As Frank Sinatra once crooned, it was a very

good year. 2002

kicked off with a

one—eyed monster bottling kids’ screams and ended with an office bore begging for his job. In between, the Booker, Cannes and Mercury judges hailed Scottish-connected artists and even dead people kept us entertained. It was the year of families, garage, comebacks, backlashes and confessions. Here, we reveal the readers’ favourite things of the year and we meet the people (and a cyclops) who made 2ooz the year that it was.

control freak mum. red mist sister. closeted brother and loopy girlfriend slowly crumbled apart. Only his dead dad had the upper hand.

Ms Dynamite. mercurial songstress

Reversing out of the garage with a bootload of plaudits. 21-year-old Niomi McLean-Daly proved she was more than just the sum of her mantelpiece- full of awards. Producing the first album to come out of the UK garage scene with truly universal appeal. she pulped UK urban ruffness. slick US R88 and frothy pop into one distinctly London flava-ed smoothness. This is just the start.

Peter Krause, great _' undertaker 24 may have won some votes for best new US drama of the year but for =9 those with more grave concerns. Six Feet Under buried the contenders. And Peter Krause was the beating heart of this killer show. As the reluctant famin undertaker Nate Fisher, Krause was calm and collected while his

24 THI LIST 12 Dec 2002—2 Jan 2003