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...
THE PRINCESS IS IN ANOTHER CASKET Archduchess Yolande of Austria was the widow of Archduke Carl Ludwig of Austria, who himself was the son of last Austrian Emperor Charles I. She is the final person to be entombed in the Habsburg family’s Imperial Crypt, which has now reached maximum capacity. Beyond that there’s not much […]
THE RIGOR MORTIS AFFAIR Acting great David McCallum has died aged 90. He got his start as a child actor on the radio, and through the late 50s and early 60s was a recognisable film face in roles such as a James Dean type in The Secret Place, a junior Titanic operator in A Night […]
THE STINKING DEFECTIVE Acclaimed actor Michael Gambon is facing a Gambon coroner, aged 82. His natural home was the stage, and no less than Laurence Olivier decreed him a rising star. His first encounter with Olivier, where his audition of the Richard III opening soliloquy wooed Sir Larry, enraptured the young Gambon with carefree excitement […]
FEINSTEIN’S THEORY OF NO LUCIDITY In the beginning, there was darkness. Then Dianne Feinstein turned on her lamp. Feinstein was well known as a doddery member of the senate, specifically the Roman Senate, where she was believed to have won her seat in a campaign that highlighted her discovery of fire and ties to Fred […]
POISON ARROWSMITH Peace activist Pat Arrowsmith has died aged 93, although we’re half expecting her to rise from her grave in a show of rebellion against the Reaper. She was most dedicated to nuclear disarmament, co-founding the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in 1957 and co-organising the first Aldermaston march. Other causes dear to her included […]
A PALL FOR TANO Longtime kingmaker of Italian politics Giorgio Napolitano has died aged 98. He became the first ex-Communist head of state in Italy when elected by parliament as president in 2006. Napolitano bulked the political muscle of the largely-ceremonial elder statesman post, playing a key role in shaping a rotating door of governments […]
FIRST SNOW OF THE SEASON Chris Snow was a 42-year old sportswriter-turned-NHL executive for the Calgary Flames. As you might have guessed, he had to have been ill to be picked here. He waged a several year bout against ALS and was picked by three teams, all in the top 6: Heading Nowhere, The Love […]
ABERDONE Two Scottish footballers named “Frank McSomething” were diagnosed with cancer last fall. Unsurprisingly the chap with advanced pancreatic cancer (Frank McGarvey) was more popular than the one with stage two lung cancer, one Frank McDougall. McDougall played as a striker for Clydebank, St Mirren, and Aberdeen, and was most celebrated with the Dons when […]
THE LAST FAREWELL Folksy balladeer Roger Whittaker has died aged 87. The Kenyan-born Whittaker often incorporated whistling into a string of hits that included “Durham Town (The Leavin’)”, “I Don’t Believe in If Anymore”, “The Last Farewell”, and Des O’Connor duet “The Skye Boat Song”. He counted Elvis and George H. W. Bush among his […]
MANDELA DEFECT Nelson’s granddaughter, Zoleka Mandela had a rough go at things herself – she survived sexual abuse as a child, struggled with drug and alcohol addiction, lost two of her children at young ages, and dealt with breast cancer on-and-off for over a decade. She chronicled her experiences into writing, and was recognised by […]
