msc

I remember the outrage when Synchronised and a few other horses died during the 2012 Grand National, and there was a lot of talk about banning horse racing, and the folk who run horse racing events said they'd make it safer for the horses. I am not a horse racing man so have no idea if they did that, or if they just waited for the furore to calm down and carried on, but this is the first bout of fatalities I can recall since then, and horse racing wasn't banned then or now, of course.

Sad news. He was better, and more fun, and more alive than Len Deighton. Probably even now, tbh. Writing a proper page turner thriller is really bloody difficult, and Higgins was a master at them.

THE LION SLEEPS TONIGHT 7/50 6th April 2022 Yes, damn that Death Impends for getting to the headline first, but sod it... Popular Scottish rugby legend Tom Smith has died, aged 50, after a long and well documented battle with Stage IV cancer. Smith's professional career started in the 90s at Caledonia Reds and he experienced the league mergers that brought Glasgow Warriors into being. In 2001, he moved to the Northampton Saints, and was a pivotal part of the team which reached 3 Heineken Cup quarterfinals. (The Champions League, for rugby union.) However, it was as captain of the Scottish rugby team that Smith won his highest acclaim. A talismanic figure to fans and an inspirational one to teammates, he was the driving force behind Scotland winning the (then) Five Nations in 1999. He also led his country at two World Cups. In 1999, Smith's Scotland lost 30-18 to New Zealand in a battling performance in the Quarterfinals. In 2003, he was one of the few reliable names in a much weakened Scotland squad, not expected to last in the competition, but he dragged the team by sheer force of will, and scored the pivotal try that took Scotland into the Quarterfinals once more. There, hosts Australia proved a bridge too far and that was Tom Smith's final World Cup appearance. His ability was also noted internationally in that he became the first Scottish rugby player in history to be selected for six consecutive Lions tours. At this time, he was named by the world rugby authorities are being on the World first XV, the best players in the world. On retiring he worked as a coach for Lyon. A shy man who preferred to do his talking on the pitch, Tom Smith was diagnosed with cancer in 2019. He was inducted into the rugby hall of fame last year.

Banks O' Dee did win the division below the Highland League. Fort William's bottom place spot will be confirmed in the next week (14 adrift, 5 games left). Their spot as whipping boys in the Highland League is in jeopardy.

Let me educate you, Creepy. Remember the incurable fatal disease, Progressive Supranuclear Palsy? That you got a DDP hit with for singer Peter Sarstedt in 2017? When I thought you had gone a year early but you got the points and I didn't? Well, Linda Ronstadt has had the same illness for nearly a decade now. She's on borrowed time.

AFTER THE YEAR DOT 6/50 3rd April 2022 When she was a teenager, June Brown visited a palm reader. The fortune teller told a sceptical June that she would live to a grand old age, but suffer a personal tragedy when she turned 30. June Brown, who has died aged 95, was to prove that old woman correct on both counts. A Suffolk lass, she served in the Wrens during WW2 before training to become an actress at the Old Vic. Considered a talent from early on, she worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company throughout the 1950s, as well as appearing in the West End, touring Rebecca and The Lion in Winter. She was especially credited for her performances as Lady MacBeth. It was while acting on stage she met her husband John Garley. They married in 1950, but their marriage struggled with Garley’s depression, and he killed himself in 1957, when June was 30. Despite her best efforts to revive him, Brown would blame herself for her first husband’s death for the rest of her life. She married again, to actor Robert Arnold, and they had six children before she was widowed for the second time in 2003. She became a TV regular in the 1970s, appearing in the doomsday TV series Survivors, the cult soap Angels, and various Plays for Today. She was a semi-regular in The Duchess of Duke Street, and appeared in many of your favourite Britbox finds: Shades of Darkness, Crown Court and even a short turn in Coronation Street. (And in later life, Gormenghast!) In film, she appeared in Murder by Decree and Psychomania. And yes, she had her obligatory Doctor Who appearance, in the Jon Pertwee serial The Time Warrior. Her talents were openly admired, from Barry Letts to Harold Pinter. However, as she approached her 60s, June Brown found that there were fewer roles on TV for a woman of her age. In her own words, she need a miracle, and that miracle arrived in the form of an ex-con turned actor. Leslie Grantham had worked on stage with Brown and, when he asked if he knew anyone who could play a new short term role on Eastenders as Nasty Nick’s mum, he suggested Brown. She was offered a 3 month contract, with guaranteed money, and while she thought it’d be a short term respite, she said it would help her avoid bankruptcy. That short term role went on for the best part of 30 years. As Dot Cotton, June Brown became more famous and more well off than she’d managed through three decades of theatre acclaim. The character started off far more harsher than her public image nowadays: as the local busybody with a touch of the Bible bashing bigot to her, the original Dot Cotton was a horror. Her mellowing out into being the kindly old agony aunt of the Street became so iconic that going back to earlier episodes, when, for example she condemned Mark Fowler’s HIV status, are often cited as unexpectedly shocking to younger fans. The real life June Brown began to blend into the character more, though. Whilst Dot had started intolerant, June Brown was an out and out ally of her LGBT friends, going on marches to denounce Section 28 and demand better treatment for AIDS sufferers. After her early tragedy, she was unsurprisingly a big supporter of mental health charities, and paid for several peoples addiction therapy, including Pete Doherty of The Libertines! June Brown left Eastenders several times, but the siren call of Dot Cotton proved too irresistible to refuse. It was, as she said, the role that had changed her life for the better. She became popular with even younger fans with appearances alongside Lady Gaga on The Graham Norton Show. And despite increasing frailty in her 90s, she still managed to make the odd TV appearance. Usually as Dot Cotton. Chain smoking June Brown was one of the most popular actresses in the UK, among the industry and TV audiences. Her talents, which once far surpassed her acclaim, finally saw their proper credit in the second half of her life with a TV icon. Aged 80, she was tasked with being the first person on British TV to act out an episode of a soap solo, as a 30 minute monologue. Not only did June Brown smash it, she was nominated for the BAFTA for it. An acting genius (to quote Harold Pinter), who used her fame to help countless others at their lowest points, we are saddened to note the death of the wonderful June Brown, aged 95.

ANOTHER WANTED HIT 5/50 30th March 2022 Rather sobering, pop singer Tom Parker has become the latest Crowdsourced Deathlist hit at the age of only 33. Parker was lead singer of The Wanted, a popular boy band at the turn of the last decade who had two quick UK number ones in succession, the titles of which both seem to foretell the pain his legions of fans are currently undergoing: Glad You Came and All Time Low. A string of top ten hits followed before the band broke up in 2014. Post-Wanted, he appeared on Celebrity Masterchef and oddball Channel 4 variety show The Jump, and made the semi-finals of both competitions. However in 2020, he was diagnosed with the dreaded glioblastoma. A comeback with The Wanted was cut short by the cancer. Tom Parker’s fame touched a generation younger than mine, but the sadness of a young man dying resonates with all, as do the tributes from millions of young fans on social media. After his death, an episode of Pointless Celebrities was shown, filmed late last year. In it, a clearly frail Tom Parker teamed up with one of his band mates, Max, to successfully win the £2500 jackpot and donate it to brain cancer charities. If you can judge someone on how they react facing the undiscovered country, then Tom Parker faced his trying to help other people live.

If those 7 points were crucial at years end I could scream. Luckily Spade seems to be making it a moot point so far.

Manchurian Candidate (1962) Angela Lansbury Henry Silva Leslie Parrish

Suddenly the shopkeeper appeared. "I think that you deserve a rest, come with me." RIP.

Oh sorry, wasn't sure if the game was going on or not. Vic Elford needs replaced, by Steve McMichael, thanks.

Yet another LOTMer from Spade's Soprano team from last year. Spade, next time you have a theme team idea, you might want to hold onto it for a year...

Sue Nicholls is still in it too. I think she's playing an ailing Audrey now but I don't really watch the show! Barlow been quite private since retiring, no? 60s semi-regular Ivan's actor is still around too, Ernst Walder, 95 this year.

She badly injured (broke iirc) her knee in 2019 and didn't seem to recover from it. Barbara Knox was still in Corrie last year and seemed decent nick for her age. Rula Lenska looked worse, and she's now been gone off the show for 8 months. (Although while recurring I don't think her role is an every week character.)

Aye, saw a bit of it and he looked horrendous. Got a relative with post-stroke aphasia and its an utterly horrific form of dementia tbh. (YouTube link for the forum lazy.)

Yeah, properly good actor (to think he was cast as an old villain in Some Like It Hot back in the 50s) and that's a remarkably good age. RIP.

Tom Lehrer ought to be a mascot of the DL tbh.

Hey, I'm so used to her being TV Granny due to Jessica Fletcher and Bedknobs above that I was quite taken aback at how good she was as a villain in The Manchurian Candidate when I saw it! Anyhow, June Brown's a good example of not giving up. She had a good theatre and TV career but roles had dried up as she approached 60 and she was broke, when she got offered a short term contract for Eastenders. Two weeks turned into 30 years, and she wound up more famous from that than for An Inspector Calls and her other acclaimed stage work.

Well, yes, given DAME Angela Lansbury is quite famously British!

The theory that Jeanne Calment was replaced by her own daughter is outweighed by the evidence against solely because it is complete and utter bollocks.

"William Hague was talked into doing a lot of stupid things which he wouldn't have done on his own, going around with a baseball cap with "Hague" on the front. He looked a chump. People see through all this. A lot of the things he boasted about came back to hit him in the face. He used to claim he drank 14 pints a day when he worked as a drayman's assistant, and that he once drank 32 rums in a session. Well, that would kill most people, and in fact, one of the local publicans in South Yorkshire where he's supposed to have drunk these 14 pints a day said: "Oh that's all a lie, we used to call him Fizzy Willie, because he'd get drunk on half a pint." Not a go at anyone on the forum, it just felt a good point to bring up the late Chris Moncrieff (a man who knew about a drink) and his putdown of William Hague's drinking claims during the 2001 election!

He wrote some great songs about being depressed and addiction. Alice in Chains were a properly good band.

Sandy Gall still scheduling new public talks for this summer. I don't think he's going to trouble us this year.

After the year dot? (Btw you know someone's a big name when you get ten different people texting you to tell you they'd died.)

Reaper in a foul mood with Eastenders of late, so Bill T. EDIT - Well, that's uncanny...