1989

Top Selling Singles

1. Black Box – Ride On Time
2. Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers – Swing the Mood
3. The Bangles – Eternal Flame
4. Jason Donovan – Too Many Broken Hearts
5. Soul II Soul ft Caron Wheeler – Back to Life (However Do You Want Me)
6. Marc Almond ft Gene Pitney – Something’s Gotten Hold of My Heart”
7. Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers – That’s What I Like
8. Technotronic ft Felly – Pump Up the Jam
9. Band Aid II – Do They Know It’s Christmas?
10. Kylie Minogue – Hand on Your Heart

Christmas No.1: Band Aid II – Do They Know It’s Christmas?”

Top Selling Albums

1. Jason Donovan – Ten Good Reasons
2. Simply Red – A New Flame
3. Phil Collins – …But Seriously
4. Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine – Anything for You
5. Gloria Estefan – Cuts Both Ways
6. Kylie Minogue – Enjoy Yourself
7. Fine Young Cannibals – The Raw and the Cooked
8. Tina Turner – Foreign Affair
9. Madonna – Like a Prayer
10. Soul II Soul – Club Classics Vol. One

At the Box Office

1. Batman
2. Shirley Valentine
3. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
4. Back to the Future Part II
5. Lethal Weapon 2
6. When Harry Met Sally
7. Rain Man
8. Licence to Kill
9. Ghostbusters II
10. The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!

Cost of Living

Average house price	£61,495
Average salary
Average car price	£9,050 Ford Sierra
Petrol	£1.86 / gallon
Pint of beer	96p
Packet of 20 Cigarettes	£1.50
Pint of milk	28p

In the News

• Margaret Thatcher completes ten years as Prime Minister – the first British Prime Minister of the 20th century to do so.
• There were demonstrations in Bradford against The Satanic Verses, a book written by Salman Rushdie, burning copies of the book in the city streets.
• The world’s first commercial Direct Broadcast Satelite system, Sky Television goes on air. Three new services – Sky News, Sky Movies and Eurosport
• Ford launches the third generation of its Fiesta, the first to offer a 5-door version
• 94 people are killed in the Hillsborough disaster during the FA Cup semi-final at the Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield during the FA Cup semi-final between Nottingham Forest FC and Liverpool F.C.; three more will die later of serious injuries received and around 300 others are hospitalized.
• 54 prisoners stage a three-day protest on the roof of Risley Detention Centre before giving themselves up
• The sixteenth James Bond film, Licence to Kill, premieres in London starring Timothy Dalton
• Police arrest 260 people celebrating the summer solstice at Stonehenge.
• The Princess of Wales opens the Landmark Aids Centre, a day centre for people with AIDS, in London
• Introduction of electronic tagging to monitor and supervise crime suspects
• The National Trust’s house at Uppark in West Sussex is severely damaged by fire.
• Marchioness disaster: A pleasure boat is in collision with a dredger on the Thames in London in the early hours; 51 people are killed.
• Buckingham Palace confirms that The Princess Royal and Captain Mark Phillips are separating after 16 years of marriage
• The latest CBI findings spark fear of a recession. Those recession fears deepen as stock market prices continue to fall dramatically.
• Nigel Lawson resigns as Chancellor of the Exchequer; replaced by John Major, while Douglas Hurd becomes Foreign Secretary
• General Assembly of the Church of England votes to allow ordination of women
• The Guildford Four are released from prison after the High Court quashes their convictions
• The police force are now taking medical emergency 999 calls in London due to the ongoing strike by ambulance crews. Army and RAF troops are now manning London’s ambulance services as the regular ambulance crews are still on strike.
• And the 9th November saw the fall of the Berlin Wall
• The House of Commons is televised live for the first time
• 69-year-old backbencher Sir Anthony Meyer challenges Margaret Thatcher’s leadership of the Conservative Party. Her leadership has never been challenged before in almost 15 years as party leader
• The M42 motorway is completed
• The Beer Orders restrict the number of tied pubs that can be owned by large brewery groups to two thousand and require large brewer landlords to allow a guest ale to be sourced by tenants from someone other than their landlord.
• Shares in newly privatised regional water industry utility companies achieve premiums of up to 68% in the first day of trading on the Stock Exchange.
• Nigel Mansell wins the Brazilian Grand Prix.
• Nick Faldo becomes the first English winner of the Masters Tournament in golf

On the Telly

• Debut of:
• Sitcom Desmond’s
• US sitcom Roseanne makes its UK debut starring Roseanne Barr and John Goodman.
• US drama series Midnight Caller
• Australian soap Home and Away
• Fun House with Pat Sharp
• Challenge Anneka 
• Children’s series Bodger & Badger 
• Birds of a Feather 
• Byker Grove 
• End of:
• Channel 4’s Treasure Hunt
• John Craven presents his final edition of the children’s news programme Newsround.
• The last episode of Blackadder Goes Forth, Goodbyeee, is broadcast on BBC1
• Den Watts, played by Leslie Grantham in EastEnders, departs from the series as the character is apparently killed in an episode watched by over 20 million viewers
• The original run of Doctor Who is ended by the BBC after 26 years.
• Carol Smillie makes her debut as hostess on ITV’s Wheel of Fortune
• ITV attracts a new record audience of nearly 27,000,000 for the episode of Coronation Street in which Alan Bradley (Mark Eden) is fatally run over by a Blackpool tram.
• ITV launches an omnibus edition of Coronation Street which airs on Sunday afternoons
• BBC1 airs an episode of EastEnders, featuring a gay kiss – It causes uproar among viewers and in the press
• Channel 4 begins broadcasting in NICAM digital stereo
• Jeremy Paxman makes his first regular appearance as presenter of BBC2’s Newsnight.
• Emmerdale Farm changes its name to Emmerdale after 17 years.

Top Selling Christmas Toys

• Batmobile – £9.99
• The Real Ghostbusters Table-top Pinball – £59.32
• Polly Pocket – £5.50
• Disney Sno-Cone Castle – £8.66
• Talking Alf – £27.99

Gadgets

• Motorola 9800x Flip Mobile Phone
• Casio Databank Calculator Watch
• Sony FM/AM WM-AF57 Walkman