2006. What a year! There’s been so many high points that it’s hard to know where to begin. How about brave David Walliams braving the channel for charity? Or Madonna’s selfless saving of African Boy from penury? Or Mel Gibson’s triumphant comeback… at a vindictive traffic cop?! Or Angelina Jolie revealing her true colours for her new film, A Mighty Heart?

In the political sphere, 2006 proved Tony Blair’s best year yet, with a clutch of new and innovative approaches to Health, the Environment and the Middle East. Well done Tony! Pull a cracker for us!

Fifty years after possibly the most heroic event in the anti-Soviet struggle, the proud Magyar engaged in a three-day whinge outside Parliament. Elsewhere, King Jon Ill demonstrated his passion for nuclear armament and we bade a fond farewell to those friends of dangerous entities, Steve Irwin and Yasser Arafat.

It’s been a pleasant year for the tabloid press, who have been saved from the daily grind of turning reality into fiction by a reality intent on fictionalising itself. Who wasn’t gripped by the edge-of-the-seat cold war thriller that was the Litvinenko poisoning? And who will be the deadly ripper’s next victim? Find out only in tomorrow’s Sun!

To round things off here’s Imaginary Scenes’ round-up of the top five cultural events around the round world this year: