msc

I was thinking, is this the highest quality of hits the DL has seen in one year? It's at 11/50 now and those eleven: The Queen, Poitier, Gorbachev, Lansbury, Godard, Jerry Lee Lewis all huge A list names. June Brown and Estelle Harris massive TV stars in their own countries. Loretta Lynn a big name in music. Bill Turnbull, while not on their levels, was a familiar and much-loved daily TV face in Britain for the past 20+ years. There's also Robert Durst who is the outlier but even he had a lot of current infamy due to all his murdering and the Netflix series coming out about him. None of this Bill Gate's dad or Kirk Kerkorians this year, it's nearly all been your cream of the crop.

Isn't he meant to be dying? On phone so can't be arsed searching for old posts.

Leslie Philips

Have a look at his Hamish MacBeth appearance, as Hamish's "replacement". TV John (the late Ralph Riach) sends the poor man insane by making it seem like Lochdubh has a higher crime rate than New York!

You know what I'm going to say, @Gooseberry Crumble. Never eleven without the twelfth!

Tops. But clearly I meant 3-6 minutes. Silly typos.

Yes but it's a fraud based around known info is Lewis being ill. Think he's gone within 3-6 months tbh.

Alan Melinek is DEAD. I just heard this on Last Word as one of their "in brief" names. The website references mentioning him but not that he's dead. Just that he appeared on a show about dead celebs. Glad I'm not a co-host anymore!

Oh, worry not, when we get to 1989 in this game, I'm gonna be killing the rabbit like I'm Elmer Fudd singing the Ring cycle!

Oh it's this week's UK top ten! No Jive Bunny in it, so that's a win.

Tbh you don't even need the Italian, my brain does that automatically with all of them. Even politicians from countries I know don't have deputy PMs! There's also nearly always the "Random Asian politician in their 70s no one West of Tehran has heard of before, except Drol whose read their three-part autobiography series".

If you ever wanted to see someone get shit pumped out of their stomach, he's put it on bloody Instagram. Didn't want breakfast anyway.

Zombie Actor Reminisces! Err, good spot, even.

Bad showing for a Jurassic Park fan to make a dinosaur extinct.

40 Simon & Garfunkel – Bridge over troubled water +4 34 Jimi Hendrix Experience – Voodoo Chile 33 Smokey Robinson & The Miracles – Tears of a Clown 31 Slade - Coz I Luv You 29 Freda Payne – Band of Gold 28 Slade - Coz I Luv You 27 Dave and Ansel Collins - Double Barrell 23 Dave Edmunds – I Hear You Knocking 22 Rod Stewart - Maggie May 18 T. Rex – Hot Love 13 Benny Hill - Ernie (The Fastest Milkman in the West) 11 Mungo Jerry - In the Summertime 8 Edison Lighthouse -Love Grows (Where my Rosemary Goes) -6 FFS GRIM! Err, I mean, EDITED in the lovely Grim up North (my former DDP colleague) votes into this post.

McGregor was a DDP miss for everyone, despite having a publicised on social media battle with cancer at the time. A year later, two big sized names (Divinyls singer Chrissy Amphlett, actress Karen Black) both used their Facebooks to talk about their terminal cancer, and again not a soul on the forum noticed. Can't imagine any of that happening nowadays!

tbf Being struck down prematurely is, alas, on brand for George Harrison.

According to someone who knows the family: he has good days and bad days, mentally. Usually, his family are around to reassure him when he gets confused. He's still keeping physically active as much as possible, and able to go on holidays and enjoy them. That even a scripted five-word single line was a struggle shows why he's retired, though. He wanted to do the Dr Who appearance, but what we got was pretty much the maximum you could get out of William Russell now.

Art Garfunkel's solo vocals in this one are brilliant. Just such a range. In one of the live videos you can see him fist pump himself in delight after reaching some of the highest notes! Bolan's group had some bangers (20th Century Boy, Metal Guru) but this one is decent. Great riff by a musical genius. When it comes down to these songs, Smokey Robinson and 1 or 2 others it's going to be a tough fight. Thank you very much! Oh. Right. As you were, then. Gonnae paint that wagon, gonna paint it good We ain't bragging, we're gonna paint that wood. If you haven't seen Paint Your Wagon, my oh my, it's certainly an experience. It clearly got to number one because people found the idea of notorious movie tough guy Lee Marvin singing a lonesome ballad. Or trying to sing one. There's a decent enough song in there, but it would lose its charm without the non-singer. imo of course. Richard Harris giving MacArthur Park a good go is far better though. Looking at the songs which nearly made it to number one in both years, but fell just short: 1970 Beatles - Let it Be Black Sabbath - Paranoid Carpenters - Close to You Deep fn Purple - Black Night Edwin Starr - WAR Elvis - Suspicious Minds Fleetwood Mac - The Green Manalishi Four Tops - I Cant Help Myself Free - All Together Now Jethro Tull - The Witches Promise Three Dog Night - Mama Told Me not to Come Some good stuff here. Looking directly at Jon Lord and Peter Green (and Ozzy but take that as read). 1971 Elton John - Your Song Isaac Hayes - Shaft (Theme) Joan Baez - The Night they Drove old Dixie Down Ringo Starr - It Dont Come Easy Rolling Stones - Brown Sugar The Who - Wont Get Fooled Again Less choice here, but all of these would do better than half the dross that made it to the top. The British public, eh? Bastions of good taste!

35 Freda Payne – Band of Gold 32 Smokey Robinson & The Miracles – Tears of a Clown 32 Simon and Garfunkel - Bridge over Troubled Water +4 32 Dave & Ansel Collins – Double Barrel 28 T. Rex – Get It On 27 Jimi Hendrix Experience – Voodoo Chile 27 Slade - Coz I Luv You 25 Edison Lighthouse - Love Grows (Where my Rosemary Goes) -6 21 George Harrison - My Sweet Lord 20. Dave Edmunds – I Hear You Knocking 19 T. Rex – Hot Love 18 Rod Stewart - Maggie May 15 Benny Hill - Ernie (The Fastest Milkman in the West) 8 Lee Marvin - Wanderin` Star 7 Mungo Jerry - In the Summertime

Both debuted in 2011. They had classic "TMIB has never heard of them" descriptions back then!

When did Joyce Burden die? Otherwise, yes, I think the last one before Soulages was Lawrence Ferlinghetti?

An odd one is my perennial DDP pick Lawrence Gordon Clark, director of the Ghost Story for Christmas strand, Harry's Game, etc etc. I've got him down in my notes as born 1929, because years ago (over a decade ago) I read an interview which celebrated him recently turning 80, and he seemed to be the June 1929 birth in the BMDs. IMDB and everywhere else is now running with a June 1938 DOB though, and the source is... Lawrence Gordon Clark himself! Which means he's now mentioned two different ages in the time I've been on the internet, and the "correct" one I can't find in the BMDs. Talented man, however frustrating this may be!

Amazing Grace was played at my grandad's funeral. Hearing it always brings me back to that day. Judy Collins had a good version in 1970, but like her Send in the Clowns, both reached the top 10 but not top spot. (Incidentally, Judy is still alive, aged 83.)

Oh when it gets to 1972-73, I foresee 90% of my positive points going to Alice Cooper. There isn't a lot of other options, bar T. Rex, Slade and the Van der Valk theme.