Twelvetrees

You might be even easier to find if you dressed up like your avatar. In fact, wouldn't it be easier if we all just dressed up like our avatars. I am my avatar

Me too, I saw him in the (admittedly baggy) flesh last week at the Tories' conference in Bournemouth (I was there in a neutral capacity, I may add). He was getting around with little difficulty and managed to deal with the potential pitfalls offered by a revolving door with relative ease.

I was just wondering which two letters are missing from the word "w**nkers".

As suggested by Devon Death Trip for next year's list, Walter Hadlee has left the crease. His son, Richard, may be more famous, but Walter played a significant role in raising the profile of NZ cricket in the late 1940s.

I saw Graham Crowden on stage at the end of last year, and he was still going strong then, completing a run of And Then There Were None in the West End. He was about the best thing in it, quite frankly.

Avast ye drivelswiggers and paltry picaroons and and behold the legend that is Black Jack Kidd I accept Spanish gold, doubloons and travellers' cheques.

And don't forget Mark Anthony Turnage's The Silver Tassie, an opera about football (and war). Dmitri Shostakovich even wrote a ballet (The Golden Age) that features football prominently, saying that "Football is the ballet of the masses"

Good article, DDT - especially the description of King George Tupou V as: "Balding, stooped and walking with the aid of a stick, he looks old. People who see him close up say he does not look well, and point to his younger brother who died early from a heart condition." And, judging by his reported idiosyncracies, it will be how George fares in inspiring the same unthinking devotion as his father.

Just to be ridiculously pedantic, the quote about reaching for a revolver is actually from Hanns Johst's 1933 play Schlageter, a delightful entertainment first performed for Hitler's birthday. Incidentally, Hitler also liked operetta - more than he like Wagner, in fact. He was particularly fond of The Merry Widow. Not that Eva Braun ever got the chance to play the role.

Can't see this thread lasting, so I'd better mention Wagner, Wagner and more Wagner. Then again, I'll watch most opera - off to see Gounod's Faust this evening as a matter of fact. And that includes modern opera, particularly Birtwistle and Max - though I cannot generally bear operetta - and Gilbert and Sullivan in particular. I'd rather listen to Gilbert and George. Ultimately, though, it has to be Tristan und Isolde - three and a half hours of foreplay followed by a twelve minute orgasm. And nearly everyone dies as well. Also, trying vainly to keep it relevant, two different conductors, Felix Mottl (in 1911) and Joseph Keilberth (in 1968) both died whilst conducting performances of Tristan in Munich. It hasn't been programmed there for this season though.

Marianne Faithfull has been diagnosed with breast cancer according to the BBC. The official line is that the prognosis is good. Worth tracking.

Truly, Puskas was one of the greatest of all time. Other agencies are slowly picking up on the story. The Guardian, CNN I remember that last year his family sold all his medals to pay for ongoing care. It has to be said that it looks bleak - don't bet on the nine days.

You called me a "bitch whoring dick". You are so sweet. I know you're only doing it to make me feel wanted. Come here and give me a kiss.

I admire the sheer randomness of the project. However, the BBC is not necessarily the best source of obituaries for the UK. Perhaps if broadhseets with an online presence could be included, say The Times, maybe we'd get better coverage of people who have not made their names on reality television? The idea of a themed team is a masterstroke. I shall try and dig out my thinking cap.

I, too, am saddened by T4's demise, despite the fact that he was my joker in the annual death pool competition I have with a friend. I may be in need of help, but I have actually become interested in the intrigues surrounding Tongan politics and culture. I will also miss the strange ranters from the Friendly Isles and their incomprehensible caps-locked abuse. May I suggest that for this reason alone, we immediately begin a thread on Crown prince Tupouto'a. Perhaps Josco can think of a suitable byline. If a man can be summed up in a single quotation, let me offer this from the Daily Telegraph obituary "My doctor's put me on a diet," the King said in 1999. "I'm only allowed to eat three yams a day. But a yam can be 6ft long." You can see him smiling as he said it. RIP, you fat old bugger.

Thanks for letting me know, VSB. I spotted this on Wikipedia yesterday, together with a dodgy German citation, but decided to wait until it was reported in a reputable publication that I could actually read. "The Gramophone" is reputable enough for me. Astrid Varnay dies

The great Swedish-American soprano Astrid Varnay has died at the age of 88. She is undoubtedly most famous for her performances as Brunnhilde and Isolde, particularly at the Bayreuth festival during the 1950s and 1960s, and for her friendly rivalry with the Birgit Nilsson, who died on Christmas day last year.

Ever so slightly off topic, but there's a good piece in The Independent today about dead rock stars. Drummers are mentioned. Unplugged: Rock's dead heroes. Talking of great rock and roll deaths reminds me of Jeff Porcaro, drummer with Toto. Died a few years back at 38 while gardening, evidently had an allergic reaction to a pesticide. Some may argue that the pesticide was merely doing what it was meant for.

Ross is 57 today. I would say many happy returns, but that might be rubbing it in.

I take it that this would preclude news of a miracle recovery, such as "King of Tonga said to be in superb health as he is towed back to Nuku'alofa" ? And you have to admit, he's much more entertaining than Gerald Ford.

Okay, so I've never heard of him, but it's an entertaining obituary. Richard Arthur de Yarburgh-Bateson, 6th. Lord Deramore has died at the age of 95. As well as being a peer of the realm he was a racing driver, record-breaking cyclist, amateur watercolourist, architect and fougt in the RAF. Oh, and his first erotic novel was published when he was 85.

I'll see your Terry and June, and raise you SORRY!. Language Timothy! Or was it funnier guessing whether Terry or June's deckchair would collapse in the opening credits, or maybe even the parasol on them both? Or did I just imagine it was different in different episodes? God I hope not. Can of worms well & truly opened. Oh, Doctor Beeching! Check and mate! I think that I see a link between this and our friend twelvetrees, Do you think that one of us is him? Coffee hasn't kicked in this morning yet, forgive me if I'm being a bit dozy. Well I could pretend that I was being especially subtle. In fact, I had become slightly confused after spending the day drinking at a cricket tournament. I was thinking that Jeffrey Holland had played the part of James Twelvetrees in Oh Doctor Beeching. In fact, that was another Hi-de-Hi spin-off, You Rang M'Lud. So there is a connection but its more tenuous than I intended. Jeffrey Holland???? Oh, the shame of it

Running the risk of being accused of placing the names of obscure nobodies on this thread, I can report the death of the Pakistani Test cricketer Wasim Raja, at the age of only 54. 57 Tests and an English education mean he'll definitely get a UK obit. Aggressive and exciting player in his day, too. Shame.

I'll see your Terry and June, and raise you SORRY!. Language Timothy! Or was it funnier guessing whether Terry or June's deckchair would collapse in the opening credits, or maybe even the parasol on them both? Or did I just imagine it was different in different episodes? God I hope not. Can of worms well & truly opened. Oh, Doctor Beeching! Check and mate! It's not over yet...anyone rememberThe Piglet Files?

However much we may be perceived as having insulted T4, perhaps our easily-outraged Tongan friends will turn their attention to The Independent newspaper after this report. http://news.independent.co.uk/world/austra...icle1221090.ece If anyone out there has a hare-brained scheme they want massive investment in, better get in there before the sun sets.