RIP, 2018

With the death of the lovely Dame June Whitfield bringing the roster to a sad close, it is time once again, dear reader, to open the "Book of the Dead"; a list of notable people who died in 2018 - and it's quite a substantial one again this year...

Doreen Keogh (Irish actress, "Concepta Riley" in Coronation Street; Father Ted)
John Young (US astronaut)
Peter Preston (British journalist, editor of the Guardian 1975-1995)
France Gall (French singer, "yé-yé", Eurovision: Poupee De Cire, Poupee De Son)
Denise LaSalle (US blues and soul singer-songwriter, My Toot Toot)
Ray Thomas (British singer and flautist: The Moody Blues: Nights In White Satin)
"Fast" Eddie Clarke (British rock guitarist, Motörhead)
David Sherwin (British screenwriter, If..., O Lucky Man!)
Bella Emberg (British comedy actress, Russ Abbott Show)
Cyrille Regis (British footballer, England national team)
Dolores O'Riordan (Irish singer, The Cranberries)
Bradford Dillman (US actor, Compulsion, The Iceman Cometh; married to 50s model Suzy Parker)
Edwin Hawkins (US gospel singer, Oh Happy Day)
John Barton (British theatre director, co-founder of the Royal Shakespeare Company)
Peter Wyngarde (British actor and legend, Jason King)
Peter Mayle (British author, A Year in Provence)
Paul Bocuse (French top chef, described as "The Pope of gastronomes")
Dorothy Malone (US actress, Written On The Wind, Peyton Place)
Howard Lew Lewis (British character actor, Brush Strokes)
Hugh Masekela (South African Jazz trumpeter and anti-Apartheid campaigner)
Ursula Le Guin (US sci-fi author)
Mark E Smith (British post-Punk "singer" and cult figure, The Fall)
Hannah Hauxwell (British hill farmer and television "celebrity")
Ingvar Kamprad (Swedish entrepreneur, founder of IKEA)
Dennis Edwards (US vocalist, lead singer of the Temptations)
John Mahoney (British-born US actor, Frasier)
Kenneth Haigh (British actor, Look Back in Anger)
John Gavin (US actor, Psycho, Thoroughly Modern Millie)
Vic Damone (US swing and cabaret singer, On the Street Where You Live)
Morgan Tsvangirai (Zimbabwe politician, Robert Mugabe’s opponent and rival for power for 20 years)
Thomas Bopp (US amateur astronomer, co-discoverer of the Hale-Bopp comet)
Billy Graham (US evangelist preacher and homophobic bigot)



Eddie Amoo (British soul singer, The Real Thing)
Emma Chambers (British actress, "Alice" in The Vicar of Dibley)
Judy Blame (British fashionista, "Blitz Kid", stylist: Duran Duran Wild Boys, Neneh Cherry, Boy George)
Nanette Fabray (US actress and comedienne, The Band Wagon)
Sridevi (Indian Bollywood film star)
Penny Vincenzi (British best-selling novelist)
Lewis Gilbert (British film director, Alfie, Educating Rita, The Spy Who Loved Me)
Michele Hanson (British writer and newspaper columnist, The Guardian, Grumpy Old Women)
Sir William McAlpine (British businessman, steam railway enthusiast, saved The Flying Scotsman)
Sir Roger Bannister (British athlete, first man to break the four-minute mile barrier)
Trevor Baylis (British inventor, the clockwork radio)
Zena Skinner (British television chef)
John Pitman (British television reporter and producer, Man Alive, 40 Minutes)
David Ogden Stiers (US actor, "Major Charles Winchester" in M*A*S*H)
Sir Ken Dodd (British comedian, entertainer and "national treasure")
Hubert de Givenchy (French haute couturier, favourite designer of Audrey Hepburn, Jackie Kennedy)
Professor Stephen Hawking (British physicist and genius)
Jim Bowen (British comedian and TV quiz host, Bullseye)
Morgana King (US jazz singer and actress, The Godfather)
Katie Boyle (British TV personality and host, Eurovision Song Contest, TV Times agony aunt)
Scott Ambler (British dancer and choreographer, Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake, Nutcracker and Highland Fling)
Stéphane Audran (French actress, Babette’s Feast, Brideshead Revisited)
Carmel McSharry (British television actress, Beryl's Lot, The Liver Birds)
Lys Assia (Swiss singer, first winner of the Eurovision Song Contest in 1956)
Bill Maynard (British television comedy actor, Selwyn Froggitt, Heartbeat)
Winnie Mandela (South African ex-wife of Nelson, convicted of the kidnapping and murder of a 14-year-old boy)
Steven Bochco (US television producer, Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, NYPD Blue)
Bob Bura (British animator and pioneer of "stop-motion" puppetry: Camberwick Green, Trumpton)
Ray Wilkins (British footballer, former England team captain)
Eric Bristow (British darts player, world champion five times)
Lill-Babs (Swedish singer, Eurovision contestant, launched the career of ABBA)



Ronald Chesney (British comedy screenwriter, On the Buses, The Rag Trade)
Miloš Forman (Czech-US film director, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Amadeus)
Neil Shand (British comedy writer: David Frost, Spike Milligan, Bob Monkhouse, Kenny Everett, Russ Abbot)
Dale Winton (British uber-camp television host and entertainer, Supermarket Sweep)
Barbara Bush (US First Lady)
Avicii ((born Tim Bergling) Swedish superstar DJ and electronic dance music producer)
Verne Troyer (US actor, "Mini-Me" in Austin Powers)
Paul Junger Witt (US film and television producer, The Partridge Family, The Golden Girls, Soap)
Rose Laurens (French singer-songwriter, American Love)
Maggie Stredder (British singer, bespectacled founder of The Ladybirds [Top of the Pops backing vocalists])
John Stride (British actor, The Main Chance)
Robert Mandan (US actor, "Chester Tate" in Soap)
Abi Ofarim (Israeli-German singer, Cinderella Rockerfella)
Dennis Nilsen (British serial killer)
Baroness Tessa Jowell (British politician, New Labour minister under Tony Blair)
Margot Kidder (Canadian-US actress, "Lois Lane" in the 1978 Superman film)
Beth Chatto OBE (British plantswoman, RHS-awarded garden designer and author)
Peter Byrne (British actor, Dixon of Dock Green)
Tom Wolfe (US journalist and novelist, The Bonfire of the Vanities)
Clint Walker (US actor, The Dirty Dozen)
Philip Roth (US author, Portnoy's Complaint)
María Dolores Pradera (Spanish singer of classics and standards, became successful in Latin America)
Cornelia Frances (British-Australian actress, "Sister Scott" in Young Doctors; Home and Away)
John Julius Norwich (British historian, writer, TV and radio broadcaster)
Glynn Edwards (British character actor, "Dave the barman" in Minder)
Mary Wilson (widow of 60s-70s British prime minister Harold Wilson)
Kate Spade (US fashion designer)
Peter Stringfellow (British nightclub entrepreneur and media personality)
Anthony Bourdain (US chef, broadcaster and writer, Kitchen Confidential)
Eunice Gayson (British actress, the first "Bond girl"; in Dr. No)



Teddy Johnson (British singer, husband and professional partner of Pearl Carr)
Leslie Grantham (British actor, "Dirty Den" in Eastenders)
Joe Jackson (US talent manager and patriarch of The Jacksons)
Harlan Ellison (US science fiction writer)
Liliane Montevecchi (French-Italian actress, dancer, and singer)
Steve Ditko (US graphic illustrator and cartoonist, co-creator of Spiderman and Doctor Strange)
Peter Firmin (British animator and puppeteer, Noggin the Nog, Ivor the Engine, Pogles' Wood)
Dame Gillian Lynne (British theatrical choreographer, Cats, Phantom of the Opera)
Alan Longmuir (British (Scottish) musician, founder member of the Bay City Rollers)
Tab Hunter (US heartthrob actor, singer and writer)
Nancy Barbato Sinatra (first wife of Frank, mother of Nancy)
Lord Carrington (British statesman, foreign secretary who resigned at the time of the Falklands crisis)
Clive King (British children's author, Stig of the Dump)
Carolyn Jones (British actress, "Sharon Metcalfe" in Crossroads)
Peter Blake (British comedy actor and singer, Dear John, Agony)
Bernard Hepton (British actor, Colditz, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy)
Tony Bullimore (British solo round-the-world yacht sailor)
Barry Chuckle ((born Barry David Elliott) British children's TV entertainer, the Chuckle Brothers)
VS Naipaul (British-Trinidadian author)
Aretha Franklin (US singer and icon, "The Queen of Soul")
Kofi Annan (Ghanaian statesman and diplomat, former UN secretary-general and Nobel laureate)
Janet Hargreaves (British soap actress, "Rosemary Hunter" in Crossroads)
Barbara Harris (US actress, Freaky Friday)
John McCain (US politician and presidential candidate)
Lindsay Kemp (British choreographer; artistic mentor to David Bowie and Kate Bush)
Oliver Hoare (English art dealer, lover of Princess Diana)
Neil Simon (US playwright and screenwriter, The Odd Couple, Goodbye Girl; wrote the book for Sweet Charity)
Jacqueline Pearce (British actress, "Servalan" in Blake's 7)
Liz Fraser (British actress, Carry On films)
Burt Reynolds (US actor and legend)
Fenella Fielding (British actress and national treasure, Carry On Screaming)
Dudley Sutton (British actor, Lovejoy)



Sheila White (British actress and singer, "Bet" in Oliver!; "Messalina" in I Claudius)
Denis Norden (British comedy writer, TV presenter, The Glums, Frost Report, It'll Be Alright On The Night)
Chas Hodges (British musician and songwriter, Chas'n'Dave)
John Cunliffe (British children's author, creator of Postman Pat and Rosie and Jim)
Ernest Maxin (British TV producer and director, memorable musical sketches for Morecambe & Wise)
Charles Aznavour (French-Armenian singer-songwriter, "The French Sinatra", What Makes A Man, She)
Geoffrey Hayes (British children's TV presenter, Rainbow)
Montserrat Caballé (Spanish opera singer, diva and legend)
Anna Harvey (British fashion editor (Vogue) and personal stylist to Princess Diana)
Pik Botha (South African statesman, long-serving cabinet minister before and after apartheid)
Tom Jago (British distiller, created Baileys and Malibu)
Ray Galton (British comedy scriptwriter, Steptoe & Son, Hancock's Half Hour)
Professor Aubrey Manning (British academic, zoologist and BBC television and radio documentary presenter)
Wim Kok (Dutch statesman, prime minister and social reformer)
Sondra Locke (US actress, former partner (and frequent co-star) of Clint Eastwood)
Francis Lai (French composer, Love Story, Un homme et une femme)
Stan Lee (US comics creator, Marvel Comics: Fantastic Four, Spiderman, the Hulk, the Avengers etc)
Katherine MacGregor (US actress "Mrs Harriett Oleson" in Little House on the Prairie)
William Goldman (US screenwriter and author, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Marathon Man)
Babs Beverley (British singer, The Beverley Sisters)
Richard Baker (British broadcaster, BBC's second-longest-serving newsreader)
John Bluthal (British-Polish-Australian comic actor, Spike Milligan's Q, Never Mind the Quality Feel the Width)
Nicolas "Nic" Roeg (British film director, Don’t Look Now, The Man Who Fell to Earth)
Bernardo Bertolucci (Italian film director, Last Tango in Paris, The Last Emperor)
Jean Barker Baroness Trumpington (British politician, former minister, member of the House of Lords)
David Conville (British actor and entrepreneur, founder of Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre)
George Bush Sr (US statesman, former President of the United States)
George A Cooper (British character actor, Grange Hill, Billy Liar)
Peter Armitage (British actor, "Bill Webster" in Coronation Street)
Pete Shelley (British singer, songwriter and guitarist, The Buzzcocks)
Nancy Wilson (US jazz singer and civil rights activist)
Michael Wild (British musical producer, singer, songwriter and playwright, Maggie)
Penny Marshall (US film-maker and actress, Laverne & Shirley)
David Austin (British horticulturalist, "Godfather of the English Rose")
Norman Gimbel (US lyricist, Killing Me Softly, Sway, The Girl from Ipanema)
Donald Moffat (British actor, Logan's Run, Tales of the City)
Paddy Ashdown (British politician, former leader of the Liberal Democrat party)
Sister Wendy Beckett (British nun and art historian, television cult sensation)
Bill Sellars (British TV producer, All Creatures Great and Small)
Honey Lantree ((Anne Margot Lantree) British drummer, The Honeycombs Have I the Right?)
Dame June Whitfield (British actress, comedienne and national treasure, AbFab, Terry & June)

To most of the individuals on this list: RIP.

To a small minority, a hotter place awaits...