Octopus of Odstock

Cleared of murder, sent to secure psychiatric unit & ex-wife to get on life away from the media glaze. Or, at least, I hope she can. I hope that this is the last we hear of this tragic story on DL.

Pah! The only "proper" Joker in my eyes died on New Year's Day 1994 As to Ledger - the only film I ever saw him in was A Knight's Tale. It was sh*t. I hadn't heard of him before that film & until today, I hadn't heard of him again. I had no idea he was in Batman or Home & Away or Brokeback Mountain or anything else along those lines. I think this is one of those generation defining deaths. To teenage girls, this may be the biggest death since River Phoenix. To most of those under 30 (except, of course, Windsor), his name will have some recognition at the very least. To those over, say, 55, I wouldn't be surprised if they went "Heath who? Heathcliff, did you say?"

In the midst of all the is Slim Whitman dead or not palaver, the DDP has had another of it's candidates drop. Although the Guardian (as usual, bless them) have f**ked up the age of the person & the date they died - more reliable sources have confirmed it was a death on the 21st January 2008. The hit.... well, it's another hit for... TMIB! Peggy Jay By the way, the only thing reporting Whitman's death is this but if you read the comments underneath, the contributor got the info from Who's Dead & Who's Alive, who get their info from.... Wikipedia. Although Find A Grave have him dead, along with two virtual floral wreaths, I suspect he is still alive & someone perhaps misheard a tribute for his birthday & thought that he was dead, I suspect.

Billy Elliott has danced his last. This Elliott however was a former England international footballer, manager of Sunderland & Darlington & part of that amazing 1973 FA Cup final when Sunderland shocked Leeds. He was 82.

That's what my sister & I thought. Dennis Weaver, Damon Hill, Peter Wyngarde are other suspects, but not, it would appear Robert Murat, then. "George Harrison", "suspect" and "Madeline McCann" make 359 hits on Google - thus far - police have their man now, surely?

Final Curtain call for Carole Lynne, Lady Delfont & stage actress, at 89.

TMIB is right, but I don't think Wittmann will get that obit. If someone like June Callwood doesn't, what hope some Canadian curling commentator?! Mind, I also thought Allan Melvin wouldn't get an obit, so, that shows how much I know. For those that picked Wittman, they need to hope that the next few days are quiet death-wise, otherwise I can't see it happening for them. I'll hang on for a day or so, before I update de Cazenave - I need to think of a suitable pun yet...

Louis de Cazenave has died - and as the BBC mentioned it, it's a first hit for All Nails In The Coffin on the DDP. Oh, joy - another update! People really have to stop dying for a few days....

Trust me to read the press reports and take it as gospel... I concur with the above two - physically (although this is hardly suprising - he always kept supremely fit to do all those stunts) he looked remarkably well for ANY near 93 year old - he could even pass for his late 70's. Also he is still in the very early stages of Alzheimers - yep, he had trouble remembering who his grand-son was, but the fact that he could remember word-for-word "Don't cry for me, I'm a fool" in the performance in the nursing home (that must've been September) & gave a decent gusto at it too, means for someone with dementia, he's not doing too badly. But he does have a histroy of heart trouble, and if anything, is rather plump for his age, so that might yet carry him off. It was sad though - nowhere near as heart-wrenching as the George Melly feature was, but sad nonetheless. It can't have been THAT long ago that he deliberately tripped on the Buckingham Palace carpet as he got his knighthood. It depends how much he has detoriated since, but I am now thinking I made a mistake putting him in, and not Yitzhak Shamir in the DDP. But then, I need to do badly in the DDP anyway so I don't win my "own" deadpool!

Gerald Sim, Eric Longworth, John Bluthal, Felix Bowness & Mollie Sugden would be my top tips. Followed by Trevor Bannister, Bill Pertwee, the aforementioned Hewlett & Ronnie Corbett. But these things are never simple or straightforward - who would've thought Anton Rodgers & Gareth Hunt would die before Peter Sallis?

Good News for Handrejka - the latest Associated Press "Obituaries in the News" features Vampira, so tomorrow or Thursday, that should reappear in the Guardian - if, of course, there's not another obit beforehand.

Villainous cad?! I deny it all, I was in Newcastle at the time *Cough*. Definitely DDT, I'm sure...

Er.. maybe. But I do have a lot on right now... I just went on the DDP past competition pages & worked it out. The scoring is somewhat flawed, due to the changes, as it benefits the new & not the old. But if I had to guess, either Rude Kid or Jesus Jones have the most hits, simply due to being in the competition for so long, but Meet Your Maker must be catching them quickly. Maybe, if I get all the little things done & both DDP, life & work gives me a few days clear (certainly ain't right now), a DDP History page might not be a bad idea....

Well, she's married to Max Robertson, the tennis commentator, so I'm pretty convinced she's alive - daft as it sounds, might it be Ivor Wood, creator of the Wombles TV show, who died in 2004, that you are thinking of?

Two things - 1) Re. "Vampira"/Nurmi - her death, like many a cult actor/actress (say Dr. Who, James Bond etc.), or indeed a particular field (Hans Ruesch in motor racing, for example) is often filtered through very quickly through sites dedicated to that particular genre. It then usually takes a few days before it is copied & syndicated by the mainstream US (and thus worldwide) press/ I would be astonished if she doesn't get a UK obit. 2) TMIB asked amongst other things - thanks by the way - if Ayers was one of the shortest entries in terms of life-span on the DDP. After consulting my files, he was equal 8th. Cyril Fletcher - who died on the 1st Jan was a hit for Rude Kid & Notapotato in 2005 & was the all-time shortest span. Choi & Princess thingymegub were joint 2nd, along with Charles "Garry" Betty & then Antonio Todde, Sir William Skate & Nap Botterell all died on the 3rd day of their first inclusion of the DDP. So did Abdulov, of course, but it depends on whether he will count in the annals of DDP history...

I knew he was ill & chose him for my CPDP team, but I don't think DL can be blamed for not picking him - indeed, only one team - and a last-minute theme team at that - chose him on the DDP this year. More sort of the individual pick, then one I expected to see en-masse.

Suharto is taking far too long, so Francis Pym will die in the meantime whilst we're waiting.

Not having heard the news until a few hours ago, I thought the same on my way back to work. When I was a lad, I was told, not just by family about this man, but in documentaries both for children & adults -the aforementioned Scott & his battle with Amundsen, Shackleton, Livingstone & Stanley, the space pioneers & the lunar astronauts & Hillary & Norgay. They don't make them like that any more. None of my co-workers (but then they are ignorant Heat-reading fools anyway) had heard of Hillary - shame on them. Or is it? Is it shame on history teachers or parents to not tell these stories of inspiration to new generations? Thanks Sir Edmund for giving us the hope to dream & prove anything is possible. RIP & well done to all those teams who chose him on the DDP. I'm trying to wait for Suharto to snuff it so I can do three obits at the same time. PS When I read Messner my mind instantly went - Tammy Faye climbed a mountain? Shows what DL does to you...

I think Sir John Harvey-Jones was on my CPDP theme team? If so, that's a good start to the NY for me!

Ayers.

TMIB started 2007's DDP well, but failed to get an obit for John Smyth. No matter, TMIB has started 2008 well as well. George Moore is already known about, but Rowan Ayers who has also died is an unique pick for him. Thankfully, I looked at the Times on the off-chance whilst doing the latest update so I might just be able to get the new scores up tonight with luck.

I've just popped our lad Montgomerie on the transfer list - a good buy for anyone I feel - just can't work his way into a top-of-the-table ** side! ** Yes I know it's only 2 games, but this may be the only chance I get to say it! I'm after a midfielder if anyone fancy's selling their playmakers or free-kick takers..

Yep, as does this brief snippet too.

'Fraid so. If I made an exception for Deathlist, I'd have to do the same for all the others who put down dead celebs, and that wouldn't be fair on those who named 20 perfectly legal celebs. BTW, I have gone through the site tonight & made a note of out-of-date info, spelling mistakes, dodgy pics, things that need linking and - in the case of Cliff Morgan - double entries! I have also been e-mailed regards a few team details, picks that were actually somebody else (despite my requests - nay pleas for more info), so there's a little bit of cosmetic work to be done, both on & off-site. Most of these should be sorted out at the next update (or one after that, depending on who dies soon), as well as hopefully updating the inane analysis, sorting out 2008/2007 crossover tabs etc. I would like to start sorting out the missing pics in late January & then we should be there, more or less. If you notice any more irregulaties after the next two updates or so, anyone, can you let me know? Ta! EDIT - Re. Miser - no - it's a local paper - but there will be plenty of obits within the next 12 hours, I'm sure. Yahoo Eurosport UK doesn't count either. It'll be in most of the papers & BBC tomorrow, I should think.

If the DL (or any other team that did the same thing - only one team - who picked Gene Pitney - noticed their error!) had noticed their mistake & sent me an e-mail, I would've let them off. As it was, I couldn't quite believe what I was seeing! PS Thanks for the heads-up for the pic info DDT. Depending on whether or not George Moore gets a UK obit in the next few days and also depending on Suharto finally dying, I'll update the scoreboard before the weekend.