Deid

[WhenTattieFlooredChas]

James Whale: 90s 'outspoken and controversial' (thought I should stay polite) right wing TV and radio presenter. 74. Cancer

[57vintage]

Stella Rimington, CEO of MFI, the hush-hush self-assembly furniture and spy chain. Age top secret, but she was 90 - you ain?t seen me, right?

No evidence of Novichok - she was a Milk Tray girl.

[hajduk]

Terry Reid Deid.

'Mayfly' playing on repeat today.

[57vintage]

Jim Lovell.

Twice a hero (bracketed with Yuri Gagarin, Stirling Moss, Davie Johnston, and John Lennon at the time) as he piloted Apollo 8, the first manned space capsule to orbit the moon, losing radio contact as the crew visited the dark side for 25 minutes, and Earth’s breeks remaining unsoiled - but it was close - until he said, “Aye aye mins, Houston, ye radges” as contact was restored. That was pioneering stuff. Formthat alone, he’s on the honours board of the Third Stone From The Sun.

Even more heroically, he took Apollo 13 back to terra firma after an oxygen tank exploded and knocked the mission way off course, like a Stuartie Green cover drive, using chuddy, shoelaces, and a copy of the People’s Journal placed in the command module in case onybody spewed due to lift-off g-forces, to engineer a Heath Robinson solution to the potential catastrophe. The mission lifted off the day before the 1970 Scottish Cup final, and up in my crammed, untidy loft, there’s a copy of the P&J from the morning of the game illustrating three spacemen, hine above our planet from which is emanating “Hampden roar” and Jim saying to his trusties, “I reckon the Dons have won the cup”. The Apollo 13 film is almost equal to Team of the Decade.

RIP Jim, a top red.

[swaddon2]

I don't think even Fergie would have had the quick thinking needed to get back from space in a knackered spacecraft.

[swaddon2]

Ray Brooks, 86. Actor best known for Cathy Come Home, Mr Benn and EastEnders, where his character murdered Pauline Fowler.

[57vintage]

Ray Brooks, 86. Actor best known for Cathy Come Home, Mr Benn and EastEnders, where his character murdered Pauline Fowler.

Also played Robbie Box, petty criminal in Big Deal, co-starring Sharon Duce (yummy) and the quine who played PC Polly in The Bill.

[swaddon2]

Joan "Biddy" Baxter, 92. Former Blue Peter editor who invented the Blue Peter Badge.

[TheDeeDon]

Joan "Biddy" Baxter, 92. Former Blue Peter editor who invented the Blue Peter Badge.

The Blue Peter badge was designed by a young artist called Tony Hart, who himself would do a lot of work on Childrens TV.

[Jupiter]

The Blue Peter badge was designed by a young artist called Tony Hart, who himself would do a lot of work on Childrens TV.

Is Tony Hart dead again?