Great Uncle Bulgaria

Glad to hear you have beaten it, long may that continue.

If you can bring yourself to watch American series, GAB has enjoyed rediscovering House (Hugh Laurie) and Ally McBeal recently (although both went downhill in the last series) From the same period (12-15) years ago) quite enjoyed Pushing Up Daisies, surreal but quite amusing. Having Anna Friel to look at helped.

W. S. Gilbert W S Gilbert (of '...and Sullivan' fame) jumped into a lake with two young girls and died of heart failure, narrowly failing to fulfil one of his creation's (Colonel Fairfax) wishes to die in June in the process. He was 74.

All the men on my dad's side die young, mostly of cancer. My Dad had cancer seriously from mid-60s but was the first to survive past 70. The women on my mum's side by contrast are pretty long-lasting. My great-grandma lived to be 101 despite having ten kids and being a huge fan of Bruce Forsyth.

oh well, it was news to me :-).

Enjoyed Steve Cavanagh's 'Thirteen' recently, although beware others in the series are not as good. For some interesting trash, read Noel Botham's 'The Murder of Princess Diana'. The latter half of the book contains some rather fanciful theorising about the car crash but the first half has some interesting royal dirt - in the early (pre-Diana) days when Charles was sleeping with Camilla, Andrew Parker-Bowles was apparently shagging Princess Anne. Must have made for some interesting conversations over breakfast in both households.

Richard Osman's house of games is usually good. Even had a wombles question this week (only two of the guests could correctly identify Tobermory!) Nearly always won by one of the comedians, although some of the latter are needy attention-seekers who are incapable of shutting up when it isn't their go. And some of the (usually female) 'celebs' who are incapable of saying anything amusing try to compensate by being loud, which is even more annoying. Agree with YW re Beat the Chasers, although I suspect there's some fakery going on somewhere - firstly with the number of people being picked who are professional quizzers known to the Chasers personally and secondly with some of the relatively easy questions they get wrong when up against lesser contestants to make it appear closer (even letting them win on occasion). When they are up against serious quizzers they rarely get a question wrong. Also enjoyed the Harry Redknapp /old soccer stars touring round Europe programme, primarily to see how players from 25 years ago are doing these days. Again, sure some of the situations and arguments are staged for the benefit of the camera though. Matt Le Tissier and Paul Merson came over quite well, Razor Ruddock by comparison will be a good pick at 49 or 50 for the DL within a year or two the way he is going, vastly overweight, dreadful diet and heart problems.

Been reading a lot of historical fiction lately, which is undemading stuff but often educational and throws up the odd fact which comes in handy in quizzes. Currently reading Jean Plaidy's Charles II trilogy - pretty good, although given written in the 50s all the naughty bits are glossed over. Her George III book by comparison was pretty tedious, primarily due to the dullness of the protagonists George and Queen Charlotte, who did little but reproduce (15 times, as you asked). Philippa Gregory is more popular these days but sometimes less historically accurate and she has an annoying habit of writing the same story twice, from the perspective of different people - efficient use of research perhaps, but annoying for the reader who has invested money or (more commonly given I get most of them from the library) time in seeking out something different to read. Elizabeth Chadwick's Eleanor of Aquitaine trilogy was time consumimg but enjoyable..

Don't know how to post answers then hide them, but believe I know 1.2.7. 8, 9 & 10. 60%, B-

Still alive as per April 30th. Thanks - strange, don't know who (apart from me) has anything to gain by updating her page to say she is dead when she isn't. I shall go back to my customary 'no hits-joint last' deadpool position then...

My pick Lotte Strauss appears to have died, her wikipage was updated on 28th April. No date of death but the entry has been changed to 'Lotte Strauss was...'

I know a good war is a great way of distracting peoples' intention from sh*t happening elsewhere (e.g. Falklands never did Maggie Thatcher any harm) but don't think even BoJo and Donald are stupid enough to go to war with China over a territory that we effectively gave up on 23 years ago.

Hi, I'll play your game please, though think will be a long one (for my team at least) 1. Captain Tom Moore 2. Chris Bonnington 3, Chay Blyth 4. Ian McKellen 5. James Hardy 6, Paul Nicholson 7. Bobby Charlton 8. Richard Yates Henderson 9. Jackie Stewart 10. Charles Henderson, 3rd Baron Faringdon subs Ringo Starr Richard Johns Ben Kingsley Thanks GUB

Used to sing in a new wave (mostly) covers band as a young womble so can still knock out Into the Valley, Teenage Kicks or 'Babylon's burning' in the unlikely event of the occasion demanding it. Only ever done actual karaoke once, to be sociable. 'Remember you're a womble' was not an option so compromised on 'Still rock''n' roll to me' (Billy Joel).

League two have decided that the ones at the top deserve to be promoted, but the one(s) at the bottom don't deserve to be relegated. Fallacy somewhere I fancy.

Little Richard was in my 'Pop go the wurzels' theme team. Was never in The Wurzels though (for the benefit of those who may have thought otherwise).

Little Richard for me too.

Little Richard my 3rd hit here

The same small number of irritating adverts that are playing continually - particularly 1.Teams, plus any others showing supposedly 'normal' people on split screen, usually going on about how they still care about all of us, 2. KJT's fat free yoghurt ad (although normally I quite like looking at her and fortunately they have realised after her last ad that the scouse accent is a turn off) 3. The ad where Jess Ennis invites you round to her place for some exercise with a winning smile but you know the only jogging you'll do when you get there will be vertical 4. Ads for the government and the NHS which hammer home a message we all got 7 weeks ago and represent a monumental waste of public money 5. Virgin, when he's laying off thousands of people in another part of his empire and furloughing thousands more at public expense.

Thanks for running. Think that's my third third-bottom performance in a pool in recent (last 6) months. I am nothing if not consistent.

1. Tom Smith 2. Anne Buydens Douglas 3. Rosalyn Carter 4. Roberta McCain 5. George McGavin 6. Jackie Stallone 7. Bernard Cribbins 8. Ruth Bader Ginsburg 9. Murray Walker 10. Renata Scotto 11. Leslie Phillips 12. Pete Murray 13. Vera Lynn 14. Beverly Cleary 15. Frank Williams (TV vicar) 16. Richard Bonynge 17. Teresa Berganza 18. Des O'Connor 19. Tommy Banner 20. Barry Briggs 21. Colin Thackery subs Leontyne Price Anders Michanek Thanks for running GUB

Shame for my lot currently (formerly) in a playoff position in National League South. Latest informed speculation/kite-flying says that non-league should be prepared to accept no football for the rest of 2020 and possibly not until 2021, which would wipe out most of non-league football. I know fans of Liverpool/WBA/Leeds etc will be annoyed about not getting what they think they deserve but at least they will still have a club to support - there is going to be absolute carnage lower down the pyramid.

Point a hit, first to ten wins?

The increase in cr*p on facebook (and probably other platforms that i'm not on), during this crisis, particularly 1. Name ten albums that have changed your life, here's my no 1 i nominate 'GUB' to list theirs too and tag someone else. No, I cant be bothered (and don't know how to tag anyone anyway) 2. Here are 6 people I have met/bands I have seen live. Which one is a lie? Who cares. 3. Meaningless exhortations to be nice to each other/stay safe etc. I know there is contributory negligence on my part for having accepted a friend request from these people at some point but come the end of this crisis there will be a list of so called friends that needs reviewing. Or maybe I'll just quit social media..

Stirling Moss goes two days too early for the lucky 7 bonus but still reduces my hitherto good chances of claiming the wooden spoon