In the News
In the Charts

Singles
Albums

At the Movies
On Stage
On Television
Sporting Heroes
Page-turners
Who said that?

Bulgaria and Romania join the European Union on 1st January.
Magnus Magnusson, the former presenter of the BBC TV quiz show Mastermind, famous for his catchphrase "I've started so I'll finish", dies of pancreatic cancer on 7th January, aged 77.
On Monday, 8th January the USA launches a series of air attacks on al-Qa'ida targets in southern Somalia.
On Wednesday, 10th January, in a 20-minute prime-time address from the White House library, the US President George W. Bush announces that 20,000 extra troops are to be sent to Iraq along with $1.2 billion of extra aid.
The 26-man crew of the MSC Napoli is rescued by helicopter on Thursday, 18th January, after the ship runs aground off the Devon coast.
Denny Doherty of The Mamas and The Papas dies on 19th January, aged 66.
On 20th January Hillary Clinton announces that she will stand in the 2008 election for President of the USA.
On Sunday, 28th January, at a special meeting in Dublin, Sinn Féin votes to support the police and justice system in Northern Ireland.
Later the same day the Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty is voted winner of Channel 4's reality TV programme Celebrity Big Brother. Fans of the film star had taken to the streets of Patna on 17th January in protest at the alleged bullying and racist abuse directed at her by Jade Goody and some of the other contestants on the show.
The screenwriter and novelist Sidney Sheldon dies on 30th January, aged 89.
Nine men are arrested in Birmingham on 31st January on suspicion of plotting to kidnap a British Muslim soldier and behead him. Three of the men are subsequently released without charge.

The Italian Football Federation (FIGC) suspends all matches indefinitely after a home-made bomb explodes on 2nd February at a Serie A match between Catania and Palermo, killing a policeman, Filippo Raciti.
A report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), published on 2nd February, predicts that world temperatures will rise by 1.8°C - 4°C by the end of the century.
On Saturday, 3rd February DEFRA officials confirm an outbreak of the H5N1 strain of bird flu at a Bernard Matthews farm at Holton, Suffolk. 159,000 turkeys are culled.
Former Playboy bunny Anna Nicole Smith dies on 9th February, aged 39.
The Dixie Chicks win five awards at the Grammy Awards ceremony in LA on 11th February.
66 people are killed, with dozens more injured, in a bomb attack on the Samjhauta Express, a twice-weekly train service linking India and Pakistan. Fire spreads through two carriages following an explosion aboard the train just after midnight on Sunday, 18th February.
Romano Prodi resigns as Prime Minister of Italy on 21st February, following his government's defeat in Parliament over its plans to keep Italian troops in Afghanistan and to expand a US military base in northeastern Italy.
The British Prime Minister Tony Blair hosts a gun crime summit at Downing Street on 22nd February, following a spate of fatal shootings in south-east London.
Dame Helen Mirren wins both the BAFTA and the Oscar 'Best Actress' awards for her role in the film The Queen. The Departed wins the Oscar for Best Picture.

On Tuesday, 6th March Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, the former chief of staff to the US Vice President Dick Cheney, is found guilty of obstructing justice, perjury and lying to the FBI during the investigation into the leaking of the identity of a CIA agent, Valerie Plame.
On Wednesday, 7th March MPs in the UK vote by 337 to 224 in favour of an all-elected House of Lords.
John Inman, Mr. Humphries in the TV sitcom Are You Being Served, dies on 8th March, aged 71.
Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of Zimbabwe's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), is arrested on Sunday, 11th March during an anti-government prayer rally. He appears in court two days later with a swollen and bruised face and a gash on the side of his head.
Four Britons and a French citizen who had been kidnapped in Ethiopia are released on Tuesday, 13th March after 12 days in captivity.
Gareth Hunt, Mike Gambit in The New Avengers, dies on 14th March, aged 65, two years after being diagnosed with cancer.
Bob Woolmer, the coach of the Pakistan cricket team, dies on 18th March, hours after his team lost to Ireland in the Cricket World Cup. A murder investigation reveals that he died of natural causes.
15 British servicemen from the HMS Cornwall are arrested at gunpoint by Iranian armed forces on 23rd March. Iran accuses the British Navy of illegally entering its waters.

More than 50 people are killed and thousands made homeless when a tsunami strikes the Solomon Islands on 2nd April.
A French TGV (train à grand vitesse) breaks the world rail-speed record on 3rd April, achieving a speed of 357mph.
A Greek cruise ship with more than 1,500 passengers aboard, the Sea Diamond, sinks on 6th April, the day after it struck a volcanic reef near the island of Santorini.
The house in Hendersonville, Tennessee, which had been the home of the late Johnny Cash and which had been bought by Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees, is destroyed by fire on 10th April.
On 16th April 32 people are shot dead at Virginia Tech University, and many others injured, when a 23-year-old South Korean student, Seung-Hui Cho, goes on the rampage. The massacre ends when the gunman shoots himself.
At least 140 people are killed on 18th April, with scores more injured, when a car bomb explodes in the Sadriya district of Baghdad. It is the biggest bombing by insurgents in Iraq since the 2003 invasion.
The Broadway production of The Producers closes on 22nd April after 2,502 performances.
Russia's first elected president, Boris Yeltsin, dies on Monday, 23rd April, aged 76.
On the same day Archbishop Angelo Amato, a Vatican official, declares that same-sex marriages are evil.
On 24th April the legislative assembly of Mexico City votes by 46 to 19 to legalise abortion in the city, despite protests by Catholics, and against the express wishes of Pope Benedict XVI.
Alan Ball, the youngest member of England's 1966 World Cup winning football team, dies of a heart attack on 25th April, aged 61.
On 30th April, at the end of a year-long trial at the Old Bailey, five men are jailed for life for a UK bomb plot linked to al-Qa'ida.

On 3rd May three-year-old Madeleine McCann disappears from her family's holiday apartment in the seaside village of Praia da Luz in Portugal.
The SNP wins a historic election victory over Labour on 4th May to become the Scottish Parliament's largest party.
On the same day celebrity heiress Paris Hilton is sentenced to 45 days in jail for violating her probation for a drink-driving conviction.
Nicholas Sarközy wins the French presidential elections held on Sunday, 6th May.
The Eurovision Song Contest, held in Helsinki on Saturday, 12th May, is won by first-time entrant Serbia, represented by Marija Serifovic with the song Molitva (Prayer). The UK entry, Flying The Flag (For You) by Scooch, finishes in 23rd place.
Paul Wolfovicz resigns as president of the World Bank on 17th May, having been censured for giving a $50,000-a-year pay rise to his girlfriend, Shaha Riza.
The famous 19th Century ship, the Cutty Sark, which was undergoing a £25m restoration, is badly damaged by fire on 21st May.
On 23rd May Paul Simon is awarded the inaugural Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song at a gala concert featuring his music at the Warner Theatre in Washington, D.C..
Toshikatsu Matsuoka, Japan's agriculture minister, hangs himself on 28th May, after being implicated in a cash-for-forestry-contracts scandal.

Controversial comedian Bernard Manning dies on 18th June, aged 76, after being treated in hospital for a kidney condition.
On 20th June the US launches a huge military offensive against al-Qa'ida in Iraq, attacking targets around the city of Baquba, north of Baghdad.
The Millennium Dome re-opens as the O2 Arena on 24th June with a concert by the US rock band Bon Jovi.
Tony Blair resigns as Prime Minister on 27th June after ten years in office. Gordon Brown becomes Britain's new Prime Minister.
On 28th June Rotimi Adebari, once an asylum-seeker from Nigeria, is elected mayor of Portlaoise. He is the first black person to hold such office anywhere in the Republic of Ireland.
On Friday, 29th June police foil two car bomb attacks in central London with a series of controlled explosions. The next day a blazing jeep packed with gas canisters is driven into the doors of the main terminal building at Glasgow Airport.

A ban on smoking in enclosed public places comes into effect in England on 1st July.
Disgraced White House aide Lewis Libby is saved from going to jail on 2nd July, when US President George W. Bush declares a two-and-a-half year sentence for perjury "excessive".
The BBC correspondent Alan Johnston, who was kidnapped in Gaza on 12th March, is released on 4th July after 114 days in captivity.
Jazz singer and author George Melly dies at his London home on 5th July, aged 80.
Live Earth concerts are held in nine cities around the world on 7th July.
The BBC apologises to Queen Elizabeth II on 12th July for mistakenly showing footage that wrongly implied she had walked out of a portrait session during the filming of a documentary, A Year With The Queen.
On 17th July a TAM Airbus A320 skids on a wet runway while attempting to land at Congonhas Airport in São Paulo. The plane crashes into an airport building, killing the 187 passengers and crew on board and 12 people on the ground.
The seventh and final of the Harry Potter novels, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is published on 21st July. More than 8 million copies are sold on the first day.
26 people are killed in the French Alps on 22nd July, when a coach carrying Polish pilgrims from the shrine of Notre Dame de la Salette plummets from a bridge.
A national emergency is declared on 23rd July following severe flooding in central and western England.
The Broadway production of Beauty And The Beast closes on 29th July after 5,461 performances. The production is the longest running at both the Palace Theatre, where it opened, and the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, where it closed its Broadway run.
Comedian and former EastEnders actor Mike Reid dies of a heart attack at his home in Spain on 29th July, aged 67.
The film director Ingmar Bergman dies on 30th July, aged 89.
The British Army leaves Norther Ireland on 31st July after 38 years, the longest continuous operation in its history.

During August Greece is ravaged by wildfires, some started by arsonists, which claim the lives of at least 68 people.
During the evening rush hour on Wednesday, 1st August the I-35W road bridge in Minneapolis collapses and falls into the Mississippi, hurling cars into the river and crushing a freight train passing underneath. 13 people are killed.
A UK-wide ban on the movement of all livestock is put in place on 3rd August after cattle at a farm in Surrey were found to be infected with foot-and-mouth disease.
A new 328-metre bridge on the Tuojiang river in China's Hunan province collapses on 13th August, killing 64 people.
Hurricane Dean hits the Yucatan Peninsula on 21st August before striking Veracruz in eastern Mexico the next day.
Prisons and courts in England and Wales are thrown into chaos on 29th August when prison officers stage an unexpected strike.

On 5th September Steve Jobs, founder and CEO of Apple, launches the sixth generation iPod, a touch-screen version of the music player with integrated wi-fi connection.
The operatic tenor Luciano Pavarotti, who had been ill with cancer of the pancreas, dies in Modena on 6th September, aged 71.
Having been named by the Portuguese police as formal suspects in the disappearance of their daughter Madeleine, Gerry and Kate McCann return home from Praia da Luz with their two-year-old twins, Amelie and Sean, on Sunday, 9th September.
Jane Wyman, the Oscar-winning actress who was Ronald Reagan's first wife, dies on 10th September, aged 90.
Dame Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop, dies on the same day, aged 64.
On 12th September, just five days after declaring that the disease had been eradicated, the UK government confirms a new outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Egham, Surrey.
On Thursday, 13th September the Northern Rock bank applies to the Bank of England for emergency funds, prompting a rush of worried customers to withdraw their savings.
On 14th September the actor Chris Langham is sentenced to 10 months in prison for downloading child pornography.
Colin McRae, Britain's first world rally champion, is killed in a helicopter accident on 15th September, aged 39.
On 16th September 85 passengers and five crew aboard an One-Two-Go Airlines' flight from Bangkok die when the plane crashes on landing at Phuket Airport in south-west Thailand.
Mime artist Marcel Marceau dies in Paris on 22nd September, aged 84.
It is revealed on 23rd September that bluetongue, a deadly animal disease that had already devastated farms in continental Europe, had been found in Britain for the first time.
On 27th September the military junta in Burma cracks down on pro-democracy protesters across the country, killing eight monks in Rangoon and a Japanese photographer, Kenji Nagai, who had been covering the unrest for the Japanese news agency APF News.
Lois Maxwell, who played Miss Moneypenny in 14 James Bond films, dies in Fremantle, Western Australia, on 29th September, aged 80.

The broadcaster and writer Ned Sherrin, who made his name in the 1960s with the satirical television show That Was The Week That Was and later presented Radio 4's Loose Ends, dies in London on 1st October, aged 76, after a year-long battle with cancer.
On 7th October in Crandon, north Wisconsin, a sheriff's deputy, Tyler Peterson, shoots dead his ex-girlfriend and five others before himself being shot dead by a police marksman.
Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) are jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on 12th October.
Sir Menzies Campbell resigns as leader of the Liberal Democrats on Monday, 15th October.
Deborah Kerr, whose film roles included a steamy performance as the unfaithful wife of an army captain in From Here To Eternity, dies on 16th October, aged 86.
Teresa Brewer, famous for her 1950 million-seller Music! Music! Music! ("Put another nickel in, in the nickelodeon"), dies in New Rochelle, New York on 17th October, aged 76.
On the same day the Turkish parliament votes to deploy troops in northern Iraq to combat Kurdish rebels responsible for a series of cross-border bomb attacks.
Within hours of her return to Pakistan on 18th October, Benazir Bhutto escapes an assassination attempt that leaves at least 115 dead and hundreds more wounded.
Poland's opposition leader Donald Tusk claims victory in the elections held on Sunday, 21st October, ending two years of chaotic government under Jaroslaw Kaczynski.
On the same day wildfires break out in Malibu, quickly spreading to other areas of southern California as high winds fan the flames.
The world's largest airliner, the Airbus A380, completes its first commercial flight (from Singapore to Sydney) on 25th October.
On 29th October Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, the wife of the outgoing President Nestor Kirchner, is elected President of Argentina.
The West End production of Hairspray opens at the Shaftesbury Theatre on 30th October, starring Michael Ball as Edna Turnblad, with Mel Smith as Wilbur Turnblad and Leanne Jones as Tracy.

On 7th November an 18-year-old pupil at the Jokela High School in Tuusula, Finland, kills seven schoolmates and his headmistress before turning his gun on himself with a bullet to the head.
Tesco opens it's first Fresh & Easy store in the USA on 8th November in the Glassell Park neighbourhood of Los Angeles.
Apple launch the iPhone in the UK on 9th November.
The writer Norman Mailer, who became famous at the age of 25 for his novel The Naked and the Dead, dies in New York on 10th November, aged 84.
The novelist and playwright, Ira Levin, whose bestsellers included Rosemary's Baby and The Stepford Wives, dies at his home in Manhattan on 12th November, aged 78.
On the same day 5,000 turkeys are slaughtered at Redgrave Park Farm, Suffolk, following another outbreak of bird flu.
The first scheduled high-speed Eurostar train from St. Pancras International to Paris Gare du Nord departs at 11.01am on 14th November.
Cyclone Sidr strikes the coast of Bangladesh on Thursday,15th November, killing thousands and destroying more than 270,000 homes.
Ian Smith, Prime Minister of Rhodesia (1964-79), dies in Cape Town on 20th November, aged 88.
On the same day the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, reveals that the confidential details of 25 million people had been lost, following the disappearance of two data discs in the internal post between HM Revenue & Customs and the National Audit Office.
Meanwhile France is gripped by a massive strike, with civil servants joining a second week of strikes by transport and energy workers.
Kevin Rudd becomes the new Prime Minister of Australia on 24th November.
Peter Watt resigns as the UK Labour party's general secretary on 26th November over a scandal involving secret donations.
On Wednesday, 28th November, during Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons, the acting Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Vince Cable, causes howls of laughter when he notes "the prime minister's remarkable transformation in the past few weeks - from Stalin to Mr Bean."
Motorcycle daredevil Evel Knievel (born Robert Craig Knievel) dies in Clearwater, Florida on 30th November, aged 69.

John Darwin, a man believed to have died five years earlier in a canoeing accident, walks into a police station in London on Saturday, 1st December. The following week he arrested on suspicion of fraud.
The Spice Girls launch their reunion world tour on 2nd December with a sell-out concert in Vancouver, Canada.
In a referendum held on 2nd December voters in Venezuela narrowly reject the proposed constitutional changes that would have allowed Hugo Chavez to become President for life.
Dolly Parton brings her Imagination Library to the UK, launching the 'free books for under-fives' scheme at the Magna Science Adventure Centre in Rotherham on 5th December.
Led Zeppelin re-form for a one-off concert at the O2 Arena in Greenwich on 10th December.
An Australian judge, Sarah Bradley, causes an outcry on the same day when she allows nine Aboriginal men to walk free after they had admitted gang-raping a 10-year-old Aboriginal girl.
In a Chicago court, also on 10th December, the newspaper tycoon Conrad Black is sentenced to six-and-a-half years in jail on charges of fraud and obstructing justice.
Dozens of people are killed in Algiers on 11th December when two al-Qa'ida car-bombs explode - one near the Supreme Court, the other by the United Nations offices.
Ike Turner, notorious for his violent relationship with Tina Turner and famous for the Ike & Tina Turner hits River Deep - Mountain High and Nutbush City Limits, dies in San Marcos, California on 12th December, aged 76.
European leaders meet in Lisbon to sign a new treaty to replace the European constitution on 13th December. The British Prime Minister Gordon Brown adds his signature three hours after the ceremony due to a clashing appointment with a House of Commons committee.
Singer-songwriter Dan Fogelberg, whose most successful single was the 1980 hit Longer, dies on 16th December, aged 56.
Nick Clegg is elected leader of the Liberal Democrats on 18th December.
Sean Hoey, the only man to be tried for the 1998 Omagh bombing, is found not guilty on a total of 56 charges on 20th December.
Benazir Bhutto is assassinated in a suicide attack on Thursday, 27th December after addressing an election rally in Rawalpindi.

• Calvin Harris
  
• Leon Jackson
  
• Amy MacDonald
  
• Mika
  
• Taylor Swift
  
  

• Christina Aguilera
  Candyman
  
• Akon
  Don't Matter
  
• Beyoncé & Shakira
  Beautiful Liar
  
• James Blunt
  1973
  
• Eva Cassidy & Katie Melua
  What A Wonderful World
  
• Fergie
  Big Girls Don't Cry
  
• 50 Cent featuring Justin Timberlake & Timbaland
  Ayo Technology
  
• The Fray
  How To Save A Life
  
• Nelly Furtado
  Say It Right
  
• Gareth Gates
  Changes
  
• Gym Class Heroes
  Cupid's Chokehold
  
• Enrique Iglesias
  Do You Know?
  
• Just Jack
  Starz In Their Eyes
  
• Leon Jackson
  When You Believe
  
• Kaiser Chiefs
  Ruby
  
• Kanye West
  Stronger
  
• Sean Kingston
  Beautiful Girls
  
• Avril Lavigne
  Girlfriend
  
• Leona Lewis
  Bleeding Love
  
• Amy MacDonald
  Mr. Rock & Roll
  
• Manic Street Preachers
  Your Love Alone Is Not Enough
  
• Maroon 5
  Makes Me Wonder
  
• McFly
  Baby's Coming Back / Transylvania
  
• Mika
  Grace Kelly
  
• Mika
  Love Today
  
• Kylie Minogue
  2 Hearts
  
• Kate Nash
  Foundations
  
• Plain White T's
  Hey There Delilah
  
• Proclaimers featuring Brian Potter & Andy Pipkin
  (I'm Gonna Be) 500 Miles
  
• Rihanna
  Shut Up And Drive
  
• Rihanna featuring Jay-Z
  Umbrella
  
• Robyn with Kleenup
  With Every Heartbeat
  
• Mark Ronson featuring Daniel Merriweather
  Stop Me
  
• Mark Ronson featuring Amy Winehouse
  Valerie
  
• Scooch
  Flying The Flag (For You)
  [Eurovision Song Contest: UK entry]
  
• Scouting For Girls
  She's So Lovely
  
• Gwen Stefani featuring Akon
  The Sweet Escape
  
• Sugababes
  About You Now
  
• Sugababes vs. Girls Aloud
  Walk This Way
  
• Take That
  Rule The World
  
• Take That
  Shine
  
• Timbaland featuring Keri Hilson
  The Way I Are
  
• Timbaland featuring Nelly Furtado & Justin Timberlake
  Give It To Me
  
• Timbaland presents One Republic
  Apologise
  
• Justin Timberlake
  What Goes Around... Comes Around
  
• Travis
  Closer
  

• James Blunt
  All The Lost Souls
  
• Michael Bublé
  Call Me Irresponsible
  
• Mary Chapin Carpenter
  The Calling
  
• Ry Cooder
  My Name Is Buddy
  
• Celine Dion
  Taking Chances
  
• Eagles
  Long Road Out Of Eden
  
• Newton Faulkner
  Handbuilt By Robots
  
• Feist
  Reminder
  
• Foo Fighters
  Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace
  
• Josh Groban
  Awake
  
• Norah Jones
  Not Too Late
  
• Kaiser Chiefs
  Yours Truly, Angry Mob
  
• Kanye West
  Graduation
  
• Kings Of Leon
  Because Of The Times
  
• Annie Lennox
  Songs Of Mass Destruction
  
• Leona Lewis
  Spirit
  
• Amy MacDonald
  This Is The Life
  
• Manic Street Preachers
  Send Away The Tigers
  
• Maroon 5
  It Won't Be Soon Before Long
  
• Katie Melua
  Pictures
  
• Mika
  Life In Cartoon Motion
  
• Kylie Minogue
  Showgirl - Homecoming Live
  
• Kylie Minogue
  X
  
• Kate Nash
  Made Of Bricks
  
• Gretchen Peters
  Burnt Toast & Offerings
  
• Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
  Raising Sand
  
• Ray Quinn
  Doing It My Way
  
• Radiohead
  In Rainbows
  
• Rihanna
  Good Girl Gone Bad
  
• Mark Ronson
  Version
  
• Scouting For Girls
  Scouting For Girls
  
• Spice Girls
  Greatest Hits
  
• Bruce Springsteen
  Magic
  
• Linda Thompson
  Versatile Heart
  
• Timbaland
  Presents: Shock Value
  
• K.T. Tunstall
  Drastic Fantastic
  
• Dwight Yoakam
  Dwight Sings Buck
  

• And When Did You Last See Your Father?
  
• Apocalypto
  
• Atonement
  
• Babel
  
• Becoming Jane
  
• The Bourne Ultimatum
  
• Brick Lane
  
• Dreamgirls
  
• Elizabeth: The Golden Age
  
• The Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer
  
• Fast Food Nation
  
• 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days
  
• Hairspray
  
• Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix
  
• Hot Fuzz
  
• Jane Austen Book Club
  
• Jindabyne
  
• Lady Chatterley
  
• The Last King Of Scotland
  
• The Lives Of Others
  
• Miss Potter
  
• Mr. Bean's Holiday
  
• Notes On A Scandal
  
• Ocean's Thirteen
  
• Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
  
• Ratatouille
  
• Rocky Balboa
  
• Run, Fat Boy, Run
  
• Scoop (Woody Allen)
  
• Shrek The Third
  
• The Simpsons Movie
  
• Spider-Man 3
  
• St. Trinian's
  
• This Is England
  
• 28 Weeks Later
  
• Two Days In Paris
  
• La Vie En Rose
  
• Zodiac
  
  

Tony Award for Best Musical:
Spring Awakening

Olivier Award
for Best New Musical:
Caroline, Or Change

• Any Dream Will Do
  
• The Apprentice (Series 3)
  
• The Big Bang Theory (Season 1)
  
• Boy A
  
• Britain's Got Talent (Series 1)
  
• Cranford
  
• The Dame Edna Treatment
  
• Doctor Who (Series 3)
  
• Gavin And Stacey (Series 1)
  
• The Graham Norton Show
  
• Grandstand
  (last episode)
  
• Grease Is The Word
  
• Holby Blue (Series 1)
  
• I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here! (Series 7)
  
• Kingdom
  
• Life On Mars
  
• Panorama: Scientology And Me
  
• The Return Of 'Allo 'Allo
  
• Roman's Empire
  
• Room 101
  (last episode)
  
• Shameless (Series 4)
  
• The Simpsons (400th episode)
  
• Skins
  
• Spooks (Series 6)
  
• Strictly Come Dancing (Series 5)
  
• Stuart: A Life Backwards
  
• The Street (Series 2)
  
• This Is David Gest
  
• Top Gear (Series 9 and 10)
  
• The Trial Of Tony Blair
  
• Victoria's Empire
  
• Who Do You Think You Are? (Series 4)
  
• Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? (Series 21 and 22)
  
• The X Factor (Series 4)
  
  

BBC Sport

BBC
Sports Personality
of the Year:
Joe Calzaghe

Darts: Raymond van Barneveld, who had switched allegiance from the British Darts Organisation to the Professional Darts Corporation (PDO), beats the 11-times champion Phil "The Power" Taylor 7-6 in the final the World Championship at the Circus Tavern, Purfleet.
Martin Adams wins the British Darts Organisation (BDO) World Darts Championship.

Tennis: Serena Williams wins the women's singles title at the Australian Open for the third time, defeating the new world no. 1 Maria Sharapova in the final (6-1, 6-2).
Roger Federer wins the men's singles for the third time. With his victory in the final over Fernando Gonzalez (7-6, 6-4, 6-4) he becomes the first man for 27 years to win a Grand Slam without dropping a set.
At the French Open Justin Henin and Rafael Nadal retain their singles titles. Henin defeats Ana Ivanovic 6-1, 6-2 in the women's singles final. Nadal beats Roger Federer in four sets (6-3, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4) in the men's singles final.
Federer turns the tables on Nadal in the men's singles final at Wimbledon. Bjorn Borg watches Federer equal his modern era run of five consecutive titles, as he defeats Nadal in five sets (7-6, 4-6, 7-6, 2-6, 6-2). The women's singles title goes to Venus Williams for the fourth time. She beats Marion Bartoli in a one-sided final (6-4, 6-1).
Hawk-Eye, the electronic video replay system allowing players to question line calls, is used on Wimbledon's Centre Court and Court Number One for the first time.
At the final Grand Slam of the year Justine Henin defeats Svetlana Kuznetsova to win the U.S. Open women's singles title (6-1, 6-3).
Roger Federer defeats Novak Djokovic to win the men's singles title (7-6, 7-6, 6-4).

Cricket: Australia beat England in the fifth Test in Sydney, completing a 5-0 whitewash in the Ashes series for the first time in 86 years.
South Africa beat  India in the 3rd Test in Cape Town to win the Test series 2:1

Rugby Union: for the second year in a row, France win the Six Nations Championship and Ireland win the Triple Crown.
Against expectations, England make it to the final of the World Cup but victory goes to South Africa (15-6).

Swimming: 21-year-old Michael Phelps wins seven gold medals at the World Championships in Melbourne.

Golf: Zach Johnson wins the 71st US Masters in Augusta.
Angel Cabrera wins the US Open at Oakmont Country Club in Plum, Pennsylvania.
Padraig Harrington triumphs at the Open at Carnoustie, after a thrilling 4-hole play-off against Sergio Garcia. He becomes the first Open winner from Ireland for 80 years.
Tiger Woods wins the US PGA Championship.

Rowing: the University of Cambridge crew wins the annual Boat Race against Oxford.

Horse Racing: Silver Birch wins the Grand National.
Authorized, ridden by Frankie Dettori, wins the Derby.

Boxing: Joe Calzaghe becomes the first undisputed super middleweight champion of the world, beating Mikkel Kessler in a unification bout bout for Calzaghe's WBO Super Middleweight title and Kessler's WBA and WBC titles.

Snooker: John Higgins wins the World Snooker Championship, beating Mark Selby in the final, 18-13.
Ronnie O'Sullivan wins the UK championship, beating Stephen Maguire (10-2).

Football: David Beckham leaves Real Madrid to play for LA Galaxy in Los Angeles.
Manchester United win the Premier League but Chelsea beat United 1-0 to win the FA Cup. In September the Chelsea manager, Jose Mourinho, leaves the club by mutual consent, despite having three years left on his contract.
The England team fails to qualify for Euro 2008. Manager Steve McClaren is sacked and replaced in December by Fabio Capello.

Cycling: in a break with tradition, the Tour de France starts in London. It ends in Paris with the victor's yellow jersey going to Alberto Contador. Contador also wins the white jersey as the best young rider.

Motor Racing: Lewis Hamilton wins his first Formula 1 race at the Canadian Grand Prix on 10th June. He follows this up with victories in the USA, Hungary and Japan, but his bid to win the Formula 1 Championship in his first season ends in failure when Kimi Raikkonen wins the last grand prix of the season in Brazil. Raikkonen wins the World Drivers' Championship with 110 points. Hamilton finishes second, level on 109 points with his McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso. The McLaren team is stripped of all its points in the Constructors' Championship and fined £50m after being found to be in breach of the International Sporting Code through possession of confidential Ferrari data. Ferrari win the Constructors' Championship with 204 points.

Athletics: after admitting to doping, Marion Jones surrenders the five medals she won at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.

Man Booker Prize

Winner:
Anne Enright
The Gathering

Nicola Barker
Darkmans

Mohsin Hamid
The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Lloyd Jones
Mister Pip

Ian McEwan
On Chesil Beach

Indra Sinha
Animal’s People

Orange Broadband
Prize for Fiction

Winner:
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Half Of A Yellow Sun

Rachel Cusk
Arlington Park

Kiran Desai
The Inheritance
Of Loss

Xiaolu Guo
A Concise
Chinese-English
Dictionary
For Lovers

Jane Harris
The Observations

Anne Tyler
Digging To America