Sean

Age and fame I reckon.

I think this could go either way.Clearly increasingly frail but not horrendously so.

Stage 4 colerectal cancer has a 14% survival rate of 5 years and Sakamoto has had that for at least 15 months and is clearly winding down based on recent statements.

He has stage 4 rectal cancer since at least October 2021 when he had surgery for metastatic bilateral lung cancer.As Joey said above he is losing strength and has said his last "concert" which was a compilation may well be his last.

Shame they didn't pick Glynis Johns or Eva Marie Saint who are much older equally famous and no longer active.

Decent pick.

He has been uncharacteristically quiet for a lo g time.Huge name and very death listy.

Maybe really difficult to find potential uniques for a main team.Much easier to predict the Drop 40. I was also looking at picking a celebrity in their 70s who hadn't been picked last year but is on record as being seriously ill however decided against them as couldn't be sure that they were likely to expire within 12 months or not be picked by anyone else.

Surprised you didn't go for William Russell.

Didn't think of that especially as I am hopeful of a fair amount of uniques in my Theme teams however if anyone wants to nab any of my Theme team names that are potential unique that if I have them they are by definition worth less to you.

I didn't know you could pick the same name on two different teams? I was seriously considering picking Chris Denning but knew you had him and were entering again this year so knew he wouldn't be a unique so decided firmly against picking him.

Seems a safeish bet.Yeah he is unlikely to see 90 but could last a fair few years. He should have been dropped instead of Whale , Kaczynski , Chomsky or Hurd. Probably the weakest name on 2023 can see him being the last survivor of DL 2023 in several years.

Here are my teams.Hoping they went through as haven't got a confirmation email bit I get the hosts must be snowed under at the moment. Shaun of the Dead 69 1)Jonnie Irwin (Joker) 2)George Alagiah 3)Stan Bowles 4)Roberta Flack 5)James Whale 6)Simon Cowell (Wildlife SOS) 7)Randy Jackson (American Idol) 8)Gianluca Vialli 9)Rob Burrow 10)Rolf Harris 11)Andy Taylor 12)Steve McMichael 13) Linda Nolan 14)Shane MacGowan 15)Derek Draper 16)Eugenia Cooney 17)David J Linden (Replacing Don West) 18)John Pender (Replacing Pope Benedict) 19)Nigel Starmer_Smith 20)Ryuichi Sakamoto Theme: Slippery Soap ( Soap actors and actresses) 1)Kate Keltie (Joker) 2)Johnny Ruffo 3)Thelma Barlow 4)Eileen Derbyshire 5)Prunella Scales 6)Meg Johnson 7)Tom Oliver 8)Patricia Greene 9)Kenneth Cope 10)Julie Goodyear 11)Helen Fraser 12)Jane Rossington 13)Janey Godley 14)Judy Bennett 15)Bill Steel 16)Malcolm Hebden 17)Joel Mcllroy 18)Daniella Westbrook 19)Bruce Jones 20) Shannen Doherty Theme Team 2: No more expenses (UK MPs and or members of the Lords ) 1)Frank Field (Joker) 2)Dennis Skinner 3)Nigel Lawson 4)Douglas Hurd 5)Norman Tebbit 6) John Nott 7)Harry Greenway 8)Terence Higgins 9)Winnie Ewing 10)Doug Hoyle 11)Bill Rodgers 12)Tom King 13)Norman Fowler 14)Robert Alexander Lindsay 15)Glenys Kinnock 16)Trixie Gardner 17)Tony Worthington 18)Roy Hattersley 19)John Morris 20)Eileen Paisley

Can't help but feel this inclusion is a tad premature.

I would say he is more famous than all of them .

Rollins might be better. But I am splitting hairs Sakamoto is a fantastic edition.

Good pick by the committee IMO.

He is quite possibly the best new pick on the list with the possible exception of Sakamoto. Great pick committee!

Kissenger , Barker, J Carter ,Harris, Lear and Sakamoto would have all been better picks at the Number 1 spot. Whale would have also been good at number 1 but the committee had other ideas.

Rollins and Sakamoto are brilliant calls. Taylor is a good pick also.

Dropping Whale is just plain stupidity on the committees part.After two big names just dying after being taken off the list you would have thought the committee would be more cautious.Not including Vialli is also a very unwise move IMHO. No Alagiah seems incredibly risky also. Some comparatively silly names kept on such as Cheney considering who has been dropped.

I would say decent is the right word.Not near the record but the names were huge.

My entry: 1)Andy Taylor (Joker) 2)Brian Harvey 3)Brian Murphy (Actor born 1932) 3)Clint Eastwood 4)Clive Davis 4)Derek Martin 5)Eileen Derbyshire 6)Frank Field 7)Frazer Hines 8)Gina Lollobrigida 9)Gordon McQueen 10)Harry Belafonte 11)Jean Marsh 12)Jen Marie Le Pen 13)Julian Glover 14)Kate Keltie 15)Liza Minelli 16)Michael Heseltine 17)Nigel Starmer-Smith 18)Nora Forster 19)Olivia Hussey 20)Phyllida Law 21) Quentin Blake 22)Robert Wagner 23)Roberta Flack 23)Simon Cowell(Wildlife SOS born 1952) 24)Teddie Beverley 25)Violeta Chamorro Subs: 1)Janey Godley 2)Kenneth McAlpine 3)Nigel Lawson 4)Paul Gascoigne 5)Rupert Murdoch

Shadow List 2023: (Crowdsourced also please) 1)Gianluca Vialli 2)James Whale 3) Jimmy Carter 4) Rolf Harris 5) June Spencer 6) Ryuichi Sakamoto 7) Henry Kissinger 8) Bob Barker 9) Nigel Starmer-Smith 10) Frank Field 11)Sonny Rollins 12) Joanne Woodward 13) Rob Burrow 14) Dick Van Dyke 15) Norman Lear 16)Bobby Charlton 17) Jacques Delors 18)Tony Bennett 19) Ted Turner 20)Eva Marie Saint 21)Glynis Johns 22)Charlie Munger 23) Carolyn Bryant Donham 24) Roberta Flack 25) Betty Boothroyd 26) Doreen Mantle 27)Patricia Routledge 28) Noam Chomsky 29)Jean Marie Le Pen 30) Dennis Skinner 31) Vanessa Redgrave 32)Stanley Baxter 33) Andy Taylor 34) Linda Nolan 35) Shannen Doherty 36)Rhod Gilbert 37) George Alagiah 38) Randy Jackson (American Idol) 39) Douglas Hurd 40)David Attenborough 41)Milan Kundera 42)Mohammed Al-Fayed 43)Teddie Beverley 44)Mel Brooks 45)Sandy Gall 46)Cleo Laine 47)Harry Belafonte 48)Ted Kaczynski 49) Norman Tebbit 50)Shane MacGowan

Not many ex junkies still around at 92.