Dead Actor / Footballer / Politician / Royalty / whatever

[Mike4]

This time it's....

the unbearable loss of a prince of American cinema

Who cares. I'm over it. Next.

Totally agree with you.

But what chuffs me orf even more is news items on R4 news bulletins that are simply not "news".

The most recent example that irritated me enough to actually write it down (as it was happening so often) was on 14/3/20. All the BBC news bulletins that day were carrying the following 'story': "There are not enough skilled tree planters in the UK to plant the millions of trees we need. OMG its an ecological disaster" Like you and your fillum star, get over it, it does not belong in a news bulletin.

Jeez...

[AleisterCrowley]

This time it's....

the unbearable loss of a prince of American cinema

Who cares. I'm over it. Next.

The untimely passing last week of US actor Chadwick Boseman was the lead article on the BBC UK news page for most of the day.
I genuinely didn't recognise the name, but had heard of 'Black Panther' , a Marvel Comic screen adaptation
Possible lead story for the Entertainment section, but the most important thing happening in the UK on that day??? Really?

[Imbiber]

Morbid perhaps but...

https://deathlist.net/

I

[bungeejumper]

It's a bit too late for Mr Black Panther now, but these days the BBC seems to be so full of media nonentities going on about their various health histories that it's getting hard not to think they're just doing it for the publicity.

"George Ezra opens up about OCD struggle" https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-53950320 (who is George Ezra? And why does he claim to have a version of OCD that the OCD people say doesn't exist?)

"My hell with my oversized breasts". "My nose made me try to slit my wrists." "Why cruel Covid has ended my dreams of TV stardom". I may have made some of those up.

Shock horror, say it can't happen.

BJ

"

[Mike4]

Which quiz show on the wireless used to have a round called "Dead or alive"?

They named a famous person out of the public eye for a few years and you had to say if they were dead or alive, e.g. Carlos Santana. I found it great fun!

I know, I'm weird....

[UncleEbenezer]

I've more often than not never heard the name when Fools post RIPs to the snug. Someone who was a footballer? Well, if they were a footballer at 20 and lived to old age then they were already a has-been in my youth!

[Rhyd6]

Mike4 - you're not wise I've used a "dead or alive" round in my quiz on several occasions. It always amazes me how transient fame is, people only have to be out of the public eye for a couple of years to have people goping "Oh yes I remember him, isn't he dead".

R6

[AleisterCrowley]

OK here are a few (no cheating)

Henry Kissinger
Jimmy Carter
Phil Spector
Dick Van Dyke

[swill453]

OK here are a few (no cheating)

Henry Kissinger
Jimmy Carter
Phil Spector
Dick Van Dyke

Off topic for this thread, I'd say.

Scott.

[UncleEbenezer]

Off topic for this thread, I'd say.

Scott.

You mean, because they're names we've heard?

Even if I could only tell you what two of them are famous for without googling.

[PinkDalek]

Off topic for this thread, I'd say.

Scott.

You mean, because they're names we've heard?

More likely because of the first word in the Topic title but, maybe just maybe, the whatever covers that aspect.

Even if I could only tell you what two of them are famous for without googling.

You are not familiar with American cockney then nor 'Let it Be'?

[Hypster]

I've always been curious about the way some deaths are announced:

"Tributes have been pouring in for <x> whose death was announced today..."

Who on earth, upon hearing of the death of an actor, thinks "I must call the BBC"? Surely, the reality is that the BBC were phoning around soliciting comments?

[swill453]

I've always been curious about the way some deaths are announced:

"Tributes have been pouring in for <x> whose death was announced today..."

Who on earth, upon hearing of the death of an actor, thinks "I must call the BBC"? Surely, the reality is that the BBC were phoning around soliciting comments?

More likely that they are using Twitter as their news source, where tributes are pouring in.

As are attacks, trolls, diatribes, trivialities, irrelevancies, incoherences etc.

Scott.

[bungeejumper]

Who on earth, upon hearing of the death of an actor, thinks "I must call the BBC"? Surely, the reality is that the BBC were phoning around soliciting comments?

Naah,they just wait for David Walliams to phone them. Have you ever noticed how DW gets his Twitter tributes in before the body's gone properly cold? Ronnie Corbett, Terry Jones, Dale Winton, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Caroline Aherne, maybe a dozen others. It's getting a bit creepy really. But then, I think, so is he.

BJ

[bungeejumper]

All newspapers keep pre-written obituary files, as a matter of course. If they relied on last-minute Twitter research they'd be susceptible to all kinds of cock-ups.

They've still got to get the main event right, though. Anybody remember how the Telegraph published an obituary in 1999 for Dave Swarbrick? (Fairport Convention's folk-rock fiddler, for those of a younger orientation.) For the remaining 16 years of his life, he sold autographed copies of the obit at his concerts. There's nothing like rubbing it in, is there?

BJ

[AleisterCrowley]

When the tweets start arriving the day before the subject croaks , we will know something is amiss

[UncleEbenezer]

When the tweets start arriving the day before the subject croaks , we will know something is amiss

I got the message announcing the birth of my niece the day before she was born.

Spoiler: different timezones. Altogether more prosaic than, say, Umberto Eco.

[bungeejumper]

Oh well, Gene Wilder's gone. Walliams watch starts now. Set your watches.

BJ

[swill453]

Oh well, Gene Wilder's gone. Walliams watch starts now. Set your watches.

Didn't he die years ago?

Scott.

Edit: yes he did, 2016.

[bungeejumper]

Didn't he die years ago?

Scott.

Edit: yes he did, 2016.

Red face. You're absolutely right, double points for being more awake than me. Some kind of a glitch in the internet space/time continuum there. Okay, who's next on the cosmic conveyor belt?

BJ