The Watcher

Trog & Tidy gone within a few days of each other. One illustrated Flook for the Daily Mail & the other wrote & illustrated The Fosdyke Saga for the Daily Mirror - 2 very different papers & 2 very different cartoon strips but both very clever & thought-provoking at times as well being funny.

Wally Fawkes has died aged 98. He could appear in many categories - satirist, cartoonist, clarinettist (with Humphrey Littleton), comedy writer. However he is best known for drawing Flook for the Daily Mail for 35 years & for the Mirror Group for 1 year! Flook was originally aimed at children & then became a political satire & finally the Daily Mail editor David English had had enough of it due to the satirical jibes that appeared to be aimed at Margaret Thatcher even though she was reported to enjoy the cartoon.

In fact she died on February 6th!

Referring to Andree Melly who died on 31 January 2020 aged 87 & was the last surviving regular member of Hancock's Half Hour after Bill Kerr died, her husband Oscar Quitak is still alive aged 96.

Harrison had 3 siblings, 2 brothers & 1 sister. They are Louise (1931-2023), Peter (1940-2007) & Harold (b 1934).

If McKenzie was alive but incredibly under the radar in Australia (which would be amazing in a cricketing country) then she would be the only person still alive who played top class cricket & whose life overlapped with that of W G Grace (1848-1915). However when Eileen Ash (1911-2021) died, that statement was made about her.

Seems she is now 'way out in front' of Carol Vorderman.

With Pele's 100 year old mother in the news, a reminder that when Sammy Davis Junior died in 1990 aged 64, he had a mother Elvera Sanchez (died in 2000 aged 95) still alive and also a grandmother Luisa Aguiar (1884-1996) who lived to the age of 112.

She WAS 113 when she died yesterday. She was 106 (NOT 105) (a month before she was 107) when she danced with Obama. Surely you should have fixed an earlier statement by someone else that "she was 217 or something"?

Virginia McLaurin was 113 & one of her grandchildren was a great grandmother herself making Virginia a great, great great grandmother.

Tom Owen (son of Compo) has also died - no age at 73 unlike Treacher & Phillips who were in their 90's.

He cannot elope with Fergie as they live in a very nice house (smaller than Southyork of course) on the Windsor estate. Apart from the Epstein connection, his rudeness (contempt?) for staff continues to be referred to whenever any Royal-linked book is serialised. However, Margaret did not come out well in the book by her former lady in waiting (who introduced her to Roddy Llewelyan) even though she tried to concentrate on Margaret's positive points. Charles also appears extremely petulant & needy even though he does not appear as rude to staff as Andrew or as 'distant/posh/royal' as Margaret & Anne.

Marina, the widow of Lee Harvey Oswald, was born in 1941 & a real link with the past who may be with us for many more years.

Murphy has outlived his co-star Yootha Joyce from George & Mildred by 42 years. Apparently the day she died, Murphy received in the post a contract for another series of G & M. He is married to Linda Regan who played Yellowcoat April in Hi-de-Hi & is the sister of Carol Drinkwater who was the first Helen in All Creatures Great & Small. Well it is said that everyone is only Six Degrees of Separation (at most) from everyone else.

In the UK it is estimated there are around 170 people aged over 107 with 2 women aged over 113 at the top. However only around 110 appear to be on the list of the site devoted to this subject so it may be wrong to assume that there are up to 60 whose names are not known. It would be interesting to compare the percentages of countries such as China & Japan with the UK to see which has the most 107+ aged citizens.

Frustratingly, hardly any information about the Queen's relations on her mother's side at the funeral. She was close to many of them & one of her cousins was Margaret Rhodes who died in 2016 aged 91 & believed to be the only person present (apart from the Queen) when the Queen Mother died. There must have been a few Bowes-Lyons present even though they are not royal?

Also the elder brother of Angus Ogilvy who died in 2004 & was, of course, the husband of Princess Alexandra, the Queen's cousin.

Should have put the husband was 120!! Apologies so he was about 20 when bridegroom & bride was 22. Photos look realistic so clever photoshop or an amazing event which Guinness & Ripley refuse to acknowledge. The Chand's 90th wedding anniversary is also ignored except on Wiki despite regular newspaper reports from Bradford over their lives. Incidentally I have found a death notice for at least one of the Indian couple only months after the 100th anniversary.

Surely as fake as the photos & articles about an Indian couple in 2018 who celebrated their 100th (Osmium!) wedding anniversary. The husband was 100 at the time & his wife was 122. The only thing that seemed to be factually accurate was that in one report it stated that the 90th wedding anniversary name was apparently granite which I did find later on various lists.

Not universally. Fergie calls him "The most honourable man I know".

Yes, my mistake. Wrong acting dynasty! It was indeed Lord (Richard) Attenborough, his wife Sheila Sim & her younger brother Gerald who spent their final years there. In fact the Attenboroughs had been involved in fund raising previously for that very home. Sheila Sim was often confused with the actress Sylvia Sims who is 88 & to the best of my limited knowledge does not live there.

Probably an entire wing there once devoted to Last of the Summer Wine actors/actresses although not any more. I wonder who the eldest Equity member is now who lives there? Once John Mills, his wife & her brother (Gerald Sim) all lived there.

Presumably the oldest now must be Brian Murphy who played Alvin. I expect being married to one of the Yellowcoats keeps him sprightly. Spike's loss is Alvin's gain!