Here are the biggest news, sports and entertainment stories of 1993…
Britain’s longest recession since the 1930s is officially over as the economy grew in the first three months of the year. The Conservatives claim the upturn in fortunes is down to them, but critics say it’s all luck. Regardless of the outcome, it has been well-received by the Nationals, who can now look forward to spending money again.
A new place where they could spend time at Buckingham Palace; the public were first granted access in the summer of ’93. Entry, at £8, isn’t cheap, but that hasn’t dampened demand; within a week of launch, all advance group bookings to visit Buckingham Palace for the next three years were fully booked.
Other news included an oil tanker carrying a cargo that ran aground off the Shetland Islands (spilling 84,700 tonnes of crude oil into the North Sea and causing a major ecological disaster); anti-racism demonstrations across London in response to the murder of two black teenagers Criminal charges against Stephen Lawrence’s youngster dropped.
In the sporting world, horse racing’s mega-event “The Grand National” (300 million spectators worldwide) ended in “chaos” as many riders didn’t realize that the break had been called and started running around the track. The Jockey Club was forced to declare the race void; meaning bookmakers had to repay £75m in race bets (and miss out on their biggest payday of the year!).
FBI agents “Mulder & Scully” are on a personal mission to solve alien-related “mess”; their popular US series “The X-Files” crosses the Atlantic to hit British screens. Believing that Mulder’s sister was kidnapped by the little green men, they set out to find “the truth”. One absolutely unreal place is the “Beavis & Butthead” sofa. The boys became world famous in ’93 for switching channels and playing football with frogs.
With the UK itself still struggling to produce its own blockbusters, “Jurassic Park” and “The Indecent Proposal” were the main releases of the year. “Jurassic Park” involves dinosaurs (really scary, real dinosaurs!) rioting around a theme park created by an eccentric millionaire. “The Wrong Proposal” is another story involving a rich man (this time a billionaire played by Robert Redford); the man offers $1 million to a couple who just lost a fortune in Las Vegas dollars, let them spend the night with their wives.
