msc

Well, Survival was 33 years ago now! Janet Fielding did have cancer in 2012. I don't think it was ever revealed what type, but it got quite severe. However, she's been in remission for a good 5 or 6 years now to the best of my knowledge.

That was treated as uncited fake news at the time so I'm going to be properly fucked off if it turns out to have been true. Especially as my first sub for that team, Ralph Riach, has sadly died.

A good year to have retired from the front page on.

As someone who has estranged relatives, I don't think the term means what the Mail thinks it does. They don't stay in touch, or visit, or even go to funerals.

Not even 24 hours later, they beat Ipswich to go 2nd again. That's even better some of the famous DL post jinxes of the past (though @Death Impends Vigoda post is probably unbeatable).

Finally got round to watching some of that BBC doc about the Premier League from late last year. Everyone interviewed (from Kenny Dalglish to Les Ferdinand) look good for their age, but Colin Hendry's seen better days, and surprisingly only just turned 56.

An urn with the ashes of former Crumble alumni Clarissa Eden in it has more political acumen and know how in 2022 than Richard Leonard. As does a sock puppet.

It is great, though also a bit too near the bone, too. Paul Ready's Kevin was so close to reality a lot of the time I couldn't tell if they were laughing with me or at me.

iirc Maggie T in 1979 is the ONLY party leader in the last 50 years to have won an election in which they weren't leading on "who makes the best Prime Minister" personal polling. Re - Scottish Labour, uh time will tell, but they just about held their position last year, and they are up a fair bit in recent polling so watch those locals. " I'm struggling to see a situation where the Tories aren't the largest party in terms of seats." - I'm not foolish enough to use the L word here, but certainly Labour having the most seats feels more possible now than it did a year ago. But 2 years till the next election is a bloody long time.

Yes. Of Labour's top 100 target seats, only 12 are in Scotland. And if they are doing well to dig high into that number, they'll be winning seats above 100 too (because "swing" is never as universal as the pundits try to pretend before the election night). Also - I know Scots. If they think they can oust the Tories you may see a few seats going to Labour here. Not many, mind you (I'd say 10 is the most on a fantastic night for them). We'll have a better idea of the Scottish situation after the locals next month though - see if Labour go back in 2nd place in Scotland or not.

Poor old David Amess. Scandals, deaths, murders and that's just in the last two years.

Blackboard musing: Last two times the UK has changed governments, the incumbent government has lost over 100 seats to the opposition. (Yes, I know Wiki claims otherwise but Wiki doesn't count by-elections holds as gains, whereas the UK system does as it counts election night gains as "from the last election".) Maggie T only managed 62 (only, yes and again not counting by-election gains in the 1974-9 parliament held by the Tories) but those were in 2 party election days, the liberals being a much smaller bunch, and the Nats doing disastrously that election. Heath gained 77, Wilson (64) about 60, Attlee 239 which is the Jeanne Calment of modern elections. imo Maggie 1979 gains or better and the Tories are out of power next time.

Inside no 9 with Diane Morgan and Daisy Haggard in episodes too.

See, I dislike the "harass deadpool hosts about publicly known picks" but since you asked, Jill Knight and Nehemiah Persoff are both dead as a doornail now.

Sylvia Lancaster OBE, mother of the murdered Sophie Lancaster who started up the charity foundation in her daughter's name, has died suddenly in hospital.

Yeah but tbf the economy in 1970 was better than in 1968, in 1964 better than 1962-3, and in 2010 better than 2009 (well it could hardly be worse!) but basically once the economy fucks you, the public rarely seem to forgive you afterwards even if you try to sort out your own mess. But its not the only reason governments fall. As 1997 showed, there can be many reasons and sometimes, its ALL OF THEM. At once!

Back in 2008-9, when Gordon Brown was in power and folk were saying how they wanted a change of government, I used to point out that Cameron was an inept tosser (I think history proved me right there btw) but their response tended to be they didn't care, they wanted rid of THIS government anyway. I understand better how they felt these days. Anyhow, aye, I think he'll hold on until the next general election. The big danger for him is the locals NEXT YEAR, in which a shitload of Tory seats won under the nadir of Corbyn are up for grabs at council level in marginals, and that'll be after a year of bills going up/etc. People don't like shitface politicians, but really its the economy that murders governments.

Hare's Pool pick for yours truly.

September 2017 had two in one day (Booth and Dawn) plus a DL mainstay (Lamotta) and Hefner dying either side. That's easy to remember. December 2016 had Zsa Zsa, Richard Adams and Liz Smith in quick succession. June 2015 memorably because it was two of my favourite actors (Christopher Lee and Patrick Macnee, who were friends in real life too), as well as one of my DDP d'ohs (Chris Woodward, who I dropped and then he promptly got Stage IV cancer, the sod) and Kirk Kerkorian, who is only remembered because he was such a non-famous DL name! December 2013 were all big names - Mandela, Ronnie B, Kalashnikov and Peter O'Toole. Ronnie Biggs had his links to this forum, Kalashnikov had been a tease all year, O'Toole made a lot of people very sad and Mandela was obviously huge. The 2007 I just remember because older heads kept bringing it up as an example of the year "evening out" during the 2010/11 DLs. Bergman, LBJ's widow, Tammy Faye (who recently had a film made about her) and George Melly all went that month, though the time period sticks in the mind due to a family loss. And Bergman's because he died the same weekend as a good 7 or 8 other big name celebs, and the BBC front page had nothing but obituaries one day, which I've never seen before or since. They've all got links that make them memorable, whereas, say, May 2019, to check the front page, didn't. So wasn't.

Its just funny that you said you looked back over years to see if there's ever been more than 2 hits in a month when the answer is: yes, 14 months ago. See also July 2007, December 2013, June 2015, December 2016, September 2017 just off the top of my head, let alone no doubt several others.

February 2021 wasn't THAT long, surely?

I do think he'll go within 6 months of Pru going tbh.

Google is obsessed with giving me the hot tip that apparently Patrick Swayze has cancer. Don't spread that gossip around, though.

If he knew it was coming, he could schedule the tweet. Although Charles Daniels had no idea he was about to snuff it (from a stroke while raging at people on the internet) so hours after it was announced he'd died, his scheduled tweet, of him playing iirc ELO's "I'm Alive", was posted to the world.

I know it's become a bit of a meme on here the past week, but someone actually passing Sarah Knauss's seemingly unsurpassable longevity spot for 2nd place is... quite exciting tbh. It's not "Oh look someone is now in the top 20 oldest in the world" train spotting, it's the top 2 verified spots of all time, which have stood untouchable since I was barely a teen. Tanaka (and to be fair, Lucille Randon too, though she has a bit of catching up to do) are considerable outliers and you may not see someone catch their "records" for another 20-25 years.