END OF THE (TRAM)LINE
Popular actor Mark Eden celebrated the New Year by dying hours into it. Eden had a long career on TV from Quatermass and the Pit to Poirot, through The Prisoner to a 7 week spell as Marco Polo in Doctor Who in 1964. However, he gained lasting TV notoriety as the villainous Alan Bradley in Coronation Street. As the abusive partner of Corrie legend Rita, he committed fraud in her name and then tried to murder her, before a famous Christmas 1989 climax when he was hit by a Blackpool tram trying to catch the fleeing Rita. At the time, Coronation Street was gaining average viewerships of around 20-25 million people, and Alan Bradley was recently voted as one of the shows greatest villains in its 60 year history. The role completely changed the types of jobs Eden was offered after this, but outside of playing psychos, he was well loved among his fellow actors. He died after a battle with dementia, having outlived his oldest son.
He was picked by Groblers Stiff Ones and The Cobbles to a Coffin theme team. But, due to later events on Day 1, this means that Deathray above currently holds the record for the shortest time on top of the DDP in history. About 3 hours. Breaking records for longest and shortests these days…
Mark Eden
14 February 1928 – 1 January 2021
2 teams