New Year's Eve- another year over.

New Year's Eve- another year over.

Oh well who would have thought it. Another year is about to pass into the history books and to quote the great and much missed John Lennon what have we done? The truth is of course that whole torrents of water have passed under the bridge and we are where we thought we'd be. Wiser and more enlightened perhaps or maybe just baffled and totally mystified. For those who prefer their years to be completely free of trouble and misfortune you may want to look away now.

 At times 2017 has been hellish, inhumane, savage, murderous, gruelling and very difficult. It's been the kind of year Britain may want to erase from its minds as quickly as possible and just move on as they say. This maybe the time to calm down, slow down, give all the weightier issues some careful consideration and keep drinking coffee or since this is New Year's Eve a bottle of fizzy champagne could be the order of the day.

None of us knew at the beginning of 2017 that we were going to get the most vainglorious President of the United States of all time, that Britain would be subjected to one of the most embarrassing General Elections for many a decade and above all that Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, would end the year on a high. It's been one of those zany, insane, incomprehensible years when everybody seemed to lose the script and those in positions of authority behaved in such an appalling fashion that it's just as well that nobody took life too seriously in the mad scramble for sanity.

Still as the temporary ringing of  Big Ben's bell ushers in 2018 we may look at each other in full party mode with just a bit of  wishful and wistful thinking. Traditionally, New Year's Eve is the one night of the year when we all get rather drunk and silly without a single regret on New Year's Day. We allow jubilation to be unconfined, eat and drink fulsomely, dance around our living rooms or community centres wildly and uninhibitedly as if we just don't care and then wake up tomorrow with sore heads and mind numbing hangovers. But hey who cares it does happen only once a year.

But some things never change. Over the weekend the New Year's Honours list made its yearly appearance as it always has for as long as anybody can remember. For the traditionalists and patriots, Britain loves to hand out its OBE's, its CBE'S, MBE's, Knights of the Realms, Dames, Sirs and all kinds of acknowledgements for services to charity and the sometimes dizzying world of celebrity. This year proved to be no exception to the rule. In fact some of the most unlikely figures were rewarded for a lifetime in the public eye.

The snotty cynics and critics still regard the New Year's Honours list with all the withering contempt of people who seem to begrudge them such undeserved medals around their necks. To the grumpy curmudgeons, the New Year's Honours list is some dated anachronism that should have been scrapped in the Stone Age. What exactly, you hear them cry, have wartime military colonels, dukes and duchesses nobody has ever heard of or indeed a chairman of some glass blowing factory done to merit an OBE?

Still, here we are on the last day of 2017 and the great and good have got their just desserts or not as be it the case. My first reaction was shock as first Bee Gee Barry Gibb became Sir Barry Gibb, Ringo Starr became Sir Ringo Starr and then Strictly Come Dancing judge and graceful ballerina Darcey Bussell became Dame Darcey Bussell. On careful reflection it all seemed to make perfect sense but all of the above can only think that such rich recognition was long overdue anyway.

Barry Gibb of course and his Bee Gee brothers will always be renowned for that glorious 1970s movie blockbuster, box office spectacular Saturday Night Fever. Now sadly, Barry remains the only connection with the original Bee Gees dynamic trio, a film that broke all records and transformed the whole world into a disco dancing, foot stomping, acrobatic and athletic society. The Bee Gees, of course were that high pitched, wonderfully harmonising band of brothers who recorded some of the most evocative dance and disco music of all time.

The Gibb brothers pushed back all the boundaries of pop music during the 1970s with that very specific genre of high energy, vividly flexible dancing on a flashing disco floor. 'You Should Be Dancing', a full on, pulsing disco number, just exploded onto the screen like the most colourful meteorite. 'Staying Alive' was similarly magnificent, boiling and bristling with verve, vigour and vitality. By the end of the song most of us were very much alive and gasping for water.

For most of us the Bee Gees had created a musical genre that would forever be carved indelibly into Hollywood folklore. All three Bee Gees had a remarkably identifiable presence on stage that most of their fans had quite clearly had not expected. When the Gibb brothers recorded 'Words', one of their first entrances into the pop charts, the thought of all three brothers exposing hairy chests and strumming disco fuelled guitars seemed almost inconceivable.

Tragically though Barry Gibb is now on his own after the untimely deaths of all his brothers. In recent years Barry Gibb attempted a solo comeback with a new album of new songs. But when the world thinks of Barry Gibb we tend to think of three happy-go-lucky, bearded singers with an unquenchable zest for music and writing songs for the 1970s generation. Then the lights went out for Barry Gibb and after 50 years of devotion to his craft Sir Barry Gibb will step forward to receive the sword on his shoulder and much gratitude for a splendid career.

Then there was Darcey Bussell who, almost naturally, has become Dame Darcey Bussell. Darcey Bussell's glamorous and serene career on the ballet stage is now well documented. For those who still regard ballet as a culturally elitist spectacle and an acquired taste then the title of Dame Darcey Bussell sounds a trifle pretentious. But ballet is undoubtedly the one art form that oozes class and refinement and the Sadlers Wells theatre in London a magnet for both tourists and lifelong admirers.

Bussell has recently come to our attention on the BBC's light entertainment Saturday evening show 'Strictly Come Dancing', a superb early evening TV spectacle that has completely lit up dark, wintry evenings. Here once again is a woman with an almost encyclopedic knowledge of dance and dancing techniques.  After so many years of dainty pirouetting on the balls of her feet, her impeccably delivered judgments and shrewdly observed comments on 'Strictly Come Dancing' have earned her the right to be Nothing But A Dame.

And then there is Sir Ringo Starr which sounds as though it should have been awarded years ago. Ringo Starr was one of the most modest drummers in one of the most astonishing pop music bands of any time. Starr was the humorous, down to earth drummer of the Beatles, surely one of the finest and greatest of music practitioners and stylists of all time. They sold singles and albums by the multitudinous millions, packed out concert halls and outdoor stadiums by the million and wrote some of the most powerful and poignant songs of all time.

When Paul McCartney became Sir Paul McCartney a couple of years ago it only seemed fair that his loyal acquaintance and buddy Ringo Starr would also get the nod from Buckingham Palace. After all Starr had been the memorable voice for 'Thomas the Tank Engine' and could still bang a drum for charity, music and literature. Yesterday Ringo Starr became a richly deserved Sir Ringo Starr because Richard Starkey sung quite notably on 'Yellow Submarine' and besides who on earth could have so enlivened such a simple song with his unparalleled genius when Paul, John and George were going through the roughest of patches. Well done Ringo.

For those of us who like their literature I was interested to see that Jilly Cooper became a CBE. Jilly Cooper writes novels of such breadth, length and depth that you wonder how any modern day author can pack so much dialogue and prose into one book. But consistently Cooper has been the chief purveyor of erotic sex in the haystacks of England and aristocratic high jinks in the dining rooms of rich baronets and horse riding millionaires. Perhaps the novel 'Polo' neatly encapsulates the highly imaginative world of Jilly Cooper with its bold bawdiness and raunchy descriptions. But with all due respect to Jilly this is not one for my bookcase. Sorry Jilly I think I'll take a rain check on your literary offerings. I hope you don't mind.

And last but not least a small collection of those whose contribution to the world of art and culture may have been criminally overlooked. Helen Sharman is a pioneering woman who became the first woman astronaut to step out into outer space. Truly, Helen Sharman, for all that dedicated research into high tech astronomy and groundbreaking work, has rightly been awarded the Order of St Michael and St George because astronauts surely sound as if theirs is the coolest and most visionary of all fields of expertise.

Rick Stein of course has rarely been off British TV for some time. Chef, cook, fisherman, Michelin starred chef and widely celebrated by his contemporaries, Stein continues to travel the world with his perceptive comments on food and cooking, tenderly embracing fish recipes and late evening suppers with a lip smacking attention to detail.

So there you have it folks. The winners have been honoured by their peers and that age old New Year's honours list is now complete. It's now time not to converge on the Embankment in London's West End or indeed Trafalgar Square for that matter. The fact is though that if you're thinking about a trek to Trafalgar Square you may find there's nobody there. The New Year's celebrations were abandoned many years ago on safety grounds although you may still catch some very ambitious reveller who may fancy their chances in the fountains.

Realistically though the Embankment is the only place where you'll be guaranteed your yearly viewing of fireworks and cheery 5-4-3-2-1 hooray Happy New Year voices. Then we'll watch in increasing degrees of fascination as the London Eye provides that incredibly kaleidoscopic backdrop of reds, blues, greens, yellows, oranges, gold, silver, white and bronze that so illuminate the New Year London landscape at mid-night.

For the best part of roughly half an hour, wet, shivering Londoners will gather in their hordes, yelling and shrieking at the tops of their voices and congratulating everybody around them, the collective shaking of strangers hands followed by the most beaming of smiles as 2018 bounds into view. And then we'll all be spellbound by thousands of fireworks screaming into the midnight air, soaring off to some distant corner of the planet and fizzling into obscurity in some remote corner of Hyde Park.

Oh well  wherever you are tonight everybody I'd like to wish everybody a Happy, Healthy and Peaceful New Year. For those of us who live in Britain this was perhaps the most challenging of all years because shortly our European neighbours may see us in a markedly different light and 2018 may turn into a complex muddle full of noisy posturing and more complications. To all you and your loved ones have a great night and - oh before I forget- Happy New Year.