Imelda

Who you gonna call? The morgue, sadly.

Top Shirley Temple quote: "I stopped believing in Santa Claus at the age of six when my mother took me to see him in a store and he asked for my autograph."

No chance - the man's a narcissist.

Roger Lloyd-Pack AKA Trigger just gone... http://www.bbc.co.uk...t-arts-25762006 Cheerio Dave

http://www.theguardi...odhead-teaching There are few giants in education as big as Chris Woodhead. Love him or loathe him, his tenure as chief inspector of schools was full of incident and drama. His rows with the teaching profession were legendary: the claim, just months into the job, that 15,000 teachers were incompetent and should be sacked set the tone of his relationship with the profession. His rows with the then education secretary, David Blunkett, were just as memorable. He left in 2000. And if you trust Wikipedia (though most it matches up with my memory): OFSTED Woodhead was appointed head of the Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED), the schools inspection service, in 1994. Woodhead is particularly associated with support for "traditional teaching methods" and for taking a scornful view of "progressive educational theories" introduced into English schools from the 1960s onwards. Supporters claimed that Woodhead was a radical reformer willing to tackle the failings of the education system and only encountering the defensiveness of the educational establishment. Critics argued that he was generating poor morale, rarely identified successes in schools, and that the "progressive teaching" he attacked was a straw man, with little resemblance to actual classroom practices. Woodhead most prominently identified weaknesses in schools with poor teaching and repeatedly asserted this view. Amongst his controversial remarks he claimed there were "15,000 incompetent teachers" and "I am paid to challenge mediocrity, failure and complacency". His blunt approach gained him many enemies, especially in the teaching profession. When the Labour government came to power in 1997 there was much political pressure to replace Woodhead, either immediately or when his initial term expired in 1998, but instead he was retained and his appointment renewed by Education Secretary David Blunkett. In 1999 Woodhead came under immense pressure to resign when it was claimed by his ex-wife Cathy Woodhead (they divorced in 1977) that whilst working as a teacher he had had an affair with a pupil, Amanda Johnston.[7][8] His version of events is also hotly disputed by some former colleagues.[citation needed] However Woodhead stood firm with the support of Blunkett. Woodhead and Johnston insisted that although they had met while he was her teacher, the relationship (which lasted for nine years) had only developed several years later in Oxford after they had both left the Gordano School, near Bristol. He was Head of English at the school from 1974-6. In February 1999 Woodhead addressed an audience of trainee teachers and was asked for his views on legislation to ban sexual relationships between pupils and teachers. His response was that such relationships, while regrettable, could be "experiential and educative on both sides",[9] a remark for which he later apologised. Resignation On 2 November 2000 Woodhead announced his resignation. In February 2005, The Guardian obtained information[10] using the Freedom of Information Act, which confirmed that in 1997 Woodhead had overruled a unanimous decision by his own inspectors, and a subsequent inspection visit by HMI inspectors, in order to declare that Islington Green School was failing and required special measures.[11] According to the head of the school at the time, "the consequences for staff and pupils were catastrophic".

He'll get obits and almost certainly a 10 minute section on Last Word. He was a pretty contrversial figure as Chief Inspector of Schools.

Assuming that's directed at me, yes please

Good call on Casey Kasem but no Jaruzelski? Feels like someone lost the post-it with his name on...!?

Completely dropped Liz Dawn for this year's picks - she seems to be battling away, good on her.

So the Nags has called time for their late afternoon break before the carnage of the NYE party, which means DP submission time. Hanging on re Schumacher may have paid off, so subbed the following: 1. General Wojciech Jaruzelski (turning into my personal Biggs) 2. Wilko Johnson 3. Sam Simon 4. Billy Graham 5. Rev. Ian Paisley 6. Denis Norden 7. Chris Woodhead 8. Mohamed Morsi 9. Peter O'Sullevan 10. Valerie Harper And just in case we get another 'Fortune' as it may be called from now on... R.1 Cliff Michelmore R.2 Vivean Gray AKA Mrs Mangel Currently four of us with 5 of our 10 chalked off for the 2013 competition. People are starting to take this DP lark a bit too seriously compared to a couple of years back

Alan Whicker http://www.bbc.co.uk...t-arts-23287351 (I checked the date this time!!) Came so close to my starting 10...

This is the funniest post I've seen for a while!! As a Stereophonics fan who knew he died THREE YEARS AGO, I wondered if it was possible to die twice!! In other breaking news, Michael Jackson has passed away........ He died on 7 June 2010 Ha ha, yes OK I got caught out - I've been a victim of an old story resurfacing on the BBC site! Still, I missed it first time round...wasn't Death listing then Note to self - check the timestamp on the page next time.

Stuart Cable, former drummer from Stereophonics and professional Valleys Boyo: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10253098

I need him to survive until next year...he's on my shadow team aka reserve stiffs.

Stuart Hall? Hall appeared strained as he spoke outside Preston magistrates court on Thursday morning, and said he was nursing a heart complaint and would be "very lucky to survive another couple of years". http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/feb/07/bbc-stuart-hall-sexual-offence-charges Assuming that this isn't a ruse to get himself sympathy/reduced sentence if convicted...

Reg's obit in the Telegraph is a great read: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/music-obituaries/9849602/Reg-Presley.html When discussing space travel, Presley tended to depart from the standard vernacular, referring to interstellar craft as “the bugger” or “the bastard”, and to interplanetary communications systems as “tackle”. In 1994 he claimed to have obtained footage of a metallic disc seen hovering over crops, an object which, he said, was “nosin’ around at corn height”, and “sniffin’ around the field”. This, he argued, was “one of the little fellers – the ones with the big cow eyes, which in UFO circles we call the greys. I’ve got a sneaking feeling that they are engineered by aliens who can see the future; if they know a woman is going to lose a baby they take it and they convert it. They put in a bit of extra brain. Maybe no vocal. But they can mind-read you.”

Even his agent is openly saying Gascoigne is needing help - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/21311843

Chris Woodhead, former Chief Inspector of schools, ain't well. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/9010087/Chris-Woodhead-I-dont-want-to-be-told-how-I-can-die.html "Half of those diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND) die within 14 months; 90 per cent are dead within five years. Woodhead was diagnosed in 2006 at the age of 60." I came across him too late for my own submission but he's on there for 2014, assuming he survives that long...

Afternoon all. Been lurking for a while as I've been doing the Death Pool in my local (the Nag's Head in Reading) for the last few years so have been on here looking for insights. Thought I'd better go the whole hog and join up. Give a little back though whether that actually amounts to anything useful is another matter.