1992

Top Selling Singles

1. Whitney Houston – I Will Always Love You
2. Snap! – Rhythm Is a Dancer
3. Charles & Eddie – Would I Lie to You?
4. Shakespears Sister – Stay
5. KWS – Please Don’t Go”/”Game Boy
6. Boyz II Men – End of the Road
7. Erasure – Abba-esque (EP)
8. Jimmy Nail – Ain’t No Doubt”
9. Michael Jackson – Heal the World
10. Wet Wet Wet – Goodnight Girl

Christmas No.1: Whitney Houston – I Will Always Love You

Top Selling Albums

1. Simply Red – Stars
2. Lionel Richie – Back to Front
3. Cher – Greatest Hits: 1965–1992
4. Simple Minds – Glittering Prize 81/92
5. Michael Jackson – Dangerous
6. Annie Lennox – Diva
7. Michael Bolton – Timeless: The Classics
8. Madness – Divine Madness
9. Genesis – We Can’t Dance
10. Right Said Fred – Up

At the Box Office

1. Basic Instinct
2. Beauty and the Beast
3. Lethal Weapon 3
4. Hook
5. Batman Returns
6. Cape Fear
7. Father of the Bride
8. Wayne
9. Home Alone 2: Lost In New York
10. My Girl

Cost of Living

Average house price	£55,000
Average salary
Average car price	Peogeot 205 £8,000
Petrol	40p/litre
Pint of beer	£1.30
Packet of 20 Cigarettes	£2.08
Pint of milk	33p

In the News

• The Queen commemorates her Ruby Jubilee
• Signing of the Maastricht Treaty.
• There is a General election: the Conservative Party are re-elected for a fourth successive term, in their first election under John Major’s leadership.
• There was The Sun newspaper’s iconic front-page headline ‘It’s The Sun Wot Won It’
• We lost a couple of comedians – Frankie Howerd and Benny Hill
• Labour MP Betty Boothroyd is elected as the first female Speaker of the House of Commons
• Nigel Mansell gains the 26th Grand Prix win of his racing career at Imola, San Marino.
• Cones Hotline introduced enabling members of the public to complain about traffic cones being deployed on a road for no apparent reason.
• John Smith is elected leader of the Labour Party.
• “Black Wednesday” sees the government suspending the UK’s membership of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism following a wave of speculation against the Pound.
• Part of Windsor Castle is gutted in a fire, causing millions of pounds worth of damage.
• The Queen describes this year as an Annus Horribilis

On the Telly

• Grace & Favour, As Time Goes By, Men Behaving Badly and Heartbeat, make their debut on TV
• After more than seven years on the air, Terry Wogan’s thrice-weekly chat show Wogan is broadcast for the final time
• BBC1 launches the ill-fated soap Eldorado. It lasts a year.
• Comedian and presenter Leslie Crowther sustains serious head injuries after his Rolls-Royce veers out of control and crashes on the M5
• Mr Blobby makes his debut in the ‘Gotcha’ segment of Noel’s House Party
• BBC1’s broadcast theircontroversial one-off drama Ghostwatch is broadcast, starring Michael Parkinson and Sarah Greene.

Music

• Most leading retailers, including WH Smith, withdraw vinyl records from stock due to a sharp decline in sales brought on by the rising popularity of compact discs and audio cassettes

Top Selling Christmas Toys

• WWF Action Figures – £4.99 (£10.03)
• Thunderbirds’ Tracy Island – £23.99 (£48.22)
• SNES – Super Nintendo Entertainment System – £99.99 (£208.98)

Gadgets

• IBM Simon: Considered the first smartphone, the IBM Simon was a touchscreen mobile phone and personal digital assistant
• PalmPilot
• MP3 standard:
• First text message was sent on December 3