msc

Just as I added him to my long list a decade ago and he's quite conspicuous by his "no one heard of him in decades" status, I take it we confirmed Katsumi Tezuka was dead and I missed it?

This is excellent work - a few names new to me up there.

Bond girl? Solitaire is fucking shite imo!

Although if it helps, Arnold Yarrow is known to be alive and mentally aware but very, very frail. He saw all the well wishes on Twitter for his 100th last year and was apparently quite taken aback that he was still remembered and liked, bless.

No help whatsoever, sorry! Its not helped by the fact the main Dr Who news up to summer 2009 came from Outpost Gallifrey which had its archives wiped entirely by the owner, but from memory, Randall's death was discovered by fandom sometime after he died. He was a very private man. I've no idea what name he went by in real life but actor friends did eventually find out he had died sometime around the first quarter of 2008. This happens a lot - John Carlisle off The Omega Factor was only announced dead by Stage 3 years after the fact to many of his friends horror (again, a very private man when not acting), and there was 18 months between Antony Webb (another Pertwee era alumni member) dying and it becoming public knowledge. The link seems to be private loners with no or very little surviving family.

McGough showed up on Pointless a few months ago looking old but well, he is old. Macca's brother (a friend of a friend) was fine and well last I heard - about Christmas.

It's complicated. In the last 20+ years, 5 separate years of birth have been spread about by Sheik (1940, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1945), and because of his early life (his family were on the wrong side of one of the many Iranian political disputes and had to leave in a hurry) he has been content to fudge the details considerably ie it was reported WWE didn't want him taking a bump in the gimmick battle royal at the time as he was in his 60s (2001), and he had a big show of his 65th birthday circa 2005-6 from memory, yet later on he hoped to see 75 in that documentary made 2017 and so on. In short, the above is the "official" age, 1942 is currently his accepted "real" age, and god knows what his actual age is. For the benefits of the DDP, we'll take whatever the obits claim!

Given Sheik apparently cut a few years off his age when he moved to the US then yes, I think he'll see 80!

Yeah, I agree. Things seem to be bubbling in discontent and there's no limit of potential sparks in the next while. Also we seem to have a government who think if they've been forgiven today they will always be forgiven, hence stuff like this protest stuff. (10 years for defacing a statue, more time than the average jail time for rape, arson and knife attacks FFS! Priorities eh? And at the same time, Boris's government have heavily cut court/judicial money, meaning more dangerous folk are likely to be out on bail for years awaiting trials as the money and time available for those has been heavily cut.)

Thanks. I stand by my aforementioned comments about writers deaths going unnoticed by the press...

No, its because she's a fashion and shopping tips "influencer". I'm sure my replacement (who I think has a better judge of youth culture) doesn't want to go through the increasing number of new media celebs each year to work out when they got fans in their 11 year YouTube career. Hence arbitrary cut offs.

Reminder - in December, an out of touch co-host was put on the spot as to what number of subscribers made someone qualify as notable as "internet stars". I arbitrarily decided on half a million subscribers on ONE platform (ie not over a bunch of them) as the cut off for accepted/not. This young woman has 2.2 MILLION subscribers on YouTube. I'm not keen on it but it is what it is. (Your objection at the time to "insipid little fame whores" was noted, but that also is what it is. )

Given Fox and Knight, another option is David Graham - I think his RAF time was during WW2, as he had left the RAF before he trained to become an actor and he was acting in New York circa 1946-7. Apparently he spoke about his time in Bomber Command with fans and young vets at conventions over the years. Good guy by all accounts.

Leonard Fenton (engineers, WW2) if Jill Knight counts - pretty sure a lot of folk would recognise Dr Legg if not the name. Household names are relatively rare among the 95+ group now, more renowned or "much loved in a sphere of society" than A list. Attenborough's Navy service started in 1946 - you probably checked him up too. On that note, I think James Lovelock is the last properly famous WW2 conscientious objector?

A solidly loving couple who just so happen to be gay, and ruthlessly efficient assassins - iirc they kill around a dozen people and only come undone due to a fluke in the finale. They may be a little camp (and aren't that much compared to half the folk I knew in nightclubs!), they still kill more people than most of the Connery era henchmen combined. There's also the modern reaction to the end of the Living Daylights (Bond unites with the Taliban against a rogue Soviet general, essentially) being "naïve" when all it does is shine a mirror up to the realpolitik of the time they find uncomfortable. On the other hand, scenes where Bond hits women do make me uncomfortable and Roger Moore was right to insist they cut them out.

I legit thought Wint and Kidd's ages were the other way round until that post. Two of the best henchmen from the Connery era imo.

Greaves.

Aye, planning to use these powers for good anytime soon?

Very sad to hear this. Murray Walker was one of the greats of commentary, a voice of enduring exciting and enthusiasm for his sport which was contagious, even if, like me, you weren't normally into racing. He lived a good long life and going by interviews and his writing was still mentally there till almost the end, but still - sad news.

In terms of chances of a third wave. Worth noting that as of yesterday - England has vaccinated around 43% of its population, Scotland and Wales just over 33%. Whereas Italy is at 10%. This is for the first jab which lowers hospital/death chances by 80% or what not - obviously second jab numbers are lower in all of the above. We may see further spikes but we're quite far ahead on vaccinating the public compared to near neighbours...

I am always open to being surprised but I believe there is more chance of you or Handrejka going to a Dr Who convention than him! He said a decade ago the sight of anything to do with Dr Who makes him furious and sick. In short - Haisman and Lincoln created the Yeti and Brigadier in Dr Who, so were asked to create robots that could be the new Daleks. (Read - never seen again.) The producer at the time - a useless chap called Derrick Sherwin - saw gold dust in the Quarks (aforementioned robots you've never heard of) and did a deal with TV Comics for their use without asking the writers. This led to shitloads of merch for which the royalties went to the producer instead. It caused a massive controversy at the time and was a major headache for the BBC which Lincoln equates to losing work as well (1968-9). As a full circle bit, here's Mervyn Haisman on why he stopped working with Henry Lincoln in the early 70s...

Doesn't appear to be much middle ground with British actors - either they die young-ish or they are around forever! And whilst I said he was grumpy, tbf, Lincoln was screwed over for substantial royalties due to an internal BBC dispute in the 1960s and has never gotten over it His co-writer at the time, the late Mervyn Haisman, was more of a live and let live type willing to forgive as long as he got paid in the future, whereas Henry Lincoln is very much a "I shall forgive you over my dead body!" When Dan Brown borrowed the Da Vinci Code plot for his book, he kept out of the lawsuit, and interviews at the time had it as yet another chip on his shoulder. But given circumstances, maybe fair enough!

Barbara Clegg is also the oldest Dr Who writer to ever live now. The only person who comes close - God botherer and massively grumpy Henry Lincoln - is 91 this year and still alive.

A few old timers I've stumbled onto researching who *appear* to be alive. Elizabeth Benson (born 1926) - a Fawlty Towers and Only Fools and Horses guest star in a long career! Referred to as retired in a 2018 Where Are They Now blog on OFAH guests, but trying to find out more is hurt by her common name - so common another actress big on Twitter has it in fact! Michael Godley (born 1925) - Another actor who did the tour of popular UK TV - Poirot, Morse, A Very British Coup among his credits. Retired within the last decade. Doesn't show up in the BMD but could be a stagename. There was a Michael A Godley who died in 2015 but reverse engineering that provides 3 people who were all born on the south coast a long way from Sheffield! Neville Phillips (born 1927) - Only retired in 2015, sort of a go to actor if you need a vicar or diplomat. Again a common name (and born in South Africa). I'm wary that absence of proof (of death) is not proof of absence (of death) after the Sopel incident, but for the time being I can't find anything on them being no more and would have felt they had CVs worthy of a mention when they did go. (But then, I thought that of David Fisher and too many other names!)

Also Super Gran is 95.