Programme One - January to July

Click here to watch

The year didn't begin too well for the government with a rather public falling out between the Gordon Brown and Tony Blair camps. An unauthorised biography of the chancellor claimed that he still bore a grudge against the PM after missing out on the leadership after John Smith's death in 1994. Someone at Number 10 apparently said the chancellor was "psychologically flawed". Nasty stuff.

Then Robin Cook was accused of sacking his diary secretary at the Foreign Office in order to replace her with his close personal friend - and now wife - Gaynor Regan. It blew over but was an embarrassing episode.

In February, William Hague decided to give his party a facelift by launching his Fresh Start package designed to attract younger voters.

Lord Irvine's official residence also got a new look - at a cost of £650,000.

The Lord Chancellor had to swap the woolsack for a seat in front of the Public Accounts Committee to explain his expenditure but he was confident that it was public money well spent.

In April the biggest political event of the year took place with the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in Belfast. The document was endorsed in referendums on both sides of the Irish border and elections to a new Northern Ireland assembly took place in June.

When the Assembly met for the first time in July, the sight of Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness in the same room as David Trimble and Ian Paisley was something that many people would not have believed possible given Northern Ireland's recent history.

The summer saw re-shuffles for both Labour and the Conservatives with the formidable Ann Widdecombe returning to the fray for the Tories and Harriet Harman making a widely-predicted return to Labour's backbenches.

Programme Two - August to December

Click here to watch

On 25 August, a huge bomb exploded in Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. Twenty-nine people lost their lives and hundreds more were injured. The horrific events of that day brought MPs back to Westminster sooner than planned in order to approve tough new anti-terrorist legislation.

In September, the parties went off to the seaside for the conference season beginning with the Lib Dems in the sunshine at Brighton.

Their week was dominated by 'will they won't they' speculation on whether Labour would deliver a referendum on PR before the next election. Paddy Ashdown had a tricky week defending accusations that he was working a little too closely with Labour and that his job may be on the line if PR failed to materialise.

Labour visited Blackpool, perhaps for the last time, and Peter Mandelson made his ministerial debut - and a few gags - at the podium. No standing ovation for him then, but Mo Mowlam got one - midway through Tony Blair's speech.

William Hague took the Tories to Bournemouth after winning a huge endorsement for his policy on EMU. So there could be no squabbling on Europe then? Some chance. The pro-European heavyweights Clarke and Heseltine were out and about and only too pleased not to toe the party line. And then there was Peter Lilley's singing. Not a great week then.

After that, the Lords dominated the news, bouncing the European Elections Bill back to the Commons five times. And there was also the on-going debate about their future with the Government determined that hereditary peers should be ditched.

The Tory leader in the Lords, Lord Cranborne, agreed a compromise deal with Labour but forgot one detail - to tell his leader what he was up to. The 'deal' was unearthed at PMQs where William Hague suffered a public humiliation. Worse was to follow when he toured the television studios in a damage limitation exercise and came up against Jeremy Paxman.

So the year ended badly for William Hague, with Tony Blair maintaining his ratings and Paddy Ashdown looking nervously over his shoulder.

But 1999 brings elections in Scotland and Wales and chances for all parties to win ground in the English shires and cities.