Winter Solstice

In decades past, I'd have been down at Avebury, ringing in the Solstice with a bunch of other like-minded folks, but nowadays, I have other priorities.
It would have to be the shortest day today, because time is running out.
With only a week to go, my to-do list looked like this:
Finish decorating tree/rooms, put up outside lights
Marks & Sparks shop, wrap pressies, write/deliver cards,
Buy fresh vegetables, make 2 stuffings and bread sauce.
Make/decorate 4 Christmas cakes, bake another 2 dozen mince pies (x2)

And also:
Lost in Time (Time Doctors ‘6): Proof last 3 chapters, final beta edits, publicity stuff.
I’ve only managed to complete 3 of these, so yet another week with no blog.
Ho Hum!

My top 13 Hits of the 90s

1. The Mavericks - Dance The Night Away 5-1998
2. Lou Bega - Mambo No 5 (A Little Bit Of...) 8-1999
3. The Waterboys - The Whole Of The Moon - 04-1991
4. Richard Marx - Hazard - 05-1992
5. Heart - All I Wanna Do Is Make Love To You - 04-1990
6. Manic Street Preachers - Motorcycle Emptiness - 06-1992
7. The Foo Fighters - Everlong 8-1997
8. Alannah Myles - Black Velvet - 04-1990
9. Bryan Adams - (Everything I Do) I Do It For You - 06-1991
10. Bill Medley & Jennifer Warnes - (I've Had) The Time Of My Life - 01-1991
11. Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart & Sting - All For Love 01-1994
12. Aerosmith - I Don't Want To Miss A Thing 9-1998
13. Seal - Kiss From A Rose 08-1994

And the nearly made its:
Berlin - Take My Breath Away - 10-1990
Jimmy Nail - Ain't No Doubt - 07-1992
R.E.M. - Everybody Hurts 04-1993
Aerosmith - Cryin' 11-1993
Bon Jovi - Always 09-1994
Paul Weller - You Do Something To Me 07-1995
The Rembrandts - I'll Be There For You 08-1995
The Manic Street Preachers - A Design For Life 04-1996
Lighthouse Family - Ocean Drive 05-1996
No Doubt - Don't Speak 2-1997
Shania Twain - That Don't Impress Me Much 5-1999

Sneak preview - Lost in Time - Part 3

Isaac Grows a Pair

Staring at his kindle to avoid making eye-contact, Isaac had never felt so alone. Of all the places to be stuck for two and half hours, an Austrian train wouldn’t have been his first choice – he didn’t share Sheldon’s love of them. But he did have many other things in common with The Big Bang Theory’s main character – especially when it came to the OCD tendencies. This entire journey had him well out of his comfort zone on so many levels, but he’d made a conscious decision to stop being so needy. Or as Kevin so quaintly suggested, to “put on his big-boy pants and man-up.” The ability to quote a cliché for every occasion was the guy’s superpower – or one of them. Despite the irritating class-clown persona, he had many redeeming features and was definitely someone Isaac would want in his corner in a crisis.

A raucous outburst from the end of the carriage provoked a pursing of his lips in what Kevin described as his lemon-sucky face – there he was again. Maybe it was simply the comic, visual nature of his epithets. Isaac grimaced at the noisy gaggle of youths, who he concluded were undoubtedly British and almost certainly drunk. Hunkering down, he tried not to raise his head above the parapet, nor his eyes from the kindle, despite the overt disapproval of those around him.
The older woman sitting opposite tutted. “They sound as though they are enjoying themselves a little too much. I suspect alcohol is involved.” Although aimed at no one in particular, her remark received supportive grunts from the other two men in their seating cluster.
He kept his eyes down as she glared in his direction. “I think this is common behaviour in young Englishmen.”
His mind screamed a protest that he’d never acted so thoughtlessly, even when he was young enough not to know any better. Resisting the weight of her expectant gaze, he recognised she’d spoken in heavily-accented English. The man next to her spoke in rapid German and she switched language as they chatted with the stilted to-and-fro of strangers bonding over a common foe.
Relieved at losing her attention, Isaac wondered briefly how she’d guessed he was English, remembering something Andrea had said about how he dressed like everyone’s idea of a perfect English gentleman. He sighed. How much easier would it have been if he’d got a seat on the same flight as Andrea, a seasoned traveller? Her plane was full, but it gave her the opportunity to spend a couple of days with her parents before he arrived. Although a bonus for her, it left him trying to tackle his first journey outside the UK alone. Big-boy pants indeed.

Feeling the woman’s gaze once more upon him, he reactivated the sleeping kindle, scrolled to the end of the chapter and resumed. His ability to shut out the background noise failed completely as one of the louts stumbled closer, still shouting to his mates, his language loud and offensive. As he reached their seats, the train swayed and he overbalanced, showering their table with lager from the can in his hand. Some of it landed on the woman opposite and she gasped.
“Sorry darlin.” He peered at her, gesturing with the can as he giggled. “Quite tasty for an old Kraut, ain’t ya?”
Isaac couldn’t believe the reaction of the two men who simultaneously found something fascinating in the scene outside the window. Something about the woman reminded him of Andrea, and he felt it his duty to protect her from such repulsive attention. Channelling the kind of courage his housemates displayed in their Dungeons and Dragons sessions, he adopted a cool tone. “You should apologise.”
“I already said sorry.” The lout’s gaze dismissed him as harmless. “Wasn’t my fault anyway. Blame the bleedin’ driver for taking the bend too fast.”
“You should apologise for your foul language and insulting attitude.”
“Oh yeah? Who’s gonna make me? You? Don’t make me laugh.” He towered over Isaac, puffing out his beer-belly.
Having had years of experience with bullies, Isaac knew his lack of height meant it would be a mistake to stand toe-to-toe in an attempt at physical intimidation. Instead he used a handy trick, raising his gaze to a point on the lad’s forehead and lowering his voice. “You have made a grave mistake. Martina is a black belt in many martial arts and could inflict serious damage. I strongly recommend you apologise.”
“Like I said, who’s gonna make me?” The nervous glance at his distant mates confirmed the crack in his bravado. “You an’ whose army?”

“My colleagues here are equally proficient so your little gang of inebriates would be completely outclassed.”
“Using big words don’t impress me much.”
Luckily the woman, whose name-tag identified as Martina, was up to the challenge, and had hardened her features as Isaac spoke. After a neutral glance at her aggressor, she rattled out a swift command to the other two, who both fixed the lad with menacing stares, resulting in complete deflation and a mumbled apology.
It would have to do. No point pushing it. “I suggest you mind your manners and run along.” Which he did.
Unfortunately, Isaac had lost all chance at anonymity as the woman introduced him to the other two who were, in fact, her colleagues. The three of them praised his courage in standing up to the scary thug who thankfully made no comment on his return journey.

Sneak preview - Lost in Time - Part 2

A note on the kitchen table explained why the door was locked – Naomi’s friend Stella was ill and she’d been called in to cover her lollipop duty at the school. The “Happy Birthday” surrounded by balloons tugged at his heart – this was always going to be the hard part, but her absence somehow made it easier.
Running up the two flights of stairs, he went straight into the structure at the back of the attic, depositing board and discs in the secret compartment. He switched on the radio, where Terry Wogan’s time check said he wasn't too far behind schedule. Then the guy stuffed it to him, playing Paul McCartney’s My Love – their very first “our tune.” As the former Beatle sang about going away and his heart staying, Eric paused, considering the enormity of his actions.
A creaking stair – the early warning system he refused to fix – alerted him to her proximity an instant before she called out. “I’m back, love. Would you like a cuppa?”
“No thanks. I’m in the middle of something.”
“Okay. Maybe later.”
The smothered disappointment in her tone said she had a surprise planned. Knowing her it would be cake related.
Who was he to deny her the pleasure it would bring?
A glance at the clock confirmed if he did anything now he’d miss the crucial time slot. If he’d worked it through, he’d have planned it better.
Then Wogan played his ace. As the staccato piano phrase announced Leo Sayer’s iconic story song with all its deep-seated connections, Eric came to his senses.
What kind of monster would leave the woman he loved without appreciating all the efforts she would have gone to for his birthday? How could he contemplate leaving her with such a dreadful memory? He’d have another chance in twelve hours – better to make them the best in her life.
He shouted after her. “On second thoughts, I am rather thirsty – I’ll be down in a sec.”

The clippety-clop of her footsteps supported his theory about her motivation, and the massive chocolate-covered confection on the kitchen table confirmed it.
“For me? You spoil me.”
“Because you deserve it. I don’t know why you’d be up there working today, but if it makes you happy, go for it.”
Thankfully, she turned to light the candles, because he had no more chance of disguising the wobble on his face than swimming on the moon. Stepping close, he put his arms round her waist, nuzzling the back of her neck in what she’d confessed was a knee-trembling move.
“Are you trying to set the house on fire?” She tutted.
“No, my love. Only you.”
“Be off with you. There’s a time and a place for monkey business.”
“Not even on my birthday?”
She paused mid-light, obviously thinking about it, and the flame singed her nail, making her drop the match. “Ow. I’m sorry, but Stella was going to cover my dinner lady duties, and now she’s ill … I can’t let them down.”
“Oh dear. Never mind.” A wicked glint sparkled in her eyes. “But that’s not for hours. You’d better blow the candles out first.” And he did.

21:08
After waving Naomi off to her evening aerobics class, Eric had hurried up to the attic with a mission to leave everything ship-shape and Bristol fashion. A shrill alarm alerted about time being of the essence. He scoffed. Whoever coined that phrase had no concept. The extra time had been well spent on a final check of the plans he’d left in place to ensure Naomi would be catered for. He sealed the envelope with her name on it, placing it on his forlorn-looking workbench, bereft of its normal clutter.
The hardest thing he’d ever written.
As he secured the door to his most prized invention, guilt washed over him at the thought of how she’d suffer for the next couple of years. Her intrinsic resourcefulness would rise to the task, and this was another necessary evil to divert the vengeful attentions of the real evil away from her situation. He cursed the day that monster had bought the thriving company with an offer the previous owner couldn’t resist.
He knew enough to guarantee they wouldn’t risk the bad press associated with evicting a grandmother from the crumbling wreck their family home had become. At least on paper. In reality … the second alarm curtailed his musings and, with a short prayer, he rolled the dice.

Sneak preview - Lost in Time

Necessary Evil

Eric: 9/9/99
He hated all the sneaking around, but given the circumstances, it was a necessary evil. Popping another disc into the drive, Eric repeated the command, thankful there were only a few left. One benefit of having the place to himself at such an ungodly hour was he could sabotage the project in secret. Thanks to a natty little virus, it would all happen without him even being there. His untimely vanishing act would raise suspicions, but that couldn’t be helped.
He’d infected both sets of backup disks so they would appear normal to a cursory glance. But the instant anyone used them in earnest the thing would activate, gobbling up the code and spitting out a jumble of nonsense. Irretrievable nonsense. He spared a thought for his deputy, Ron, who would have several nightmare weeks trying to piece it all together. But a couple of suspicious incidents suggested the guy wasn't totally blameless.
Having returned the backups to their secure drawers, he set about replacing the motherboard. An article about clever forensic techniques to reconstitute deleted files made this essential. He was on the floor, hidden by his desk, screwing in the cover of the tower unit when he heard someone open the office door and walk in. The unmistakable stench of Lynx deodorant identified it as Ron.
“Eric? Are you there?”
He froze as the guy wandered up and pressed a couple of keys on the keyboard.
“Typical. Bloody jobsworth would power down after he finished. Assuming he even turned up. If Harry thinks I’m gonna waste time double checking, he can think again. I need bacon and coffee.”
Suspicions confirmed.
Thankful he hadn’t parked in the main car park, Eric left it a while before emerging, and exited the building spy-spoof-style, checking around every corner. Sure, it was overkill, but the consequences of failure were unimaginably high.

8:39

Haring down the narrow country lane, Eric glanced at the clock. Fifteen minutes to do a journey which should take five, leaving fifteen more to do what he needed before zero hour. Ample time under normal circumstances, but this morning had taught him if anything could go wrong, it would do.
Right on cue, he spotted the worst possible thing – the cab of a tractor rising above the hedgerow as though conjured up by his negative thought. He tried Naomi’s trick, willing it to turn off, but the beast trundled along at half an inch a fortnight, the rear design forming a mocking grin.
Several expletives later, he shuddered at the memory of six months ago when he’d uncovered the MD’s plans to weaponise his latest invention. Eric had volunteered to become Y2K liaison, the perfect excuse to delve into the technologies required to ensure the MD’s scheme never came to fruition. The guy was in bed with gangsters and dodgy foreign militaries, for Christ’s sake.
Sending another blast of turn-off-the-lane energy at the oblivious farmer in front, he thanked the insecurities of his manager who’d fallen prey to the Y2K scaremongering, the latest one being that today’s date could trigger some kind of meltdown. With all the nines and everything. The farmer chose that moment to succumb to Eric’s repeated mantra and turn into the next field and he let rip. Resisting the urge to scream up the drive and exit the car like The Sweeny’s Reagan and Carter, Eric parked carefully and hustled up to the front door, surprised to find it locked.

Happy Harvestide

No this is not my garden today, it's looking as dull and grey as everybody else’s. But I thought there’d be no harm in brightening up the page with a memory of one of the glorious October days when I picked dozens of apples. Our orchard has half a dozen apple trees, and two of them regularly produce 1500 apples (between them) in a good season. That's a heck of a lot of processing, and I usually manage to foist most of them onto my family and neighbours. As for my friends, they duck when they see me coming with a bag of apples and I'd rather have their friendship.
This is just my way of excusing myself for the fact there's no real blog this week.

My Top Thirteen 1999

1. Shania Twain - That Don't Impress Me Much 5-1999
2. Robbie Williams - Strong 4-1999
3. Ricky Martin - Livin' La Vida Loca 7-1999
4. The Divine Comedy - National Express 2-1999
5. Lou Bega - Mambo No 5 (A Little Bit Of...) 8-1999
6. Macy Gray - I Try 10-1999
7. George Michael & Mary J Blige - As 3-1999
8. Sixpence None The Richer - Kiss Me 6-1999
9. Travis - Why Does It Always Rain On Me? 8-1999
10. Blondie - Maria 2-1999
11. Ronan Keating - When You Say Nothing At All 8-1999
12. Lenny Kravitz - Fly Away 2-1999
13. Britney Spears - Baby One More Time 2-1999

And the bubbling unders:
Tom Jones & The Cardigans - Burning Down The House 10-1999
Christina Aguilera - Genie In A Bottle 10-1999
B*Witched - Blame It On The Weatherman 3-1999
Billie - Honey To The Bee 4-1999
Mariah Carey - Heartbreaker 11-1999
Des'ree - You Gotta Be 4-1999
Gabrielle - Sunshine 10-1999
Geri Halliwell - Mi Chico Latino 8-1999
Whitney Houston - It's Not Right But It's Okay 3-1999
Jamiroquai - Canned Heat 6-1999
R Kelly - If I Could Turn Back The Hands Of Time 11-1999
Baz Luhrmann - Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen) 6-1999
Madonna - Beautiful Stranger 6-1999
Manic Street Preachers - You Stole The Sun From My Heart 3-1999
Martine McCutcheon -Talking In Your Sleep / Love Me 12-1999
Melanie C - Northern Star 12-1999
Shawn Mullins - Lullaby 3-1999
The New Radicals - You Get What You Give 4-1999
Cliff Richard - The Millennium Prayer 11-1999
S Club 7 - Bring It All Back 6-1999
Savage Garden - I Knew I Loved You 11-1999
Will Smith ft. Dru Hill - Wild Wild West 7-1999
Steps - Better Best Forgotten 3-1999
Stereophonics - Just Looking 3-1999
Texas - In Our Lifetime 5-1999
Shania Twain - Man I Feel Like A Woman 10-1999
The Vengaboys - Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom!! 6-1999
Westlife - Flying Without Wings 10-1999

1990s Gadgets, Inventions etc

1990
Adobe Photoshop
Developed in the late 1980s by PhD student Thomas Knoll, it came to the attention of his brother John, who drew on his experience working for George Lucas’ visual effects company Industrial Light & Magic. They approached Adobe, who bought the distribution licence, and Photoshop 1.0 was released in February 1990.

World Wide Web
The internet (a system of interconnected computer networks) was created in the late 60s, but limited to government departments and research institutions. Tim Berners-Lee a British engineer and computer scientist, working at CERN, developed the first web server, the first web browser, and a document formatting protocol, called Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). He also created the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and a system of globally unique identifiers for resources on the Web and elsewhere, the universal document identifier (UDI), later known as uniform resource locator (URL). The first web site, published on December 20th, 1990, was quite rudimentary.

Hubble Space Telescope
Launched in April, it revolutionised astronomy. Its 5 main instruments observe in the ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Hubble's orbit outside the distortion of Earth's atmosphere allows it to capture extremely high-resolution images with substantially lower background light than ground-based telescopes.

1991
Linux
During his second year at the University of Helsinki, Linus Torvalds he set out to build a new operating system for his Intel PC, which developed into the industry-changing open-source Linux operating system. This ended up as one of the largest platforms for internet companies like Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Twitter.

1992
Text messages

In 1992 Neil Papworth, a former developer at Sema Group Telecoms, successfully sent the first text message to Richard Jarvis, a director at Vodafone. At the time, cell phones didn't have keyboards, so Papworth typed his "Merry Christmas" message on a PC. Early on, text messaging was largely underutilized as phones and network carriers weren’t very accommodating. Screens were tiny and without a keyboard it was quite cumbersome to type out sentences with a numerical dialling input layout. It caught on more in the late 90s as manufacturers came out with models with full QWERTY keyboards.

Nokia 1011
Mobile phones (affectionately known as bricks) appeared on the market in the 1980s. When Nokia launched its first cell phone, the 1011 on 10th November 1992, it changed the way cell phones were viewed, being the first mass-produced GSM phone, and the first mobile phone to support SMS text messages.

1993
MP3s
This file format was defined as a standard for audio encoding by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) - a working group of industry experts. It uses lossy compression to encode data using inexact approximations and the partial discarding of data, allowing for a large reduction in file sizes when compared to uncompressed audio. The combination of small size and acceptable fidelity led to a boom in the distribution of music over the Internet in the late 1990s, with MP3 serving as an enabling technology at a time when bandwidth and storage were still at a premium. German engineer Karlheinz Brandenburg was part of the team at the Fraunhofer Institute who developed the format and, due to his contributions, is often regarded as the “father of the MP3.” The song that was chosen to encode the first MP3 was "Tom's Diner" by Suzanne Vega. After some setbacks, including an instance in 1991 in which the project almost died, they produced an audio file in 1992 that Brandenburg described as sounding exactly like on the CD, and the format was officially published in 1993.

PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants)
These became popular in the mid-1990s with the release of the touchscreen Apple Newton in 1993, although it had a monochrome screen. Later in the late 1990s, the first full-colour PDAs were released, but they had a short battery life. These would gradually merge their features with mobile phones, leading to smartphones such as the iPhone.

1994
Smartphone
Credited as the first smartphone, the IBM Simon was manufactured by Mitsubishi Electric, which integrated features with its own cellular radio technologies. It featured a liquid-crystal display (LCD) and PC Card support. The Simon was commercially unsuccessful, particularly due to its bulky form factor and limited battery life, using NiCad batteries rather than the nickel–metal hydride batteries commonly used in mobile phones in the 1990s, or lithium-ion batteries used in modern smartphones.

1995
Windows 95
The successor to Windows 3.1, it was the first version to include the modern “Windows Feel” (Taskbar, Start Menu) and featured significant improvements over its predecessor, most notably in the graphical user interface (GUI) and in its simplified "plug-and-play" features. It gained immediate popularity and made Windows the standard operating system for most PCs. Windows 98 was even more successful three years later.

Global Positioning System (GPS)
The first prototype spacecraft was launched in 1978 and the full constellation of 24 satellites were installed in 1993, but the system didn't become fully operational for a couple of years. This satellite-based radio navigation system is one of the global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) that provide geolocation and time information to a GPS receiver anywhere on or near the Earth where there is an unobstructed line of sight to four or more GPS satellites.

1996
DVDs
The DVD (short for "digital video disc") was developed in 1995 and released in 1996 as a replacement for VHS. After the hassle of the VHS/Betamax competition, five of the leading computer companies (IBM, Apple, Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, and Microsoft) banded together and came to an agreement on a single format. Toshiba released the world's first DVD player in Japan, the SD-3000, however Sony claimed to be the first player in the US the following year. Fujitsu released the first DVD-ROM-equipped computer on November 6 1996 in Great Britain, with Toshiba, Sony and several others appearing by the following May.

1997
Plasma screens
Although the concept was proposed in 1936, and the first prototype was created in the mid 60s, plasma flat panel televisions become commercially available this year, competing against CRT televisions. Philips introduced at CES and CeBIT the first large commercially available flat-panel TV, using the Fujitsu panels. Philips had plans to sell it for 70,000 French francs. It was released as the Philips 42PW9962. It was available at four Sears locations in the US for $14,999, including in-home installation. Pioneer and Fujitsu also began selling plasma televisions that year, and other manufacturers followed.
Although orange-on-black monochrome display plasma screens were available from early 80s, full colour flat panel computer monitors were released commercially to the public in the mid-to-late 90s.

Netflix
Originally launched during the dial-up Internet era, it began by offering DVDs mailed straight to one's home, which the user could select in an online queue. By 2007 it started to offer streaming directly from the Internet, making it a competitor to conventional network television.

1998
Google
Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin met in 1995 at Stanford University. In 1996, the two were writing a program for a search engine called Backrub, and after the success of this platform, they registered the domain name Google.com in 1997. They continued to develop what would become the largest search engine of the in the garage of a friend Susan Wojcicki (who went on to be the director of YouTube). Google was officially incorporated as a company in September 1998.

1999
BlackBerry
The first version was released in January as a two-way pager in Munich, Germany, using the same hardware as the Inter@ctive pager 950, and running on the Mobitex network. It was a solution devised by RIM (Research in Motion) for delivering e-mail over several different wireless networks. The original BlackBerry device had a monochrome display while newer models installed colour displays.


Other Scientific notables
September 90 - The first successful somatic gene therapy trials began.
October 90 - Human Genome Project formally began, with the objective of determining the DNA sequence of the entire euchromatic human genome within 13 years.
January 91 - The first intracytoplasmic sperm injection in vitro fertilization produced baby was born by mechanically injecting a single, selected sperm cell into an egg.
1991 - Detection of extrasolar planets orbiting a pulsar was confirmed.
The development of web browsers such as Netscape Navigator (originally known as Mosaic) in 1993 and Internet Explorer in 1995 made surfing the World Wide Web easier and more user friendly.
From 1994 onward, businesses started building e-commerce websites; e-commerce-only companies such as Amazon.com, eBay, AOL, and Yahoo! grew rapidly.
1994 - The FlavrSavr tomato, the first genetically modified food sold in the United States was introduced.
1994 - Proof of Fermat's Last Theorem was discovered by Andrew Wiles and completed.
April 95 - The NSFNET backbone was shut down, making the Internet a unified and "centreless" network without any restrictions on traffic types and essentially causing the Dot com bubble by attracting large-scale corporate investment in the Internet.
July 96 - Dolly the sheep was cloned from an adult somatic cell. The cell used as the donor for the cloning of Dolly was taken from a mammary gland, and the production of a healthy clone, therefore, proved that a cell taken from a specific part of the body could recreate a whole individual.
1996 - Construction started on the International Space Station.
1996 - Google began indexing the World Wide Web.
1996 - USB ports were invented, allowing for computing devices to connect more easily. The USB flash drive debuted in December 2000.
1997 - The first hybrid vehicles are produced.
1998 - The first portable MP3 player, the MPMan was released.
1999 – For several years, certain people had been frantically worrying about the Year 2000 problem (commonly known as Y2K), the computer glitch disaster expected to happen on January 1, 2000.Millions of pounds were squandered in combing through software and on the day it had the impact of a damp squib.


Also in the 90s
Email became popular; as a result Microsoft acquired the popular Hotmail webmail service in 97, renaming it MSN Hotmail.
High-end cars of the 1990s were installed with automatic doors, windows controlled with electric levers, GPS navigation, and CD drives.
DNA identification of individuals, introduced in the late 1980s, found wide application in criminal law.
Protease inhibitors introduced in 1987 allowing HAART therapy against HIV became an important part of HIV treatment in the 1990s and helped to extend and save millions of lives.
Discovery of dark matter, dark energy, brown dwarfs, and first confirmation of black holes.
Active matrix laptop computers became popular and easier to afford.
Satellite television became commonplace.

1990s Men’s Fashions

One of the most diverse eras in fashion history, the 90s was multicoloured yet minimalist. Poppy yet punky. Tight-fitting yet oversized at the same time. It was also heavily influenced by everything from film and music to sports and video games. Exaggerated nonchalance was key to the end of the millennium. Here are some of the main styles:
Grunge Look
Made popular by Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, this was akin to 70s punk with torn clothing, layered jewelry, and unruly hair. Generally dark, unconventional and edgy, it took dressing down to new depths, bottomed out with ankle-length boots (Doc Martens), converse shoes or scruffy trainers. It often featured tartan or checkered flannel shirts, relaxed-fit jeans, and a leather biker jacket, accessorised with chokers, sunglasses and a classic baseball cap or bucket hat.

Hip Hop Fashion
Popularised by rappers like Puff Daddy, Tupac and Biggie, this look mostly consisted of baggy jeans/cargo pants, oversized t-shirts/sweatshirts, athletic wear, and Timberland boots. Haircuts were often wild, the look accessorised with gold chains/jewellery and the distinctive hip hop style eyeglasses.

Preppy Style
Often associated with affluence and Ivy League schools, the preppy style is characterized by classic silhouettes and understated colors. This usually takes the form of a button-down shirt, polos, v-neck sweaters over collared shirts, chinos/khaki pants, and loafers/canvas slip-ons, topped with the ubiquitous blazers or cardigans.

Jock Fashion
The 90s were the golden age of jock fashion - all about feeling comfortable and stylish at the same time. Jocks would wear smart clothes that showed off their muscular physique, they were always well-groomed and smelled great. The white polo golfers t-shirt featured breathable cotton fabric to keep cool, worn with blue denims and a letterman sweater and/or bomber jacket. Vaguly related was Athleisure, featuring shorts outfits, track pants, and hoodies paired with sneakers or running shoes. The perfect example of 90s athleisure fashion is the iconic image of Michael Jordan wearing his Chicago Bulls jersey and shorts with a pair of Nike Air Jordan sneakers. This look was simultaneously comfortable, practical, and fashionable, making it a hit with guys of all ages.

Beach Fashion
The 90s was a decade of big fashion statements. Men’s beach fashion was no exception. Printed half sleeved shirts and tight-fitting shorts were all the rage. And if you wanted to stand out, you accessorized with a bandana or a headband. The overall look was suave yet youthful, adventurous yet stylish. It was a look that said you were confident and ready to take on the world. Related is the the skater-boy look. Skateboarders and surfers who sought a casual look comfortable with skate and surfing made this look popular. The look consisted of baggy jeans, flannel shirts, screen-printed t-shirts, and Vans shoes.

Hairstyles

Curtains – all about straight lines and smooth hair with a centre parting and long bangs flopping around either side of the head.
Frosted tips – involved bleaching only the very tips of the hair, which was usually cut short and spiked up vertically with wet-look gel.
Faux Hawk – involved shaving the sides of the head and leaving the hair on top longer. The top hair was then cut into a shape like a Mohawk.
Crew Cut – involved shaving the sides and back of the headshot while leaving the hair on top longer. The top hair was then cut into a shape similar to a crew cut.
Mullet – involved growing the hair long in the back and short in the front. The Mullet could be worn with or without bangs.
Bowl Cut – involved shaving the back and sides of the head short while leaving the hair on top longer. The hair on top was then cut into a bowl-like shape.


Massive shout-out to the following websites for providing the source material:
https://mensarray.com/90s-mens-fashion/#google_vignette
https://www.apetogentleman.com/90s-fashion-trends-men/

My Top Thirteen 1998

1. The Mavericks - Dance The Night Away 5-1998
2. The Corrs - Dreams 5-1998
3. The Beautiful South - Perfect 10 9-1998
4. Aerosmith - I Don't Want To Miss A Thing 9-1998
5. Cher - Believe 10-1998
6. LeAnn Rimes - How Do I Live 3-1998
7. Savage Garden - Truly Madly Deeply 2-1998
8. Bryan Adams ft. Melanie C - When You're Gone 12-1998
9. Cornershop - Brimful Of Asha 2-1998
10. Celine Dion - My Heart Will Go On 2-1998
11. The Spice Girls - Stop 3-1998
12. U2 - Sweetest Thing 11-1998
13. Robbie Williams - Let Me Entertain You 3-1998

And the ones that got away:
All Saints - Bootie Call 9-1998
The Backstreet Boys - All I Have To Give 2-1998
Baddiel & Skinner and The Lightning Seeds - Three Lions '98 6-1998
B*Witched - C'est La Vie 6-1998
Boyzone - No Matter What 8-1998
Mariah Carey & Whitney Houston - When You Believe 12-1998
The Corrs - What Can I Do 9-1998
Culture Club - I Just Wanna Be Loved 11-1998
Destiny's Child - No No No 4-1998
Des'ree - Life 6-1998
Eagle-Eye Cherry – Save Tonight 7-1998
Five - Got The Feelin' 6-1998
Wyclef Jean - Gone Till November 5-1998
Madonna - Frozen 2-1998
Manic Street Preachers - If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next 8-1998
The Spice Girls - Viva Forever 7-1998
Steps - Heartbeat / Tragedy 11-1998
Stereophonics - The Bartender And The Thief 11-1998
Robbie Williams - Millennium 10-1998

My Top 13 Adverts

1. Guinness Classic ads 1998/9

Unforgettable TV adverts of the highest quality from Guinness, filled with stunning imagery, a pulsating soundtrack and a haunting voiceover.
1998 - Swim Black - An aging local sports hero’s annual swimming race against the ‘clock’ of a pint of Guinness being poured perfectly at his brother’s bar. He worries he won't make it one year, but his brother starts the clock a little later each year.
1999 - Surfer - A group of surfers, wait for the perfect wave. As it arrives, the crashing 'white horses' turn into actual horses. One by one, a surfer 'crashes out', leaving only one, who manages to conquer the wave. The others join him as they celebrate on the shore.

2. Cadbury’s Dairy Milk Drumming Gorilla 2007

It shouldn't work, it has nothing to do with chocolate bars, but watching a gorilla drumming to Phil Collins’ In the Air Tonight. What’s not to like?
This advert was named as the nations all-time favourite at one point in time, and was created in a bid to bring fun and excitement back to the Cadburys organisation in 2007. Surprisingly the advert almost didn’t make it onto TV screens, but when it did it was 90 seconds long, didn’t involve any humans, and there were no Dairy Milk bars in sight. The advert holds the audience’s attention as for the first minute there is no backing track, and it shows a slow pan of the gorilla getting ready to perform. Ironically despite the lack of branding and mention of Cadburys, the advert is still very clearly for the chocolate giant, as the gorilla is placed in front of a purple backdrop. The directors of the advert wanted to showcase exactly how eating Cadburys Dairy Milk makes you feel, and the audience resonated with this as it became one of the companies largest and most successful campaigns.

3. Smash Martians 1973

A family of Martian robots would watch humans laboriously preparing mashed potato the traditional way on TV. The robots would then mock what they saw by chortling as they heard how the "Earth people peeled their own potatoes with their metal knives, boiled them for twenty of their minutes, then smashed them all to bits" – instead of using Smash instant mash. The catchphrase 'For Mash Get Smash' is still an iconic advertising slogan in the UK. From 1973 to 1992, viewers were treated to a delightful parade of TV commercials that showcased the aliens’ attempts to understand Earth’s obsession with traditional mashed potatoes. The series cleverly combined comedy and culinary appeal, turning what could have been a mundane product into a pop culture phenomenon. What made the campaign so enduring was its ability to connect with the Best of British nostalgia, capturing the essence of a bygone era. The whimsical aliens became unlikely cultural ambassadors, creating a sense of shared joy and laughter across living rooms throughout the nation.

4. Cinzano Collins & Rossiter 1978

Cinzano created an unlikely partnership between the glamorous Joan Collins and Rising Damp star Leonard Rossiter in this series of adverts. Viewers saw the couple on board an aircraft, on holiday, at a fancy dress party, at a ski lodge, entertaining Japanese businessmen – and in each scenario, a pretentious, accident-prone Rossiter accidentally douses his prudish wife Melissa (Collins) in Cinzano. Although the viewer always knew what was coming, the ads were perfectly timed and skilfully written, and the not-quite slapstick mocked the drink commercials of other brands aimed at a younger generation. Several accounts suggest the two co-stars’ relationship offstage led to the brilliant chemistry, and all credit due to Joan Collins’ wry delivery of the punchline after yet another soaking.

5. Renault Clio Papa and Nicole 1991-98

Renault Clio Advert set in Historic French town featuring Nicole who tries to sneak away from her dozing Papa to meet her boyfriend. She drives around narrow streets showing how easy it is to manoeuvre the car. He follows her in another Clio, then drives past them in a clinch to meet his petite amour. It ends with her returning to find him apparently still dozing, both sporting secret smiles. The majority of the dialogue in all the ads consists of two words: "Papa" and "Nicole," with meaningful intonations, and the final caption: A certain flair. Background music adapted Robert Palmers' Johnny and Mary.

6. Hovis The Bike Ride 1974

So simple, but so iconic. Voted Britain’s most favourite advert of all time, this ad for Hovis Bread was one of five directed by acclaimed film director Ridley Scott and has since been digitally remastered. It features a boy ushing a bicycle laden with bread up a picturesque English cobbled street. A voice-over, presumably of the boy at a later age, nostalgically describes the trip as he struggles up the steep hill to deliver bread, set to Dvorak’s stirring music. Many people think it’s set in Yorkshire, but it was actually filmed in Dorset and this scene of Gold Hill put Shaftesbury on the map – a memorial to Hovis now stands at the top of the hill.

7. Cadbury Milk Tray Man in Black 1974

It was one of the most popular and longest-running TV adverts of all time, where a man dressed in black overcame impossible odds to deliver a box of delicious Cadbury’s Milk Tray chocolates to his lady love. The mysterious hero appeared in over 20 adverts between 1968 and 2003. Over the years, we saw him jump on a moving passenger train, leap from a helicopter and swim through shark-infested waters. Why? “All because the lady loves Milk Tray”, of course. And the final scene always sowed said lady picking up his distinctive calling card while the camera panned in on the box of chocolates. The ads were inspired by the James Bond films, which had become smash hits at the cinema in the 1960s. The music, The Night Rider, was written by Cliff Adams, who also wrote the music for Fry's Turkish Delight advertisements.

8. British Telecom Beattie – Maureen Lipman 1988
Maureen Lipman created a TV advert legend as Beattie in this classic BT advert, and her Jewish granny character went on to star in 32 TV commercials and contribute the word "ology" to the English language.. Having been told by her grandson Anthony that he has failed most of his exams - only passing pottery and sociology, Beattie cries: "He gets an ology and he says he's failed... you get an ology you're a scientist..."

9. Wall's Cornetto Just One Cornetto 1980

The best-remembered advert (by Lintas) is from 1981, in which a curly-haired man sat in a gondola sings a revised version of the late 19th century Italian opera song "O Sole Mio" to a lady passing him in another gondola, before snatching her Cornetto from her. The lyrics to the song have been altered to "Just one Cornetto, give it to me. Delicious ice cream, of Italy. Creamy vanilla and chocolate dream, give me Cornetto, from Walls ice cream." The song ignores the fact that Cornetto is actually made in the United Kingdom, although its roots lie in Italy, as you will discover. However, the advert does display "Made outside Italy by Walls" at the end. In another similar advert first shown in 1982, a gondolier reaches up towards a bridge and grabs a Cornetto from a young lady. As he passes through to the other side of the bridge, she snatches it from his hand with a smile on her face.

10. Nescafé Gold Blend Couple 1987-93

Nescafé tried something different with this campaign, where they actually created a serial drama. Anthony Head and Sharon Maughan starred as Tony and Sharon, a couple who begin a slow-burning romance over a cup of coffee. The ads were in a serial format, with each ending with a cliffhanger. The commercials were extremely popular, and as time went on, the appearance of a new instalment gained considerable media attention. They are one of the most famous examples of serialised advertising. The ads had a notable effect on sales, increasing them over 50% in the UK alone. They have been heralded as a premier example of positioning, creating an atmosphere of sophistication, while remaining relatable.

11. R Whites Secret Lemonade Drinker 1973

The adverts featured actor Julian Chagrin in pyjamas creeping downstairs and shushing the dog. He raids the fridge for R. Whites Lemonade, impersonating a slightly crazy Elvis as he uses the bottle as a mic, only to be caught by his wife, played by Harriet Philpin. Ross McManus wrote and sang the advert's song, with his son Declan McManus (aka Elvis Costello) providing the backing vocals. There was also a version of the commercial in 1985 featuring John Otway as the secret lemonade drinker in a phone box. In the 90s, various celebrities replaced his wife in the commercials including comedians Ronnie Corbett and Frankie Howerd, actor Nicholas Parsons, tennis player John McEnroe and footballers turned pundits Ian St John and Jimmy Greaves.

12. Babycham Patrick Mower 1970s

In the 60s the iconic image of a baby deer was turned into a cartoon; it became a party deer, bringing a bit of pizzazz to the dullest of social gatherings. Fast forward to the 1970s, and the TV ads had turned up the glamour element. Raffish leading man (and future Emmerdale star) Patrick Mower is on his yacht somewhere in the Med, blonde companion on his arm, living the life of the international playboy. He pours a Babycham and says: "You don't need a cherry with it but here's one thing you DO need". He turns and passes the glass to a pretty girl. Music: Babycham's got sparkle Babycham's got life!
Further references to the ultimate in cool lifestyles (‘Hey, I’d love a Babycham!’) in the 1980s. A man in a bar asks for a Babycham, and it goes very quiet and everyone looks on in horror. A cool, tough-looking black guy: Hey, I’ll have a Babycham!” Then everybody wants one

13. Boddingtons Cream of Manchester 1997

The brand's creaminess was emphasised through items such as face cream, ice cream, sun cream and whipped cream. Originally a set of print advertisements, the campaign was extended to television in 1992. The television advertisements featured beautiful women with unlikely Mancunian accents (particularly Melanie Sykes) and "achieved the seemingly impossible task of making bitter glamorous". The most famous television advertisement featured a glamorous couple on-board gondolas on Manchester's River Irwell, in a parody of a well-known "just one Cornetto" ice cream advertisement. According to the Manchester Evening News, "it told the world something about the reinvention of the murky old city, that its once-filthy waterway could almost pass for Venice."

1990s Adverts

"Good to the last drop." "Breakfast of champions." Some slogans last forever, others don't last a year. According to one source, a slogan is one part elegant phrasing, two parts brand positioning, and a glaze of virtue and idealism. Oh, and don't forget a pinch of good luck.
A slogan is the public face of what the marketing profession knows as a brand "positioning." They want audiences to perceive not only a product, but also a higher purpose.
In no particular order, here are some of the ear-worms which infiltrated our lives in the 90s, hoping to persuade us to buy.

Red Bull Gives You Wings (1992)
Ronseal - It does exactly what it says on the tin (1994)
The future's bright, the future's Orange (1997)
Marmite – Love it or Hate it (1996)
Electricity Boards – Creature comforts (1990)
Boddingtons – The Cream of Manchester (1991)
You know when you've been Tangoed (1991)
Pepsi & Spice Girls - Generation Next (1998)
Gameboy - Have You Had Your Fun Today? (1991)
America Online - You’ve Got Mail (1995)
Rice Krispies - Snap, Crackle, Pop (1994)
Do not underestimate the power of PlayStation (1999)
And a special mention for the Diet Coke Break ads (1994)
With a couple of slogans: Just for the taste of it/Do what you want.

And a stack with unknown year of origin:
Pringles - Once You Pop, You Can’t Stop
Budweiser - Wassup?
Domestos - kills all known germs – dead!
Tesco - Every little helps
That's why mums go to Iceland
KFC - Finger-lickin' good!
John Lewis - Never knowingly undersold
A finger of Fudge is just enough to give a kid a treat

And some older ones
British Airways – Every year, the world's favourite airline brings 24 million people, together (1989)

If only everything in life was as reliable as a Volkswagen (1987)
Milk Marketing Board – Milk's gotta lotta bottle
Irn Bru – Made in Scotland from girders
Domestos kills 99% of all household germs
Stella Artois – Reassuringly Expensive (1982-2007)
British Rail – This is the age of the train (1980)
Carlsberg – Probably the best lager in the world (1973)
Hovis – Boy on a bike (1973) – one of Britain's most loved adverts
Happiness is a cigar called Hamlet (1966)
Go to work on an egg 50s/60s

Certain firms have a whole bunch of iconic ads:

Coca Cola
1969 – It's the Real Thing
1971 – I'd Like to Buy the World a Coke
1976 – Coke adds life
1979 – Have a Coke and a smile
1980 – Coke is it!
1986 – Catch the Wave
1988 – You Can't Beat the Feeling
1990 – Can't Beat The Real Thing
1993 – Always Coca-Cola
1995 – Always and Only Coca-Cola
1995 – Holidays are coming!
1998 – Born to be red (US)
1998 – Coca-Cola always the real thing! (UK)
1999 – Coca-Cola. Enjoy


Cadbury’s

Milk Tray – He likes them, she likes them – 1950s
Give her Cadbury’s Milk Tray – it’s a little sign of love – 1960s
Happiness for two – 1960s
And all because the lady loves Milk Tray – 1968
Flake – Sixpence worth of heaven – 1959
Only the crumbliest, flakiest, chocolate tastes like chocolate never tasted before 1960-1999
Roses – When you get Roses, you’ve got yourself a man – 60s
Smash – For mash get smash – robots – 1973-1992
Caramel Bunny – Take it easy – 80s
Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate - A Glass and A Half Full of Joy
Coronation Street sponsorship – 1996-2002
Crème Egg – how do you eat yours? 1997
Dairy Milk – Drumming Gorilla advert – In the air tonight – 2007

Guinness

Guinness is good for you (1932)
Guinness for strength - girder (1934)
My Goodness, My Guinness- ostrich (1935)
Lovely day for a Guinness - toucan ad (1955)
Good things come to those who wait (1996)
1998 - Swim Black - An aging local sports hero’s annual swimming race against the ‘clock’ of a pint of Guinness being poured perfectly at his brother’s bar. He worries he won't make it one year, but his brother starts the clock a little later each year.
1999 - Surfer - A group of surfers, wait for the perfect wave. As it arrives, the crashing 'white horses' turn into actual horses. One by one, a surfer 'crashes out', leaving only one, who manages to conquer the wave. The others join him as they celebrate on the shore.

On a similar theme, here are some movie tag lines:
Jumanji (95)– Are you game?
12 Monkeys (95) – The Future is History
The Matrix (99) – Reality is a thing of the past
Apollo 13 (95) – Houston, We Have a Problem
The Truman Show' (98) – On the Air, Unaware
Quiz Show (94) – Fifty Million People Watched, But No One Saw a Thing
Jurassic Park (93) – An Adventure 65 Million Years in the Making
Saving Private Ryan (98) – The Mission Is a Man
Pulp Fiction (94) – You won't know the facts until you've seen the fiction
The Shawshank Redemption (94) – Fear Can Hold You Prisoner. Hope Can Set You Free
True Lies (94) – When he said I do, he never said what he did
Terminator 2: Judgement Day (91) – This time he’s back – for good
Fight Club (99) – Mischief. Mayhem. Soap.
Silence of the Lambs (91) – To enter the mind of a killer, she must challenge the mind of a madman
Good Will Hunting (97) – Some people can never believe in themselves, until someone believes in them
Notting Hill (99) – Can the most famous film star in the world fall for just an ordinary guy?
10 Things I Hate About You (99) – How do I Loathe thee? Let me count the ways
Robin Hood Prince of Thieves (91) – For the good of all men, and the love of one woman, he fought to uphold justice by breaking the law
Strictly Ballroom (92) – There’s something in the air. It might be love – but it isn’t
Pretty Woman (90) – She walked off the street, into his life and stole his heart
As Good as it Gets (97) – A comedy from the heart that goes for the throat
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (92) – Another Christmas in the trenches
Toy Story (95) – The toys are back in town
The Sixth Sense (99) – Now you believe in ghosts
And the cheekiest:
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (99) – If You See Only One Movie This Summer, see Star Wars. But If You See Two Movies This Summer, See Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me

Quotes (many more memorable than the tag lines)
The Shawshank Redemption (94) – Get Busy Living, Or Get Busy Dying
True Lies (94) - Fear is not an option
Terminator 2: Judgement Day (91) – Hasta La Vista Baby
Fight Club (99) - The first rule of Fight Club is: you do not talk about Fight Club
Silence of the Lambs (91) – A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti
Good Will Hunting (97) – How do you like them apples?
Notting Hill (99) - I’m just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her
10 Things I Hate About You (99) – No drinking, no drugs, no kissing, no tattoos, no piercings, *no* ritual animal slaughters of any kind. Oh, God, I'm giving them ideas
Robin Hood Prince of Thieves (91) – I have a brother?
Strictly Ballroom (92) – A life lived in fear is a life half lived
Pretty Woman (90) – Did I mention my leg is forty-four inches from hip to toe; so, basically, we are talking about eighty-eight inches of therapy wrapped around you for the bargain price of three thousand dollars
As Good as it Gets (97) – You make me want to be a better man
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (92)– Keep the Change, Ya Filthy Animal
Toy Story (95) – To infinity and beyond
The Sixth Sense (99) – I see dead people

My 1997 Top Thirteen

1. The Foo Fighters - Everlong 8-1997
2. No Doubt - Don't Speak 2-1997
3. Texas - Black Eyed Boy 8-1997
4. Natalie Imbruglia - Torn 11-1997
5. The Spice Girls - Spice Up Your Life 10-1997
6. Eternal - I Wanna Be The Only One 5-1997
7. Sarah Brightman & Andrea Bocelli - Time To Say Goodbye (Con Te Partiro) 5-1997
8. Mary J. Blige - Everything 8-1997
9. All Saints - Never Ever 11-1997
10. Will Smith - Men In Black 8-1997
11. Steps - 5-6-7-8 11-1997
12. Barbra Streisand & Bryan Adams - I Finally Found Someone 2-1997
13. Various Artists - Perfect Day 11-1997


Bubbling under:
Alisha's Attic - Air We Breathe 7-1997
The Backstreet Boys - Quit Playing Games (With My Heart) 1-1997
Gary Barlow - Open Road 11-1997
The Bee Gees - Still Waters (Run Deep) 11-1997
Mary J. Blige - Everything 8-1997
Michael Bolton - The best Of Love / Go To The Distance 11-1997
Jon Bon Jovi - Janie, Don't Take Your Love To Town 11-1997
Mariah Carey - Honey 8-1997
Shery Crow - Tomorrow Never Dies 12-1997
Damage - Wonderful Tonight 5-1997
Celine Dion - The Reason 12-1997
Dodgy - Found You 3-1997
Gabrielle - Walk On By 1-1997
Hanson - Mmm Bop 6-1997
Inxs - Elegantly Wasted 3-1997
Michael Jackson - Blood On The Dance Floor 4-1997
Katrina And The Waves - Love Shine A Light 5-1997
R. Kelly - I Believe I Can Fly 3-1997
The Lighthouse Family - Raincloud 10-1997
Ricky Martin - (Un, Dos, Tres) Maria 9-1997
George Michael - You Have Been Loved EP UK 9-1997
Dannii Minogue - All I Wanna Do 8-1997
Kylie Minogue - Did It Again 11-1997
Savage Garden - I Want You 6-1997
The Stereophonics - Traffic 11-1997
Supergrass - Late In The Day 10-1997
Verve - Bitter Sweet Symphony 6-1997
Robbie Williams - Angels 12-1997


The ones people expect:
Aqua - Barbie Girl 10-1997
Blur - Song 2 4-1997
Chumbawamba - Tubthumping 8-1997
Oasis - Stand By Me 9-1997
The Pet Shop Boys - Somewhere 6-1997
Pulp - Help The Aged 11-1997
The Red Hot Chili Peppers - Love Rollercoaster 6-1997
U2 - If God Will Send His Angels 12-1997

My Top 13 90s TV Shows

1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (97-03)

Buffy – a hot teen – leads a bunch of misfits – the scooby gang – who battle supernatural forces while dealing with the pressure of high school (and then college). Joss Whedon’s smart, funny series led to a spin-off (Angel). Buffy is a Slayer, one in a long line of young women chosen for a specific mission: to seek out and destroy vampires, demons and other forces of darkness. Unlike her predecessors, Buffy establishes a group of supportive friends who aids her in her battles with evil, including Willow, Xander and Cordelia. Her battles with evil are frequent, since Sunnydale, where Buffy and friends live, sits atop a gateway to the realm of the demons.
Joss Whedon’s smart, funny series had me hooked from the start and I bought the last four series and binge regularly. For me, there's no contest in the Spike vs Angel debate.

2. Frasier (93-04)

A contender for best sitcom of all-time, this series saw Frasier Crane (played by Kelsey Grammer) vacate his Cheers Boston bar stool in favor of a Seattle radio station. At the Primetime Emmys, Frasier emerged with five wins in the Outstanding Comedy Series category, more than any other series in the '90s. Dr. Frasier Crane, a successful Boston therapist, moves to Seattle to get a new start on life; using his a radio talk show to relay his wit and wisdom to others, but at times he struggles with his own problems with his salt-of-the-earth father, his pretentious brother and his friends and co-workers.
This one gets second place because when we're in the caravan, we watch two or three epidodes every morning with a coffee and croissant to start the day.

3. Charmed (98-06)

Three Halliwell sisters discover they're descendants of a line of good female witches and are destined to fight against the forces of evil. Each has a special ability (stopping time, moving objects, seeing the future), and they can also combine their abilities into the "Power of Three" to fight demons, warlocks, and other evils. Their unique magical powers grow and evolve while they attempt to maintain normal lives in modern-day San Francisco. Keeping their supernatural identities separate and secret from their ordinary lives often becomes a challenge, with the exposure of magic having far-reaching consequences on their various relationships.
One of the few series I own the entire boxset on DVD. At 179 episodes, it takes a while to binge the lot.

4. Babylon 5 (94-98)

Creator J. Michael Straczynski's ambitious and complex futuristic space opera charts five years in the lives of those aboard the titular 5-mile-long space station, where personal drama plays out against a tense political backdrop of looming war between bitter enemies the Centauri and the Narn. Starting with a straight-to-TV movie in 1993, "Babylon 5" carried on officially as a series from 1994 to 1998. Creator, showrunner, and future controversial "Spider-Man" writer J. Michael Straczynski mapped out his entire vision for what became the five-season story before he sold a studio or network on the concept. This was a highly unique approach, especially considering that long-term serialized TV drama was not as common as it is today.
This was the very first complete boxset I ever bought and it’s a substantial package. Comparisons between this and Star Trek’s DS9 are inevitable, but for me, Bab 5 did it better and I still have fond memories of the cracking feud between G’Kar and Londo. But my stand-out character was Garibaldi – anyone else get hints of Bruce Wilis’ John McClane?

5. The Vicar of Dibley (94-20)

The 100-something vicar of the small English village of Dibley has passed on. A new vicar has been requested for a replacement. What they get is Geraldine Granger, a non-traditional, chocolate loving, rock n' roll playing vicar. That is not what gets the citizens of Dibley in a uproar though. It's because she is a woman. Still, that doesn't stop Geraldine from proving her worthiness to the village. After time, the villagers (with the exception of influential David Horton) accept Geraldine as The Vicar of Dibley.
There's something warm, funny and very English about this series - I loved the gentle, wry humour. Memorable episodes include the one where she has several Christmas dinners - those Brussel sprouts! And the ones where Richard Armitage plays her love interest.

6. Absolutely Fabulous (92-12)

Brilliant in its uncensored bad behaviour and satirical humour, this series features Edina and Patsy, two hard-drinking, drug-taking, completely and outrageously selfish middle-aged women. Their cruel humour focuses on the hypocrisy of today's society, much to the chagrin of Edina's more moral and conservative daughter, Saffron. Perhaps the Baby Boomer's narcissism has panned out as a net negative for humanity, but at least the Boomers will always have "Absolutely Fabulous" to make their self-involvement and inability to move on from the 1960s look harmless and charming. Patsy and Edina – played by Joanna Lumley and show creator Jennifer Saunders — are influential members of the London fashion and media industries. However, they mostly drink too much and get themselves into predicaments. Edina continually disappoints her already traumatized daughter Saffron — a studious Gen Xer futilely hoping for a quiet life of intellectual rigor and emotional substance to contrast her mother's vacuous ignorance and frequent shouting.
The female answer to Men Behaving Badly - Saunders and Lumley are phenomenal - what's not to like?

7. Cracker (92-06)

This mystery series features the adventures of a psychologist employed by the police to aid them in profiling and questioning suspects. "Fitz" (Robbie Coltrane), an avowed drunkard and gambler, has an uncanny knack for boring directly into the hearts and minds of his subjects, many of whom might actually be saner than he is. The whole thing reeks class: the cast are uniformly superb, Jimmy Mc Govern's writing is by times disturbing and violent, by times deeply compassionate, and the overall tone of the piece is dark and moody, but with just enough acerbic humour to lighten the weight. Robert Carlyle's Albie in "To Be Somebody" is one of the standout characters of the entire series – the portrayal of a supposedly mindless football hooligan still haunts me to this day. And it’s fun that both Robbie Coltrane and his sidekick Geraldine Somerville turned up in the Harry Potter franchise as Harry’s mentor & mother.

8. Ballykissangel (96-01)

English priest Peter Clifford cheerfully leaves his inner city parish when assigned as Catholic chaplain to Ballykissangel, a desolate part of curate MacAnally's huge Irish country parish. Peter flippantly claimed a mountain-bike is made for such country but gets scolded you can't work here without a car, as an old man living on a lonely peak actually needs last rites. Clifford's atheist landlady Assumpta Fitzgerald asks his 'lay' marriage advice. Her locally dominant rich father, Brian Quigley, insists on installing a state-of-the-art Italian 'modern comforts' confessional chair, complete with fax, and source of various problems.
Another one of those warm, sunny (when it wasn’t raining) sitcoms I followed avidly after one of my good friends told me about the series her brother had written. Stephen Tompkinson played the priest superbly and there was real chemistry (on and off screen between him and Dervla Kirwan. The series also saw an early role for Colin Farrel as a bit of a bad lad (with the heart of gold).

9. The X Files (93-18)

Once upon a time, the world was not quite as obsessed with conspiracy theories, and grownups behaved more like sceptical FBI agent Dana Scully (played by Gillian Anderson) rather than her UFO-chasing partner, Fox Mulder (played by David Duchovny). In one of the longest-running science fiction series in network TV history, FBI special agents investigate unexplained, mind-bending cases with potentially paranormal attributes known as "X-Files." Though the government is convinced that the outlandish reports are false, for most of the series, the pair stop at nothing to prove that "the truth is out there." Series creator Chris Carter also serves as executive producer of the thrilling pop-culture phenomenon. This assignment brings them into contact with UFOs, deep state conspirators, human-parasite hybrids, ghosts, Satanic cults, and a plethora of other abnormalities.
In my late teens, I became fascinated with strange phenomena such as spontaneous combustion, and couldn’t believe it when the first few episodes of this series tapped right into this stuff. Another one I wouldn’t miss.

10. Soldier, Soldier (91-97)

Drama following the life of the officers and men of the King's Own Fusiliers regiment, during their home lives, training exercises and battles. Whether it was the charisma of Robson Green and Jerome Flynn (who both went on to have stellar careers) as the irrepressible Tucker and Garvey, or the realistic storylines, this one was a winner. I must confess my memories are probably entangled with those of Ultimate Force, which add the advantage of more modern production values and several of the hard hitting storylines stay with me. So I resorted to reading a bunch of reviews for the show and a number of them from people who walked the walk praise it for its attention to detail and portrayal of the life of British soldiers and their families.

11. Star Trek: Voyager (95-01)

Pulled to the far side of the galaxy, where the Federation is seventy-five years away at maximum warp speed, a Starfleet ship must cooperate with Maquis rebels to find a way home. Kathryn Janeway is the captain of the starship Voyager, which must travel across an unexplored region of the galaxy to find its way back home. On its way, the crew encounters different species they must deal with, but find that all their adventures only make them long for home. Filled with awesome characters like Seven of Nine and the Holographic Doctor, this series won me over completely with too many highlights to mention.

12. Friends (94-04)

Despite its advancing age, TV's most-watched show of 2001-2002 (and 2002's Emmy winner for Outstanding Comedy Series) is still snappy. As the theme song says, Monica, Chandler, Ross, Rachel, Joey, and Phoebe will always be there for us. Three young men and three young women -- of the BFF kind -- live in the same apartment complex and face life and love in New York. They're not above sticking their noses into one another's business and swapping romantic partners, which always leads to the kind of hilarity average people will never experience -- especially during breakups. Ross has liked Rachel since high school, but even now that they've outgrown their awkwardness and happen to live in the same city, the matter of will they or won't they remains in question throughout much of the series. Meanwhile, Chandler's sarcasm, Joey's traditional version of meat-headed buffoonery, and Phoebe's modern version of meat-headed buffoonery cause frequent dilemmas and misunderstandings.

13. Stars in their Eyes (90-03)

Musical talent show in which amateur lookalikes and soundalikes impersonate their favourite singing stars. Of all the reality/singing shows, this was my favourite - mostly because it never took itself seriously. And nine times out of ten, you would never have guessed which celebrity people would turn into. When the mist cleared, with the voice-over "Tonight, Matthew, I'm going to be ..." the transformation was always stunning.

Bubbling under
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (93-99)

In the vicinity of the liberated planet of Bajor, the Federation space station Deep Space Nine guards the opening of a stable wormhole to the far side of the galaxy. Commander Benjamin Sisko is in charge of a diverse crew including the irrepressible Quark, his nemesis the relentless Odo, the fiery Kira and the serene Dax – the nth reincarnation of an old soul. Sisko and the crew must fight off rival alien species who want control of Deep Space Nine because of its strategic position close to a wormhole, which allows speedy travel to the far reaches of space.

Xena Warrior Process (95-01)

Xena is a reformed warrior princess who travels around fighting evil. Gabrielle -- bard and friend -- keeps her company and grows from a simple farm girl into an Amazon warrior and Xena's soulmate and comrade-in-arms during the series; her initial naïveté helps to balance Xena and assists her in recognizing and pursuing the greater good. Lucy Lawless plays redemption-seeking ex-baddie Xena, who wanders the Earth seeking wrongs to right. Always at her side is trainee warrior Gabrielle, portrayed by Renee O'Connor. 

Quantum Leap (89-93)

Former scientist Sam Beckett finds himself trapped in time due to an experiment gone awry, leaping into the body of a different person each week. Al Calavicci, at first known only as The Observer, is Sam's holographic adviser -- he provides Sam with some details about his new identity and gives him guidance on how to help the people affected by his presence. But with little memory to help guide him, our hero is forced to bluff his way through many a wacky situation.

Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (93-97)

Pretty much every decade has its own live-action version of Superman and Lois Lane, and the '90s got Dean Cain and Teri Hatcher. The four seasons of "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman" that aired on ABC from 1993 to 1997 have been described as "The Most '90s Show Ever" by Syfy. While we don't totally vouch for that idea, we can immediately see where it has some merit — especially with regards to Superman and his colleagues.

3rd Rock from the Sun (96-01)

John Lithgow won a boat-load of Primetime Emmys (six, to be precise) for heading the cast of this quirky 1996-2001 favourite about space aliens that land in Ohio, and try to pass for a suburban American family. The high commander of an alien expedition lands on Earth -- what he considers to be the least-important planet -- in human form as Dick Solomon. Along for the ride are his alien compatriots Harry, Sally and Tommy -- who is the eldest of the group but is now angrily trapped in a teen's body.