Obituaries

Continue reading...">

Toymaker and philanthropist who led the restoration of the Roundhouse arts centre in north London

Torquil Norman, who has died aged 91, was successively a naval pilot, banker and businessman, philanthropist and toymaker. He created several popular toys of the 1980s and 90s, before using his wealth and powers of persuasion to buy the then disused Roundhouse building in north London and raise £30m to restore it to a successful arts and concert venue.

In a long and varied career, perhaps somewhat at variance with his establishment background, he opened the swimming pool in the garden of his St John’s Wood home each summer for local children, set up with his wife a charitable trust to support young people, was a supporter of the anti-apartheid and anti-slavery campaigns and argued for social and political reform, national community service and constitutional change.

Continue reading...

Continue reading...">

Businessman who founded Britain’s leading child cancer charity after the deaths of his son and daughter from the disease

In December 1986, Eddie O’Gorman’s youngest child, Paul, was diagnosed with leukaemia aged 14. It advanced rapidly and he died two months later. At the same time, O’Gorman’s daughter Jean, who was in her late 20s, was suffering with aggressive breast cancer.

These events changed the direction of O’Gorman’s life. In 1987, the self-made businessman, who has died aged 90, sold his business interests and spent the rest of his life helping children with cancer. He founded Children with Cancer UK, which became Britain’s leading sponsor of research into childhood cancers, and he remained in charge until three years before he died.

Continue reading...

Leo McKern, was Subtle) in the visionary genius Tyrone Guthrie’s production of Ben Jonson’s The Alchemist, the last show on the Old Vic stage before Laurence Olivier moved back in at the head of the new National Theatre company in 1963.

Continue reading...">

Actor who toured with Laurence Olivier and Peter Brook, starred on Broadway and had a long career in film and TV

The start of postwar theatre in London was signalled by the birth of the Old Vic school in the rubble of the bombed theatre in Waterloo in 1948, and the reopening of the Old Vic itself in 1950. The actor Lee Montague, who has died aged 97, was a founding student at the school and “walked on” in Twelfth Night, the first professional production in the postwar era at the Vic.

His subsequent stage career included Old Vic seasons separated by 10 years. He played Face (his great friend, Leo McKern, was Subtle) in the visionary genius Tyrone Guthrie’s production of Ben Jonson’s The Alchemist, the last show on the Old Vic stage before Laurence Olivier moved back in at the head of the new National Theatre company in 1963.

Continue reading...

Continue reading...">

Arts administrator who ran Ballet Rambert and oversaw the use of lottery funding for the redevelopment of theatres

In a career that lasted half a century, Prue (Prudence) Skene, who has died aged 81, experienced much change in the role of the arts administrator – from keeping companies going in a rather makeshift manner to a formal career in which fundraising skills and the understanding of governance were crucial. She was an architect of a great deal of this change, becoming one of the best connected figures in the arts network in Britain and one who constantly aimed to improve the lot of arts leaders and practitioners.

Her time as chair of the Arts Council of England (ACE) dance panel between 1992 and 1995 proved challenging: the dance scene was changing, with the rise of many smaller companies resulting in the need to axe larger organisations.

Continue reading...

Continue reading...">

Star of films such as Top Gun, The Doors and Batman Forever whose acting could combine playfulness and intensity

Temperamental on-set behaviour by successful actors is common, but rarely made public. So it takes a particular type of performer, or one with poor PR defences, to become notorious for tantrums or capriciousness. The actor Val Kilmer, who has died aged 65 after suffering from pneumonia, was one such case.

He starred in several box-office hits, including Top Gun (1986), and played roles as distinctive as Jim Morrison in The Doors (1991) and the ghost of Elvis Presley in True Romance (1993). He also got a fleeting taste of superstardom when he took the lead in Batman Forever (1995).

Continue reading...

hunger strikes in 1980 to secure political status for inmates, one of the first experts called in by the Northern Ireland Prison Service was the psychiatrist Dr Ian Bownes.

Though he was then only a trainee, it was his role to assess the mental state of those threatening to starve themselves to death – checking whether they had the capacity to understand that their lives could end and had effectively given their consent freely.

Continue reading...">

Psychiatrist tasked with assessing the mental state of Irish republican prisoners in the Maze during the 1980s

When Irish republicans in the Maze prison began organising hunger strikes in 1980 to secure political status for inmates, one of the first experts called in by the Northern Ireland Prison Service was the psychiatrist Dr Ian Bownes.

Though he was then only a trainee, it was his role to assess the mental state of those threatening to starve themselves to death – checking whether they had the capacity to understand that their lives could end and had effectively given their consent freely.

Continue reading...

Mahmood Hussein Mattan and the imprisonment for life of Patrick Nicholls. Neither, he helped reveal, had committed the murders for which they had been sentenced.

As a driving force behind the organisation created to examine claims of miscarriage of justice, Leigh, who has died aged 89 after a stroke, may have been modest and mild-mannered, but his enthusiasm, high principles and meticulous, case by case examinations resulted in the overturning of numerous wrongful convictions.

Continue reading...">

Writer, barrister and member of the Criminal Cases Review Commission who investigated claims of miscarriages of justice

Among the first cases investigated by Leonard Leigh when he joined the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) were the hanging of Mahmood Hussein Mattan and the imprisonment for life of Patrick Nicholls. Neither, he helped reveal, had committed the murders for which they had been sentenced.

As a driving force behind the organisation created to examine claims of miscarriage of justice, Leigh, who has died aged 89 after a stroke, may have been modest and mild-mannered, but his enthusiasm, high principles and meticulous, case by case examinations resulted in the overturning of numerous wrongful convictions.

Continue reading...

Continue reading...">

Irish RAF fighter pilot in the second world war and one of ‘the Few’, who later became a wing commander

His father Basil had thought that his only son might become a doctor, but then his son disliked the sight of blood. So when Gp Cpt John (“Paddy”) Hemingway died at the age of 105, it was instead as the last surviving pilot – and the last surviving Dubliner – to have flown in the Battle of Britain, 85 years ago.

He was shot down twice during the battle, and twice subsequently, but then he was the “lucky Irishman”. And for months in 1940 Hemingway’s life – although he would have derided the idea – was one of those 3,000-odd in step with the fate of the world.

Continue reading...

who has died aged 90, carried the label of soap-opera star around his neck for most of his career of more than five decades.

It began with his huge success in the hospital television series Dr Kildare (1961-66), in which Chamberlain’s clean-cut good looks were the prime attraction, bringing him thousands of fan letters a week. Chamberlain’s other immensely successful television roles came in three mini-series, Centennial (1978-79), Shogun (1980) and The Thorn Birds (1983).

Continue reading...">

Dashing American actor best known for his many roles in hit TV series including Dr Kildare, The Thorn Birds and Shogun

Despite becoming a lauded stage and film actor, Richard Chamberlain, who has died aged 90, carried the label of soap-opera star around his neck for most of his career of more than five decades.

It began with his huge success in the hospital television series Dr Kildare (1961-66), in which Chamberlain’s clean-cut good looks were the prime attraction, bringing him thousands of fan letters a week. Chamberlain’s other immensely successful television roles came in three mini-series, Centennial (1978-79), Shogun (1980) and The Thorn Birds (1983).

Continue reading...

Professor Andersen’s Night (1996) by the Norwegian author Dag Solstad, who has died aged 83 following a heart attack, starts late on Christmas Eve. The middle-aged literary scholar Pål Andersen is celebrating alone. In the apartment block opposite he sees a beautiful young woman, and then behind her appears a young man. The latter puts his hands round her neck and squeezes until she becomes still and limp.

“I must call the police,” the professor thinks, “it was murder.” But he finds himself unable to, and confiding in a close friend proves equally impossible. Weeks pass with no report of any missing woman. But in late February Andersen goes to the local sushi bar and finds himself sitting next to the opposite flat’s owner, Henrik Nordstrøm, as he now knows him to be. The men talk, Henrik is friendly, and Andersen’s sense of bemused inability to act sets in further. Whatever the mystery here, it is not the nature of the actual crime, but the existential helplessness of its witness.

Continue reading...">

Norwegian novelist who sustained a reputation as both seer and comrade for readers and writers for half a century

The novel Professor Andersen’s Night (1996) by the Norwegian author Dag Solstad, who has died aged 83 following a heart attack, starts late on Christmas Eve. The middle-aged literary scholar Pål Andersen is celebrating alone. In the apartment block opposite he sees a beautiful young woman, and then behind her appears a young man. The latter puts his hands round her neck and squeezes until she becomes still and limp.

“I must call the police,” the professor thinks, “it was murder.” But he finds himself unable to, and confiding in a close friend proves equally impossible. Weeks pass with no report of any missing woman. But in late February Andersen goes to the local sushi bar and finds himself sitting next to the opposite flat’s owner, Henrik Nordstrøm, as he now knows him to be. The men talk, Henrik is friendly, and Andersen’s sense of bemused inability to act sets in further. Whatever the mystery here, it is not the nature of the actual crime, but the existential helplessness of its witness.

Continue reading...

Continue reading...">

The life of Peter Jewell, who has died aged 90, was indelibly entwined with that of the Scottish film director Bill Douglas. They were friends from the age of 19 until Bill’s death from cancer in 1991, aged 57.

Over the course of Bill’s five films, Peter was his “ideas man” when scripts stalled; mediator between Bill’s cinematographers and editors; and script-editor on the “poor man’s epic” Comrades (1986). This charted the union and deportation of the Tolpuddle martyrs, a tale told partly by a character called “the lanternist” using pre-cinema-era artefacts.

Continue reading...

Continue reading...">

My friend John Seed, who has died aged 74, was an author of poetry and history books and a long-serving lecturer at what is now the University of Roehampton. He was also an associate editor of Social History journal.

Continue reading...

Continue reading...">

My husband, David Taylor, who has died of cancer aged 78, missed out on a planned career in medicine but ended up making almost certainly a greater contribution to public health through research and policy development, latterly as professor of pharmaceutical and public health policy at University College London.

David had a rare ability to work with people of different professions and persuasions to achieve consensus without compromising his own values and goals. He was adept at popularising complex pharmaceutical issues and bridging the policy and industry worlds. An inspirational lecturer and mentor to research students, he was a passionate champion of marginalised groups.

Continue reading...

Continue reading...">

My husband, Alan Clague, who has died aged 81, was a classics teacher who was determined to make the subject more accessible for all.

He achieved that ambition most notably as head of classics at St John’s comprehensive school in Marlborough, Wiltshire, where under his guidance more than 60 students regularly studied classics in the sixth form – numbers that were almost unheard of outside the private sector.

Continue reading...

Continue reading...">

My grandfather John Richards, who has died aged 98, was one of the last surviving passengers of the HMT Empire Windrush. Those onboard for the voyage from Jamaica to London in 1948 would change the face of Britain, ushering in the multiculturalism that helps to define the UK today.

Known affectionately as “Big John”, for his height and commanding presence, my grandfather played his part in ensuring the black community in his small corner of north-west London was represented and brimming with agency. While he spent his days working for British Rail, many of his nights were spent in the clubhouse of the Learie Constantine West Indian Association, of which he was a founding member. From there, John played a pivotal role helping to organise his community to protest against the injustices they suffered.

Continue reading...

Donald Gordon played a key role in displaying finds from the Roman fort site near Melrose, in the Scottish Borders, in the Trimontium museum.

Equally, his work on the correspondence of James Curle, the site’s excavator at the start of the 20th century, adds much to our knowledge of archaeological inquiry of the period. In Gordon’s book Revealing Trimontium (2023) it is poignant to see how civilised dialogue and co-operation between international scholars and enthusiasts were affected by the first world war.

Continue reading...">

The energy, imagination and expertise of Donald Gordon played a key role in displaying finds from the Roman fort site near Melrose, in the Scottish Borders, in the Trimontium museum.

Equally, his work on the correspondence of James Curle, the site’s excavator at the start of the 20th century, adds much to our knowledge of archaeological inquiry of the period. In Gordon’s book Revealing Trimontium (2023) it is poignant to see how civilised dialogue and co-operation between international scholars and enthusiasts were affected by the first world war.

Continue reading...

Terry Davis when I was aspiring to be Labour’s candidate for Bromsgrove in the early 1980s. Terry had briefly held the seat from 1971 to 1974, and he and his wife, Anne, were both incredibly generous with their advice.

An active campaigner, Terry taught me the importance of making physical contact when meeting voters by always shaking hands. Eventually I became an MEP, and every campaign I have fought since has resulted in me nursing a very sore hand at the end and thinking of Terry.

Continue reading...">

I first met Terry Davis when I was aspiring to be Labour’s candidate for Bromsgrove in the early 1980s. Terry had briefly held the seat from 1971 to 1974, and he and his wife, Anne, were both incredibly generous with their advice.

An active campaigner, Terry taught me the importance of making physical contact when meeting voters by always shaking hands. Eventually I became an MEP, and every campaign I have fought since has resulted in me nursing a very sore hand at the end and thinking of Terry.

Continue reading...

Keith Dewhurst when he came to talk to students, including me, at a tech college in Nottingham in the 1960s.

We corresponded intermittently, but my attempts at TV scripts ended in flames; he returned the charred remains of some suggestions I had submitted with a note explaining that we had been the victims of “yer actual vandalism”.

Continue reading...">

I first met the writer Keith Dewhurst when he came to talk to students, including me, at a tech college in Nottingham in the 1960s.

We corresponded intermittently, but my attempts at TV scripts ended in flames; he returned the charred remains of some suggestions I had submitted with a note explaining that we had been the victims of “yer actual vandalism”.

Continue reading...

Howard Riley also had a generous soul. On one occasion, struggling to remember the name of a classic played by a band I was reviewing, I put in an early-morning call to him and sang its melody down the line.

He identified it straight away (it was Clifford Brown’s Joy Spring), thus enabling me to appear much more knowledgable than I in fact was. He didn’t even complain about me waking him up.

Continue reading...">

As well as the “refinement and wisdom” that characterised his playing, Howard Riley also had a generous soul. On one occasion, struggling to remember the name of a classic played by a band I was reviewing, I put in an early-morning call to him and sang its melody down the line.

He identified it straight away (it was Clifford Brown’s Joy Spring), thus enabling me to appear much more knowledgable than I in fact was. He didn’t even complain about me waking him up.

Continue reading...

Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan of the Soviet leadership’s paranoia at a time when the world was moving dangerously close to nuclear war.

Gordievsky first came to the notice of MI6 after a tip-off from a Czechoslovakian spy, Standa Kaplan, who had defected to Canada. Kaplan mentioned Gordievsky as an old friend from the KGB academy, where they would together question the direction the Kremlin was taking. By then Gordievsky was a KGB officer attached to the Soviet embassy in Copenhagen; in 1972 he responded favourably to delicate approaches made by MI6 officers in the Danish capital, after phone taps revealed that in calls to his wife in Moscow he had expressed growing concern about the Kremlin’s actions, specifically mentioning the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. He began spying for Britain when he returned to Moscow in 1974.

Continue reading...">

Russian spy who was the highest ranking KGB officer to defect to Britain

For more than a decade the senior KGB officer Oleg Gordievsky, who has died aged 86, spied for MI6 before escaping execution by being dramatically smuggled out of the Soviet Union in the boot of a car. He was the highest ranking KGB officer to defect to Britain, and his most important contribution as a spy was to warn Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan of the Soviet leadership’s paranoia at a time when the world was moving dangerously close to nuclear war.

Gordievsky first came to the notice of MI6 after a tip-off from a Czechoslovakian spy, Standa Kaplan, who had defected to Canada. Kaplan mentioned Gordievsky as an old friend from the KGB academy, where they would together question the direction the Kremlin was taking. By then Gordievsky was a KGB officer attached to the Soviet embassy in Copenhagen; in 1972 he responded favourably to delicate approaches made by MI6 officers in the Danish capital, after phone taps revealed that in calls to his wife in Moscow he had expressed growing concern about the Kremlin’s actions, specifically mentioning the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. He began spying for Britain when he returned to Moscow in 1974.

Continue reading...

Continue reading...">

Pop radio DJ and presenter who recorded one of the last interviews with John Lennon in December 1980

Andy Peebles, who has died suddenly aged 76, was for 14 years a disc jockey on BBC Radio 1, where he presented shows across the schedule, switching between mornings, afternoons and evenings.

In 1981, three years after joining Radio 1, he settled into a Friday evening spot with a programme combining music and a preview of the weekend’s sporting action. “I never dreamed that I’d get to talk to all those incredible people,” he said in a 2017 Radio Today podcast to mark the station’s 50th anniversary. “Ian Botham was about to become a worldwide star, Billy Beaumont was just about to lead his English rugby team to a grand slam, Kevin Keegan – great character – was at the forefront, captaining the England football side.”

Continue reading...

No More Rain and Wish I Didn’t Miss You.

Eight further solo albums displayed Stone’s command not just of soul but of gospel, R&B and funk, often in collaboration with other songwriters and artists, including Prince (U Make My Sun Shine, 2001), Snoop Dog (I Wanna Thank Ya, 2004), Anthony Hamilton (Stay for a While, 2004) and Betty Wright (Baby, 2007).

Continue reading...">

American soul singer and songwriter who enjoyed success with her popular hits No More Rain and Wish I Didn’t Miss You

Angie Stone, who has died aged 63 in a traffic incident, was an American soul singer and songwriter. She rose to international prominence in the late 1990s and early 2000s with two albums, Black Diamond and Mahogany Soul, that spawned a pair of popular singles, No More Rain and Wish I Didn’t Miss You.

Eight further solo albums displayed Stone’s command not just of soul but of gospel, R&B and funk, often in collaboration with other songwriters and artists, including Prince (U Make My Sun Shine, 2001), Snoop Dog (I Wanna Thank Ya, 2004), Anthony Hamilton (Stay for a While, 2004) and Betty Wright (Baby, 2007).

Continue reading...

Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, beating the latter to win the world heavyweight title in 1973.

However, in some ways his more deserving claim to greatness was an astonishing comeback that saw him become the oldest world heavyweight champion two decades later.

Continue reading...">

Boxing champion who won two world heavyweight titles, decades apart, and took on Muhammad Ali in the Rumble in the Jungle

To be classed as a great heavyweight boxer it is often said that a fighter needs to duel with the best combatants of his time. George Foreman, who has died aged 76, unquestionably did that, having had epic world heavyweight title rivalries in the 1970s with Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, beating the latter to win the world heavyweight title in 1973.

However, in some ways his more deserving claim to greatness was an astonishing comeback that saw him become the oldest world heavyweight champion two decades later.

Continue reading...

Drive to Survive have become accustomed to the modern Formula One world of enormous hi-tech teams supported by armies of corporate sponsors and marketing, media and PR specialists. Eddie Jordan, who has died aged 76 of prostate cancer, represented a previous era of buccaneering individualists who made their own luck and built their teams in their own image.

“We were johnny-come-latelies, noisy, brash, having a good time, giving the establishment two fingers,” Jordan told MotorSport magazine. “So we got lots of attention, lots of value for our sponsors, and a huge fanbase.”

Continue reading...">

Flamboyant Formula One team boss who was also an entrepreneur and skilled deal-maker

Viewers of Netflix’s Drive to Survive have become accustomed to the modern Formula One world of enormous hi-tech teams supported by armies of corporate sponsors and marketing, media and PR specialists. Eddie Jordan, who has died aged 76 of prostate cancer, represented a previous era of buccaneering individualists who made their own luck and built their teams in their own image.

“We were johnny-come-latelies, noisy, brash, having a good time, giving the establishment two fingers,” Jordan told MotorSport magazine. “So we got lots of attention, lots of value for our sponsors, and a huge fanbase.”

Continue reading...

Continue reading...">

Palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum who was also a bestselling science writer and accomplished TV presenter

While on a school field trip to Pembrokeshire in Wales in the early 1960s, the 14-year-old Richard Fortey stumbled across his first trilobite – the 500-million-year-old fossil of a prehistoric marine animal. This chance event ultimately led him to a long and distinguished career as a palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum. He also forged a parallel career as an inspirational communicator via his books and TV series. His colleague Dr Sandra Knapp notes that “Richard was the definition of polymath”, while Bill Bryson thought him “without peer amongst science writers”.

Spurred by that childhood discovery, Fortey, who has died aged 79 after a short illness, became one of the world’s leading experts on trilobites and graptolites, another group of invertebrates found in the same rocks. In more than 250 scientific papers, he significantly furthered scientific knowledge of their complex evolution and lifecycles, while reaching a broader, non-specialist audience with his bestselling popular science books. The first of these was the 1982 volume Fossils: The Key to the Past, whose fifth edition was published more than 30 years later in 2015. Others included The Hidden Landscape (1994), Life: An Unauthorised Biography (1997), Trilobite! Eyewitness to Evolution (2000) and The Earth: An Intimate History (2004).

Continue reading...

Continue reading...">

Singer, dancer and member of the 1980s pop group Five Star along with his four siblings

Stedman Pearson, who has died aged 60 while undergoing dialysis treatment for diabetes, was the eldest of the five siblings who made up the British pop group Five Star. Frequently compared to the Jackson 5, both for their all-family lineup and the fact that they were managed by a controlling and overbearing father, Five Star emerged from Romford, east London, and became a pop phenomenon in the mid-1980s with a string of hit singles and albums.

The group was a project involving the entire Pearson family. Stedman was in effect Stedman Pearson Jr, since though his father was widely known as Buster Pearson, his actual first name was Stedman.

Continue reading...

Bridge Over Troubled Water, from her 1971 album Quiet Fire, so impressed another rising star that he sent her a fan letter. “Dear Roberta,” wrote Elton John, “I have never heard anything this beautiful in years ... ”

Flack, who has died aged 88, must have seemed both familiar and fascinatingly different to the young English songwriter. Like John, she was a classically trained pianist who had gravitated to pop. But she was North Carolina born, and had taught in high school before having her first hit at the age of 34. Her career was founded on her ability to sell a song using reticence and reserve, qualities that defined her from the early smash singles, The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face and Killing Me Softly With His Song, to her final album, a collection of Beatles covers released in 2012.

Continue reading...">

Singer with a reserved, intimate style on hits such as The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face and Killing Me Softly With His Song

Roberta Flack’s pensive version of Bridge Over Troubled Water, from her 1971 album Quiet Fire, so impressed another rising star that he sent her a fan letter. “Dear Roberta,” wrote Elton John, “I have never heard anything this beautiful in years ... ”

Flack, who has died aged 88, must have seemed both familiar and fascinatingly different to the young English songwriter. Like John, she was a classically trained pianist who had gravitated to pop. But she was North Carolina born, and had taught in high school before having her first hit at the age of 34. Her career was founded on her ability to sell a song using reticence and reserve, qualities that defined her from the early smash singles, The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face and Killing Me Softly With His Song, to her final album, a collection of Beatles covers released in 2012.

Continue reading...

Everybody Loves the Sunshine, from the 1976 album of the same name.

Continue reading...">

Jazz-soul vibraphonist and band leader best known for his laid-back summer track Everybody Loves the Sunshine

When Ruby Ayers, a piano teacher, took her five-year-old son Roy to a concert by the Lionel Hampton Big Band in California in 1945, the boy showed so much enthusiasm for the performance that Hampton presented him with his pair of vibe mallets. Roy Ayers, who has died aged 84, would go on to blaze a trail as a vibraphonist, composer, singer and producer.

A genre-bending pioneer of hard bop, funk, neo-soul and acid jazz, Ayers was most famous for his feel-good track Everybody Loves the Sunshine, from the 1976 album of the same name.

Continue reading...

Continue reading...">

Bestselling Scottish painter loved by the public but dismissed by the art establishment and cultural critics

In the oil paintings that made Jack Vettriano famous and rich, the women are slim and wear evening dress, the men are chiselled and in tuxes, don homburg hats and long coats, and kiss the necks of their dates. In the world of Vettriano, who has died aged 73, couples dress up for the beach, drive classic cars, smoke late night cigarettes and drink whisky for carnal courage.

The artist defended his nostalgic vision against his many critics: “My paintings are about sex and that is not acceptable to them,” he said. “It would be OK if I painted inner-city problems and urban decay. They also don’t like me because I’m self-taught. I came in the back door and they haven’t had a chance to mould me.”

Continue reading...

Continue reading...">

Former news journalist who found TV fame in the 1980s as presenter of Game for a Laugh and Going for Gold

Henry Kelly, who has died aged 78, was a hard-nosed Irish journalist who reported on the Troubles in Northern Ireland before finding television fame as a presenter of ITV’s Saturday evening light-entertainment programme Game for a Laugh, which fashioned itself as a “people show”.

Viewers and the studio audience were declared to be the stars – game for a laugh and at the centre of the action, which included challenges and pranks. A regular game had an audience member sitting in the “pie chair” and given an almost impossible task – if they failed, they would be on the receiving end of extra-foamy custard pies delivered by extendable mechanical arms with hands on the end.

Continue reading...

George Melly, was diagnosed with dementia and lung cancer, Diana Melly was asked by her brother if she loved George. When she got home she looked up the dictionary definition of the word “love” – “to have great attachment to and affection for; and/or in a state of strong emotional and sexual attraction”.

The first definition applied to her current feeling for George, the second to a much earlier one. Through her long, full and sometimes topsy-turvy life, Diana, who has died aged 87, loved many people, in both definitions of the word, but not always, she admitted, in the right order or at the right time.

Continue reading...">

Author, novelist and wife of the jazz musician George Melly who wrote about her rackety and bohemian life in her books

In 2004 when her husband, the jazz musician and writer George Melly, was diagnosed with dementia and lung cancer, Diana Melly was asked by her brother if she loved George. When she got home she looked up the dictionary definition of the word “love” – “to have great attachment to and affection for; and/or in a state of strong emotional and sexual attraction”.

The first definition applied to her current feeling for George, the second to a much earlier one. Through her long, full and sometimes topsy-turvy life, Diana, who has died aged 87, loved many people, in both definitions of the word, but not always, she admitted, in the right order or at the right time.

Continue reading...