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...
SIDNEY’S IN THE FIELD Acclaimed and trailblazing actor Sidney Poitier has died aged 94, after years of declining health. Born to poverty in Miami and raised in his ancestral Bahamas, Poitier worked various meagre jobs in his teens to support his family, eventually looking to acting as an escape. Barely literate with a thick Bahamian […]
SHALOM Rabbi and US civil rights activist Israel Dresner has died of colon cancer, aged 92. Losing family members to the Holocaust made him acutely aware of the horrors vulnerable populations face, and this experience drove him to fight for both his own and other minorities. The parallels in their struggles and faiths saw Dresner […]
FRENETIC JANA-UARY CONTINUES Cooperstown, New York is best known as the home of the Baseball Hall of Fame. A village synonymous with such a UK-apathetic sport may seem an unusual starting point for a pivotal figure in modern British TV history, but that’s where former BBC TV boss Jana Bennett was born. She established herself […]
SAINSBURIED Supermarket honcho Lord Sainsbury of the eponymous Sainsbury’s franchise has self-checked out aged 94. A great-grandson of chain founder John James Sainsbury, the younger John joined the business in 1950, working up the ranks until becoming chairman. His services earned him both a knighthood and a peerage. Diet of Worms gains the unique hit. […]
TIM’S FALLEN FORT Golf journalist Tim Rosaforte has died at 66 of Alzheimer’s disease. Highly respected by both his journo peers and top-notch golfers such as Jack Nicklaus, Rosaforte covered over 125 majors and 17 Ryder Cups and was the first journalist to be awarded a lifetime PGA membership. Hot on the heels of his […]
ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DURST! Eccentric heir and murderer Robert Durst has fulfilled the annual niche of “suspected fraud who actually dies”, aged 78. Growing up in NYC, Durst repeatedly beat up his siblings, so it was little surprise he was a prime suspect in the mysterious disappearance of his wife in 1982. After his […]
WALDHORN BLEGH-HORN Actor Gary Waldhorn has died aged 78. His lengthy career in theatre and TV was best known as the stuffy parish council chair David Horton in the beloved 90s BBC sitcom The Vicar of Dibley, whose carnage of main cast continues at an astonishing rate. His straight man role was tougher to act […]
IN FOR THE KILL Heavy metal vocalist Burke Shelley has died aged 71. He was the frontman and main constant of Budgie, which has influenced many hard rock acts since. His high-pitched vocals were often compared to Geddy Lee, with the band overall seen as something of a fusion between Rush and Black Sabbath. He […]
ORGAN FAILURE Organist and composer Francis Jackson has died aged 104. The musical director and resident organist at York Minster for many years, Jackson had numerous religious and secular compositions in his acclaimed oeuvre. He played at the Duke of Kent’s wedding, mentored John Barry, and continued to compose past his centennial. Three teams get […]
PETERED FALKENBURG Tennis player Bob Falkenburg has died aged 95. His finest moment was winning the Wimbledon singles in 1948, with a late-game comeback comparable to David Quantick’s Showbiz Pals DDP wins. The feat was unparalleled until Novak Djokovic did the same in 2019. Hasn’t that guy been in the news lately? After Falkenburg’s tennis […]
