msc

You know, given how dry 2024 has been, when I saw this was the newest thread updated I thought "christ I hope 2024's drought isn't so severe that Osama's returned from the dead!" And I was nearly bloody right and all.

Hardliner Carry On fan. It's a shame as he was a fine actor - Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) is one of the best of the cult sixties shows and he's part of the Dr Who family. But IMO two decades with COPD and being able to live a decent life for most of it, making it to your mid nineties, is jolly good going. Can't see Renny Lister lasting much longer.

When Mike Pratt got his diagnosis (he was a chain smoker), he wrote to all his closest friends imploring them to quit cigarettes. One of them was Colin Baker, who was so shocked by Pratt's death that he went from chain smoker to cold turkey for most of the last fifty years.

This was the first post I saw waking up and I was really confused for a moment. I'll take this jinx.

Political endorsement has been around for hundreds of years, nothing to do with modern society. Dickens endorsed Lord Russell in the 1840s, to the point where he was offered a seat in parliament (he turned it down). He was also famous for pushing his fans to go get vaccinated. Going back centuries earlier, writers like Shakespeare and Chaucer were so popular in their time that Shakespeare was oft accused of stirring the mob against the elite, and Chaucer himself may have been murdered because his endorsements were too powerful an enemy for a pretender to the throne. Anyhow, Michael Caine has been trying to get me to vote Tory for over two decades now, to no success, but I still enjoy a lot of his films.

George Burley having (unspecified type and stage) cancer is an interesting one, as he's approaching 70 and has been an alcoholic for large chunks of his life. Remember Christophe Daum, one to watch imo.

I think all the A list actresses from 1934 (IE Sophia Loren, Brigitte Bardot, Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Annette Crosbie, Eileen Atkins, Jean Marsh etc) are DLy as is 1933s Dame Sian Phillips. Of those several are very healthy for their age and can wait. That includes Dench who was on TV last month and beyond the whole blindness thing looked fairly robust. Marsh has been ill for a while (possibly borderline A list but it's my list and I don't care), and Smith has been reportedly frail for ages too. But in general I think most of them (Loren included) have great chances of being DL bedblockers by the end of this decade!

One of the first things he did when he was able to leave hospital in 2020 was to send a thank you letter to my wean for their get well soon card (they were a huge fan of Bear Hunt once) they sent him. I wish him all the best, he does look rough but he is on extra time, so to speak.

I stand by almost everything I said on January 1st on page six. All the really ill people then still are, they're just unusually all still alive. The 24 in 24 prediction might be slightly off, mind you.

It was recorded this year. The first one is up on Iplayer already. To be blunt, by most people at 95 years old standards, she looks great. And she's recorded about 40 minutes of this (over several sessions by looks of it but still). By Patricia Routledge's standards, however, she's clearly declined a fair bit since her Channel 5 interview in 2022. More pauses in sentences, lost weight compared to then, clearly faded slightly as the reminisces went on. Reminded me of several elderly relatives in their twilight. Not at deaths door imo but I'd keep her on the list tbh.

Wouldn't bet on that if they need to drop 21 people!

Tbf the obits for every single name in the current format only continued because Spade said "I bet you can't come up with those puns for five hundred people" and I am a contrary shit.

2/9/2024 35 Madness - Baggy Trousers 33 The Bangles - Walk Like an Egyptian 31 Ultravox - Dancing With Tears In My Eyes 29 Cyndi Lauper - Time After Time 28 Aztec Camera — Somewhere In My Heart 28 The Damned - Eloise 27 Tears for Fears - Mad World 26 Kate Bush - Running Up That Hill 24 Roy Orbison - You Got It 22 Eurythmics - Who's That Girl 22 Bronski Beat - Smalltown Boy 21 Soft Cell - Say Hello, Wave Goodbye 17 Heart - Alone  16 Tina Turner - We Don’t Need Another Hero (Thunderdome) 16 The Vapors - Turning Japanese -6 16 Queen - A Kind of Magic 11 New Order - Blue Monday 88  10 Queen - I Want it All +4 08 Yazoo - Don’t Go I do like I Want It All, and A Kind of Magic and numerous other Queen songs I could name if they were up for kill or save!

Do I even want to know?

That would be a sad loss. Director of some forum favourites like episodes of Thriller and Armchair Thriller. However, his and the late David Mittons work on Tugs was revolutionary in TV terms. They invented ways of shooting model work around waterways, stimulating weather effects and pioneered a whole bunch of camera techniques for versimilitude that didn't only get taken up by other kids shows (Thomas benefitted heavily from it) but also Hollywood films and beyond. An important SFX behind the scenes name.