What Happened In The UK In 1992?

November 21, 2020 Stan

Breaking 1992 down into the biggest political, sports and entertainment news; here’s what happened…

The queen had both an expensive and an embarrassing year; early on announcing that she would bow to public pressure and pay income tax (the first time a British monarch had done so for over 50 years) and, at the end of the year, having her Christmas speech leaked to and published in ‘The Sun’ ahead of the big day. It was also a bad year for Manchester after the IRA exploded two bombs in centre of the city; injuring 64 people and causing millions of pounds of damage.

Politically, the government, led by John Major, made themselves unpopular on two fronts, by firstly signing Britain up to the ‘Treaty on European Union’ (many saw this as a loss of Britain’s identity); then secondly announcing it’s plans to close a third of Britain’s deep coal mines, with the loss of 31,000 jobs.

In terms of sport, 1992 saw Barcelona hosting the Olympic Games; it being the first time in 20 years that every country had been present (with no boycotts or bans in places). Linford Christie was the star of the event by becoming the oldest ever Olympic 100m champion (at 32 years old!). The year also saw ‘The Football Association’ launch the new ‘Premier League’, no-one at the time quite realising the revolutionary effect that it would have on the game.

Entertainment wise, the quirky, fast paced breakfast TV programme ‘The Big Breakfast’ made its debut. There was plenty of chaos and disorder on the show; Chris Evans being the one to lead the fun, games and competitions. The BBC were far, far less successful with their attempt at entertaining the public with ‘Eldorado’. Focusing on a community of ex-pats living in a Spanish fishing village, it was slated for its wooden actors and uninspiring storylines (later to be axed after just one year).

The big movies of the year were ‘Wayne’s World’ and ‘Reservoir Dogs’. The first being about Wayne and Garth’s battling it out with a hot-shot TV producer to save their own low-budget TV show (and also win the heart of the lovely Cassandra!). The second being Quentin Tarantino’s story of a botched robbery and the hunting out of the ‘rat’ (was it Mr. White, Mr. Orange, Mr. Blonde, Mr. Pink, Mr. Brown or Mr. Blue?).