Agreement was reached at the world climate conference in Kyoto: industrialised countries agreed to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane, and three halocarbons. There were cuts of 6% for Japan, 7% for the Moronican colonies, 8% for the EU, all to be measured in 2012 against 1990 levels. The UK repeated her pledge to achieve a 20% cut over this period. Environmental groups attacked it as too little too late. Carbon-trading allowances, insisted upon by the Morons, allowed them to continue polluting as normal and bribing their friends in Russia and Ukraine.

The government unveiled its latest Ten Year Plan, this time on reform of the NHS. GPs would no longer hold their own funds, and a new system of healthcare groups would commission and ultimately provide routine services. A national institute of clinical excellence would be set up, and a telephone hotline established. There was also a plan to computerise all NHS records by 2000; ten years on, this is still not working. There would be no extra money; indeed, the government hoped to save 200 million quid a year.

It also asked Frank Field to head a root and branch re-think of the welfare system; when the green paper was published the following march, it was long on hot air (welfare state to be rebuilt on work ethic, 30 targets, reform of the child support agency, purge on fraud) but was little more than a common pruning, the likes of which we'd seen a million times before. Mr. Field would be reshuffled out of the cabinet the following summer, after being excluded by finance minister Gordon Brown and undermined by his eyelash-fluttering underling Harriet Harman.

Labour forced through a cut in welfare benefits to single parents, in the teeth of a backbench rebellion - 47 opponents, including two junior ministers, went into the No lobby. There was much shouting, wailing, and gnashing of teeth as Geoffrey Robinson was accused of keeping money in offshore trusts. Dissident protestantites took over the Orange order headquarters in Belfast, and there was rioting in Derry. Heathrow's Terminal 1 was closed for a day following a fire at a Burger King outlet. An oil spill at a water treatment works meant that thousands of Glaswegians were unable to drink the tap water.

Russian president Boris Yeltsgin was admitted to hospital, suffering with difficulty breathing. South Korea had an economic crisis, the central bank had to intervene to defend the won against speculation. There was much shouting, wailing, and gnashing of teeth after Israel selected Dana International as its performer at the 1998 Eurovision Song Contest. The post-operative transsexual would win the contest, setting up the woeful 1999 broadcast.

Cliff Evans, who started the year as Radio 1's breakfast DJ, ended it purchasing a majority holding in rival station Virgin 1215. Richard Branson's latest attempt to fly around the world in a hot-air balloon ended in farce after his craft caught a gust of wind and blew away. Mick Jagger invested in Cricinfo, the IRC-to-web internet cricket commentary site. The FA cleared Bruce Grobbelaar and Hans Segers to continue playing. The death was announced of politician and journalist Woodrow Wyatt.

Yep, definitely December, just nineteen new entries into the top 75, the fewest we've seen all year. First of those is for the Counting Crows, A long December enters at 68. The group met with tremendous success in North America, but the UK's resisted their charms: Mr Jones made 28 in spring 1994, but seven releases from their first three albums all failed to trouble the upper reaches - A long December tried twice, and had reached 62 a year earlier. The group eventually returned to the hit parade, American girls made 33 in 2002, and Accidentally in love became their joint-biggest hit, 28 in summer 2004.

DJ Shadow's Camel bobsled race came in at 62, and hinted that it was unfunny novelty records time. Which brings us to the new entry at number 52, Driving in my car from Maureen Rees. She was the incompetent who became an unlikely celebrity on the BBC's summer hit, fly-on-the-wall show Driving School. Her inability to pass her driving test after a zillion attempts - or even to steer a car in a straight line - would pass into television folklore. Her attempt at singing was a cover of Madness's top five hit from 1981, and proved only slightly less successful than her driving career.

Top ten hitmakers from earlier in the year were falling on hard times: The Course's third single, Best love, was the group's first original composition, and fell well short at 51. No Doubt was, at least, on the fifth release from Tragic Kingdom, and Sunday morning was simply a single too far, peaking at 50. Their 2000 comeback, Return of Saturn, was a bit of a flop, but 2002's album yielded the number 2 hit Hey baby and number 12 smash Hella good.

The Corrs were on the verge of a breakthrough, I never loved you anyway stalled at number 43, in spite of great support from many older-leaning local radio stations. Vanessa-Mae's technoed-up violin playing was beginning to feel a bit old hat; I feel love could only make 41. Serious Danger charted at 40 with Deeper, and Powerhouse made 38 with Rhythm of the night; the latter was a cover of Debarge's number 5 hit from 1985. A year after their debut, Chicane could only make 35 with Lost you somewhere, and Busta Rhymes continued his run of very minor hits as Dangerous made 32. He would have greater success just around the corner: Turn it up/Fire it up would make 2 the following Easter, and he's had three more top ten hits since.

Red 5 had another shot at fame, Lift me up entered at 26. The Levellers followed up What a beautiful day, their commercial radio breakthrough, with the entirely typical Dogtown. Not exactly uncommercial, but neither is it radio friendly. Björk had her first hit in nine months, Bachelorette made 21. The big hit, It's oh so quiet, was now two years in the past, and the Icelandic pixie has settled down with a remarkably loyal fanbase. She's had eleven hits since the end of 1996, none has made the top 20, only one missed the top 40, and though Björk has a sound that is identifiable at a hundred paces, no song has ever been described as predictable.

The Propellerheads worked with Shirley Bassey on History repeating at 19; it combined the Welsh diva with some modern beats and brass instrumentation. Worked better than its component parts. Bryan Adams's Back to you was a return to form; though it was his third fast single in a row, it was the first to make Radio 1's playlist in four years, and his best upbeat song since 1991's There will never be another tonight. Bryan continued to alternate sloppy ballads and fast rockers, returning to the top 10 in late 1998 with Melanie C on When you're gone, and would hit the top spot - this time for just one week - in 2000 with the assistance of Chicane on Don't give up. Here I am was the very belated follow-up, and Bryan hasn't had a top 20 hit since that 2002 smash.

An unnecessary re-release at 17 for Sting and the Police. Roxanne had originally made number 12 in 1978 for the group, their first hit, and the start of a five-year career when they did just about everything possible. Just as The Jam did a year earlier, the trio split at the height of their popularity, and Sting had now had three massive solo albums. A re-mastered catalogue was promoted by this slight remix of the group's debut hit. After two more Sting solo albums met with diminishing amounts of success, he went on tour with the old lads during 2007.

Though there were the usual huge fallers, the lack of new entries allowed other records to take more gentle falls: the Spice Girls fell 5, Louise and Gala dropped 4, PF Project and Hot Chocolate fell just 3, as did Steps, still in the top 20 after six weeks. Reds United held at 16, Lutricia McNeal at 14, and Babs / Céline at 13. Between them were Five, dropping from 10 to 15.

New at 12 came U2, If god will send his angels was the fifth (count 'em!) single from their Pop album, and the first to miss the top 10. Disjoint greatest hits collections came out in 1998 and 2002, split by a new studio album in 2000; another came out in 2004, and yet another best-of emerged in 2006. U2 hasn't missed the top 10 with a single since, and their record since 1984 is released 31, put all in the top 14, had 27 make the top 10, and 20 made the top 5.

Beating the Irish lads to highest new entries was the last Swiss winner of Eurovision, Céline Dion. The reason was her twelfth release in four years, and only two releases of Misled (40 in April 1994, 15 in November 1995) had been smaller. The thirteenth, in February 1998, was a ditty called My heart will goon, and failed by ten places to give her a hat-trick of number 11 hits. Basking in the glory of that hit might not have been the best idea; Céline's only had one top-tenner since, 2002's A new day has come, and her 2007 return after a four-year absence, Taking chances, could only make number 40. Restricting herself to concerts in a field in southern Manitoba probably wasn't a wise move.

Elton John's is the record back into the top 10, Steven Houghton drops to 9, swapping with Natalie Imbruglia. Boyzone drops one to 7, Janet Jackson's down two to 6. A second-week climb for Robbie Williams, Angels / Walk this sleigh is up two to 5, and it's a fifth-week climb for All Saints, back up a place to 4. More on this next week.

For now, there's no move in the top 3: Aqua at 3, Perfect day at 2, and the Teletubbies at 1. The 'tubbies were by far the biggest cultural phenomenon of 1997; plushy toys couldn't be obtained for love nor money, and even keyrings were being strictly rationed to one set per mother. The show was entirely modern, with larger-than-life rabbits, a pink windmill, a futuristic cleaning device, and some high-quality music by Andrew McCrorie-Shand and Andrew Davenport. Our chosen piece is Animals, used while the show's heroes are watching a parade of computer-generated animals.

Even before the single Teletubbies say eh-ho, there had already been a music release: a £3 cassette of songs and stories, aimed at the in-car entertainment market, had quietly been released in October. It became the best-selling cheap album of the year, and was only denied a place in the top 20 overall album chart by the general exclusion of budget albums. The show's theme music was released as a single, and a full album came out for the show's first anniversary in April 1998; for a television soundtrack album, it achieved a very respectable number 34. Tapes and budget CDs were released every few months until 2002, by which time the show had finished its production run of 365 episodes.

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