The Watcher

Online comments wishing her "a long and happy retirement" may be somewhat hopeful but let's hope anyway. She is currently playing a 98 year old in The Archers - surely the oldest character in a soap until William Roache (aka Ken Barlow) smashes her record as he has been quoted as expecting to live way beyond 100 due to his healthy lifestyle.

A very sad loss & someone who many feel (including Womble singer Mike Batt) should have been knighted. However, he seemed to be too good a guy for anything other than a relatively recent OBE - obviously not a Mason, a creep or someone who gives to political parties. Botham had his knighthood promoted to a peerage just for supporting Brexit. Bernard's wife died last year after 66 years of marriage which can often be a trigger to a decline in health. RIP Bernard.

I know Wiki is not perfect but if her details are incorrect on 'Oldest Cricketers' then it is the only error that I can find on a very detailed statistical list of deceased & living first class & Test cricketers, male & female.

When Eileen Ash died last year at the age of 110, it was incorrectly reported that she was the last Test (& probably club) cricketer to have overlapped with the life of the famous W G Grace who died on 23 October 1915. However, in the height of the cricket season when 2 days ago some county games were shortened due to extreme heat (& then yesterday due to poor light), it seems a good time to mention Thelma McKenzie of Australia (& former Test cricketer) who is 107 and was born on 6 April 1915 so she overlapped with W G Grace (born 174 years ago in 1848) for 6 months and 17 days.

Frank Williams has died only 6 days before his 91st birthday. Only Ian Lavender (76) of the regular cast of Dad's Army alive now although Frank Williams did not appear in Dad's Army until series 3. He has outlived the Verger (Edward Sinclair) by 45 years! Originally when dad's Army ended, they were going to appear in pantomome as the Ugly Sisters but Sinclair had to be replaced. When Gladys was married in the last episode of Hi-di-Hi, she was 'married' by Williams & the Verger had to be played by Colin Bean who was Private Sponge in Dad's Army. A sad week for Dad's Army fans as Gordon Peters (95) who died a week ago appeared in 4 episodes of the series and once had his own sitcom which was named after him.

John Alexander Cruickshank is 102 today. He is the last surviving person to be awarded the Victorian Cross in WW2.

Her sister Angeline is still alive!

Apart from Dr Who & Grange Hill she appeared in Eastenders. So likely to appear in various tributes. She also played Mrs Ripper [according to one obituary] in Ever Decreasing Circles. Her main contribution to that series must be suggesting to her husband, Richard Briers, that Peter Egan would be an ideal foil to Briers' character Martin Bryce who had OCD issues. Peter Egan never looked back & is still performing today as is Penelope Wilton who played Ann, the long-suffering wife of Martin Bryce.

The number of honours according to Wiki that Princess Alexandra has been given by the Queen over the years is quite extraordinary. Surely this sort of personal privilege presentation (PPP?) will have to end but probably not until William is monarch?

Who was the lady who accompanied the Duke of Kent to the memorial service? Huw Edwards certainly ignored her presence as he didn't seem to know nor did he know the names of the two men at the end of the row in which Boris Johnson was at the other end next to Riki, Liz & Pritti.

This sounds as likely as Lord Lucan turning up & going paragliding at Beachy Head, J K Rowling having a cup of Earl Grey with Putin or the story earlier this year that an Indian couple aged 120 and 122 had celebrated their 100th wedding anniversary. This is called the 10K Diamond anniversary in one online list so obviously the names are beginning to run out after 80 (oak), 85 (wine) & 90 (granite) as no name is given for 95 which the Chands got close to a few years ago.

Helen Jackson who was the last known American Civil War widow and died in 2020 was a widow for almost 81 years.

Frank O'Farrell has died aged 94. He was the oldest (at the time of his death) former West Ham player. [Now succeeded probably by Ken Brown] O'Farrell was one of many managers who failed at Man Utd after Matt Busby retired. Now the same is happening with nobody able to succeed Alex Ferguson.

Many thought she was not happy with the scripts and she refused to be an older admirer for Granville so Stephanie Cole had that role.

Crazy about Warne when John Manners who played first class cricket before WW2 died in March 2020 (just before the pandemic) aged 105 and lived to double Warne's age. I predict sleezesheets will follow up Warne's lifestyle & why he was in Thailand.

Like Botham, he was a 'name' rather than a commentator. The best such as Mark Nicholas are often the ones who were not the best players although the really top notch ones were non-players such as Arlott and Johnson. Henry Blofeld was too fond of deviating away from the cricket.

She was a serial killer who among her victims killed her own 15 year old sister. Due to the plea bargainig system she served only a few years in jail for multi murders with an accomplice and later married the brother of her lawyer. I bet he does not drink the nighttime cocoa she doubtless makes him.

Also Wally Fawkes (Trog) who is now 97 & was a close friend of Humphrey Lyttleton & fellow musician as well as being a fellow cartoonist colleague of Bill Tidy - Trog drew the long running Flook cartoon in the Daily Mail & briefly in the Daily Mirror.

It does seem rather ghoulish the way that Gyles Brandreth, Stephen Fry & Piers Morgan seem to desperately want to be first to express their condolences over someone who is usually far better loved than them & often has far superior talent. They tend to dig up a photo that shows that they actually met the deceased celebrity and resort to Wiki if they cannot come up with any original anecdote. One of Barry Cryer's best jokes was about a rude parrot. It continued to embarrass its owner by shouting 'Knickers' whenever the Vicar or ladies came to tea. The owner was so exasperated with his/her pet that the parrot was told it would be put into the fridge for 5 minutes so it could cool off & reflect on its poor behaviour. When the parrot was released it was extremely contrite and said to its owner, "Blimey, what on earth did that chicken do wrong?"

Amazingly/unbelievably the world's first 100th wedding anniversary (no special name as aparently Oak for 80th is the highest official name)has been claimed in India ( I recall when Guinness World Records had their site in Piccadilly, near to where the Ripleys Amazing one was for a few years afterwards that a display board stated how much Indians loved world records - longest finger nails etc). There is a fairly convincing photo of Bhagwaan Singh (120) & Dhan Khan (122) on their 100th W/A on 6 March 2018 with many of their family. I cannot find any subsequent news so possibly an elaborate hoax?

The others weren't BP though according to his book so presumably no liaisons with Janet Ellis & Sarah Greene?

Only once apparently according to Val. Perhaps you know of others - lawyers may be watching.

Joan Copeland, actress & former sister-in-law of Marilyn Munroe has died aged 99.

Ralph Kohler (104) & his wife Dorothy (103) have been married 86 years 108 days & may beat all records (Wiki & Guinness World) in less than 4 years time. They probably have the 4th longest marriage of all time as records show only 3 definitely longer with 3 other marriages just quoted as "86 years" as there is no exact date known for the start of these 3 other marriages.