A year to remember: Celebrities' magic moments of 2006

A birthday party in Provence. Making a film in the East End. Reading 'Snow' by Orhan Pamuk. A boat trip in Venice. Dancing with Kate Moss. Meeting the Dalai Lama. Finally catching up with 'I, Claudius'. From fleeting pleasures to life-changing events, 20 people share their most memorable moment of 2006

Michael Sheen, actor

SPEEDBOAT TRIP IN VENICE

Many great things have happened this year, but one moment in particular springs to mind. The Queen was showing at the Venice Film Festival so I went there for 24 hours between performances of Frost/Nixon. I'd never been to Venice before, I was completely seduced by the place. It is stunningly beautiful and romantic. It's as though someone has designed the perfect film set. Peter Morgan [writer of The Queen] and I got into a speedboat to go back to the airport. The sun was shining as we sped under the Rialto bridge. I was standing there with my long David Frost hair and sideburns. It was a real glamorous 1970s playboy moment. And I just remember thinking how everything was going so well. The film had an amazing reception and we'd all had a really good time. It's so rare to be able to stop and enjoy the present. That speedboat ride was a great moment.

Thandie Newton, actress

FILMING IN LONDON

A definite highlight of this year was filming Run, Fat Boy, Run. It's doing this kind of work that reminds me of why I do what I do and why I really enjoy it. Simon Pegg and I play an estranged couple. He basically walks out on me on our wedding day when I'm pregnant. It's a love story, a comedy and a true-life story. Part of the reason that I enjoyed it so much might be because it was filmed all over London - in the East End and around Spitalfields. I do a lot of work in the US, so it was good to stay here. I got to go home every night, which was wonderful, and I got up every morning looking forward to the day. It was a great experience.

Margaret Drabble, writer

READING ORHAN PAMUK'S 'SNOW'

We've had the most awful year as my husband has been ill, so it has been very quiet on the events side of things. But we did both read the most wonderful book - Snow, by Orhan Pamuk. It's the most extraordinary and powerful book. It covers many subjects, from Turkey today to why people wear the veil. It's a very funny, very strong tragicomedy. It's like a great Russian novel, as it is on an epic scale. Once you've read it, you have a better understanding of everything that is happening around you. I could understand the streets of England better as a result of it. I felt better when I'd read it, and it made me think that this is what novels are all about.

I read it before Pamuk won the Nobel Prize in October, and recommended it to my husband who enjoyed it just as much. Because we haven't been going out much, reading this book was a real highlight for both of us. It has been a dreadful year, but my husband is getting better and I hope that next year will be a lot better.

Julian Opie, artist

LUNCH

I'm sitting at a long table. The waiter is running back and forth with tapas dishes of delicious fresh fish and other seafood. It's 4.30pm and we have been drinking and eating since 1.30pm. Although it's mid-December, here in Malaga, it's hot. I can see my wife and three-year-old daughter playing down on the beach. They are busy silhouettes in front of a sparkling sea, dusty blue mountains in the distance.

It's the first time that my daughter has seen the sea. Museum people and sponsors to my right are chatting in Spanish, keeping to themselves, pausing to explain how to debone the small, lightly battered local fish. To my left are the owners and directors of three of the commercial galleries that I work with. I had been nervous about doing the show, but it seems to have gone down well and I feel that I made the right decisions. The work is over and there is an afternoon free before the public arrives. I usually descend into a bad mood once an exhibition opens, but this moment seemed pretty good.

George Melly, musician

80TH BIRTHDAY

The most amazing thing that happened this year was the death of one of my oldest friends, Mick Mulligan. He had a stroke and he died, in no pain, 24 hours later, just yesterday. That he died in no pain is amazing.

The next most amazing thing was my 80th birthday in August. I never thought I'd live to the age of 80. The Mayor Gallery in Cork Street had an exhibition of my paintings. About 200 or 300 people turned up on the night of my birthday. I was rather pleased. Part of my brain has gone, and what is missing is the ability to recognise people, so I was also rather confused. David Hockney was there and we are in total agreement that the present Prime Minister is a fiend because he is against freedom of choice, particularly when it comes to smoking. Both smoking and drinking in the gallery were allowed on my birthday.

I suppose the reason that I'm around at 80 is because I still sing. I enjoy it and it probably keeps me alive. As soon as people retire, light a pipe and pat the spaniel, they're done for. And so I think I'll just carry on singing.

David Tennant, actor

WATCHING 'I, CLAUDIUS'

I finally managed to see the whole of I, Claudius this year. It's something that I've been meaning to watch for years but, for some reason, have never got round to. I watched all 13 episodes, at various times at home, on DVD, and it was worth the wait. It's a real gem, the best BBC series of the 1970s. There's a clutch of great performers throughout it. Derek Jacobi, in particular, is a genius. The production values may have dated, but it is a lesson in how that simply doesn't matter in relation to the end result. Brilliant.

Nicole Farhi, fashion designer

60TH BIRTHDAY PARTY

I turned 60 this year, and celebrated with a wonderful party with all my oldest and most special friends. It was a very informal lunch at our house in the South of France. The weather was perfect, the food was traditional Provençal cuisine, and there were around 24 of my closest friends and family.

All the key people from various stages of my life were there - friends from childhood, from the start of my fashion-design career, the father of my daughter, my mother and brother, as well as my husband, of course. I was surprised at how touched I was to have everyone special to me together in one place. I didn't expect to find it quite so moving, but it was such a rare event. It was a truly special day, and something I'll never forget for the rest of my life.

Tobias Hill, writer

THE HUMILIATION OF BUSH

The slow-motion, silent-film decline of the most powerful man in the world. I have friends who experienced the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, as a personal event, but Diana never impacted on my life as President Bush has done. His humiliation is a personal event to me in the way that Margaret Thatcher's dethronement was personal to me as a teenager. But Thatcher's end felt sudden, a flashbulb-memory event, whereas Bush's freefall seems interminable. He is a stone dropped down a well that still sends back no echo, and I wonder what that echo will sound like when the stone finally hits rock bottom.

Nothing else in 2006 brought me the enduring and morbid fascination that I felt at the images of Bush's henchmen and henchwomen, emerging one by one, each to be surprised on the White House steps, and each with nothing left to say.

Sir Terence Conran, designer and restaurateur

RESTAURANT OPENING

My most memorable evening was the opening night of our Custom House restaurant in Copenhagen. We've opened many restaurants, but I still always fall prey to nerves on opening night, especially when you are going in to a foreign city. How will the locals take to us? Will they like our ideas? We had hoped for a modest 750 people for the opening party, but the place was chock-full with over 1,200 guests, all having the most wonderful time, and it created a terrific buzz.

The restaurant, which is so close to the waterfront in Copenhagen that you could dangle your feet in the water, looked superb. There were moonlit boat trips across the harbour, and the whole place was filled with the infectious sounds of happy people.

Beverley Knight, singer

BIRTH OF A NIECE

The best thing this year arrived on 12 July - the day my little niece Monet was born. She was a big surprise as we were all convinced that she was going to be a boy - the first male of that generation in our family, as I already have three nieces. But we went from euphoria to anguish very quickly. She became very ill with pneumonia, and it was unbelievably stressful. My young cousin had died earlier this year at only five-and-half months from meningitis, so when Monet became ill, the family were gripped by this horrible fear of losing her.

But she pulled through, and the moment I met her two weeks later was very emotional but absolutely wonderful. Today, she is a real daddy's girl, a very giggly and happy baby. She is a complete joy. Music has always been my life, but the minute you have a little baby introduced into your family, it puts things into perspective and you realise that there is so much more to life than you previously thought.

Andrew Logan, artist

GETTING MARRIED

I woke up on 8 July and put on my fluorescent lime-yellow coat. With my partner Michael, and accompanied by Michael's mother Bernice, my sister Janet, the pâtissière Lila and dear friend Zandra (the maids of honour), we climbed into the limousine and sped to the Peckham Register Office. We took lots of photos before entering the classic 18th-century building.

After a small wait, we began the ceremony with Brian Eno's Apollo music flying in from the universe. After the ceremony, with many giggles and much laughter, we headed for the garden, where we took photos lined up between the trees. Then we headed to the Ritz for a lunch served on silver platters beneath rococo ceilings.

Back home for a little rest - before 150 friends and relations descended on my studio, the Glasshouse, for Michael's 60th- birthday celebrations. A wild evening of jollity - especially when Michael announced our committal. Tears, emotion, lots of laughter. The explosion of joy that day made it the greatest single thing to happen to me in 2006.

Al Alvarez, poet and critic

PENDING ARRIVAL OF GRANDCHILD

My one and only daughter is about to have her first baby - quite literally, any second now. All of our Christmas plans are on hold as we are all waiting for the birth. She is my youngest child and I do still think of her as my young daughter - despite the fact that she is actually 35 years old now and quite a high-powered woman. I already have two grandchildren from my son, and I am a profoundly tolerant grandfather.

It brings to mind the Victorian popular series about Mr Jorrock who had a passion for hunting. When asked what it was that he loved about hunting, he replied: "It has all the pleasures of war with only 5 to 20 per cent of the dangers." It's the same with being a grandfather, except it's only 2 per cent of the danger.

A grandfather gets the pleasure of having a child without all the responsibility. You do change as a person when you get older, and being a grandfather is part of that process. I hate getting older but I very much enjoy being a grandfather.

Shami Chakrabarti, director of civil-rights group Liberty

THE HUMAN RIGHTS ACT COMING INTO ITS OWN

From a tragic event is born my best moment of 2006. Naomi Bryant was murdered by Anthony Rice, who had a 34-year history of violent sexual attacks. Rice left jail after serving 16 years for rape, indecent assault and actual bodily harm. Initially, and with great fanfare, the Human Rights Act was blamed for prioritising his rights over public protection. It subsequently became clear that administrative errors were the real root of the mismanagement of his supervision.

From this low came a shining example of what the Human Rights Act can really do. Verna Bryant, Naomi's mother, has successfully used the Human Rights Act to secure an inquest into her daughter's death. Meeting Verna and talking with her about what she wanted to achieve - not taking away anyone else's rights, but just insisting that her daughter's were recognised - was an inspiring and humbling experience. It left me full of hope that the Human Rights Act will be recognised for what it really is. As Verna Bryant said: "It's about human rights, isn't it? So it is for all human beings."

Nitin Sawhney, musician

COMPOSING A FILM SCORE

When I was approached by the British Film Institute at the beginning of this year to compose the music for a 1929 silent movie from India, A Throw of Dice, I was incredibly excited. The director, Franz Osten, passed away in 1956, so that left me to find my own emotional narrative and psychological characterisation within the film. Furthermore, the daunting nature of the task was exacerbated by the fact that I was not only commissioned to record the score for an album but was also due to perform the piece live to film with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican in April. The experience of performing and recording with the LSO, let alone composing for them, is unforgettable. Their meticulous attention to detail, tone production, emotional expression and effortless depth of understanding was an inspiration, from the very first rehearsal to the final note of the performance. A dream come true.

Brian Blessed, actor and explorer

MEETING THE DALAI LAMA

My best moment this year came as an explorer rather than an actor. I was recently part of an ascent of the highest mountain in Mongolia, Mount Khuiten. I was the oldest man to take part. Afterwards, we were invited to celebrations at a temple in Ulan Bator. When we got there, the door to the room swung open and there was the Dalai Lama.

We got on wonderfully. We had met once before in Dharamsala in 1990. He is the same age as me, and when he was a young god-king, I was a coal-miner's son in Yorkshire. He told me that it is easy to love a cat or dog, but to love an enemy, that is the acid test. I asked him if he loved the Chinese, and he replied: "Yes. But it is too high for them in Tibet. It gives them headaches."

I'm off to the South Pole next.

Christian O'Connell, Virgin Radio breakfast-show DJ

BIRTH OF SECOND DAUGHTER

The highlight of my year was the arrival of my second daughter, Lois, born a couple of weeks ago. My wife had a home birth and it only lasted two-and-a-half hours. I popped out to buy the papers, and when I came back, it was all happening. It was surreal having a birthing pool in the house, but it was nice being at home and not having to go into a hospital.

Being a new dad again is exciting, fantastic, tiring. But it's nothing compared with all the pain my wife had to put up with. Our two-year-old, Ruby, was very happy to meet her new sister. Then, of course, on the second day, she asked: "When is she going back in mummy's tummy?"

Samuel West, director of Sheffield Theatre

THE SULTAN'S ELEPHANT

Between 4 and 7 May this year, a strange thing happened in London. First of all, a giant 15ft rocket appeared embedded on the Mall. Nothing changed for 12 hours. The next morning, red-coated flunkies appeared and after taking the lid off the rocket, an enormous wooden girl was brought out.

I followed that wooden girl around London for four days. I watched her ride a bike, sew cars together, sleep, have a shower, sit on a bus. Then the sultan's elephant appeared. He was absolutely enormous, five storeys high, much bigger than your average elephant. By the final day, there were a million people who had come to watch them. This was a free event, all promoted by word of mouth.

There were tears as the wooden girl was put back into the rocket in Horseguard's Parade. It was one of the most perfect pieces of theatre I have ever seen. It redefined the idea of theatre. There was no irony, no conflict, it was just a totally moving spectacle and nobody who saw it will ever forget it.

Seth Lakeman, Mercury Prize-nominated musician

SIGNING A RECORD DEAL

I've had a pretty busy 2006, but I think the most memorable event that has happened has to be signing a record deal with Relentless. It's so important to have that bigger vehicle behind you, and having worked for so long independently, it meant a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders. I remember a great party was had by all that night. We were performing at a sold-out gig at the Islington Academy so the band were as up for it as I was. Some great memories.

Martha Kearney, 'Newsnight' political editor

VICTORIA CROSS ANNIVERSARY

This year was the 150th anniversary of the institution of the Victoria Cross and the 50th anniversary of the Victoria and George Cross Association. To mark this, there was a memorial service at Westminster Abbey. Brian Hanrahan read a citation for the Victoria Cross and I was asked to read a citation for the George Cross, for acts of bravery by those outside the armed services. I hadn't done anything like this before and I found it very emotional.

The citation I read described a young air hostess who had got everyone off an aeroplane when it caught on fire on the runway. She stayed behind with an elderly passenger in a wheelchair, refusing to leave him, and died as a result. It was the most incredible act of bravery. She wasn't named as her story was meant to represent everyone who had been awarded a George Cross. To see all these very old soldiers walking by, having won the Victoria Cross, was extremely moving. It was a very special moment and something I won't forget.

Peter Blake, artist

A FAMILY VISIT, OH, AND DANCING WITH KATE MOSS

There are two great things that stand out for me in 2006. The best thing was spending time with my family. My two daughters came to visit us from America where they live. It meant I spent time with my two grandchildren, which was wonderful.

Secondly, I found myself dancing in a video with Kate Moss. We'd been at Julie's wine bar in Notting Hill and we were just about to head home when a big black Roller pulled up. Kate jumped out and gave us hugs and kisses and said, "Pete do you want to be in a video?"

It was a Johnny Cash tribute video being filmed by Tony Kaye at an empty house in Notting Hill owned by Mick Jones. It was great fun. I can't dance at all so Kate just danced elaborately around me. A highlight was when a girl asked Kate if I was Peter Blake - I'm not sure she realised she was talking to Kate Moss. Afterwards, she invited us to see Pete [Doherty] play in a bar - and Kate got up and sang with him. It was a very special, spontaneous evening.

What was the highlight of your year? Tell us in not more than 100 words. We'll publish the best 10 replies - and the senders of the winning entries will each receive a bottle of champagne.

Email features@independent.co.uk by Tuesday 2 January