TO EVERYTHING, TURN, TURN, TURN…
Journalist and BBC Breakfast presenter Bill Turnbull has become breakfast for the worms aged 66 after a lengthy tussle with prostate cancer. This is despite the assertions of an unnamed DDP participant that Turnbull was a fraud. Said deadpooler is backed by a whopping zero hits to their name as we enter the final third of the year. Turnbull began his journalism career with small Scottish station Radio Clyde before settling with the BBC in the late 80s. He trotted the globe while covering stories including the Lockerbie bombing and the fall of Ceaușescu, and as the Washington Correspondent in the 90s he reported on OJ getting away with killing two people and Bill Clinton getting away with getting head.
If already well respected for his journalism, it was in the presenter’s sofa where he became most familiar as the co-host of chat show BBC Breakfast from 2001 to 16. His affable, calming demeanour made him a cozy fit for the early morning programme, while his history on the frontlines gave him the credibility to occasionally leave the studio to cover major events. Now a national celebrity, he also appeared on Strictly, hosted Songs of Praise and Think Tank, and presented his own show on Classic FM. The early signs of prostate cancer he disregarded as old age – by the time he was tested, the cancer spread to his bones and was incurable. He spent much of his final years encouraging men to get screened for prostate cancer, and saved many lives through his advocacy.
In his free time, Turnbull was an avid beekeeper who wrote books and hosted documentaries pertaining to the insects. He even left BBC Breakfast largely because he was worried he was neglecting his bees. The sting of his cancer diagnosis generated considerable buzz in deadpooling colonies, though the slowness of the disease meant he was never a true hivemind pick. Nevertheless swarms of poolers took him into the Drop 40 and if I make one more bee pun you’re all going to put me on the Drop 40 out of wishful thinking. Among the 104 beneficiaries: Former host The Man In Black notches his first hit after three years away, and a trio of jokers come to eejit, Partridge As Reaper, and SeasideEssexXile. Many in the top 10 benefit, and 2nd placers DDP Tofoa and Smart Beta jointly hop forward as if they were in a three-legged race. The way recent weeks have been seesawing between “Spade hit, Eesti hit” is so uncanny I’m half expecting an Alyson Williams car crash by next Friday.
Bill Turnbull
25 January 1956 – 31 August 2022, aged 66
104 TEAMS (💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀 + 40 = 11 POINTS, 🃏 (x3) 22 POINTS)