Death happens. Why not make it interesting?
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...
OLIVE IN THE PITS British TV mainstay Anna Karen has died, terrifyingly in a house fire, aged 85. Her first sitcom role in Wild, Wild Women would be a launchpad to her defining role, frumpish and oft-harried wife Olive in ITV bus crew sitcom On the Buses. Filming episodes of WWW while suffering from flu, […]
DIGITAL NUMB Sing, fly, review art, is there anything nuns can’t do? Have an A-game on Twitter, you say? Sister Catherine Wybourne, who has hit her 280th character aged 67, proves you wrong. Her longtime fascination with technology often put her at odds with her Benedictine order, but Wybourne was unperturbed and spearheaded a fusion […]
NOW YOU SEE HIM… Outrageous Vegas magician The Amazing Johnathan makes his disappearing act aged 63, following years of ticker woes. The stage name of John Szeles, Johnathan deemed himself the “Freddy Krueger of Comedy” for his gory tricks. This both involved apparent self-mutilation (such as sucking on his dangling eyeball) and morbid variants of […]
A STEP INTO THE PAST Hong Kong film director Chor Yuen has died aged 87, following many years of suffering from dementia. Heavily associated with the martial arts genre, he also acted, with roles including the main baddie in Jackie Chan romp Police Story. Oriental outfit Dead Continent chops into the points, and is a […]
REBEL DOUSER Perhaps not the UK political maverick you were expecting to read here, former Tory MP Richard Shepherd has died aged 79. The MP for Aldridge-Brownhills for 36 years, his support of whistleblowers irritated Thatcher and was later shepherded (heh) into the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998. He was also among the Maastricht Rebel […]
GOLDEN BUZZARD RECEIVES NIGHTBIRDE Seemingly every three years a young musical upstart positions themselves as one of the pivotal differentials of the DDP contest. Thomas Fekete in 2016 and Billy Clayton in 2019 both delivered for the eventual winners, and many of those vying for the 2022 crown had their eyes on America’s Got Talent […]
POP-UP BLOCKED Children’s author and illustrator Jan Pienkowski, best known for the Meg and Mog series, has died aged 85. Born in Poland a few years before WWII, scary stories a neighbour told him as a child instilled in him a flair for the macabre. What Pienkowski witnessed after the invasion cemented his belief that […]
CHARLEY HOARSE As the DDP front page showrunner changes hands, the personal perspectives and tastes that seep into the obits also change. But even with an American now writing them, you’re talking to an American so sport-apathetic that she didn’t really realise this year’s Super Bowl was about to happen until the Friday of that […]
HELLO REAPER, HELLO GOD, I’M YOUR CA-CA-CA-CA-CA-CA-CANDY BOMBER The lady who co-wrote “Lollipop” wasn’t a DDP pick (or a QO, as it stands), so this obit will have to satisfy deadpoolers’ sweet tooths… A few years after WWII, the Soviet blockade of land routes to West Berlin forced the Western Allies to embark on “Operation […]
HOLY VERTUE Beryl Vertue’s accomplished and pioneering career in British television began during the industry’s nascency, and she remained an active influence as a producer well into her 80s. It began thanks to her friendship with Alan Simpson, who secured her secretarial work for Galton and Simpson. It was soon realised that she had a […]
