msc

Could be onto something (sadly) with Dennis Skinner. Have heard through the grapevine he's not doing too well at all and is incredibly frail now.

Statistically there had to be one in the world somewhere!

Awww, there there, TQR, there there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMPEUcVyJsc&t=18s Reference to this, no?

Star Wars is OK. Empire Strikes Back is a bunch of badly fit together set pieces remembered for the big family tree plot point. Phantom Menace is fucking dire. Attack of the Clones is dull and wasted a perfectly good plot. Revenge of the Sith becomes quite good once Anakin turns evil. Force Awakens is alright. Rogue One is perfectly fine. Not seen the other new ones yet. Best is Return of the Jedi by far. An evil Nazi empire are defeated by a bunch of grumpy teddy bears. What's not to love?

That's a surprise and a half. None of my four rejections are at all surprising (2 were blatant chancing arm on the off chance). Some of the names I got accepted (all notable in their fields of course) are nowhere near the Duchess of Kents fame level.

1. Sir Peter Bottomley 2. Barry Sheerman 3. Harriet Harman 4. Sir Edward Leigh 5. Nick Brown 6. Jeremy Corbyn 7. Theresa May 8. David Amess 9. Sir Roger Gale 10. Margaret Beckett 11. George Howarth 12. Bill Cash 13. John Redwood 14. David Davis 15. Diane Abbott 16. Liam Fox 17. Neale Hanvey 18. Lindsay Hoyle 19. Mark Jenkinson 20. Stephen Kinnock 21. Wendy Morton 22. Graham Brady 23. Nigel Mills 24. Lee Anderson 25. Margaret Hodge 26. Dan Jarvis 27. Tracy Brabin 28. John Finucane 29. John Lamont 30. Jack Dromey 31. Jess Philips 32. Graham Stringer 33. Dehenna Davison 34. Ian Levy 35. Barry Gardiner 36. Lloyd Russell-Moyle 37. Sajid Javid 38. Simon Hart 39. Mel Stride 40. Greg Hands 41. Alex Chalk 42. Iain Duncan Smith 43. Theresa Villiers 44. Christopher Chope 45. Zarah Sultana 46. Jon Cruddas 47. Ed Miliband 48. Alister Jack 49. Virendra Sharma 50. Lisa Cameron 51. Kenny MacAskill 52. Kate Osamor 53. Dominic Raab 54. Sally Ann Hart 55. Alan Mak 56. Keir Starmer 57. Wes Streeting 58. Emily Thonberry 59. Felicity Buchan 60. Cat Smith 61. Rachel Reeves 62. John Cryer 63. Mims Davies 64. Desmond Swayne 65. Mark Francois Like I have a sodding clue with all these young MPs nowadays...

I'd be surprised if Lewis made the DL itself, but as one of the 1960s civil rights leaders and a fairly notable US politician he's perfect DDP team fodder.

If I hadn't had to hand my DDP teams in early due to co-hosting, he'd have been a lock with this news. All I'm saying.

DL forums: come for the death, stay for the education.

Hah. Although being realistic, Putin could be the biggest death of the next decade. He's 67 now and Gorbachev is a massive outlier for Russian leaders longevity...

I literally just remembered to nab a Joker before pressing send. You'd assume after 9 years of Deathracing I'd remember (and I suppose I did, so job done)! Team in for the attempted shot at a 3rd title.

I tried to less the burden by picking famous old people in 2019. Only for that team to produce a higher death rate than some of my cancer ridden Hares teams of the past! I tried the same for 2020 (24 A listers and one cunt), only for Peter Tobin to be immediately announced as on his deathbed. But fuck it, that'll be a death everyone can revel in it when it comes.

Oh if we must January 2019 - Mean Gene Okerlund (nominations: Diana Athill, Hugh McIlvanney, Daryl Dragon) February 2019 - Albert Finney (nominations: Andre Previn, Peter Tork, Karl Lagerfeld, Paul Flynn, Gordon Banks, Clive Swift) March 2019 - Dick Dale (nominations: Scott Walker, Ranking Roger, Keith Flint) April 2019 - Peter Mayhew (nominations: Ken Kercheval, Stevie Chalmers and Billy McNeil) May 2019 - Doris Day (nominations: Niki Lauda, Judith Kerr, Bob Hawke, Freddie Starr) June 2019 - Franco Zeffirelli (nominations: Morsi, Paul Darrow, Dr John) July 2019 - Freddie Jones (nominations: John Paul Stevens, Rutger Hauer, Rip Torn, Ross Perot) August 2019 - Jeffrey Epstein (nominations: Peter Fonda, Terrance Dicks, Toni Morrison) September 2019 - Jacques Chirac (nominations: Jessye Norman, Ric Ocasek, Robert Mugabe) October 2019 - Ginger Baker (nominations: Robert Forster, Peter Sissons, Diahann Carroll) November 2019 - Clive James (nominations: Jonathan Miller, Gary Rhodes, Gay Byrne) December 2019 - Martin Peters (nominations: Kenny Lynch, David Bellamy, Carroll Spinney) Looking at it that way, a slowish year with big months in February, May and July.

Doris Day and Albert Finney feel like the "biggest" deaths of 2019. But the wonderful duo of Judith Kerr and Terrance Dicks were by far the most effecting losses for me.

Yes. First, the Reaper has a sense of humour. Cope was the deceased half of Randall and Hopkirk ergo he lives. Second, when Mike Pratt (Jeff Randall actor) was dying of lung cancer, he implored Cope to give up smoking. This worked for quite a while. As a result, his lungs were probably fitter than your average COPD sufferer to begin with, who smokes up to the grave. Third, he was already misdiagnosed with mesothelioma, told he was going to die, only to find out he didn't have when he kept living. So the guy is just lucky in general. Fourth, I think the will to live is strong as he (right up to last I heard) is principle "carer" for his wife Renny Lister who has quite severe dementia. In these cases, when one goes, the other swiftly follows, usually.

Actually the last time I can recall Von Sydow being an answer on Pointless (one of those famous actor rounds: "Was in The Exorcist/Seventh Seal - M-- v-- S----" type games) he scored shockingly high, something like 60-ish out of 100.

Yes, it's true, heard about 30 mins ago. A huge loss for Scottish writing, both in terms of talent and in terms of what a lovely chap he was, always generous with his time, advice and help to others. Sadly this news is not unexpected but is a bitter blow.

Was touring this summer but is apparently quite frail when not playing. The Guardian review of his July gig also refers to his frail manner.

First time I entered the DDP, I had journalist Sue Carroll set as my joker. I was secretly checking the news on my phone at the family Boxing Day dinner at grans when I saw that she'd died, and let out an involuntary "FUCKING DAMN IT!" in front of everyone. Managed to cover it by pretending I'd hit my knee against the table!

https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/18066320.stanley-baxter-memory-may-shaky-comedy-great-funny-ever/ Here ya go.

This brief pre-Christmas bit notes her declining health nowadays.

Aye, them and 3 billion others!

1998 was Dermot Morgan and Ted Hughes. Big year! Ted Heath of course used to play the DDP... I made that up.

Patrick Moore remains the most annoying DL miss because he was still on TV doing Sky at Night, so each month you could visibly watch him get frailer and frailer till his last episode he could barely get a single sentence out. Then died less than a week later.