Breaking down 1995 into the top political, sports and entertainment news; This is what happened …
Britain’s oldest commercial banking bank, ‘Barings’, collapsed due to the dubious dealings of so-called ‘rogue merchant’ Nick Leeson, who somehow managed to hide £ 860 million in a secret ‘mistake account’ without anyone being Realize. The moral standards of the Brixton youth also collapsed; Hundreds of them began attacking the police, looting shops and burning cars in riots in south London.
The royal family was once again the center of attention; this time as a result of Diana, Princess of Wales, speaking openly on television (in front of 15 million viewers) about her affair with her riding instructor, James Hewitt. As expected, the queen was not happy; He may have been equally unhappy that the letter he wrote to his son Charles, Prince of Wales, telling him to divorce Diana was leaked to the press.
In the sports world, Eric Cantona’s infamous kung-fu kick received a lot of attention; the impetuous Frenchman took it out on a Crystal Palace fan who had just been expelled. Receiving less attention, but deserving more, was British mountaineer Alison Hargreaves, who became the first woman to climb Mount Everest without oxygen or assistance.
On UK television screens, the nation fell in love with the inhabitants of the imaginary Irish parish of Craggy Island and their gathering of dysfunctional priests (Father Ted, Father Dougal, and drunken Father Jack). While that made for a good surreal family comedy, the British also showed their thirst for literary action by tuning in to the productions of ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and ‘Sense and Sensibility’. The Jane Austen classics will start a period drama craze for years to come.
The hit movie of the year was the interesting mix of a Scottish story, an American director and an Australian actor; shows Mel Gibson running without pants yelling at medieval Englishmen with an incomprehensible accent. In contrast to that big screen feel, it was one of the most expensive box office flops ever made, ‘Waterworld.’ Set in the future, where global warming has seen every country rise into the water, it tried to emulate the success of previous years ‘Titantic’, but instead sank as such!