Chaim Topol (1935 – 2023) “If I were a rich man, yubby dibby dibby dibby dibby dibby dibby dum/All day long I’d biddy biddy bum/If I were a wealthy man…” ~ Tevya, Fiddler on the Roof Chaim Topol (whose name means Tree of Life in Hebrew), passed away this week at the age of 87.  […]

Categories: Celebrities · Film · Obituary

Ruth Madoc (1943 – 2022) “Funny, kind, salty, shrewd and beautifully uncynical” ~ Russell T. Davies Two comedy actresses left us this week.  One was Kirstie Alley, but it turned out there were three different birth dates in different years for her, so there was no basis for an analysis of her chart, interesting though […]

Categories: Celebrities · Obituary

Strictly Come Dancing 2022 – Part 3 This is my third blog attempting to cover the contestants for this year’s contest.  So far, some really wonderful dancers have been eliminated because the public have been voting in the “joke” performer Tony Adams.  Meanwhile he has honed his dance skills, to make it more difficult to […]

Categories: Celebrities

Strictly Come Dancing 2022 – Part 2 We’ve had a chance now to see what the contestants are made of, and a great standard has been set, with No. 10 Scores already handed out.  Craig Revel Horwood has often been awarding scores that are either abysmally low or very high, developing a Jekyll and Hyde […]

Categories: Celebrities

Loretta Lynn (1932 – 2022) “Well, I was borned a coal miner’s daughter In a cabin, on a hill in Butcher Holler We were poor but we had love That’s the one thing that daddy made sure of” ~ Loretta Lynn Country singer Loretta Lynn died peacefully in her sleep in Tennessee at the age […]

Categories: Celebrities · Obituary

Strictly Come Dancing 2022 Strictly Come Dancing season has started, and we’ve had a taste of the enormous talent on offer this year!  As usual, I will start with four of the celebrities, and hope to gradually cover them all over the course of the run up to the final in December. Kym Marsh Kym […]

Categories: Celebrities

Darius Danesh (1980 – 2022) “He couldn’t have been a nicer, warmer guest [to The Kumars at No. 42] with a great sense of self-deprecation.” ~ Sanjeev Bhaskar Do you remember Darius Danesh?  Who could forget his falsetto rendering of “Baby One More Time” in Popstars in 2001?  Sadly, we heard this week that he […]

Categories: Celebrities · Obituary

Olivia Newton-John (1948 – 2022) “People don’t want to hear that you’re nice, but that’s what  I am.  In fact, I’m pretty boring” ~ Olivia Newton-John Singer and Actress Olivia Newton-John died this week at the age of 73.  She made her mark on this world in several ways, not least in promoting health research, […]

Categories: Celebrities · Obituary

Eurovision Song Contest 2022 “I’m incredibly excited to make some friends, chat some music, and just take in every moment of this beautiful, wild bonkers thing.” – Sam Ryder Long-term readers of my blog will know how much Eurovision means to me!  And I have to declare last night’s Eurovision Song Contest the best ever […]

Categories: Celebrities · News · Space Travel

June Brown (1927 – 2022) “Ooh I say!” ~ Dot Cotton June Brown, and her alter ego, Dot Cotton, was a household name, even for those who didn’t watch EastEnders.  She died last week, at the age of 95.  Though it was announced that she left the soap in February 2020, for the viewers her […]

Categories: Celebrities · Obituary