Dead Pool 22nd June 2025

This week’s big surprise was finding out that Wincey Willis had passed away last December, unsurprisingly, nobody forecasted that one!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

Leonard Lauder, 92, American cosmetics industry executive, CEO of The Estée Lauder.
John Reid, 61, Scottish record producer, singer (Nightcrawlers) and songwriter.
Kim Woodburn, 83, English television personality (How Clean Is Your House?).
Anne Burrell, 55, American chef and television personality (Secrets of a Restaurant Chef, Worst Cooks in America, Iron Chef America).
James Prime, 64, Scottish musician (Deacon Blue), cancer.
Patrick Walden, 46, English guitarist (Babyshambles).
Wincey Willis, 76, British television and radio broadcaster (Good Morning Britain, Treasure Hunt).
David Lawrence, 61, English cricketer (Gloucestershire, national team), complications from motor neurone disease.
Ian McLauchlan, 83, Scottish rugby union player (national team, British & Irish Lions).

In Other News

James Whale admitted he has been “spending a lot of time crying” after giving a devastating update on his health after his cancer returned in 2020, spreading to his kidney, spine, brain and lungs. Whale admitted: “I’m in my last couple of weeks.” The star took calls from the public while reflecting on his epic 50-year career in broadcasting, and paid an emotional tribute to his wife Nadine, before admitting: “I’m heading into the sunset.” James was in good spirits as he told his listeners, “I’m actually in my last couple of weeks. Last time I saw my oncologist, he said I’ve probably only got weeks to go. Talk Radio have been absolutely brilliant, but if you hear a thump during the programme it may have been my last breath. I don’t know, I hope it isn’t! But I just thought I’d throw that in so you can feel remarkably sorry for me and not shout at me.” He continued: “Over 50 years I have interviewed and chatted to some of the most amazing people – it may have been you, and maybe we’ll catch up for the last time.” When caller Paula got on the phone, he told her: “I spend a lot of time crying. Really it’s a bit embarrassing, Paula, to be quite honest with you.” Paula responded: “Don’t James. You’ve got something to cry for – your wife, and she adores you!” A clearly emotional James said: “I’ve got my doggies. I’m heading into the sunset, and I talk about it regularly on the show, and it’s interesting because now everybody talks about it. Not mine, but their own. They don’t feel that they’re doing it quite right without having a cancer to talk about.” The star went on to remind fans: “Nadine my wife and I do a podcast every week called Tales of the Whales and if you’re in a similar situation, I’m the one with it, she’s the one who’s got to put up with it. Please have a listen and tell us what you think.” James was first diagnosed with cancer back in 2000, having his left kidney removed to combat the disease. But in 2020 the cancer returned to his remaining kidney – and sadly it was deemed to be terminal.

Actor Eric Idle, 82, has been hospitalised for a second time in just a matter of days. The Monty Python star took to Instagram to update his fans on his health as he explained a bit more about the illness that he has been battling. He praised the medical staff taking care of him, at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, for their “kindness and help” as he shared that he is suffering from Gastroenteritis. The NHS website says that this is an unpleasant condition causing inflammation of the stomach and intestines, often due to viral or bacterial infection. On Monday, the comedy star wrote: “So I’d like to thank all the doctors nurses and staff in the Cedars GI ward for their kindness and help to me today. The second time in three days. I think I’m suffering from Gastroenteritis. I love you people.” Eric previously opened up on his health, back in 2019, when he shared that he had been battling cancer. He shared that he had undergone surgery for pancreatic cancer after luckily detecting it early. But last year, he admitted that he “shouldn’t be alive” and now cherished “every moment” of life. When asked how his brush with cancer changed him, he responded: “Oh, I shouldn’t be alive. I’m a lucky bastard and I enjoy every moment.” The star shared that he initially thought the diagnosis was a joke after an exchange with his doctor, partly because he was coincidentally working on a project about death. He explained: “I had been working on a project called ‘Death: The Musical’ and I asked my doctor which type of cancer I could use to finish off one of my characters. He said, ‘Pancreatic cancer, it can finish people off in three weeks.’”. But then during routine health checks years later, an alarming blood test was flagged by the same doctor. Eric shared: “He said, ‘Pancreatic cancer’ and I burst out laughing because I thought he must be joking.”

R Kelly was rushed to hospital after overdosing on medication in prison, according to reports. The disgraced musician was sentenced to 30 years for racketeering and sex trafficking in 2021 and has been in a US federal prison ever since. The singer was given anxiety medication by prison staff after being put into solitary confinement ‘against his will’ on June 10, and then suffered an overdose, his attorney has claimed in a filing. Federal prosecutors have denied this allegation. The filing further claims that Kelly was then left feeling “faint and “dizzy” and saw “black spots in his vision” three days later, after being instructed to take more medication. Onsite prison medical staff could not help the rapper, so he was transported by ambulance to Duke University Hospital, the court documents state. He was treated in hospital, where he is reported to have spent two days recovering. It is alleged that the rapper was heard telling a member of prison staff that “this is going to open a new can of worms”. His legal team also claim that the prison staffers intentionally ‘gave him an amount of medicine that could have killed him’. Kelly’s attorney, Beau Brindley, said: “This was no mistake. It was a dose that jeopardised his life and nearly ended it.” His attorney has filed an emergency motion seeking that his client is released from prison, claiming that the singer is not safe within the prison walls. This is Brindley’s third request, with the motion referencing an alleged attempt on Kelly’s life by a group of prison officials, according to the reports. Brindley claimed the singer was to be “murdered” by a terminally ill inmate, who is reportedly a member of white supremacist group the Aryan Brotherhood. According to the motion, three prison officials – including a warden and an assistant warden – worked together to have Kelly “murdered” at the hands of an inmate, Mikeal Glenn Stine. Stine had reportedly claimed that high-ranking officials in the prison had offered him the opportunity to get out and live his last few months free, before his terminal illness kills him. After months of stalking Kelly in prison, according to the filing, Stine claimed that he changed his mind and told the rapper about the plans. Kelly is requesting to be placed on house arrest for his crimes – which included convictions for child pornography and enticing minors for sex. However, prosecutors have slammed his attempt to be freed as ‘deeply unserious’ and ‘repugnant’. The artist is seeking a presidential pardon from President Donald Trump, following the claims of his attempted assassination. His attorneys have claimed the singer “does not have the luxury to wait for vindication from the courts that will follow the exposure of the corruption at the heart of his prosecutions’. The legal team claim they ‘are engaged in conversations with multiple persons close to the White House and to President Trump’. R Kelly was exposed during the #MeToo movement as a serial sex abuser, and was sentenced to over three decades in a federal prison in the United States.

On This Day

1948 – The ship HMT Empire Windrush brought the first group of 802 West Indian immigrants to Tilbury, marking the start of modern immigration to the United Kingdom.
1979 – Former Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe was acquitted of conspiracy to murder Norman Scott, who had accused Thorpe of having a relationship with him.
1986 – The famous Hand of God goal, scored by Diego Maradona in the quarter-finals of the 1986 FIFA World Cup match between Argentina and England, ignites controversy.

Deaths

1969 – Judy Garland, American actress and singer (born 1922).
1987 – Fred Astaire, American actor and dancer (born 1899).
2008 – George Carlin, American comedian, actor, and author (born 1937).
2015 – James Horner, American composer and conductor (born 1953).

Ghana’s Unique Coffins

It’s hard to miss the coffin shaped like an old Nokia brick phone at the entrance of the sunlit workshop on the outskirts of Accra. Here, on a busy road next to Ghana’s Atlantic coastline, Eric Kpakpo Adotey and his small team of craftsmen spend each day working in the thick humidity to bring people’s creative final wishes to life.

“Most of the time, people don’t cry when they see these ones,” Eric explained as he zigzagged between a coffin shaped like a Nike trainer and another in the form of an intricately detailed, pink fish. “They forget there’s a body in this coffin,” he added, the sounds of carpentry tools hammering away around him. “They all talk about the design, the art, the shape of it… it changes the atmosphere.”

Visiting a coffin maker is hardly at the top of many travellers’ bucket lists, but it should be if you visit Ghana. In this vibrant West African nation, death isn’t mourned in the sober ways you may expect. For many, it’s also a time of celebration, carried out in prolonged, colourful ceremonies full of music and dancing that can span multiple days. One of the more unique traditions adopted into Ghanaian funerary culture is the use of fantasy coffins that carry the dead into the afterlife, just like the ones Eric has crafted for the last 25 years.

Locally referred to as abebu adekai (proverbial coffins), these figurative designs have been primarily used by the Ga people, one of Ghana’s ethnic groups, since around the 1950s. They’re typically crafted to resemble a person’s trade and symbolise the work they’ll continue in the afterlife, like a cocoa bean for a cocoa farmer or a fish for a fisherman.

Painted in striking colours and finished with minuscule details, they could easily pass for impressive sculptures rather than their more solemn use. Yet, after spending weeks on the design and creation, these coffins encase the deceased just like a regular coffin before burial in the ground. In more recent years, coffin requests have also become bolder — one viral video from a funeral in Ghana in 2020 saw a person buried in a penis-shaped coffin, prompting speculation about whether the deceased was a sex worker, or a ‘wanzam’ who performed circumcisions.

For Eric’s part, the coffin craftsman has made everything from a coffin shaped like a camera to a human-sized beer bottle. “The one that is most famous to me is the octopus,” Eric recalled about his most unique request, adding that the intricate design came with eight tentacles. “That one was… a challenge.”

Coffin making can also be big business. Some of Eric’s coffins have become collectables, selling for over $4,000 to international buyers and displayed in galleries worldwide. Those destined for local burials tend to have a more modest price tag, but regardless of its destination, the team puts care and commitment into each and every coffin they work on.

Behind this bold creativity is also something deeper — the coffins are just one part of an elaborate funeral culture you find in Ghana, where send-offs are particularly grand affairs. News of a funeral here is usually announced through giant posters plastered on the sides of houses and walls, sharing information about the upcoming event. These posters usually include dramatic messages: “A painful exit”, read one, while another announced “What a shock!”

The theatrics also continue through the ceremonies themselves, from “professional mourners” who are paid to wail at the side of a coffin, to the viral dancing pallbearers who skilfully carry the coffin on their shoulders while performing an impressively synchronised dance routine.

From the public obituaries to the clothes people wear, Ghana’s lively funeral events carry a deeply spiritual and symbolic significance, as well as a party-like atmosphere that comes with a hefty price tag.

“People would go in for loans to organise beautiful funerals,” says lecturer and researcher Nii Ayo Solomon, whose own family recently commissioned a fantasy coffin. “My sister was buried recently,” he adds. “She was the national captain for the female national rugby team and we had to do a casket like this that looks like a rugby ball for her to be buried in.” On the last day of the festivities, “all the family comes together to settle the bills,” explained Isaac Aziawo, a guide for Intrepid Travel, which includes a visit to the fantasy coffin makers on one of its Ghana tours. “They have to get a contribution from each person to pay for the food, the drink, the coffin, and all other expenses during the funeral.”

Last Week’s Birthdays

Meryl Streep (76), Bruce Campbell (67), Tim Russ (69), Lindsay Wagner (76), Cyndi Lauper (72), Prunella Scales (93), Chris Pratt (46), Carrie Preston (58), Juliette Lewis (52), David Morrissey (61), Nicole Kidman (58), John Goodman (73), Christopher Mintz-Plasse (36), Zoe Saldaña (47), Aidan Turner (42), Kathleen Turner (71), Will Forte (55), Jodie Whittaker (43), John Cho (53), Arnold Vosloo (63), and James Bolam (90).