket in the UK cost around £1.50.”
• 🎙️ “Teletext and Ceefax were still the quickest way to check football scores and TV listings.”

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