The online competition to guess which famous people won't make it to the end of the current year. If they're elderly, ill, or just live a high-risk lifestyle, stick 'em in your team, and for each one whose death you correctly predict, you'll score points. DDP was dreamt up in Derby, England (hence the name...) by Big Iain back in 1996. Other hosts: Siegfried Baboon and Rude Kid (2003-7), Octopus of Odstock (2008-9), The Man in Black (2010-17), Spade Cooley (2018-19), msc (2020-21), Grim Up North (2020-22), and Reptile (2020-23). Now the Committee of DI (2022), time (2024), and Banana (2023) oversee the biggest deadpool going...

Madeleine Albright

ALBRIGHT ALL DIMMED Reactions to the death of former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright spanned the whole gamut, from “rest in power slay queen!” to “good riddance war criminal”. Here at the DDP, we aim to strike a balance where we can. Born in Czechoslovakia, her family escaped to the US during WWII because […]

Dagny Carlsson

CLOAK AND DAGNY Swedish centenarian blogger Dagny Carlsson has posted her last update, aged 109. Inspired to take up blogging following a computer class taken when she was 99, she enjoyed routine Swedish media appearances in her final decade and even met King Carl XVI Gustaf. The “world’s oldest blogger” hook was enough for a […]

Joe D’Orazio

JOLTED JOE D’ORAZIO Before his death aged 99, Joe D’Orazio was the oldest living pro wrestler and the last major link to the scene in 50s Britain. Beginning his career in 1948, he preferred competing in foreign tournaments due to his disdain for Joint Promotions, the dominant force in British wrestling at the time. A […]

George Boscawen, 9th Viscount Falmouth

DISCOUNT FALMOUTH George Boscawen, 9th Viscount Falmouth, has died at the age of 102, days after someone vandalised his Wikipedia page with his “death”. Unfortunately, if it turns out that vandal has the Death Note, Kissinger’s article is semi-protected. A member of the Boscawen family which has owned swaths of land in Cornwall for centuries, […]

Peter Bowles

TO THE MANOR MOURN Versatile actor Peter Bowles has died of cancer aged 85. Though best known for his starring role in hit class-conscious BBC sitcom To the Manor Born as suave Czech market mogul Richard DeVere, he also was widely respected for his lengthy theatre career that kickstarted with Old Vic in the 1950s. […]

Vic Elford

SICK QUICK VIC PICK DOES THE TRICK Versatile racing driver Vic Elford has zipped through his final lap, aged 86. Nicknamed “Quick Vic”, he was considered one of the very best all-rounders of the profession. Porsche was his go-to car brand, though he also utilised Minis, Triumphs, and Ford Cortinas. He notched a string of […]

George Montague

PRIDE COMES BEFORE A FALL Gay rights trailblazer and Brighton Pride parade fixture George Montague’s 98 years charted the shifts of societal attitudes regarding the LGBT community, from the longtime criminalisation of homosexuality to more widespread acceptance. He realised his sexual orientation in his 20s, though as a result of the era attitudes he was […]

Don Young

YOUNG ON THE BRIDGE TO NOWHERE The rough terrain of Alaska has meant multiple of its political notables perished in plane crashes. Longtime Senator Ted “Series Of Tubes” Stevens died in one, as did early 70s Representative Nick Begich weeks ahead of the 1972 elections. Begich’s challenger, Republican Don Young, embarrassingly lost to a dead […]

Eugene Parker

I LOST YOU TO THE SOLAR WIND In 2017, NASA named a spacecraft in honour of a living person for the first time when designating a probe researching the Sun the “Parker Solar Probe”. Its namesake, Eugene Parker, attended its 2018 launch and reshaped perception of how the Sun operates through his pioneering research, doing […]

Lauro Cavazos

RESTING ON HIS LAUROS Seeing as the typical US Secretary of Education in a GOP administration advocates the viewpoint that all schoolchildren should be spoonfed the notion God founded America while Lincoln and Reagan were riding T-Rexes with guns, it may come as a surprise that the Gipper tapped moderate Democrat Lauro Cavazos for the […]