1983

Top Selling Singles

1. Culture Club – Karma Chameleon
2. Billy Joel – Uptown Girl
3. UB40 – Red Red Wine
4. David Bowie – Let’s Dance
5. Bonnie Tyler – Total Eclipse of the Heart
6. Spandau Ballet – True
7. Men at Work – Down Under
8. Michael Jackson – Billie Jean
9. The Flying Pickets – Only You
10. 10 “All Night Long (All Night)” Lionel Richie

Christmas No.1: The Flying Pickets – Only You

Top Selling Albums

1. Michael Jackson – Thriller
2. Paul Young – No Parlez
3. Culture Club – Colour by Numbers
4. David Bowie – Let’s Dance
5. Wham! – Fantastic
6. Spandau Ballet – True
7. Various Artists – Now That’s What I Call Music
8. Elaine Paige – Stages
9. Genesis – Genesis
10. Lionel Richie – Can’t Slow Down

At the Box Office

1. Star Wars: Return of the Jedi
2. Octopussy
3. Superman III
4. Never Say Never Again
5. Gandhi
6. E.T. The Extra Terrestrial [clip]
7. An Officer and a Gentleman
8. Tootsie
9. Monty Pythons the Meaning of Life
10. Flashdance

Cost of Living

Average house price	£36,000
Average salary	£8,000
Average car price
Petrol	£1.76 / 44p litre
Pint of beer	67p
Packet of 20 Cigarettes	£1.00
Pint of milk	21p

In the News

• Prime Minister – Margaret Thatcher (Conservative)
• Seatbelt use for drivers and front seat passengers becomes mandatory,
• Dismembered sets of human remains are found at a block of flats in Muswell Hill, North London. 37-year-old civil servant Dennis Nilsen is arrested on suspicion of murder.
• Richard Attenborough’s 1982 film Gandhi wins eight Academy Awards
• The one pound coin introduced in England and Wales.
• Wheel clamps are first used to combat illegal parking in London
• Neil Kinnock escapes uninjured when his Ford Sierra overturns on the M4 motorway in Berkshire.
• July – Much of the country embraces a heatwave as temperatures reach 33 °C in London.
• The first United States cruise missiles arrive at RAF Greenham Common in Berkshire amid protests from peace campaigners at the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp.
• Brink’s-Mat robbery: In London, 6,800 gold bars worth nearly £26 million are taken from the Brink’s-Mat vault at Heathrow Airport. Only a fraction of the gold is ever recovered, and only two men are convicted of the crime [clip]
• First heart and lung transplant carried out in Britain at Harefield
• Six people are killed in the Harrods bombing
• ‘Hitler diaries’ published then later revealed as a fake
• The BBC’s new Breakfast Time programme went on air presented by Nationwide’s Frank Bough and former ITN news reader Selina Scott. [clip]

On the Telly

• CITV – Children’s ITV is launched
• First British breakfast time television programme, Breakfast Time, broadcast on BBC1.
• TV-am broadcasts for the first time
• An episode of ITV’s animated series Danger Mouse has viewing figures reaching 21.59 million, an all-time high for a British children’s programme.
• The first episode of historical sitcom Blackadder is broadcast on BBC One.
• ITV launches Blockbusters, a game show hosted by Bob Holness and featuring sixth formers as its contestants.
• Debut: Cheers,Knight Rider, Roland Rat, T.J Hooker, The A-Team and Bananaman
• Bob Monkhouse presents his last episode of Family Fortunes on ITV – Max Bygraves becomes the new host
• After 14 years on the air, the final edition of Nationwide is broadcast on BBC1
• Still watching: Dallas, Remington Steele, Just Good Friends, Sons and Daughters, Auf Wiedersehen Pet, Up the Elephant and Round the Castle, Mr & Mrs and Rentaghost

In Music

Top Selling Christmas Toys

• Care Bears – £16.75 
• Cabbage Patch Kids Doll – £14.91 
• G.I. Joe APC – £5.96 
• My Little Pony – £3.55 
• Rainbow Brite – £12.99

Gadgets

• The compact disc (CD) goes on sale in the United Kingdom
• Designer and entrepreneur James Dyson produces his prototype vacuum cleaner.

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