Tuesday, 31 December 2024

Arise...

...Sir Stephen Fry, Sarah Lancashire CBE, Anne Reid CBE, Sir Alan Hollinghurst!

Also honoured in HM The KIng's New Year Honours 2025: Sir Lloyd Grossman, Sir Gareth Southgate, Sir Sadiq Khan, Sir Andy Street, Dame Carmen Munroe, Dame Emily Thornberry. Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE): actor Carey Mulligan; broadcaster Alan Titchmarsh; author Robert Harris; costume designer Sandy Powell. Officers of the Order of the British Empire (OBE): actors Kevin Whately, Anne-Marie Duff, Eddie Marsan; dancers Ronald Hynd (latterly choreographer), Marianela Núñez. Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE): musician and singer Myleene Klass; author Matt Cain; broadcasters Steve Lamaq, Alan Hansen (former footballer). Plus numerous Olympians and Paralympians, and a number of campaigners for justice in the notorious Post Office IT scandal, and hundreds more.

Congratulations, all!

New Year Honours List 2025

HAPPY NEW YEAR, DEAR READER!!

Monday, 30 December 2024

RIP, 2024

We really are in the last knockings of 2024 - so it's time to open the "Book of the Dead", an inventory I have studiously compiled on an almost daily basis of those who departed for Fabulon (or other, perhaps hotter, destinations) this year. As usual, it's quite a list..!

Camila Batmanghelidjh (Iranian-Belgian-British charity executive, scandal-hit founder of Kids Company)
Derek Draper (British political advisor and lobbyist in the Blair-Mandelson era, husband of TV presenter Kate Garraway)
Mike Sadler (British Army officer, last original member of the Special Air Service (SAS), centenarian)
Glynis Johns (British actress, dancer and singer, Miranda, Mary Poppins, A Little Night Music, centenarian and legend)
David Soul (US-British actor, Starsky & Hutch, singer, Don't Give Up on Us, Silver Lady)
Georgina Hale (British film, television and stage actress, Mahler, The Boy Friend, T-Bag, Hollyoaks)
Del Palmer (British singer, songwriter, bass guitarist and sound engineer, worked with, and was in a relationship with, Kate Bush)
Sir Roy Calne (British pioneering organ transplant surgeon, first liver transplant, first doctor to use immunosuppressants)
Franz Beckenbauer (German world champion football player and manager, Bayern Munich, national team)
Richard Northcott (British billionaire businessman, Hollywood film producer, 9 ½ Weeks)
J.P.R. Williams (British (Welsh) rugby union player, Wales national team, Barbarians, British Lions, and "national hero" - unbeaten against England)
Adan Canto (Mexican actor, X-Men: Days of Future Past)
Roy Battersby (British television director, Between The Lines, Inspector Morse, Cracker, A Touch of Frost)
Annie Nightingale (British pioneering radio and television broadcaster, first female presenter on BBC Radio 1 in 1970, longest-serving female DJ in the UK, first female presenter of The Old Grey Whistle Test)
Andrew Payne (British television scriptwriter, Pie in the Sky, Minder, Midsomer Murders, Lovejoy)
Martin McCallum (British theatrical producer, Cameron Mackintosh's "right-hand man", Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera, Miss Saigon, Cats)
Sir Tony Lloyd (British politician, long-serving Labour MP and former Foreign Office minister)
Toni Stern (US lyricist for Carole King, It's Too Late)
Laurie Johnson (British bandleader and theme music composer, The Avengers, Animal Magic, The Professionals, This Is Your Life)
Pluto Shervington (Jamaican reggae musician and singer, Dat)
Marlena Shaw (US singer, California Soul)
Mary Weiss (US singer, The Shangri-Las, Leader of the Pack, Remember (Walking in the Sand))
Ewa Podleś (Polish coloratura contralto opera singer)
Norman Jewison (Canadian film director, Moonstruck, In the Heat of the Night, Fiddler on the Roof)
Jack Jennings (British World War II veteran, last survivor of the Burma Death Railway, centenarian)
Frank Farian (German singer, songwriter and record producer, Boney M, Milli Vanilli)
Melanie (US singer-songwriter, Brand New Key)
Sandra Milo (French-Italian actress, muse of Federico Fellini, , Juliet of the Spirits)
Brian Griffin (British photographer, famed in the 1980s for his photos of pop artists and named "photographer of the decade" by The Guardian)
Chita Rivera (US actress, singer, dancer and legend, Sweet Charity, Kiss of the Spider Woman, The Rink, West Side Story, Chicago)
Carl Weathers (US actor, "Apollo Creed" in the Rocky films)
Don Murray (US actor, Bus Stop)
Jonnie Irwin (British business and property expert, daytime reality TV presenter, A Place in the Sun, Escape to the Country)
Prince Vittorio Emanuele of Naples, heir to the Italian Royal House of Savoy
Barry John (British (Welsh) rugby union player, Wales national team, Cardiff, British Lions, and "national hero")
Ian Lavender (British actor, "Private Pike" in Dad's Army, last surviving main cast member)
Aston "Family Man" Barrett (Jamaican musician, long-serving member of Bob Marley and the Wailers)
Michael Jayston (British actor, "The Valeyard" in Doctor Who, Nicholas and Alexandra, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy)
Seiji Ozawa (Japanese conductor, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Vienna State Opera)
Sir Anthony Epstein (British pathologist and academic, one of the discoverers of the Epstein–Barr virus, centenarian)
John Bruton (Irish politician, former Taoiseach/Prime Minister of Ireland)
Henry Fambrough (US soul singer, last-surviving founder member of the Detroit Spinners, It's A Shame, Could It Be I'm Falling in Love, Working My Way Back to You)
Damo Suzuki (Japanese singer with German experimental rock band Can)
Kelvin Kiptum (Kenyan long-distance runner, men's marathon world record holder)
Bill Post (US biscuit manufacturer, creator of Pop Tarts for Kelloggs)
Steve Wright (British broadcaster and DJ, BBC Radio 1 and Radio 2 for more than four decades, "national treasure")
Ian Amey (British musician and singer, "Tich", founding member of Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich)
Alexei Navalny (Russian anti-corruption campaigner, Putin's most vocal opponent)

Princess Ira von Fürstenberg (Italian socialite and actress)
John Savident (British character actor, "Fred Elliott" in Coronation Street)
Pamela Salem (British actress, gangster "Joanne Francis" in EastEnders, "Miss Moneypenny" in Never Say Never Again)
Stuart Organ (British actor, "Mr Robson" in Grange Hill, one of the voices of London Underground's "Mind the Gap" safety message)
Iain Kerr (British cabaret artist and humourist, one half of "The Brothers Butch", Kay, Why?)
Iona Mary Campbell, Dowager Duchess of Argyll
Baron Jacob Rothschild (British investment banker and arts philanthropist, Waddeston Manor, National Gallery, Somerset House, British Museum)
Thomas Kingston (British financier, husband of Lady Gabriella, daughter of Prince Michael of Kent)
Dave Myers (British television chef and presenter, one half of "The Hairy Bikers")
Brian Mulroney (Canadian statesman, former Prime Minister)
Iris Apfel (US businesswoman, interior designer, fashion designer, centenarian and style icon)
Michael Culver (British theatre, film and television actor, Secret Army, Cadfael, A Passage to India)
Tony Green (British TV commentator, the voice of BBC darts and the man who called the scores on the gameshow Bullseye)
Steve Lawrence (US singer, duettist with his wife Eydie Gormé ("Steve and Eydie"))
Abdou Cherif (Moroccan singer, one of his country's most popular "crooners")
Vince Power (Irish music festival promoter and venue owner, Mean Fiddler Music Group: the Astoria/G.A.Y., Jazz Café, Reading Festival, Festival Benicàssim)
Karl Wallinger (British (Welsh) singer-songwriter, The Waterboys, World Party: Ship of Fools, She's The One (covered by Robbie Williams))
Eric Carmen (US singer-songwriter, All by Myself, Hungry Eyes)
Stephen Linard (British fashion designer and tailor, original "Blitz Kid")
Marcello Gandini (Italian car designer, Lamborghini)
Philippe de Gaulle (French admiral and politician, last surviving child of President Charles de Gaulle, centenarian)
David Seidler (British-born US screenwriter, Malice in Wonderland, The King's Speech)
Steve Harley (British singer-songwriter, founder of Cockney Rebel, Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me), Mr Soft, Judy Teen)
Martin Greenfield (US tailor to Hollywood stars and politicians, Auchwitz survivor)
Claude Wolff (French-born producer, husband of Petula Clark)
Chris Cross (British musician, Ultravox, songwriter Vienna)
Fritz Wepper (German actor, played "Fraulein Landauer"'s (Marisa Berensen) love interest "Fritz" in Cabaret)
Louis Gossett Jr. (US actor, An Officer and a Gentleman, Roots)
Joan Morecambe (British former model, fundraiser and widow of Eric Morecambe)
Barbara Rush (US actress, It Came from Outer Space, When Worlds Collide, Peyton Place)
Adrian Schiller (British character actor, Victoria, The Last Kingdom, The Danish Girl)
Hella Pick (Austrian-born British journalist, The Guardian, New Statesman)
Lynne Reid Banks (British author, The L-Shaped Room [later made into a film with Leslie Caron, Tom Bell and Cicely Courtneidge])
Nicholas Folwell (British baritone opera singer, English National Opera, Glyndebourne Festival)
Rex (US gay artist and illustrator)
Clarence "Frogman" Henry (US Blues singer, I Don't Know Why I Love You But I Do, Ain't Got No Home)
Peter Higgs (British theoretical physicist, Emeritus Professor and Nobel Prize laureate, discovered a new particle known as the "Higgs boson")
Sir Paul Fox (British television editor and executive, controller of BBC1, commissioned Dad's Army, The Two Ronnies, The Generation Game, Parkinson, Sports Personality of the Year, the launch of colour TV and the live coverage of the Apollo moon landings)
OJ Simpson (US sportsman, actor and murderer)
Eleanor Coppola (US documentary film director, screenwriter, and artist, wife of Francis Ford Coppola)
Roberto Cavalli (Italian luxury fashion designer)
Arthur Paul "Pooch" Tavares (US singer and manager, founder-member of Tavares, Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel, It Only Takes a Minute, Don't Take Away the Music)
Bob Ellison (US scriptwriter, script consultant, producer, Mary Tyler Moore, Cheers)
Sir Andrew Davis (British orchestral conductor, BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Last Night of the Proms)
Terry Anderson (US journalist, held hostage in Lebanon for nearly seven years)
Chan Romero (US singer-songwriter, Hippy Hippy Shake)
Miss Jason (British drag queen and charity fundraiser)
Lord Frank Field (British politician, MP for 40 years, anti-poverty campaigner)
Ray Chan (US cinematic art director, Marvel Studios, Avengers movies, Guardians of the Galaxy)

Terry Carter (US actor, Battlestar Galactica, McCloud, Phil Silvers Show)
Mike Pinder (British rock musician, keyboardist and founder member of The Moody Blues, Go Now, Nights in White Satin)
Keith Wainwright (British hairdresser to the stars, Walker Brothers, Elton John, Toyah, Debbie Harry, Roxy Music, pioneered the "unisex" hair salon and Punk hair colours)
C. J. Sansom (British author, Shardlake)
Zack Norman (US comedian, film producer, actor, Romancing the Stone)
Brian McCardie (British (Scottish) actor, Line of Duty)
Norman Carol (US violinist, concertmaster/leader of the Philadelphia Orchestra for three decades)
Duane Eddy (US "twangy" guitarist, Peter Gunn theme, Because They're Young)
Richard Tandy (British musician, keyboardist and long-serving core member of Electric Light Orchestra (ELO))
Susan Buckner (US dancer, Dean Martin Show and actress, Grease)
Peter Oosterhuis (British professional golfer and broadcaster)
Bernard Hill (British actor, "Yosser Hughes" in Boys from the Blackstuff, Titanic, Lord of the Rings)
Dame Shirley Conran (British journalist, Daily Mail, author, Superwoman, Lace)
Martin Young (British investigative journalist and broadcaster, Nationwide, Rough Justice)
Roger Corman (US film director and producer, House of Usher, Death Race 2000, The Little Shop of Horrors)
Alice Munro (Canadian short story writer, Nobel prize winner)
David Sanborn (US alto saxophonist, soloist on Bowie's Young Americans)
Gudrun Ure (British (Scottish) character actress, Super Gran)
Jimmy James (Jamaican-British lead singer of Jimmy James and the Vagabonds, Now Is the Time, I'll Go Where Your Music Takes Me)
Don Perlin (US comic book artist, Marvel Comics, Werewolf by Night, Ghost Rider, Defenders, co-creator of Moon Knight)
Dabney Coleman (US character actor, 9 to 5, Tootsie, On Golden Pond)
Frank Ifield (British-Australian singer and yodeller, I Remember You, The Wayward Wind)
David Wilkie (British (Scottish) Olympic and world champion swimmer)
Morgan Spurlock (US director and producer, Super Size Me)
Albert Ruddy (Canadian film producer, The Godfather, Million Dollar Baby)
Richard M. Sherman (US film songwriter (with his brother Robert), Mary Poppins, The Jungle Book, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and many more)
Don Webb (British playwright and scriptwriter, Juliet Bravo, The Bill, Rockliffe’s Babies)
Harry van Hoof (Dutch conductor, composer, and music arranger for the Netherlands entrants in the Eurovision Song Contest between 1972 and 1994)
Rob Burrow (British rugby league player, Leeds Rhinos, Yorkshire, national team, and fundraiser for Motor Neurone Disease charities)
Colin Gibb (British musician, Black Lace, Agadoo)
Janis Paige (US actress, Please Don't Eat the Daisies, Silk Stockings, centenarian)
William Russell (British actor, companion "Ian Chesterton" in the first 1960s series of Doctor Who, "Ted Sullivan" (Rita's second husband in Coronation Street))
Harold Snoad (British producer and director, Keeping Up Appearances, Oh, Brother!, Ever Decreasing Circles, Don't Wait Up)
Jeannette Charles (British actress, famous for impersonating HM The Queen)
Nicholas Ball (British actor, Hazell, EastEnders)
William Anders (US astronaut, Apollo 8, took the iconic "Earthrise" photo)
Rose-Marie (British (Northern Irish) singer and television personality)
Michael Mosley (British doctor, TV producer and radio and TV presenter, Make Me..., Trust Me I'm a Doctor, Just One Thing)
Mark James (US songwriter, Hooked on a Feeling, Always on My Mind, Suspicious Minds)
Françoise Hardy (French singer-songwriter, Tous les garçons et les filles, Comme te dire adieu)
Gaps Hendrickson (British musician and vocalist, The Selecter)
Jodie Devos (Belgian operatic coloratura soprano)
Buzz Cason (US singer and songwriter, Everlasting Love)
Dario G (British musician and DJ, Sunchyme, Carnaval de Paris)
Anouk Aimée (French actress and style icon, Un Homme et Une Femme (A Man and a Woman), La Dolce Vita, Prêt-à-Porter)
Donald Sutherland (Canadian actor, Don’t Look Now, Kelly’s Heroes, M*A*S*H, Klute)
Jewel Brown (US jazz vocalist, Louis Armstrong's All-Stars)
Betty Veldpaus (Dutch singer, Pussycat, Mississippi)
Robert Towne (US Oscar-winning scriptwriter, Chinatown, The Last Detail, Shampoo)

Ella Mitchell (US actress, Big Momma's House)
Jon Landau (US Oscar-winning film producer, Titanic, Avatar, Solaris)
Yvonne Furneaux (French actress, La Dolce Vita, Repulsion)
Pino D'Angiò (Italian disco and trance singer-songwriter, The Age of Love)
Joe Egan (British (Scottish) singer-songwriter, founder-member of Stealers Wheel, Stuck in the Middle with You)
Roberta Taylor (British actress, EastEnders, The Bill)
Shelley Duvall (US actress, The Shining, Popeye, 3 Women)
Richard Simmons (US fitness coach and TV personality)
Dr Ruth Westheimer (US sex therapist and talk show host)
Shannen Doherty (US actress, Beverly Hills 90210, Heathers, Charmed)
Tomcraft (German DJ and producer, Loneliness)
Cheng Pei-pei (Hong Kong actress, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon)
Jerry Fuller (US songwriter, Young Girl, a hit for Gary Puckett and The Union Gap)
Bob Newhart (US comedian and actor)
Nguyễn Phú Trọng (Vietnamese statesman, general secretary of the Communist Party and former president)
Ray Reardon (British (Welsh) snooker player, world champion six times)
Evelyn Thomas (US soul and Hi-NRG singer, High Energy)
Sir Kenneth Grange (British industrial designer, designed the Kenwood Chef food mixer, the Kodak Instamatic camera, the InterCity 125 high-speed train, and much more)
Alexander Waugh (British writer, biographer, critic and journalist, son of Auberon and grandson of Evelyn Waugh)
Abdul “Duke” Fakir (US singer, last surviving founding member of The Four Tops, Reach Out I'll Be There, Baby I Need Your Loving, I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch))
John Mayall (British blues and rock musician, songwriter and producer)
Benjamin Luxon (British operatic baritone, English National Opera, regular on BBC's The Good Old Days)
Janet Andrewartha (Australian television and theatre actress, "Reb Keane" in Prisoner: Cell Block H, "Lyn Scully" in Neighbours)
Pat Collier (British musician, The Vibrators, record producer, Walking on Sunshine for Katrina and the Waves)
Edna O'Brien (Irish novelist, memoirist, playwright, poet and short-story writer, scandalised post-war Ireland)
Prince Michael of Greece and Denmark
Robert "Bobby" Banas (US dancer, choreographer and actor, West Side Story, Bye Bye Birdie, Mary Poppins)
Robert Fellowes, Baron Fellowes (British courtier and peer, Private Secretary to the late HM The Queen)
Ron Bain (British (Scottish) comic actor, Naked Video, A Kick Up the Eighties)
Susan Wojcicki (US business executive, former CEO of YouTube)
Peggy Moffitt (US model, "Swinging 60s" icon)
Gena Rowlands (US actress, Gloria, A Woman Under the Influence)
Charles Blackwell (British songwriter, Come Outside, musical arranger, Johnny Remember Me)
Virginia Ogilvy, Countess of Airlie (US-born British courtier, Lady of the Bedchamber to the late HM The Queen)
Phil Donahue (US talk show host, The Phil Donahue Show)
Alain Delon (French-Swiss actor, producer and sex symbol, Rocco and His Brothers, The Leopard, The Girl on a Motorcycyle)
Maria Branyas (US-born Spanish supercentenarian, world's oldest person, aged 117)
John Clegg (British actor, "Gunner 'La Di Da' Graham" in It Ain't Half Hot Mum)
Mike Lynch (British technology entrepreneur, Autonomy Corporation; died when his super-yacht sank)
Russell Stone (British singer, one half of R&J Stone, We Do It)
Sven-Göran Eriksson (Swedish former football player, former coach of the England national team)
King Tūheitia VII (Māori King)
Bette Bourne (British actor, drag performer, activist and legend)
Sir Sonny Ramphal (Guyanese stateman, former Commonwealth Secretary-General)
Phil Swern (British BBC radio producer, Sounds of the 60s, Pick of the Pops and owner of one of the world's biggest record collections)
Brian Trueman (British broadcaster, Screen Test, writer and co-creator of Danger Mouse)
James Darren (US former teen heartthrob singer, actor, TJ Hooker)
Derek Boshier (British pop artist, collaborated on David Bowie's The Lodger LP cover)
Sérgio Mendes (Brazilian Bossa Nova musician, Mas que Nada)

Herbie Flowers (British musician, Blue Mink, T.Rex, Sky; played the bassline on Walk on the Wild Side by Lou Reed)
Will Jennings (US award-winning songwriter, Up Where We Belong, Street Life, One Day I'll Fly Away, My Heart Will Go On)
Zoot Money (British blues, soul and jazz vocalist and musician, The Animals, bandleader, Zoot Money's Big Roll Band, producer and composer)
Ian Davidson (British scriptwriter, The Dame Edna Experience, Two Ronnies, Brittas Empire)
James Earl Jones (US theatre and film actor, The Great White Hope, Hunt for Red October, voice of "Darth Vader" in Star Wars)
Caterina Valente (French-Italian singer, regular on US TV shows with Dean Martin and Bing Crosby)
Frankie Beverly (US singer, Maze)
Alberto Fujimori (Peruvian politician, former President, convicted criminal)
Kenneth Cope (British character actor, Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased), Coronation Street, That Was the Week That Was, Carry On films)
Tito Jackson (US singer and musician, founder member of the Jackson 5/Jacksons)
Geoffrey Hinsliff (British actor, Brass, "Don Brennan" in Coronation Street)
Barbara Leigh-Hunt (British stage and (mainly) character actress, Ruth Rendell Mysteries, Kavanagh QC, Billy Elliot, "Catherine Parr" in Henry VIII and His Six Wives)
Chris Serle (British television presenter, That's Life!, In at the Deep End)
Billy Edd Wheeler (US singer-songwriter, Johnny Cash Jackson, Kenny Rogers Coward of the County)
Dame Elizabeth Esteve-Coll (British academic, librarian and former director of the V&A museum)
JD Souther (US singer-songwriter, The Eagles Best of My Love, Heartache Tonight, New Kid in Town)
Tony Soper (British naturalist and ornithologist, co-founded the BBC's Natural History Unit, TV presenter, Animal Magic, Birdwatch)
Anwar Hussein (Tanganyika-born British photojournalist, longest-serving Royal photographer, captured Diana at the Taj Mahal and wearing "that little black dress" on the day Charles admitted adultery on TV)
Cleo Sylvestre (British actress, first black woman in a lead role at The National Theatre, first black character in a UK soap opera Crossroads)
David Graham (British voice actor, Thunderbirds, Doctor Who, Peppa Pig)
Peter Jay (British economist, journalist, The Times, broadcaster, Weekend World, TV-AM, diplomat, former Ambassador to the United States)
Hassan Nasrallah (Lebanese terrorist leader, Hezbollah)
John Ashton (US character actor, Beverly Hills Cop )
Dame Maggie Smith (British Oscar winning actress, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Travels With My Aunt, Downton Abbey, national treasure and legend)
Kris Kristofferson (US singer-songwriter, For the Good Times, Help Me Make It Through the Night, and actor, A Star Is Born)
Martin Lee (British singer-songwriter, Brotherhood of Man, Save Your Kisses for Me, Angelo, Figaro)
Gavin Creel (US theatre actor, The Book of Mormon, Mary Poppins, gay rights activist)
Ken Page (US stage, character and voice actor, "Mr. Oogie Boogie" in The Nightmare Before Christmas)
Robert Watts (British film producer, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Who Framed Roger Rabbit)
Ed McLachlan (British satirical cartoonist, Private Eye, Punch, The Oldie, The Spectator)
Richard Webb (British book publisher and publicist, The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady)
Michael Ancram, Marquess of Lothian (British politician, former MP, Minister, and Chairman of the Conservative Party)
Lea Pericoli (Italian tennis player and style icon)
Christopher Ciccone (US dancer, artistic director and designer, younger brother of Madonna, famously upset her with his tell-all autobiography)
Cissy Houston (US soul and gospel singer, backing vocals for Paul Simon, Elvis Presley, Aretha Franklin, Bette Midler, Chaka Khan and many more, mother of Whitney, aunt of Dionne Warwick, cousin of Leontyne Price)
Lily Ebert (Hungarian-born British Holocaust survivor and memoirist, centenarian)
Ethel Kennedy (US human rights advocate, widow of Bobby Kennedy)
Alvin Rakoff (Canadian-British film and television director, A Voyage Round My Father, ITV’s Armchair Theatre series)
Alex Salmond (British (Scottish) politician, former leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), former First Minister of Scotland, leader of the Alba Party)
General Sir Mike Jackson (British military leader, Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Gulf War, former head of the British Army)
Yahya Sinwar (Palestinian terrorist leader, Hamas in the Gaza Strip)
Liam Payne (British singer, former member of One Direction)
Mitzi Gaynor (US actress, singer, dancer and icon, There's No Business Like Show Business, Anything Goes, Les Girls, South Pacific)
Paul Di'Anno (British heavy metal singer, Iron Maiden)
Barbara Dane (US musician and civil rights activist, Northern Soul hit I’m on My Way)
Dick Pope (British cinematographer, regular collaborator with director Mike Leigh, Life Is Sweet, Secrets & Lies, Topsy-Turvey, Vera Drake)
Jim McColl (British (Scottish) horticulturalist, gardener, TV presenter, host of Beechgrove Garden for 41 years)
Geoff Capes (British Olympic shot-putter, Highland Games champion, strongman and household name)
Jack Jones (US singer, Wives and Lovers, theme from Love Boat)

Phil Lesh (US bassist, songwriter, founding member of the Grateful Dead)
Paul Bailey (British Booker-prize-shortlisted writer, An Immaculate Mistake, Three Queer Lives, Gabriel’s Lament, regular reader at Polari)
Manuel "Guajiro" Mirabal (Cuban trumpeter, Buena Vista Social Club)
Stephanie Collie (British costume designer, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Peaky Blinders)
Teri Garr (US actress, Young Frankenstein, Tootsie)
Sarah Leonard (British operatic soprano)
Alan Rachins (US actor, L.A. Law, Dharma & Greg)
Janey Godley (British (Scottish) stand-up comedian, writer, cult YouTuber)
Quincy Jones (US multi-award-winning record producer, composer, arranger, Frank Sinatra, Michael Jackson, Lesley Gore, USA for Africa, and legend)
Sir John Nott (British politician, Secretary of State for Defence during the Falklands War)
Trevor Sorbie (British hairdresser to the stars, businessman, daytime TV "expert")
June Spencer (British radio actress, last-surviving original cast member ("Peggy Archer/Wooley") of The Archers, centenarian)
Timothy West (British actor, Edward the Seventh, Brass, Iris, Great Canal Journeys (with his wife of 60 years Prunella Scales))
Shel Talmy (US record producer, The Kinks, The Who, Manfred Mann, Easybeats, Amen Corner)
Peter Sinfield (British musician, co-founder, King Crimson, songwriter and producer, Roxy Music, Greg Lake, Bucks Fizz, Celine Dion)
Vic Flick (British session guitarist, Petula Clark, Tom Jones, Herman's Hermits; played the riff on the James Bond theme)
Charles Dumont (French songwriter, Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien)
Lord John Prescott (British statesman, MP for 40 years, Deputy Prime Minister to Tony Blair and Gordon Brown)
Barbara Taylor Bradford (British best-selling authoress, A Woman of Substance, Act Of Will)
John Tinniswood (British supercentenarian, world's oldest man, 112)
Jim Abrahams (US film director and writer [Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker], Airplane!, Naked Gun, Ruthless People)
Eddie Stobart (British entrepreneur, founder of his eponymous haulage company)
Helen Gallagher (US actress, dancer and singer)
Earl Holliman (US actor, Police Woman)
Marshall Brickman (US Oscar-winning screenwriter, Annie Hall, For the Boys; playwright, Jersey Boys)
Terry Griffiths (British (Welsh) professional snooker player, 1979 World champion)
Julie Stevens (British actress, singer, children's TV presenter, Playschool, Play Away)
Christel Bodenstein (German (GDR) actress, "the Princess" in The Singing Ringing Tree)
Michael Cole (US actor, The Mod Squad)
Duncan Norvelle (British stand-up comedian, TV regular)
Polly Mellen (US stylist and fashion editor, Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, Allure; centenarian)
Isak Andic (Turkish-Spanish businessman, founder of clothing retail chain Mango)
Zakir Hussain (Indian tabla player, George Harrison, Van Morrison, Shakti)
Jean Adamson (British children's book writer, Topsy and Tim)
Marisa Paredes (Spanish actress, Life Is Beautiful)
Gian Paolo Barbieri (Italian fashion photographer, Vogue, GQ, Vanity Fair)
Mary Keir (British supercentenarian, oldest person in Wales since 2021, aged 112)
Alfa Anderson (US singer, Chic, Le Freak, Good Times, My Forbidden Lover, I Want Your Love)
Sugar Pie DeSanto (US rhythm 'n' blues singer and dancer)
Jack Bond (British film, TV and video director, Pet Shop Boys: It Couldn’t Happen Here, Always On My Mind, Heart)
Richard Perry (US record producer, Pointer Sisters, Barbra Streisand, Harry Nilsson, Rod Stewart, Carly Simon)
Olivia Hussey (British actress, Romeo and Juliet)
Jimmy Carter (US statesman, longest-lived President in U.S. history, centenarian)
Linda Lavin (US TV and stage actress and singer, Alice TV show, premiered Sondheim's The Boy From... on stage)
Loretta Di Franco (US operatic soprano)
Johnnie Walker (British long-serving DJ, Radio 1, Radio 2, pirate radio, national treasure)
Jocelyn Wildenstein (Swiss socialite, plastic surgery addict)

RIP, (almost) all...

Where all the lights will go out one by one


RIP, Abdul “Duke” Fakir, last surviving founding member of The Four Tops

On this Tacky Music Monday, I thought I'd pre-empt my traditional roll-call of the great, the good and the not-so-good who left us this year with a little collection of memories of some of those departed - starting with two that probably don't quite fit the bill of "tacky", but I'm featuring them nonetheless...

Duane Eddy:

Alfa Anderson:

Betty Veldpaus:

Jimmy James:

Martin Lee:

Next up, THE LIST...

Sunday, 29 December 2024

Year-end melangery

As we count down the days towards the "Party of the Year" to see 2024 out with a bang - how about a final melange this year of "newer" choons that have caught my ear of late?

Let's get this little "hangover" from the Festering Season out of the way first - probably the best Xmas song never destined to hit our airwaves...

Next up, everyone's favourite pop-twink Olly's back - with a choon rather reminiscent of Janet ("Miss Jackson" if you're nasty) methinks:

Also making a welcome return - old "house fave" electro-pop combo Parralox, with a cover that is a vast improvement on the Joe Jackson original, in my opinion:

Mummy! It's the scary lady from Eurovision!

Taking things down a notch, a rather sublime acapella medley from the midst of the "pandemic lockdown" era:

And finally, an old familiar choon - but with a rather inventive video mix. It's Quincy vs Sweet Charity!

As ever, dear reader, let me know your thoughts...

Saturday, 28 December 2024

Ain't no stopping



It's that "bit in the middle" time again - and, despite "our gang" having been at his place till late last night watching films, John-John and I are off on our annual shopping trip to Chiswick.

There ain't no stopping us...

Wish us luck...

Friday, 27 December 2024

Feast of Stephens


Fuck only knows why Irish people dress like this on St Stephen's day, but they do.

Saint Stephen's Day, celebrated on 26th December in Western Christianity and 27th December in Eastern Christianity.

Thursday, 26 December 2024

Thought for the day


Click to embiggen

[The "real" story.]

Wednesday, 25 December 2024

What a crock o'...

Sherry and chocolate for breakfast. Gin for aperitif. Sprouts! Port for digestif. More chocolate. The Queen's King's Speech. Nothing to do but watch telly.

And this - another long-standing tradition!

Bah Humbug.

Tuesday, 24 December 2024

It's the eve...

...and I think I hear carol singers, with their old, familiar, traditional songbook, heading this way...

RIP, Vanilla Lush

Only today and tomorrow to go, and the Festering Season's over for another year. Hoorah!

Bah Humbug.

Monday, 23 December 2024

Gone away is the bluebird

It it all over yet? No..?

Ah well - on this Tacky Music Monday, as we head to the office again (for only a couple of days, admittedly), I might as well drag out the Del Rubio Triplets again!

Bah Humbug.

Sunday, 22 December 2024

Divine, Sisters and a Shark


Drag queen "Coleslaw" models a Divine mini-dress

Another snippets post today, dear reader:

  • Auction news: Among a selection of lots featuring homoerotic art, photos, and historic porn for sale last week at the After Dark: Gay Art and Culture online auction, a selection of frocks worn by Divine went for a measly $1800. If I had known they were going to be that cheap, I might have bid..!
  • Scissor Sisters news:

  • Aristocratic autograph-hunting news: More than 220 letters collected by Baron Edmond de Rothschild - including Queen Elizabeth I, Admiral Lord Nelson, Lord Byron, Benjamin Franklin, Victor Hugo, Peter Paul Rubens and Madame de Pompadour - have just been discovered at Waddesdon Manor, the former Rothschild home, now owned by the National Trust.
  • Bureaucracy madness news. With added shark: A man whose late father's house has a 25-foot model of a shark sticking out of its roof is battling a move to revoke his right to advertise it as an Airbnb after a neighbour complained. Imagine staying there?
  • And finally: Wham!'s Last Christmas may be the UK's Xmas Number 1 again - having only hit the top slot for the first time last year, 39 years after it was first released - but there are so many other festive songs out there that don't get a look-in, like this one! Postmodern Jukebox made a brilliant choice, in my opinion:

And the weather? "I'm dreaming of a damp, grey, drizzly Christmas, just like the ones we always know."

Saturday, 21 December 2024

Feel alright


We're unlikely to see him in Benalmadena, more's the pity

It's Midwinter's Day. The Winter Solstice. The darkest of them all.

However, the good news is - from tomorrow the days start getting longer again!

At Dolores Delargo Towers, our thoughts are not on the cold nor the dark, on "festivities" nor present-giving. No! Our annual holiday to Spain is booked for the first week of February, so all our thoughts are on "escape"...

Here's a song that always says "sunshine" to me...


We are young
We run green
Keep our teeth nice and clean
See our friends, see the sights
Feel alright

We wake up, we go out
Smoke a fag, put it out
See our friends, see the sights
Feel alright

Are we like you?
I can't be sure
Of the scene as she turns
We are strange in our worlds

But we are young, we get by
Can't go mad, ain't got time
Sleep around if we like
But we're alright

Got some cash
Bought some wheels
Took it out
'Cross the fields
Lost control, hit a wall
But we're alright

Are we like you?
I can't be sure
Of the scene, as she turns
We are strange in our worlds

But we are young
We run green
Keep our teeth nice and clean
See our friends, see the sights
Feel alright

That song is twenty-nine years old. Gulp.

Friday, 20 December 2024

Do you Wanna?

Another busy and stressful week is almost over - but we have a proper party to look forward to this evening - Our Sal's birthday bash!

Time, methinks, to grab a sparkly kaftan and a scarf, and to boogie on down with Sylvester...

Thank Disco it's Friday!

Hope you have a fantabulosa weekend, dear reader.

Thursday, 19 December 2024

Dick? That's an interesting name

It was - remarkably - the 99th birthday last weekend of one of the entertainment world's last great "all-rounders", Mr Dick Van Dyke!

By way of a tribute, I thought I'd treat us to a couple of his classic movie moments:

Proving, however, that you can't keep an old trouper down, despite his venerable age - just released earlier this month is this rather emotional (and unlikely!) collaboration between Dick...

...and Coldplay!

The video is lovely. The song? Hmmmm. It's OK, but on the whole, I prefer this!

Happy belated birthday, Richard Wayne "Dick" Van Dyke (born 13th December 1925)!

Wednesday, 18 December 2024

Nowhere near good enough to be an annual event

Christmas songs, all snowfall and merriment, are as realistic as a snowy village where children carol and adults carry armfuls of gaily-wrapped boxes. This is what it’s really like:

Catching a Replacement Bus Service Home for Christmas
The honest truth about festive travel is you’re dependent on the reliability and efficiency of the British transport infrastructure, which is fucked but makes up for it by being expensive. Of course your train has been cancelled, what did you expect? The resulting eight-hour bus journey will break you. Take a look at the passenger next to you. They’re just the same.

Simply Having A Traumatic Christmastime
"The mood is foul, our spirit’s low." When he vomited out his ditty, McCartney glossed over the logistics of arranging a Christmas which society tells you has to be perfect in every way. Emotionally difficult and wrought with financial anxiety, December would be a lot less stressful if you didn’t have to listen to him playing with the new synth he got from Linda.

It Began to Look a Lot Like Christmas About Four Months Ago
The Celebrations were piled high in late August. By the time the first door of the advent calendar was opened, it had been Christmas for months. Mince pies with best before dates in November had been bought, eaten, regretted, bought again. And you resented every lightly spiced mouthful.

I Wish it Could Be Christmas Once Every Three to Four Years
The trouble with the festive season is that, once you’re past 35, it’s always bloody Christmas. A longer break would make it easier to embrace the festive spirit. If it were like the Olympics it would work: gymnastics and archery, like Love Actually, are great fun every four years but nowhere near good enough to be an annual event.

All I Want for Christmas is Loads of Cool Expensive Stuff
Despite the rhetoric about it being family that matters, Christmas is about consumerism. A new iPad or diamond ring rekindles love more effectively than holding hands in snow. If anyone dared say to their partner ‘all you should want is me, so that’s all you’ve got’ they would swiftly find their gift to be baldly insufficient.

Flying in the Air
Enchanted snowmen don’t exist. Snow barely does. Budget flights to Prague, however, are very real and get you the fuck out of UK. Though the likelihood is that you’ll be Flying in the Air After Thirty-Six Hours in the South Terminal Getting Shitfaced in Wetherspoons and Passing Out in a Departure Lounge. The puddle on the floor will not be melted snow.

The Daily Mash

Of course.

Bah Humbug.

Tuesday, 17 December 2024

Thought for the Day

I'm with Myrna Loy.

Bah Humbug.

Monday, 16 December 2024

This odd diversity of misery and joy

Grrrr. Monday. It's grim.

There are some things that are certain to cheer one up at the start of a week, however!

One of them is our beloved Sir Noël Coward, The Master, whose 125th birthday it is today!

The other is the assembled talents of a bevy of drag queens. From Belgium.

Put 'em together on a Tacky Music Monday, and what do you get? This old fave!

Have a good week, dear reader.

Sunday, 15 December 2024

Of Chocolate, Dame Edna and Birdsong


The gayest Xmas Robin in the world? [Australian Pink Robin (Petroica rodinogaster)]

It's another snippets post, dear reader:

  • Chocolate news: If it's not bad enough that one of Britain's favourite historic brands, chocolate manufacturer Cadbury, was taken over by Americans (the conglomerate Mondelez) in 2010 - now there are proposals in the air that Mondelez wants to take over the US brand Hershey's as well. They really shouldn't bother; their "chocolate" is vile, and tastes of sugary earwax. A Yank friend bought us a tin of Hershey's Kisses, and we thought they were so disgusting we threw the lot out and kept the tin!
  • Sickest theme park ever? Thanks to a social media video that went viral [geddit?], the world gawped in amazement at the fact that Vietnam has a theme park dedicated to COVID-19!

  • Hello, Possums! news: A sale of about 250 items from the personal collection of Barry Humphries will take place at Christie’s in London on 13th February 2025. The auction will include the diamante-encrusted Sydney Opera House spectacles [above] worn by Dame Edna Everage, which are estimated to sell for up to £1,500. We might place a bid!
  • It it art? news: A city in Oregon, USA has issued a plea to whoever has been sticking "googly eyes" on its public artworks to stop. I think they look much better, to be honest.
  • And finally: Many happy returns to Don Johnson who, scarily, is 75 years old today, and also to the lovely former Supreme Cindy Birdsong, who's 85! Here she is, sparkling away on not one, but two of the group's "post-Diana" hits:

And the weather? Mild again for the time of year - but too cloudy to see any Geminid meteors!

Saturday, 14 December 2024

She dreams of salad, and bad wigs...

...and goes around stroking her kitchen.

If I had dreams of horrible decor like this, I'd seriously question whether my drink had been spiked!

It's another glorious creation from the world of Soft Tempo Lounge:

Wow.

[Music: Henry Mancini - Dreamy (from The Return Of The Pink Panther); original film: Out of this World (1964)]

Friday, 13 December 2024

For thirty days you're on your back

It's the end of another stressful week in work - but at least I have an office Xmas booze-fest to look forward to tonight! [For a change (hopefully) one that doesn't involve having to smile unconvincingly at bosses in festive jumpers, and involves people who know how to have a laugh...]

In the meantime, let's be daring, sling on a skin-tight powder blue outfit, and practice our spinning - in the company of the arch-funksters Tavares with their incredible performing trousers...

...and Thank Disco It's Friday [the Thirteenth - oo-er!]!

RIP, Arthur Paul "Pooch" Tavares

What's an hour of the day?
We throw at least one away
And walk the streets for half the year
Tryin' to find a new career

If you get a flu attack
For thirty days you're on your back
Doing not a single dance
Baby, give me half a chance

It only takes a minute, girl
To fall in love, to fall in love
It only takes a minute, girl
To fall in love, fall in love

How philosophical.

Have a good one!

Thursday, 12 December 2024

It takes two

"It's just a tango. It is like sex, except with clothes on."

Since 1977, the National Day of Tango on 11th December has been a national holiday in Argentina, and started out partly as a birthday celebration for the "King of Tango" Carlos Gardel. It is also celebrated in all corners of the world.

And we missed it! Let's have a belated celebration, shall we?

Fantabulosa!

Wednesday, 11 December 2024

Avoid sweating men and produce-fondlers

A woman who nipped into Tesco to pick up a few bits has returned home with eight different contagious illnesses, she has confirmed. 

Nikki Hollis, who needed milk, pancakes and a mint Aero, was infected with multiple variants of the common cold, the flu, Covid, and what she fears may be norovirus from the horde of disease-ridden celebrants cluttering the aisles.

She said: “Well, that’s me fucked for the next month. And everyone I work with and everyone on the Christmas do tomorrow night, because I’m not missing it.

“I knew I’d get something, obviously, because Britain is a petri-dish of plague. But I thought I’d get three colds maximum. An infection rate of four per minute seems excessive.

“But after I’d passed the old woman coughing, the toddler sneezing, the gaggle of sweating men and the produce-fondlers, I’d picked up a bonanza of bacteria, viruses and everything in-between.

“I expect they’ll be good enough to strike me serially, rather than all at once. A week of scratchy throats and aching muscles, then a week of chills and headaches, then the vomiting will begin. And that’s how I’ll see in the new year.”

She added: “I’ve planned three nights out and a day at the Christmas market for the next week. Well, it’s better to give than receive.”

The Daily Mash

Of course.

You. Were. Warned!

Monday, 9 December 2024

Brilla, brilla, pequeña estrella

Oh, how we love Mondays. At least the storms seem to be over for the moment, just in time to go back to the office.

To cheer ourselves up, it is to the prodigious Edmundo Ros (whose 114th birthday it would have been last week) we turn on this Tacky Music Monday to provide us with a bit of a wake-up call...

Here he is with frequent collaborator Caterina Valente [RIP] - and a bevy of brilliantly-chosen dance clips from a variety of films and shows [courtesy of Bissenses Swedish Retro Vintage Music and Film Art Production, indeed]:


Now that's what I call a pick-me-up!

Have a good week, dear reader.

Sunday, 8 December 2024

Of sackings, shoes, Tallulah and Darragh

It's another snippets post, dear reader...

  • Dance with the Devil news: Poor Prince William had to put on his best statesmanly grimace for a meeting with President-elect Trump in Paris to discuss "the special relationship" between the UK and the US.

  • Auntie Beeb does it again news: In another in a long line of "let's really piss our loyal audience off" moves [see also Paul O'Grady and Clare Teal], one of our favourite broadcasters, host of Radio 3's In Tune for 27 years Sean Rafferty has been unceremoneously replaced axed! We are so pissed off. Again.

    Mind you, the "send-off" on his last show on Friday was a remarkably emotional show of support - as the "great and the good" of the classical world and beyond turned up to play and sing music, and make toasts all dedicated to him, including Ailish Tynan, Marcus Farnsworth, Nicky Spence, Barokksolistene, Anna Tilbrook, Dame Sarah Connolly, Angela Hewitt, Elena Urioste, Tom Poster, Guy Johnston, fellow Radio 3 presenter Tom Service, and none other than Dame Joanna Lumley!

  • It'll still be dry as fuck news: Xmas turkeys are on sale in Holland Park in London [Eddie and Patsy's neighbourhood], ranging from £81.13 for a 6lb bird to a whopping £363.38 for a 28-pounder! I think we'll stick to pork. Or duck. Or anything that tastes nicer than turkey.
  • Pity she's a whore news: Remarkably, an archaic police power - the issue of a "prostitute's caution", that, unlike any other similar sanction, remains on record for life - is still being exercised in the UK today! No wonder the girls are angry about it.
  • There's expensive shoes, and then there's bloody expensive shoes: Those ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland that went to auction with a pre-sale estimate of £4 million? Ah, yes. They sold for $28 million (£22m)!! There's some rich queens out there...

  • And finally: RIP, Broadway trouper Miss Helen Gallagher, at the ripe old age of 98. She wasn't exactly a "household name", but I discovered this marvellous little video of her performing as Tallulah Bankhead which suggests she would indeed have been "our kind of girl"...

And the weather? Another cunty "named storm" - Storm Darragh - has battered the crap out of Wales and the West of England, and even here in London the gales are fierce!


STOP PRESS:

Sorry, Krampus!

...we missed your "Nacht"!

Saturday, 7 December 2024

You are judged...

...by Iris Apfel! [RIP]

Wise words, indeed.

Friday, 6 December 2024

Fresh and lovely

Yayyy! It's almost the weekend!

Let's take a mini-timeslip, dear reader, back 40 years to December 1984. In the headlines: heavy snow causing disruption up and down the country, the Bhopal disaster, the future of Hong Kong signed away in the Sino-British Joint Declaration, the privatisation of British Telecom, and of course Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas?. In our cinemas: Gremlins, Ghostbusters, Dune. On telly: Dallas, The Box of Delights and the last ever series of Crackerjack!

I had only just come out, and I remember the charts of the time like it was yesterday. Frankie Goes to Hollywood's third mega-hit The Power of Love was at #1, and in its wake were Jim Diamond, Nik Kershaw, Eurythmics, Our Glorious Leader Madonna, Limahl, Paul McCartney, Chaka Khan, Shakin'-bloody-Stevens, and (erm) Alvin Stardust.

Among the meld, however, were those ever-reliable purveyors of party choons Kool & The Gang with this catchy number - Thank Disco It's Friday!

[Could the video be more 80s if it tried?!]

Have a great weekend, folks!