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, first tenure), The Man in Black (2010-17), Spade Cooley (2018-19), msc (2020-21), Grim Up North (2020-22), Reptile (2020-23), and Death Impends (2022-2025). Now the Committee of Banana (2023), time (2024), the returning Octopus of Odstock (2026) and the deadpooling equivalent of a gap year temp Marlfox (2026) oversee the biggest deadpool going...
OLD RACIST DIES The lynching of Emmett Till feels so distant, yet still all too recent. Till would be 81 years old if he were alive today. And the woman who catalysed his death ambled on until days ago. Chicago native Till had been visiting relatives in Mississippi when Carolyn Bryant Donham, a white grocery […]
PENNIES ON HIS TWO EYES 50s rock-n-roller Wee Willie Harris has died aged 90. The pint-sized showman was a regular at the 2i’s Coffee Bar, the early rock hotspot that housed figures like Adam Faith and Tommy Steele, performing songs like “Rockin’ At The 2 I’s” and covers of pre-Beatle US figures like Bobby Rydell […]
POTTED Pearl Harbor survivor Ken Potts has died aged 102. He was among the sailors aboard the USS Arizona amidst Japan’s offence. The 1,177 deaths on the Arizona accounted for about half of Pearl Harbor’s casualties and, eighty years later, Potts still vividly recounted his harrowing experiences on the date that lives in infamy: the […]
BRASSED OFF Actor Peter Martin has died aged 82. He first made his name in a series of Jewson building ads from the 80s, where he portrayed a befuddled customer opposite a wood salesman. His best known roles are of neighbour Joe Carroll in The Royle Family and Len Reynolds in Emmerdale. He was a […]
MELVIN ON A BLUE NOTE Acting veteran Murray Melvin has died aged 90. His role as gay student Geoffrey Ingham in kitchen sink drama A Taste of Honey won him a Cannes. He kept active for the next sixty years, and other roles of note include Reverend Samuel Runt in Barry Lyndon, Michael Caine’s work […]
MCALPINE PEAKS Oldest living F1 racer Kenneth McAlpine has gone naught aged 102. Racing for the short-lived Connaught team that once boasted Stirling Moss, he had no racing wins to his name but his personal wealth (thanks to being the grandson of construction magnate “Concrete Bob” McAlpine) allowed him to bankroll the team and fueled […]
MORE ANGELS Former Los Angeles mayor Richard Riordan has died aged 92. The moderate Republican came to power on a “tough guy” message as the Rodney King riots shook the city. His tenure saw an upswing in the economy and a downtick in crime, though also many a spat with bureaucracies and various police scandals. […]
SMELLING P FUNKY Parliament-Funkadelic singer Fuzzy Haskins has died aged 81. He was everpresent from the group’s humble doo-wop beginnings to its transformation into funk titans, co-writing Funkadelic songs like “I Got a Thing, You Got a Thing, Everybody’s Got a Thing” and “I Wanna Know If It’s Good to You”. He quit the collective […]
PIRATE WALKS THE PLANK Baseball and basketball player Dick Groat has died aged 92, probably of dick groat, whatever that is. He had the more stellar career with baseball, winning two World Series with both the Pittsburgh Pirates and the St. Louis Cardinals, though held basketball as his biggest passion. He was unique for Roasting […]
COLQUHOUN COCOONED Sheffield United footballer Eddie Colquhoun has died aged 78. The hardy tackler made north of 400 appearances for the Blades, and was part of a popular fan chant at the peak of his career. They think it’s all over continues their run of good form. Eddie Colquhoun29 March 1945 – 16 April 2023, […]
