YoungWillz

Hmm. Well, as there is no How's Your 2024 Shortlist thread as yet, I'll slip this here. I'm almost finished my preliminary research for my 2024 TOTP theme team (1988 Hits). On the face of it, I'm in trouble. There are so many options to pick from I just know whichever way I jump, the Reaper will go the other way and finish off a huge name which I'll miss. I've been lucky with that team to have had a hit a year. I'm worried.

Richard Moll QO: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/richard-moll-found-fame-bailiff-222035000.html

Richard Moll reportedly dead aged 80: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/richard-moll-dead-night-court-bull-1235630482/ Probably rather better known as Bull the Bailiff on sitcom Night Court. Loads of other roles - Happy Days, Mork And Mindy, Laverne And Shirley, TJ Hooker, Dukes of Hazzard and loads of voice roles in animated series and video games. IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0596959/

You still have a library? Under the Tories?

We've been discussing them in the Planes, etc Thread. There's a link here to the named survivors: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uruguayan_Air_Force_Flight_571 But I still think we should chat about them on the other thread.

Judy Lockhart-Smith reportedly dead by an impeccable source:

Classic W.A.S.P. and LA Guns drummer Steve Riley reportedly dead: https://blabbermouth.net/news/former-l-a-guns-and-w-a-s-p-drummer-steve-riley-dead-at-67 WASP close to getting a call up in my 1987 TOTP team but didn't hit the UK Chart Top 30 until 1989. And I believe I have just been ninja-ed while typing.

Now it stands for Gigantic Blibberwimble News. Bringing his limited knowledge of Greek Classicism and huge knowledge of Peppa Pig World to the right wing.

Not Wiki, but a death notice for person of interest Squadron Leader Eric Downs, a WWII flying instructor who has died aged 102: https://announcements.telegraph.co.uk/marketplace/advert/downs-notices_54091 Lovely interview here from just a month ago: https://www.wiltsglosstandard.co.uk/news/23810091.raf-veteran-trained-500-pilots-turns-102/ The Beeb covered his 100th with an interview:

Death notice bearing to be of Julia Brotherton (nee King), wife of the very much alive and obitable former Tory MP for Louth Michael Brotherton (b. 1931): https://announcements.telegraph.co.uk/marketplace/advert/brotherton-notices_54094

Prolific Hollywood scriptwriter Stephen Kandel obit: https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/nytimes/name/stephen-kandel-obituary?id=53412785 Hart To Hart and Six Million Dollar Man from my childhood stand out. RIP. IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0437200/

As there was never a 2023 version, using the above to post this report of the death of Ed Sandford, Boston Bruins' oldest alumnus:

Frank Herda reportedly dead:

Report of the death of Jan Needle, author and screenwiter: https://northwestbylines.co.uk/lifestyle/books/obituary-jan-needle-provocative-childrens-author-and-screenwriter/ Wrote spin off books for Grange Hill and Tucker's Luck. Wrote a sequel to Wind In The Willows called Wild Wood. For television, he wrote for Brookside and The Bill with forays into Sooty and Count Duckula, but his best work was reserved for a docu-drama series called Truckers, about truckers trying to survive in Thatcher's Britain. IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0624130/

Guardian Obit for one of them "no good coppers" who arrested the Kray Twins, Alan Wright: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/oct/26/alan-wright-obituary Here is a link to a photo of the police team with their names: https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/the-scotland-yard-team-which-investigated-the-kray-twins-news-photo/522104199 Anyone care to check if there are any survivors?

An immediate googlify suggests someone who iirc was at PMQs. I could be wrong though.

Oh. Nope, still in the dark about who it could be, they all look as if they're on another planet.

It's more exciting speculating! I have no idea what air aroma means, being a totally upstanding non-drug user. Surely a suspension of the whip is forthcoming, which would kind of give it away? Acht, optimism on my part, it took a decade to deal with the Bone.

Oh, that should rule a lot out. Assuming it is a man? I don't know how the English law applies to rape, but conceivably a woman can be guilty of male rape? (If it's Douglas Ross, my Christmases have come early).

I'm going to rule out Peter Bottomley.

The integration of the word "normalcy" to the UK. Normality should be restored! I heard the grating "oftentimes" again today...

102?

Marion Ross out and about celebrating just prior to her 95th: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-12671125/Happy-Days-Marion-Ross-turns-95-celebrating-lunch-friends.html Heyyyyyy!

Report of the death of Robert Underwood Ayres, scientist in the fields of industrial ecology and environmental economics (yeah, I'm way out my depth here), aged 91:

Jack Brennan, Marine Corps Aide to Nixon who became his chief of staff after Nixon's resignation and negotiated the Frost/Nixon interviews, reportedly died 20 October: https://www.nixonfoundation.org/2023/10/remembering-colonel-jack-brennan/