Dead Pool 29th May 2016

Alas no points this week, although I could have sworn that one of you had Burt Kwouk, perhaps it was last year! So the league table remains the same for the time being. I’m rather hesitant to send out the flying monkeys, it seems rather greedy after so many stars have died of late, so for the time being we’ll just coast along with the ‘B’ List celebrities.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Lewis Fiander, 78, Australian actor, stroke.
• Buck Kartalian, 93, American actor (Planet of the Apes, Cool Hand Luke, The Rock).
• Burt Kwouk, 85, British actor (The Pink Panther, Last of the Summer Wine, Goldfinger).
• Nancy Dow, 79, American actress (The Ice House) and model, mother of Jennifer Aniston.
• Peggy Spencer, 95, British dancer.
• Angela Paton, 86, American actress (Groundhog Day, American Wedding, Lolita), heart attack.

In Other News

Calvin Harris says he feels “lucky and grateful” following his car accident last week. Last Friday, Harris, who was travelling as a passenger in a Cadillac, was involved in a collision on the way to a Los Angeles airport. He was hospitalised and has been resting on doctor’s orders since. Harris, who is the highest earning DJ in the world, was forced to cancel a number of gigs and appearances following the crash. On Thursday, a statement on his Facebook page announced he would not be performing at his Las Vegas residency on Friday night as he is still “recovering from the injuries sustained in the car accident”. On Friday, Harris returned to Twitter saying he was felt “lucky and grateful”. He also thanked fans for their well-wishes and apologised for the cancelled concerts. Following the crash, a Los Angeles police department spokesperson said a Volkswagen Beetle had collided with Harris’ vehicle. “In the other vehicle a juvenile was ejected from the vehicle for not wearing a seatbelt and suffered a broken pelvis.” According to reports from celebrity gossip site TMZ, the driver was a 16-year-old girl. Following the crash, a spokesperson for Harris, whose real name is Adam Wiles, said he had “sustained a number of injuries” from the “serious collision”.

The former BBC presenter Sian Williams has revealed she underwent a double mastectomy after being diagnosed with breast cancer. Speaking to Woman & Home magazine, Williams explained how she felt the chances of her having breast cancer were so “improbable” that she went to get the results from a mammogram alone, despite having a family history of cancer. The 5 News at 5 anchor said: “The week after my 50th birthday I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I thought I was healthy. I did all the right things – I was a green tea drinker, a salmon eater, a runner. “My aunt died of breast cancer, and I’d lost my mum to liver and bowel cancer – and I gradually began to realise how bewildered and scared I was.” Williams described how the shock of her diagnosis impacted upon her relationship with her husband, saying she was “horrible” to him at times as she struggled to discuss her fears.

Gordon Downie, the lead singer of Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip, has been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. In news that has devastated fans, The Hip confirmed Downie, 52, was diagnosed with cancer in December. A founding member, Downie has performed with The Hip for over three decades and released three solo albums. The band told their fans in a Facebook post, in which they also announced plans to tour again in his honour. “A few months ago, in December, Gord Downie was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. Since then, obviously, he’s endured a lot of difficult times, and he has been fighting hard. In privacy along with his family, and through all of this, we’ve been standing by him. “So after 30-some years together as The Tragically Hip, thousands of shows, and hundreds of tours… We’ve decided to do another one. This feels like the right thing to do now, for Gord, and for all of us.

The Scottish do-gooder nurse who survived  Ebola has said she has been left with permanent weakness in her leg and will probably never run again. Pauline Cafferkey, 40, from Cambuslang, South Lanarkshire, was hospitalised three times, at great expense to the NHS, after contracting the virus while working in Sierra Leone in 2014. She told BBC Radio Scotland that she was now “Ebola negative” and her health had come on “leaps and bounds”. But she said there were long-term issues, such as numbness and dizziness. Speaking on Radio Scotland’s Stephen Jardine programme, Ms Cafferkey revealed that her case was the highest viral load of Ebola ever recorded in a survivor. However, she added: “I’ve still got swelling at the base of my spine, which is very painful and dizziness – my balance isn’t too good.” Paying tribute to her medical team, she added: “Although I am negative Ebola, I still have some remnants there as a result of it. But on the other hand, I am alive and I have received the best care in the world, *for free*.”

And finally, a Thai man is recovering in hospital after a 3m (10ft) python emerged from a squat toilet and sank its teeth into his penis. Attaporn Boonmakchuay said the python was “yanking very hard” as he and his wife tried to wrestle it off. Doctors said Mr Attaporn, who lost a lot of blood in the ordeal, was making a good recovery. Workers dismantled the toilet and extracted the python which had slithered through domestic plumbing. It was released back into the wild. The incident happened as Mr Attaporn, 38, went to the toilet at his home in Chachoengsao province, east of Bangkok, before leaving for work on Wednesday. As he used the toilet he said he suddenly felt a sharp pain. “I felt as though my penis had been severed. The snake was yanking very hard,” he said,  according to the Bangkok Post. As the python tried to pull him down, he called for his wife and neighbours to help him, the post reported. Mr Attaporn told Thai TV that his wife tied a rope around the snake and he prised its jaws open before passing out. Thai media published images of Mr Attaporn’s blood-spattered toilet. Doctors said Mr Attaporn was recovering well. “He has a really good attitude… even though his own wife and children were in shock. He’s been smiling and giving interviews all day from his bed,” said Chularat Hospital director Dr Chutima Pincharoen. Mr Attaporn said he planned to replace the squat toilet with a sitting one.

On This Day

• 1913 – Igor Stravinsky‘s ballet score The Rite of Spring receives its premiere performance in Paris, France, provoking a riot.
• 1919 – Albert Einstein‘s theory of general relativity is tested (later confirmed) by Arthur Eddington and Andrew Claude de la Cherois Crommelin.
• 1942 – Bing Crosby, the Ken Darby Singers and John Scott Trotter and his Orchestra record Irving Berlin‘s “White Christmas“, the best-selling single in history.
• 1953 – Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay become the first people to reach the summit of Mount Everest, on Tenzing Norgay’s (adopted) 39th birthday.
• 1985 – Heysel Stadium disaster: Thirty-nine association football fans die and hundreds are injured when a dilapidated retaining wall collapses.
• 1988 – The U.S. President Ronald Reagan begins his first visit to the Soviet Union when he arrives in Moscow for a superpower summit with the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
• 1999 – Space Shuttle Discovery completes the first docking with the International Space Station.

Deaths

• 1951 – Fanny Brice, American singer and comedian (b. 1891)
• 1997 – Jeff Buckley, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Gods and Monsters) (b. 1966)
• 2010 – Dennis Hopper, American actor, director, and screenwriter (b. 1936)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Morrissey (57), Naomi Campbell (46), Ginnifer Goodwin (38), Joan Collins (83), Marvin Hagler (62), Tommy Chong (78), Bob Dylan (75), Priscilla Presley (71), Jim Broadbent (67), John C. Reilly (51), Eric Cantona (50), Ian McKellan (77), Frank Oz (72), Mike Myers (53), Anne Heche (47), Stevie Nicks (68), Bobcat Goldthwait (54), Lenny Kravitz (52), Helena Bonham Carter (50), Louis Gossett Jr. (80), Sioxsie Sioux (58), Paul Bettany (44), Denise Van Outen (42), Jamie Oliver (41), Gladys Knight (72) and Kylie Minogue (48).

The Last Word

General John Sedgwick (1813-1864) – “They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance”.

Next week peeps!

29th May 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 22nd May 2016

Another week flies by, another Dead Pool newsletter lands in your inbox. Alas no points, although one of our members came close with Ian Watkins, had she dropped the ’s’ in the name she would have scored points, but we all knew she meant the paedophile from The Lost Prophets, not the New Zealand actor…

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Michael Roberds, 52, Canadian actor (The New Addams Family, Elf, Hot Tub Time Machine).
• Ian Watkin, 76, New Zealand actor (Braindead, Sleeping Dogs)
• John Berry, 52, American musician (Beastie Boys), frontal lobe dementia.
• Alan Young, 96, English-born Canadian-American actor (Mister Ed, The Time Machine, DuckTales). 
• Nick Menza, 51, American drummer (Megadeth), heart failure.

In Other News

Former France winger David Ginola is recovering in hospital in Monaco after a quadruple heart bypass operation. The 49-year-old former Newcastle, Tottenham, Aston Villa and Everton player, who retired in 2002, collapsed in the south of  France on Thursday. His surgeon, speaking with authority of the family, told the media that Ginola was “extremely lucky” to be alive. “David played a sort of charity football match. All of a sudden he collapsed and people thought it was a joke but after one or two minutes they realised it was serious,” said Gilles Dreyfus, professor of cardiac surgery at the Monaco Heart Centre. “Fortunately there was one person who had been trained in CPR, because otherwise he would have been brain dead. They then called the emergency services, who arrived eight minutes later with him in cardiac arrest. “They arrived with him in cardiac arrest, he was shocked four times on site, they were able to restore a normal heart rhythm and within 10 minutes a helicopter arrived to transfer him to Monaco Heart Centre. The decision to transfer him to the operating theatre was made and he immediately underwent a quadruple heart bypass, which was very straightforward although difficult. “It was a sequence of events that at every stage went absolutely fine, that is why he is here today. Luckier you can’t be. It’s an unbelievable story.”

Sinéad O’Connor has been found safe, local police have confirmed, after a desperate hunt was launched to find the Irish singer when she disappeared on Sunday from a suburb of Chicago. News that she had not been seen since early on Sunday morning immediately sparked alarm as reports emerged on Monday that authorities were concerned for her health. Police in the Chicago suburb of Wilmette released a statement on Monday in which they said they were “seeking to check the wellbeing” of the 49-year-old. The singer has opened up about her struggles with suicidal thoughts in the past. In 2007, she told Oprah Winfrey that she had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and attempted suicide on her 33rd birthday. In recent weeks, she became embroiled in controversy after the death of Prince, who wrote her breakthrough hit Nothing Compares 2 U. The talkshow host Arsenio Hall filed a $5m lawsuit against O’Connor after she posted on Facebook to allege that Hall had given Prince drugs “over the decades”.

TV star Tim Healy is recovering in hospital after being taken ill during the filming of the ITV show Benidorm. He was flown to Manchester from Spain on Saturday after his condition improved enough to allow him to travel. The media reported that Healy was taken ill almost a month ago and had been fighting for his life. An ITV spokesman said the 64-year-old was “feeling much better” and that filming of the show had been “adjusted to accommodate Tim’s absence”. It is understood his former wife Denise Welch flew to Spain at one point to visit him in hospital, where his wife Joan has been by his side. Healy, who was born in Newcastle and found fame in the 1980s’ show Auf Wiedersehen Pet, has played the cross-dressing character Les/Lesley in Benidorm since 2010.

And finally, Chinese officials have issued an angry denial following claims the country has been marinating human  cadavers, putting them in cans and then selling them in African supermarkets. The outlandish rumour appears to have been started on Facebook, where a post featuring grisly images, supposedly of human meat being processed, went viral earlier this month. The post was picked up by Zambia’s Daily Post, among others, which published a report saying: “One cannot deny the possibilities (sic) of this being true since we all know that the Asians are among the largest population in the entire world. “Since China is so overpopulated to a point where there is no space to spit, what do they do with the dead bodies of the Chinese? Well the answer might be that they are shipping the bodies to Africa in the form of canned meat, and they make a profit during the process.” Yang Youming, China’s ambassador to Zambia, released a statement saying: “Today a local tabloid newspaper is openly spreading a rumor, claiming that the Chinese use human meat to make corned beef and sell it to Africa. This is completely a malicious slandering and vilification which is absolutely unacceptable to us,” he said in a statement. “We hereby express our utmost anger and the strongest condemnation over such an act.” Zambia’s Deputy Defense Minister Christopher Mulenga has pledged that the government will launch investigations into the reports.

On This Day

• 1455 – Start of the Wars of the Roses: At the First Battle of St Albans, Richard, Duke of York, defeats and captures King Henry VI of England.
• 1762 – Trevi Fountain in Rome is officially completed and inaugurated by Pope Clemens XIII.
• 1840 – The transportation of British convicts to the New South Wales colony is abolished.
• 1885 – Prior to burial in the Panthéon, the body of Victor Hugo was exposed under the Arc de Triomphe during the night.
• 1888 – Leroy Buffington patents a system to build skyscrapers.
• 1960 – An earthquake measuring 9.5 on the moment magnitude scale, now known as the Great Chilean earthquake, hits southern Chile. It is the most powerful earthquake ever recorded.
• 1980 – Namco releases the highly influential arcade game Pac-Man.

Deaths

• 1802 – Martha Washington, American wife of George Washington, 1st First Lady of the United States (b. 1731)
• 1885 – Victor Hugo, French novelist, poet, and playwright (b. 1802)
• 2013 – Lee Rigby, English soldier and drummer (b. 1987)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Brian Eno (68), Zara Phillips (35), Pierce Brosnan (63), Debra Winger (61), Janet Jackson (50), Gabriella Sabatini (46), Bill Paxton (61), Enya (55), Jordan Knight (46), Sugar Ray Leonard (60), Chow Yun Fat (61), Tina Fey (46), Pete Townshend (71), Grace Jones (68), Cher (70), Judge Reinhold (59) and Mr. T (64).

The Last Word

Don’t die like I did. – George Best  d. 2005

Next week peeps!

22nd May 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 15th May 2016

Sorry for the lateness of this edition of the Dead Pool, life got in the way. However, we have points to award, so let’s get on with it! Seeing all of you had Susannah Mushatt Jones as a Cert or a Woman, you all score 134 points! Congratulations to Stu, Julie, Lee, Paul C and Dave! It’s certainly upset the leader board somewhat!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• William Schallert, 93, American actor (The Patty Duke Show, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, In the Heat of the Night), President of SAG (1979–1981).
• Susannah Mushatt Jones, 116, American supercentenarian, world’s oldest living person.
• Tony Barrow, 80, British press officer (The Beatles).

In Other News

Anthony Kiedis, the Red Hot Chili Peppers singer, has been hospitalised, with the band cancelling a concert at the last minute. Flea, the band’s bassist, took the stage  in Irvine, California to announce that the band would be unable to perform. “Anthony is on his way to the hospital right now, and we’re unable to play this evening,” he said. “We are devastated about it, we are really sad. We love you so much, we live to rock.” “Unfortunately there’s a medical thing that happened and he needed to deal with it,” he added. A representative for KROQ, the Los Angeles radio station hosting the concert, told Billboard that Kiedis was suffering from extreme stomach pain. Kiedis, 53, is a founding member of the band, which formed in 1983 and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012.

Sheridan Smith has pulled out of her third consecutive performance of the West End musical Funny Girl after saying she is not strong enough. Her leading role as Fanny Brice will be played by her understudy, Natasha  Barnes, leaving it uncertain whether Smith will continue for the remaining five-month run. Smith, 34, first missed a performance on Monday night after responding angrily to suggestions in the press that she had been a sore loser at the Baftas for missing out on the best actress award for her role as the cancer blogger Lisa Lynch in The C Word. Shortly before her performance on Tuesday, the Savoy theatre again stated that Barnes would play Brice because of the “indisposition” of Smith, and then repeated the same announcement on Wednesday afternoon. Smith’s representative has not confirmed when she will return to the stage. The producers of Funny Girl said in a statement that Smith was going through a difficult time.

And finally, the benefits of special diets for athletes have been well documented, but Serena Williams may have taken things too far on Wednesday when she decided to sample her pet dog’s dinner. Williams is playing in the Italian Open, and her hotel had prepared a special menu for her Yorkshire terrier, Chip, including a tempting salmon and rice dish. The world No1 sampled some of it, telling fans on Snapchat: “I ate a spoonful. Don’t judge me.” Williams’s verdict? It tasted “a little bit like a house-cleaner thing.” That was followed by an urgent trip to the bathroom a few hours later. “I don’t think it’s consumable for humans. They should have wrote that,” noted Williams. The incident did little to slow down Williams once she played Christina McHale in the third round in Rome: she won 7-6 (7-5), 6-1. Chip’s thoughts on the matter were not available at the time of publication.

On This Day

• 1536 – Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, stands trial in London on charges of treason, adultery and incest. She is condemned to death by a specially-selected jury.
• 1618 – Johannes Kepler confirms his previously rejected discovery of the third law of planetary motion (he first discovered it on March 8 but soon rejected the idea after some initial calculations were made).
• 1718 – James Puckle, a London lawyer, patents the world’s first machine gun.
• 1730 – Robert Walpole effectively became the first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
• 1928 – Walt Disney character Mickey Mouse premieres in his first cartoon, Plane Crazy.
• 1940 – McDonald’s opens its first restaurant in San Bernardino, California.
• 1957 – At Malden Island in the Pacific Ocean, Britain tests its first hydrogen bomb in Operation Grapple.

Deaths

• Nobody of any importance!

Last Week’s Birthdays

Rosario Dawson (37), Billy Joel (67), Bono (56), Linda Evangelista (51), Emilio Estevez (54), Gabriel Byrne (66), Jason Biggs (38), Malin Akerman (38), Stephen Baldwin (50), Ving Rhames (57), Harvey Keitel (77), Stevie Wonder (66), Stephen Colbert (52), Robert Pattinson (30), Dennis Rodman (55), Samantha Morton (39), George Lucas (72), Tim Roth (55), Cate Blanchett (47) and Mark Zuckerberg (32).

The Last Word

Am I dying or is this my birthday? – When she woke briefly during her last illness and found all her family around her bedside. – Lady Nancy Astor, d. 1964

Next week peeps!

15th May 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 8th May 2016

Another week, a few more deaths. Alas we’re back to scraping the bottom of the barrel for names we barely recognise. However, plenty to read as these celebrities seem to be very fond of doing silly things.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Jonathan Cainer, 58, British astrologer (Daily Mail), heart failure.
• Kristian Ealey, 38, British actor (Brookside, Hollyoaks).
• Frank Levingston, 110, American supercentenarian, nation’s oldest World War II veteran.
• Matt Irwin, 36, British photographer.
• Margot Honecker, 89, East German politician, Minister of People’s Education (1963–1989), First Lady (1976–1989).
• Rickey Smith, 36, American singer and talent show contestant (American Idol), traffic collision.

In Other News

Little Richard has denied claims that he is “clinging to life”. According to his attorney, William Sobel, who has represented him for 30 years, reports of the singer’s poor health are untrue. “I just spoke to him today,” Sobel told Rolling Stone. “He said, ‘You know, I want you to talk to the press because I’m really annoyed this thing started on Facebook. Not only is my family not gathering around me because I’m ill, but I’m still singing. I don’t perform like I used to, but I have my singing voice, I walk around, I had hip surgery a while ago but I’m healthy.’” Rumours concerning the 83-year-old rock’n’roll legend’s health were reported by several sources earlier this week, following Bootsy Collins’ seemingly misinformed message on Facebook: “A friend, a legend & some say the true King of Rock & Roll,” he wrote. “Lil-Richard needs our love & understanding right now. He is not in the best of health so I ask all the Funkateers to lift him up.” Although Little Richard continues to sing, he avoids the spotlight and hasn’t performed live in two years. “He had hip surgery,” Sobel told Rolling Stone. “He’s 83. I don’t know how many 83-year-olds still get up and rock it out every week, but in light of the rumours, I wanted to tell you that he’s vivacious and conversant about a ton of different things and he’s still very active in a daily routine. I used to represent Prince and he just engaged me in all kinds of Prince conversations, calling him a ‘creative genius’.”

Several weeks ago production on the third Maze Runner film, The Death Cure, was shut down when star Dylan O’Brien was injured on set. Now, a new report says his injuries were worse than originally thought and the film has been postponed indefinitely. “His injuries are very serious and he needs more time to recover,” O’Brien’s publicist Jennifer Allen told The Hollywood Reporter, who broke the story. Fox released the following statement as well: The resumption of principal photography on Maze Runner: The Death Cure has been further delayed to allow Dylan O’Brien more time to fully recover from his injuries. We wish Dylan a speedy recovery and look forward to restarting production as soon as possible. According to the report, on March 18 O’Brien suffered a “concussion, facial fracture and lacerations” when a stunt in which the actor was on top of a moving vehicle went wrong.

Janet Jackson is pregnant with her first child, according to reports in the US. The singer, who will turn 50 in May, put all tour plans on hold for the foreseeable future earlier this year in order to start a family. The singer embarked on her year-long Unbreakable World Tour – her first in four years – last August, but missed shows due to medical reasons since October. Jackson had to deny rumours that she had throat cancer after worrying fans with an update on Christmas Eve saying that she needed surgery. A video posted on her Twitter account last month explained that she was “planning a family” with husband Wissam Al Mana, who she married secretly in 2012.

The former child star of ’80s film Flight of the Navigator has been charged with bank robbery in Canada. Deleriyes Joe Cramer, who was known as Joey Cramer when he starred in the 1986 movie, was arrested in Gibsons, British Columbia. The robbery took place in nearby Sechelt on the Sunshine Coast. Royal Canadian Mounted Police issued a statement saying the 42-year-old had been charged with four offences relating to the bank robbery. Cramer, who lives in Gibsons, was in a number of films as a child actor, including Runaway with Tom Selleck and The Clan of Cave Bear with Darryl Hannah. His biggest film was the box office hit Flight of the Navigator, in which Cramer played the lead character David Freeman. He was nominated for the Young Artist Award by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films in 1987. Police say a disguise was used in the bank robbery. They have requested anyone with additional information, including information about a man purchasing or discarding a disguise involving a shoulder-length wig, bandana, and dark jacket with a reddish design on the back, to contact Sunshine Coast police. Cramer is facing charges including robbery, disguise with intent to commit an indictable offence, failure to stop for a police officer and dangerous operation of a motor vehicle.

Italian composer Ennio Morricone has cancelled concerts in Rome because of health concerns. The 87-year-old has shelved three performances due to two collapsed vertebrae, according to Rome’s Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia Orchestra. The Oscar winner was due to perform with Santa Cecilia and its chorus. Later European concerts will still go ahead, Morricone’s spokeswoman said. Morricone, who has 500 film credits to this name, won his first competitive Oscar this year for his work on Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight. He had previously received an honorary Oscar in 2007.

On This Day

• 1429 – Joan of Arc lift the Siege of Orleans turning the tides of the Hundred Years’ War.
• 1886 – Pharmacist John Pemberton first sells a carbonated beverage named “Coca-Cola” as a patent medicine.
• 1912 – Paramount Pictures is founded.
• 1945 – World War II: V-E Day, combat ends in Europe. German forces agree in Reims, France, to an unconditional surrender.
• 1980 – The World Health Organization confirms the eradication of smallpox.

Deaths

• 1903 – Paul Gauguin, French painter and sculptor (b. 1848)
• 1982 – Gilles Villeneuve, Canadian race car driver (b. 1950)
• 1988 – Robert A. Heinlein, American author and screenwriter (b. 1907)
• 1994 – George Peppard, American actor and producer (b. 1928)
• 1999 – Dirk Bogarde, English actor and screenwriter (b. 1921)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Wes Anderson (47), Dwayne “The Rock’ Johnson (44), David Beckham (41), Ellie Kemper (36), Lily Allen (31), Frankie Valli (82), Christina Hendricks (41), Will Arnett (46), Michael Palin (73), Richard E. Grant (59), Henry Cavill (33), Adele (28), George Clooney (55) and Traci Lords (48).

The Last Word

“Hey fellas! How about this for a headline for tomorrows paper? ‘French Fries!’” – James French, convicted murderer, as he was being strapped into the electric chair.  d.1966

Next week peeps!

8th May 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »

Dead Pool 1st May 2016

Not a lot to report upon this week, after all, we have been spoiled recently with deaths so it’s impossible to keep the ball rolling unless one of us cheats and decides to kill off some names. So a quick and easy newsletter for you to digest.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Billy Paul, 81, American R&B singer (“Me and Mrs. Jones“), pancreatic cancer.
• Papa Wemba, 66, Congolese singer, seizure.
• Mark Farmer, 53, British actor (Grange Hill, Minder, Johnny Jarvis), cancer.
• Jenny Diski, 68, English writer (Nothing Natural, Rainforest, London Review of Books), lung cancer.
• Barry Howard, 78, English actor (Hi-de-Hi!), blood cancer.

In Other News

The wildlife presenter Chris Packham has spoken of having twice been on the brink of trying to take his own life during severe bouts of depression. Packham, 54, revealed he had been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome in his 20s, and described his thoughts as a “great, hopeless vacuum”. The naturalist, who presents the BBC’s Springwatch, Autumnwatch and Winterwatch programmes, unsurprisingly spoke of his difficulties in an interview with the Times marking the release of his memoir, Fingers in the Sparkle Jar. He said: “I have been severely depressed, yes. I nearly killed myself twice.” One crisis came in 2003, he said, but he “didn’t have enough drugs to be sure it would work. I wouldn’t want to make a bad job of suicide”. He chose not to go through with it because he did not want to leave behind his two dogs or hurt his family, he said. Packham, who lives in the New Forest and is in a relationship with the owner of Isle of Wight zoo, Charlotte Corney, said he had no friends but was close to an ex-partner and her daughter.

Glenn Close, the Hollywood actress, has  battled back from a severe chest infection which saw her hospitalised to make a triumphant return to Sunset Boulevard. Close, who had to pull out of four shows last week, spent three days in hospital and was placed on an intravenous drip after falling ill, it has emerged. Fans had been told she was “indisposed”, leading to fears for her health after nearly a month in the gruelling stage role. A spokesman for the English National Opera (ENO) later clarified Close was “unwell”, as fans who had already bought tickets seeing her alternate, Ria Jones, instead. It has now been confirmed the actress was in fact struck down by a severe chest infection which saw her hospitalised. Close, who is making her West End debut in the role at the age of 69, was finally compelled to rest under doctors order last Thursday.

On This Day

• 1707 – The Act of Union joins the Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain.
• 1759 – Josiah Wedgwood founds the Wedgwood pottery company in Great Britain.
• 1840 – The Penny Black, the first official adhesive postage stamp, is issued in the United Kingdom.
• 1930 – The dwarf planet Pluto is officially named.
• 1948 – The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) is established, with Kim Il-sung as leader.
• 1956 – The polio vaccine developed by Jonas Salk is made available to the public.
• 1961 – The Prime Minister of Cuba, Fidel Castro, proclaims Cuba a socialist nation and abolishes elections.
• 1994 – Three-time Formula One world champion Ayrton Senna is killed in an accident during the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola.
• 1999 – The body of British climber George Mallory is found on Mount Everest, 75 years after his disappearance in 1924.
• 2011 – Barack Obama announces that Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind behind the September 11 attacks has been killed by United States special forces in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Due to the time difference between the United States and Pakistan, bin Laden was actually killed on May 2nd.

Deaths

• 1873 – David Livingstone, Scottish-English missionary and explorer (b. 1813)
• 1904 – Antonín Dvořák, Czech composer and academic (b. 1841)
• 1945 – Joseph Goebbels, German lawyer and politician, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1897)
• 1994 – Ayrton Senna, Brazilian race car driver (b. 1960)
• 2011 – Henry Cooper, English soldier and boxer (b. 1934)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Shirley MacLaine (82), Djimon Hounsou (52), Al Pacino (76), Bjorn Ulvaeus (71), Hank Azaria (52), Renee Zellweger (47), Joan Chen (55), Jet Li (53), Kevin James (51), Channing Tatum (36), Jay Leno (66), Jessica Alba (35), Mary McDonnell (64), Penelope Cruz (42), Jerry Seinfeld (62), Daniel Day-Lewis (59), Michelle Pfeiffer (58), Uma Thurman (46), Willie Nelson (83), Burt Young (76) and Kirsten Dunst (34).

The Last Word

I’d hate to die twice. It’s so boring. – Richard Feynman, physicist, d. 1988

Next week peeps!

1st May 2016 | Categories: 2016 | Leave A Comment »