themaninblack

Just gatecrash the wedding Graduate-style and put forward your reasons. Mind you, women do love a bastard...

Pierre Quinon, Olympic Pole Vault champion in 1984 has committed suicide aged 49...

While doing some research for a new DDP feature, I had no idea that Olympic champion "Bullet" Bob Hayes was dead...

I can remember Churchill when he was alive and I can tell you he was as revered in life as he has been since his death (except in South Wales). Your argument, if it's worthy of the name, is plain daft. People don't become important because they have died although death does allow historians the perspective of distance when assessing a life that has been completed. Are you saying that Bardot is not remembered as an actress because she isn't dead yet or that Castro's place in history is not secure? Are you saying that Gorbachev's role in ending the Cold War is insignificant? Or that Mandela's role in ending apartheid is trivial? Or that the discovery of DNA or the development of the worldwide web that allows you to post such nonsense is nothing out of the ordinary? Get a grip Steve. After six years of hibernation I would have hoped for something better than this. I didn't know you were that old, Godot...

So who would you add? Lets see your list. Edit: My list - remove Bazalgette, add Murdoch. I'd add J. K. Rowling, she's certainly had a major impact in publishing and her Harry Potter novels will likely endure the test of time. and the other 9? I did mention Drew Barrymore earlier She'd make my 10, but of an entirely different list

Here's mine: Alan Greenspan George H.W. Bush Rupert Murdoch Steve Jobs Tim Berners-Lee Margaret Thatcher Mikhail Gorbachev Jiang Zemin Larry Page Nelson Mandela

I presume they changed the World for the worse?

Not as much as she hates herself for being knobbed by him!

Just read her Wikipedia entry. Perhaps he's just took pity on her. Mind you, Ray does have form with journos. Remember Chrissie Hynde?

Issac Asimov...

I'm seriously tempted to bet on Exeter playing Liverpool in the Championship next season. Very reasonable odds at 294/1. Exeter have just drawn Liverpool at home in the 2nd round of the Carling Cup. Fuck. Why can't it be Leicester?

Arthur C. Clarke

It was written and directed by Matthew Vaughan...

Probably best posted in the ideas and possibilities thread? I'm trying to post a bit less in that thread. I was worried people might think I was a wierdo. Maybe it should be in the Dead Prog Stars thread...

....until he comes back again!

It seems that the people of London have lit the Olympic flame a year early...

It seems a lot lot longer...

I'm sure the Telegraph will oblige...

You do wonder whether this continual ineptness is deliberate...

Takes me back a bit. I remember buying Alpha Centuri, then Phaedra after hearing it on John Peel's show and thinking it was far out, or something (how southerners say "summat" MPFC). All my mates thought it was shit. Listening again now, I'm thinking they were right. Don't knock it. Nice bit of ambient...

Remember the show but don't think I remember him, would help perhaps if there was a pic of him. Food and Drink was from an era before TV and the UK generally became completely obsessed with celebrity chefs heres a pic I certainly remember that every time we'd tune into BBC2 on a Thursday night to watch "Alas Smith and Jones", there would be the inevitable sight of Michael Barry and Chris Kelly on "Food and Drink"...

This is all very low key, he was quite famous in his day...

UK boy killed by polar bear. Another white massacre in Norway...

A great shame. One of the advantages of UKTV Gold for DDP purposes is that it reminds you of people a lot of others have forgotten about. I watched his brilliant turn in Men Behaving Badly as Mr Strang, Gary's Dad, very recently and checking he was still alive (and being surprised he was), I added him onto my DDP shortlist. I also well remember the aforementioned role in One Foot in the Grave. But also, as a child of that era, I remember Wind the the Willows and I adored that programme - for some reason it really captured my imagination and I'm sorry he's gone. It mustn't be forgotten that he was a pretty compentent actor in the 1950's and 1960's too. He was on my shortlist for a few years too. He was also in a little-seen Peter Cook film called “The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer", which was basically about Peter Mandelson 25 years early... As a follow up, I read in his obituary that he was the original Stanley in the West End production of Pinter's "The Birthday Party". A couple of other actors have also exited stage left: One of them was Paul Massie who some might recognise from the Tony Hancock classic "The Rebel". He retired from acting and became a teacher. Another is Nicholas Selby, who was Uncle George in the 1990s revival of "Jeeves and Wooster". Curiously, both Pearson and Selby died a day after their respective birthdays...