Rewind to 2000

The population of India officially passed the one billion mark, Harold ‘Doctor Death’ Shipman was sentenced to life and the the Millennium Dome opened. And closed. Here’s what else happened…

Film – Gladiator
Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix and Oliver Stone starred in Ridley Scott’s modern classic – a swords and sandals Roman epic that sacrificed historical accuracy for a lion-sized portion of meaty entertainment.

Album – Coldplay, Parachutes
Although they’d already gathered considerable support, it was Parachutes that would jettison alt-rock four piece Coldplay towards a future of stadium tours and global adulation. Except in China, where the record was (quite sensibly) banned.

Television – Big Brother
Summer of 2000 started normally enough, until Big Brother came along. What started as casual voyeuristic reality TV ran for 11 series, spawned a generation of reality trash and ultimately became little more than a stage for wannabe celebrities to showcase their, ahem, talents. But it was, in 2000, a genuinely fresh approach to TV production.

Game – The Sims
As it turned out, the greater portion of humanity was less keen on D&D fantasies than game developers had reckoned. In fact, they wanted to build virtual families. When The Sims offered that exact opportunity, it quickly became the best-selling PC game in history. The Sims 4 is coming soon.

Gadget – Nokia 3310
The 3310 was unstoppable. At a time when Nokia still rightfully ruled the mobile world, it had all the accoutrements of the day – calculator, stopwatch, massive battery life and interchangeable covers. Oh, and Nokia introduced us to the marvel of Snake II, one of the greatest time-wasters ever.

Console – PlayStation 2
When PlayStation 2 launched, there was a problem. There simply weren’t enough of them. Gamers turned to eBay to get their hands on the successor to PlayStation One, forking out double the asking price. Thanks to a catalogue of great games and backwards compatability with PS1 discs, the PlayStation 2 retains its title as the best selling console of all time.