msc

That one is certainly a brave or courageous decision, to quote Sir Humphrey.

Ok, here you go: my post-vote "analysis" George Bush being top is staggering. Leah Bracknell was first to break every point record, and in mid-December, had a 200 point lead over 2nd place. Which wasn’t Bush! Bush gained 258 points in the last 48 hours of 2017, compared to Bracknell’s 220. I think in the end, Bush’s 31 lists to Bracknell’s mere 28 was the clincher, but they both got such high votes that the Bush comeback was so incremental, bit by bit, the odd extra point here and there, that I never spotted it coming until the very last vote came in and suddenly Bush had overtaken our favourite shaman healer. Astounding. John McCain was a newcomer and never in doubt. 29 lists saw to that! At one point he was top, but then Brackers took control. Then he fell below Nobby Stiles for a long time before regaining a lot of votes. The top three all got lots of support, of course, because they are very good picks indeed. I made a veiled reference to Kirk Douglas missing the list in early December. As you can see, I should have waited. His points came in and they came in huge. There really is very little to say about Vera Lynn, Robert Mugabe, Prince Philip, Olivia Neutron-Bomb, or Rev Billy G. They all got lots of votes. They were all voted on by over half the voters. Nobby Stiles didn’t make last years list. Considerably upswing in votes! He was even 3rd for a long time before a late slip. Clive James snuck onto last years list, with a few late votes making it look better than it did. After a half year of no articles, and very little interviews, James is a case of absence making the heart fonder, and James appeared on many many lists. In a reverse of last year, fewer points late on meant his top 10 spot vanished. And so Leslie Philips jumped into 11th place. Glynis Johns seems to be beneficiary of the Spade Law. Namely, Spade Cooley is a poster on Deathlist Forums, people like Spade, Spade likes Glynis, people like Glynis as a result. Though given that might be why someone else is on this list, you know, people in glasshouses… Even so, the points on offer for Johns were staggering, and she was 6th for most of the voting, before the final day pushed her down to 15th. Barbara Bush, lots of voters, lots of points, late flourish to overtake Tessa. Dilip Kumar and Olivia de Havilland also got lots of votes and regular points in this way. Ditto Charlotte Rae, whose voters tended to give her very high votes. Tessa Jowell was a big points spender, and yet, might fell unappreciated to finish 19th – for while her points didn’t dry up, the points for Herman Wouk and Barbara Bush increased more substantially, so a higher spot was lost. Those who picked LazyTown’s Stefan Karl Stefansson went very high with points. Denis Norden was one of those names that kept showing up with random regularity. With 112 points by 1st December, Jill Gascoine had already set out a strong head start on pretenders to her spot. From then on her voters tended to vote high for her. A huge jump from 48th place last year. Former Pope Benedict is difficult to search out the points for because everyone has a different name for him! Sort of dropped off in interest in the second half of December, had been threatening a top 15 spot before that. Jimmy Carter appeared on 15 lists and his points were spread out through the voting period. He was always in the 20-30 spots. Franco Zeffireli is the lowest ranked person to get at least 5 top ten votes. Again, never in doubt. Sidney Poiter got a chunk of votes (100) from 26-31 December, and a chunk of points (200) from the start to the 5th December. Nicely spread out. Most of Greg Gilberts votes had arrived in by 3rd December, but it was enough. Made up 320 of his points from 16th December onwards. Gorbachev looked set to miss out early on. While 13 lists meant Fernando Ricksen was unlikely to miss out on a second consecutive list. In fact, the fortnight of being MIA from lists in mid-December meant he slipped from 10th place downwards before a late charge back up. Lord Carrington appeared on 14 lists. 150 points before November was out meant he was never missing his list debut. Those of who who went for John Hume all gave him 25 points at the very least. A bunch of points post-Christmas secured his place, though he looked likely from the early going. Seven of the ten voters for Linda Nolan came before the 14th December. At that point, she was in the top ten. She dropped significantly but those early points were more than enough. Those who picked Stan Lee tended to place him quite highly. Ditto Montserrat Caballe, who appeared on only 9 lists but as you can see from the maths, very highly on those lists! Joanne Woodward got her points in 3 quick bursts – November, mid-December, and then end of the year. Lots of early points gave Jean of Luxembourg an early lead, he never looked in danger of not qualifying. The forum mentions about the great Diana Athill’s 100th birthday saw a points bonanza head her way. Jacques Chirac was going to miss out on the list entirely until 5 posters gave him 80 points combined in the last week of the year. Even so, a massive fall from grace for Chirac, even if he’s actually ONLY down 2 points on 2017! I thought I wasn’t getting a chance at usually the really shit pun headline… Alberto Fujimori got 200 of his post from Christmas Day and onwards. Can’t think why… Again, if you appeared on 10 lists at least, and average a spot at 25 or higher you had a good chance of the list, like Valerie Harper did here. Another late arrival, Bob Dole’s appearance was confirmed by a forum heavyweight on Boxing Day. 40 more points on Hogmanay made sure. Pearl Carr has been heavily promoted on the forum over the years by Maryport, so is a pick gaining in awareness, plus had rumblings of being really quite ill last year. Carr only appeared on 7 lists, but those who did pick her, went high. Liam Miller was always likely to contend for a spot but 100 points in the last 3 days made sure. Bonus cheer for the voter who wasn’t sure I’d have heard of him! Points here and there got Beverly Cleary onto the list. Until about the 24th December, I thought Monica Vitti would avoid appearing for the 2nd time, and then the big points started arriving. She has some big fans on this forum, who are regular voters for her. Pan Breed favourite Mary Wilson naturally got big points from yours truly, I always give her high points. Unlike other years, other people actually voted for her, and while her points nearly dried entirely up by mid-December it was enough! Diana Serra Cary got 128 points on Hogmanay. Yoko Ono made a late charge for the list with 27 points in the last 4 days to just sneak on the list. Val Kilmer appeared on 11 lists, and so kept chugging along in the lower 40s, despite my willing him to drop out of contention. Morgan Tsvangari was picked by a bunch of people in the middle spots, and those points add up. Crucial to his qualification, however, was our very first voter, who gave him 49 points. Of the near misses: Spare a thought for Stephen Hawking, Anne Hamilton-Bryne and Norman Lloyd. In the main team for 95% of the nomination period, then swamped out by the 8 lists on the final day. Replaced in the end by Yoko Ono, Diana Serra Cary and Liam Miller. Stirling Moss, Sean Connery and Kamala tried to make late comebacks but left it just too late…

Dudley? He was a goalkeeper for Aston Villa in the 1980s, apparently. I'm assuming youth player who never actually made the first team, baring evidence to the contrary, but he was notable enough to get a lot of local press about his terminal liver failure aged only 47.

Aha, I was hoping someone would go for him. I was too conservative in my picks. Good luck DDT.

He got circa 30 points. Anything below 100 points is all higeldy-pigeldy in the notes, I'll put it all together ala last year in a while.

I think - someone correct me if I'm wrong - that the obscure tweet is believed to be true, but there is no way one single tweet followed by 4000 people (miniscule amount for a charity) would be spotted by anyone pre-deadline, so IF an actual confirmation comes out now, they're will be points. The tweet itself not being proof of death? At least, I think that's it.

One single cancer charity has tweeted it out, now I look on twitter.

Seen nowt yet and the Birmingham Mail and Express and Star have both been covering his case extensively. Just tweets and one post (with no replies) on the Villa forum from 9.30pm last night.

2nd moves to 1st, 3rd to 2nd and so on. The other option would be much less work for me! But carnage! Hah.

Remind me, she was your sub, right? So came on when someone died, and got 1 point for that? If memory serves, she was a mere 207 points (give or take a point) off qualifying.

Some interesting teams in. What big teams are still to reveal? The Living End, drolercoaster, Heading nowhere, Deceased Hose, To Kill a Gabor Bird, for a few I'm interested in. Also Banshees lot if he lists them in here. Apologies if I've forgotten someone.

Which was OoO's joker in 2013, giving him an unsurpassable 16 point lead over Spade...

The second last name dropped from my Deathrace team due to that.

Well, not to compound things, but if you'd give a mere 8 more points to Aretha... The folk I named as near misses were the only folk one list could have qualified. 62nd - Desmond Tutu and 63rd - Patrick Cryne and Queen Libby joint- were over 50 points away from 50th. The forum has spoken, and there's little doubt in the uniform opinion behind most of the selection tbh.

Kamala finished in 54th place on 194 points, 14 points off 50th.

And Brackers was top when you made them too.

Oh to put names to daft clues then: Gcreptile picks - I thought Steve Kopacz might be a B-teamer, Hugh Masekela and David DiChiera felt like names I was confident you'd go for! TJS - Joe Vento as a possible unique before you named him on forum. Totally forgot to put the word "film" in there without intended to leave it, but hopefully some random picked him anyway! Carr, alas. Toothill and Masekela, respectively. Derek Dudley! Lots of interesting statto websites for British football. Steve Ditko. Though if it does out score Pan Breed it's been a disaster. This was misdirection about Devin Lima but then he wound up on my team via shortlist Reaper annihilation and obit worries elsewhere.

Political Frailty, Sean. No ill British politician gets past Sean!

Ah, at this point, "it's colon cancer" was Scott Riddle, as I discounted it being Lewis as he'd just been mentioned on the forum that very day!

8 of them in the top 20, too.

charon's clue took me too long to twig there, it's too early in the year.

Oh, how did you do then? Some names really surprised me - Serra Cary and Caballe (who I was told in the chat is quite ill) for 2.

Presumably not, though he was tweeting in November and has pals at Sheff Wed, so I assume it'd be on their forum at the very least. Plus, if a terminally ill person can't get an obit for climbing Everest, what can they do to get an obit?

I'll do my usual analysis later, but I can't complain with Mary Wilson making the list.

He's got a respiratory illness, and its enough to cancel gigs and look hellish but no one knows how ill he is.