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...
SATURNINO DE LA MUERTE The world’s oldest man is dead, yet again. Even though supercentenarian picks have fallen out of vogue in recent DDP years, the oldest man and woman you can always count on to be a DDP pick until the end of time. 112-year-old Saturnino de la Fuente hailed from Spain, and his […]
GENERALISSIMO FRANCISCO GENTO IS STILL DEAD Arguably Spain’s finest footballer, Francisco Gento has died, aged 88. Nicknamed “Paco”, Gento began his professional career with local team Racing de Santander. His time with them was short-lived, for his talent was noticed by the somewhat-more-prominent Real Madrid, who promptly swooped him up as one of their players. […]
NO FREEDOM LEFT TO LOSE FOR CHARLIE MCGEE Tuskegee Airman Charles McGee has died at 102. Among the last survivors of the barrier-breaking cadre of African-American WWII pilots, he also served in the Korean War and Vietnam. He flew 409 combat missions during his military career, which remains a record today. In his later years, […]
SHE DIED, SHE DIED BABY… FFS, Gooseberry enema! I know writing obits for 60s musicians would be a reluctant perk of DDP co-hosting, but why did it have to be Ronnie first? 🙁 60s girl group icon Ronnie Spector has sadly died of cancer aged 78. Young Veronica Bennett grew up admiring Frankie Lymon’s output, […]
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 […]
