msc

Ye of little faith, I am an expert! An expert at being crap at these sorts of games!

The host definitely makes the show. You think anyone ever's going to watch Play Your Cards Right if it was Joe Bloggs hosting it and not Bruce Forsyth? There was a show about 15 years ago called Perfect Recall, which was so simple, it'd be a chore to watch, except the late Terry Wogan was hosting it, and thus it became quite entertaining. Apparently in the UK they tried Jeopardy with the following hosts: Derek Hobson (before my time), Steve Jones (a voice over artist who once worked with Lonnie Donegan), Paul Ross (Jonathan's less famous brother) and a guy called Chris Donat who doesn't even have a Wiki page! Never mind Alex Trebek, they aren't even Dale Wintons...

He's in the best episode of The X-Files (Jose Chungs From Outer Space) as one of the men in black alongside Jesse Ventura. @Sir Creep, we don't even have a British version of Jeopardy. Which is odd as US/UK gameshows usually successfully dive in the opposite direction! They tried 4 times with UK Jeopardy in the past and each time it just didn't last.

Not to say I lack confidence in his long term survival, but I've already got Jeopardy mega-fan @Death Impends teaching me as many Trebek in-jokes as possible. After all, as in Jeopardy: "I'll take "I's" for $100" "I will be on every single DDP team next year." "Who is Alex Trebek?"

Japan v Russia - Japan by 20. Australia v Fiji - Australia by 15 France v Argentina - Argentina by 7 New Zealand v South Africa - South Africa by 2 Looking forward to this, until Scotland start playing and ruin the mood...

Look at how long it took Rolf's description to change. EDIT You can't as TMIB edited the previous years ones at some point! Providing its not a nightmare to change, will have a look at updating Cosby next year when the new descriptions go up. Anyhow the good news is we have an Excel user, and possible 2 of them, for the data entry with much pleading! So the DDP shouldn't now be reliant on an increasingly irate Spade Cooley trying to teach yours truly Excel in mid-January.

MSC's a filthy Jeremy Corbyn... Apparently so.

Feck, I'm the Pete Best!

Well, this is very annoying. I mean, one of the potential Drop 40ers I can actually spell the name of. Just watch David Gulpililol waltz into March and 1000 teams.

Yeah it looks quite a decline - he was still doing regular TV interviews last year looking like his usual self. I legit couldn't work out who the old guy was until he started to speak.

I was watching Jeremy Paxman's Why Are All Politicians Crap thing on Channel 5, to pass the time, and early on Paxman goes to speak to 2 old timers. One was Ken Clarke. The other frail old man was shaking with severe Parkinsons, couldn't focus on the conversation, and looked frail and like someone who had lost a lot of weight. Then he spoke, or struggled to speak. It was Roy bloody Hattersley. Overtakes Lawson for frailest British politico seen on TV this year, and one to keep an eye for your longlists and Deathlists. PS Jonathan Aiken was also interviewed, and while not at deaths door, is already aging in voice and looks enough to suggest he wont far beyond 80.

As much as Mrs msc would love the coffee, this is based mostly on sods law, Sir Creep. Although iirc @Death Impends is pretty confident of a QO for her.

Well I'm now at 58 days in the joint lead, but with most of my picks making spectacular recoveries and nearly every single living member of Thomas Jefferson Survives on their last rites, that cant last much longer. Enjoy it while it lasts for Suzanne Whang may die at any moment now...

Mum told me when I got home from school about *one* plane hitting the tower, and when she adamant it was terrorism, I was automatically assuming it was somewhere in Africa or Asia* until the TV went on and I recognised New York. *tbf there was a lot of big terror attacks in 1999-2001 in Africa and the Gulf, most of which later turned out to be Al-Queda too. Dad was in New York week before on business but in Florida on the day itself. Which is why 2 days later we got a New York postcard from Dad with one of his usual daft messages: "I'm no dead yet!" He is adamant the local paper down there on the 12th's front page was LOCAL MAN KILLED BY GATOR with an inset saying TERROR STRIKES NEW YORK SEE PAGE 3!

Fucks sake, that's him, McIlvanney and Atiyah all on that theme team because "they looked frail in BBC stuff last year", and all 3 of them could have been that sought after "first unique hit for Pan Breed". Sods law. Tip for folk btw - "folk who look frail on BBC documentaries" is a great source of DDP action, clearly.

imo being in Rabbit-Proof Fence secures Gulpilil a Guardian obit, and that time he went to jail for beating the shit out of his wife secures him a likely Mail obit too.

I blame the Cup, myself. I did hope to fall off the top row, only for the likely contender to get himself banned. Bah. Now I need Joey to pick up the pace, and if LFN and Deathray can just spam up the Politics thread with Brexit arguments for another 100, 000 posts it'd really help...

I think it'll be someone on the doddery list to go next, so Bob Dole.

Need to put you on requests.

Two people who couldn't be more opposite there! Anyhow, as Neil Armstrong put it, one small step for Deathlist, but a giant leap for mankind!

Right been floored by a chest infection this week, but, yes, Terrance Dicks is, for me, the saddest loss of 2019 on a personal level. He (and RL Stine) was one of the biggest inspirations for me to get into books as a small child. He spent 50 years being asked the exact same questions by kids (and adults who took kids TV too seriously!) and never once talked down to them, or acted like a star. He was also a top class editor in his own right, which is why he was in demand for Play of the Day and the Dickens adaptations as script editor until retirement, and why he was writing and editing kids books (hundreds of them, The Baker Street Irregulars were good fun iirc) till he was in his 70s. He was also highly unassuming about his own talents. Once asked to produce 100 minutes of TV script in 3 days to replace something that fell through, he wrote a highly engaging ripping yarn about murders in a lighthouse which holds up far better than the stuff which had months of planning. His reputation for fixing problems actually produced his fast tracked career in the 1960s, as whenever scripts went down on Crossroads or The Avengers (or both at the same time) and then later stuff at the Beeb, the call would be "Terrance'll fix it!" and then he did. And then would say anyone could have done it! In his role of getting TV on the TV, he was the best, and he's the reason Dr Who is still going on. There's also his invaluable advice to writers: "If in doubt, bung in more characters. Then... you can bump them off!" So yeah 2 quick anecdotes. One night, Terrance was working late on scripts for Dr Who's big finale that season, The Daemons. (It's basically a Hammer Horror spoof.) One set piece involved the destruction of a demonic gargoyle, and the Brigadier's quote "Chap with wings - five rounds rapid!" Naturally, Terry went to axe that line from the script, and popped into a meeting with Producer Barry Letts and the BBC head honchos. Now, Barry Letts had actually written The Daemons but under union rules of the 1970s, couldn't have his own name on it or admit to writing it, so it went under a pseudonym. Dicks goes through his cuts to the episode and adds the "lousy line 'chap with wings". Barry Letts face fell and he apparently said "Oh I really enjoyed writing tha... reading that line when I first saw the script." The line got kept. Years later, when he was leaving Doctor Who, he had a quick meeting with his successors, and ended on the line: "And of course, I'll be happy to carry on with the precedent of the last showrunner writing the first new story, unless you guys have someone else in mind." The new pair were delighted and quickly lined up a contract for 4 episodes. "And that", said Terrance Dicks with a huge smile a few decades later, "Is how I got myself more work, with a precedent I had just invented!" He was a talent and character and he'll be much missed. RIP.

Thought from the centre-ground: it's incredibly hard to imagine the Tory party without Ken Clarke.

Hah. Alas, after the bell. Now is this an audition to take over as host?

Just heard the same. Looks true. Needless to say, a terrible loss. EDIT- Confirmed by the DWAS lot.

I concede my prediction on Page 3 might have been just a tad over optimistic. But in general, recent years tend to level out to circa 12, so I think we'll get there. What the thread needs is Sean's list of teetering folk from 2017, but as he's busy 1. Larry King - severe heart issues, allegedly on road out. Nearly died due to major HA earlier this year. 2. Little Richard - frail with health issues, no longer able to read fan mail. 3. Clive James - Written his "last article", allegedly. Also possibly twinned with Valerie Harper. 4. Tony Britton - Really old and in a care home. 5. Gorbachev - Spent vast chunks of 2019 in hospital, ill and frail. 6. Jimmy Greaves - Been on bored time since 2015. 7. Honor Blackman - Rumblings on here about her health few weeks ago? 8. Leah Bracknell - tbh she has Stage IV lung cancer, and could go downhill overnight. 9. Vera Lynn - Increasingly frail and really, really old. 10. Robert Mugabe - Hospitalised in Singapore several times for health problems 11. Bob Dole - Old and looks like fucking shite in increasingly rarer public appearances. 12. Akihito - So frail, the Japanese let him abdicate. 13. Stirling Moss - Major health problems, backed up by his public retirement and the word of our man in the know. 14. Jacques Chirac - Frail and end stages of dementia, no longer recognises anyone. 15. Nobby Stiles - Seemingly on his last legs since 2014. It wouldn't really surprise if any of them die between now and December 31st. Plus I think we're due one of the old timers going, just on law of averages.