RIP Les Reed

Les Reed, the songwriter behind Tom Jones' classic hits Delilah and It's Not Unusual, has died at the age of 83.

Les Reed, pictured with unlikely Adidas poster boy Tom Jones

Reed had been the pianist with The John Barry Seven and the conductor of his own orchestra but it's his incredible catalogue of 60+ hit songs that he'll perhaps be best remembered for. Here's just a few examples of those chart toppers;

Reed's songs were recorded by artistes ranging from big American stars like Elvis, The Carpenters and Bing Crosby to homegrown talents like Kathy Kirby, Lulu and Des O'Connor. He wrote the scores for the films Girl on a Motorcycle, The Bushbaby, One More Time, George and Mildred, Creepshow 2 and Parting Shots and he was also responsible for co-writing the 1967 novelty song Who's Doctor Who by then Doctor Who actor Frazer Hines and the B-Side to Leeds United's 1972 Cup Final single, Leeds! Leeds! Leeds! Better known as Marching Together, it's a song still sung by supporters of the club on the terraces both home and away to this day.

RIP

RIP Sandy Ratcliff

Sandy Ratcliff, the former EastEnders actress and star of Ken Loach's 1971 film Family Life has died at the age of seventy.

Born in London on October 2, 1950, Sandy Ratcliff seemed destined for a troubled and turbulent life. Expelled from Grammar School at the age of 12, Ratcliff began a relationship with drugs as a teenager, smoking and eventually supplying cannabis, which earned her some time in prison. After stints as a waitress, DJ and guitarist in two rock groups, she found some acclaim as a model, touted by photographer Lord Snowden as 'The Face of the 70s'. 

However it was acting that she became famous for. She took the lead role of Janice, a schizophrenic young woman, in Ken Loach's 1971 film Family Life, and went on to appear in films like The Final Programme, Yesterday's Hero, Hussy and Radio On, as well as TV programmes such as ITV soap opera Crossroads. But her biggest role was as one of the original cast members in another soap, the BBC's EastEnders. As Sue Osman, Ratcliff appeared in the very first episode in 1985 and played the part of the cafe owner until 1989 when she was sacked due to her addiction to heroin. In her four years on the soap she took centre stage in big issue-led storylines such as cot death, adultery and mental illness. 

Ill health and personal problems were something that dogged Ratcliff after leaving EastEnders, battling both cancer and drugs and hitting the headlines for providing a false alibi for her boyfriend Michael Shorey, who was subsequently sentenced to two life sentences for the murder of two women. Acting work dried up beyond appearances in Maigret and a couple of TV plays and, at some stage, Ratcliff retrained as a counsellor but had retired by the 2010. It was also revealed by the tabloids that she was living on disability benefit of just £70 per week. In her final years Ratcliff lived in sheltered accommodation and it was here that her body was found on the morning of 7th April, 2019. An inquest at Poplar Coroner's Court has been adjourned, pending tests, until October.

RIP

RIP Tania Mallet

Sad to hear of the death of Goldfinger star and fashion model Tania Mallet at the age of 77.

Born in Blackpool on 19th May in 1941 to a Russian mother and English father, Mallet entered the world of James Bond legend with the role of the ill-fated Tilly Masterson in 1964's Goldfinger. The model had, it is said, previously auditioned for the role of Bond girl Tatiana Romanova the previous year before Cubby Brocolli selected her to play one of Connery's love interests who met her fate thanks to Oddjob's steel-rimmed hat.

But it was the world of modelling that Mallet felt most comfortable in and, despite the fame and prestige of appearing in a Bond movie, she turned her back on acting and returned to the photography studio for the rest of the swinging sixties, leaving performing to her cousin, Helen Mirren, though she did appear in an episode of The New Avengers in 1976.

RIP.

RIP Shane Rimmer

Gutted to hear that Shane Rimmer, an actor who - if you grew up in the UK at any time in the 60s, 70s and 80s - has been such a part of all our lives, has passed away at the age of 89.

Canadian born Rimmer's most iconic role was one that only required his vocal talents, namely that of Scott Tracy in Thunderbirds, but he was instantly recognisable for several supporting roles in some of cinema's biggest franchises; Star Wars, Superman, Batman, and a total of three James Bond movies, You Only Live Twice, Diamonds are Forever, and The Spy Who Loved Me. Other film credits included Gandhi, Rollerball (pictured above), Doctor Strangelove, Reds, Out of Africa and Dark Shadows, whilst he appeared in TV dramas like Doctor Who, Coronation Street, Dockers, and the controversial 1977 April's Fools joke (which actually aired in June that year!) Alternative 3, a cod-science documentary about the 'brain drain' which revealed that the elite of society had actually left the soon-to-be-destroyed earth for a new life in space, that continues to resonate among conspiracy theorists to this day.

RIP

Out On Blue Six: The Beat, RIP Ranking Roger

Another day, another loss to the music industry; Ranking Roger of The Beat (or The English Beat if you are Stateside) has passed away at the age of 56

RIP

End Transmission

Out On Blue Six: The Walker Brothers, RIP Scott Walker

Scott Walker gone. Words fail me. So I'll turn to this incredible and rather apt song, just one of many beautiful tunes he gave us

RIP

End Transmission

Out On Blue Six: The Prodigy, RIP Keith Flint

Stunned to hear of the death of The Prodigy frontman Keith Flint at the age of 49

RIP

End Transmission

Out On Blue Six: Talk Talk, RIP Mark Hollis

Sad to hear of the death of Mark Hollis, lead singer of Talk Talk, at the age of 64.

RIP

End Transmission

RIP Stanley Donen

Stanley Donen, the director of Bedazzled, one of my favourite movies, has died at the age of 94.

The former Broadway dancer will probably be best remembered for co-directing Singin' in the Rain alongside Gene Kelly, but he delivered a raft of classic old Hollywood musicals like Funny Face, On The Town, and Seven Brides For Seven Brothers, smart and quirky thrillers like Charade and Arabesque and romances like Two For The Road and Indiscreet. He also made Staircase starring Richard Burton and Rex Harrison as a gay couple, and a couple of stinkers like Saturn 3 and Blame it on Rio.

He received an honorary Oscar in 1998.

RIP 

RIP Graeme Curry

I'm really saddened to hear of the death of Graeme Curry, the writer responsible for one of the best Doctor Who stories in its final 'classic' years, The Happiness Patrol.

The Happiness Patrol, a story about a planet where it was a crime to be unhappy and which featured a delicious satire on the then PM Margaret Thatcher and a divisive yet remarkable 'monster' in the shape of The Kandyman, was Curry's first TV commission. 

The Kandyman - for the record, I loved him!

Curry had started out as a journalist, winning the prestigious Cosmopolitan Young Journalist of the Year award in 1982. A professional singer and actor, Curry won a screenplay competition for his football comedy drama Over the Moon which was subsequently adapted for Radio 4. On the strength of this, he came into the orbit of Doctor Who script editor Andrew Cartmel and The Happiness Patrol was born - a story that was even referenced in the 2011 Easter sermon from the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams!

Curry subsequently wrote for TV serials such as The Bill and EastEnders, novelised The Happiness Patrol for Target and wrote the Radio 4 drama series Citizens.

RIP

RIP Paul Flynn

I'm very sad to hear about the death of Paul Flynn MP at the age of 84

Flynn had been the Labour MP for Newport West since 1987. One of the longest-serving Welsh MP's, he was a passionate and tireless campaigner against the Iraq war and for the legalisation of cannabis for medicinal use, and was once described as 'the thinking man's Dennis Skinner'.

An independent thinker and a proper Labour man, Flynn was a career backbencher but answered the call in 2016 to briefly serve on the front bench in the wake of the Blairites meddling against Jeremy Corbyn, an experience he was said to have enjoyed. Recent ill health saw him announce his intentions to step down as an MP 'as soon as possible' in October last year. 

RIP

RIP Bruno Ganz

The great Swiss actor Bruno Ganz has died at the age of 77 from colon cancer.

Ganz will perhaps best be remembered for playing Hitler in the 2004 film Downfall, which many cite as the definitive portrayal of the monster. But I first come across his talents in Wim Wenders' 1977 film The American Friend (an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's Ripley's Game) in which he played opposite Dennis Hopper. He was also the star of Wenders' much loved 1987 film Wings of Desire, and its sequel Faraway, So Close in 1993. Ganz was so feted in Germany that he was the holder of the prestigious Iffland-Ring, a prize given to the most significant and worthy German-speaking actor.

Other credits included Herzog's Nosferatu the Vampire, The Boys from Brazil, The Manchurian Candidate, The Baadar Meinhof Complex, The Reader, Unknown and The Party.

RIP

RIP John Stalker

Sad to hear of the death of former Deputy Chief Constable of Greater Manchester John Stalker this week at the age of 79.

Stalker gave over 30 years of dedicated service to the police force and was one of the investigating officers on the Moors Murders. But perhaps most famously of all, he was brought in to investigate the RUC's shoot to kill policy in Northern Ireland in the early 1980s, where his integrity suffered at the hands of an RUC and Security Services smear campaign. The simple fact of the matter was that the truth he sought was not one the establishment wanted to be known. Over thirty years on and the families of the six unarmed men shot by the RUC still have no inquests or justice. 

Stalker's memoir remains compulsive reading and his inquiry into the RUC formed the basis of two dramatised films; Ken Loach's Hidden Agenda (which is the Stalker affair in all but name) and Yorkshire Television's Shoot to Kill which starred Jack Shepherd as Stalker. The author GF Newman also wrote his novel The Testing Ground which had direct parallels to the Shoot to Kill inquiry and was later loosely adapted by the BBC as the then near-futuristic Nineteen96 starring Keith Barron. David Peace was also inspired by Stalker when he came to write his Red Riding series of novels which were subsequently adapted by Channel 4 with Paddy Considine as a Stalker-like honest detective heading up an inquiry into a corrupt and failing hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper.

RIP

RIP Gordon Banks

The 1966 World Cup winning goalkeeper Gordon Banks has died at the age of 81.

628 appearances in a fifteen year long football league career, with 73 caps for England. A sportsman and a gentleman. A sporting great.

RIP

RIP Albert Finney

Devastated to hear that one of my cinematic heroes, Albert Finney, has died at the age of 82.

Salford born Finney shot to fame in the early 1960s, cementing a screen persona as the original (and best) angry young man in groundbreaking films like The Entertainer and Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. He became synonymous with Woodfall Films and a British New Wave movement that sought to bring northern working class life to the screen as realistically as possible, and Finney was unmistakably the real deal. What Brando was doing for American cinema, Finney was doing for the UK. He followed it up of course with Woodfall's bawdy romp Tom Jones and became an icon of the swinging 60s and a major international star.

The tail end of the '60s and '70s saw him stretch himself both in front of and behind the camera. He directed Charlie Bubbles, his one and only directorial effort and a highly personal film penned by fellow Salfordian Shelagh Delaney in 1968, and financed another Salfordian Mike Leigh's first film, Bleak Moments in 1971. Indeed Finney would never forget his Salford roots and would do much all his life to help the arts and culture in the city (he was key in developing the Lowry for example) and to encourage young people's opportunities. He could have comfortably continued to play straightforward leading man roles as he had done in the previous decade, but the 1970s saw him approach more character based roles, including the title role in the musical Scrooge and (for my money the best) Poirot in 1974's Murder on the Orient Express. This continued into the '80s with roles in The Dresser alongside Tom Courtenay and Under the Volcano, whilst the 1990s saw him feature in a variety of work from Dennis Potter's Karaoke and Cold Lazarus on television and becoming a favourite of US filmmakers like the Cohen brothers (Miller's Crossing), Steven Soderbergh (Erin Brockovich and Traffic) and Tim Burton (Corpse Bride and Big Fish). In more recent years, Finney found himself providing stately support in big budget blockbusters  such as the James Bond film Skyfall (a very amusing cameo) and its rival, the Bourne series.

He was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar four times in his career and once for Best Supporting Actor, and he won a BAFTA, an Emmy and a Golden Globe for his performance as Churchill in the 2002 TV movie The Gathering Storm. He refused a CBE in 1980 and a knighthood in 2000 on principle (good man!) and overcame a battle with kidney cancer in 2011.

There won't be another like him. A true great of cinema. RIP

RIP Jeremy Hardy

Very sad to hear that Jeremy Hardy has died from cancer today at the age of 57.

Hardy was a Perrier award winning comedian familiar to fans of both the live comedy circuit and Radio 4 shows such as The News Quiz and I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, as well as his own show, Jeremy Hardy Speaks to the Nation. He was also a respected political activist on the left, campaigning for Jeremy Corbyn's leadership of the Labour Party, and for the release of Danny McNamee, wrongly-convicted for the IRA Hyde Park bombing of 1982. He also stood bail for Roisin McAliskey, the then-pregnant daughter of Bernadette Devlin, when she was arrested and held for 18 months with no charge. In 2002, he travelled to Palestine and made the documentary film, Jeremy Hardy Versus the Israeli Army, recording the work of the International Solidarity Movement in the Palestinian struggle. Whilst filming, he was caught up in the Israeli siege of the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem.

RIP

RIP Clive Swift

Clive Swift, the Liverpool born British actor known to millions for his portrayal as henpecked Richard Bucket in 90s sitcom Keeping Up Appearances has died at the age of 82.

Swift many credits also included Born and Bred, The Old Guys and in two editions of the BBC's celebrated Ghost Stories For Christmas; The Stalls of Barchester and A Warning to the Curious. He also starred in films like Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy, John Boorman's Excalibur and David Lean's A Passage to India, as well as making two appearances in Doctor Who; firstly as Professor Jobel in 1985's Revelation of the Daleks and in 2007 Christmas special, Voyage of the Damned, as Mr Cooper.

RIP   

RIP Windsor Davies

Very sad to hear of the death of Windsor Davies at the age of 88 on Thursday.

The burly, deep-voiced Welsh actor was best known for playing the Sergeant-Major in Croft and Perry's classic WWII set sitcom It Ain't Half Hot Mum which ran from 1974 to 1981. It was a role that not only made him a household name but also saw him typecast (not that he seemed to mind) as the bullish soldier putting others through their paces in everything from films like Carry on England and Adolf Hitler: My Part In His Downfall to children's series like Marmalade Atkins and Gerry Anderson's Terrahawks. When he wasn't playing the sergeant-major then he was often cast as policeman, appearing as one on TV in the likes of Z Cars, Softly Softly, Callan, Special Branch, Detective, The Mind of Mr J.G. Reader, and The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes, and on film in The Playbirds, Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed, Endless Night, and Not Now, Comrade.

Other memorable roles include starring opposite Donald Sinden as rival antique dealers in the ITV sitcom Never the Twain which ran from 1981 to 1991, and the Welsh rugby comedies, Grand Slam and Old Scores. He also starred in Carry On Behind, played General Tufto in the BBC's excellent 1998 adaptation of Vanity Fair and David Lloyd George in Channel 4's Mosley. His last appearances on TV included guest appearances in Casualty in 2000 and in My Family in 2004, before retiring to France. His wife passed away in September last year and he is survived by five children.

RIP

RIP Dianne Oxberry

As a proud northerner who loves his region, I am shocked and saddened to hear of the death of local legend and BBC North West Tonight's long-time weather presenter, Dianne Oxberry following a short battle with cancer at the age of just 51.

The meteorologist joined North West Tonight in 1994 and, as such, she has been an almost daily part of my life for the last twenty-five years. She was the mainstay of the programme and I will always remember what I personally feel was the show's golden years, when the presenting team consisted of Gordon Burns, Ranvir Singh, Tony Livesey and her. Around this time she gained national attention when Peter Kay memorably interrupted her forecast, proclaiming "God love Dianne Oxberry - You made the sun shine for everybody!" Words that many paying tribute today have recalled fondly, almost as her epitaph.

Prior to North West Tonight, Sunderland born Dianne worked for Radio 1, presenting alongside Simon Mayo and as part of the Steve Wright's 'Zoo' team. In the early '90s she also presented the BBC's Saturday morning children's TV show The 8:15 From Manchester with Ross King and Charlotte Hindle - a show that the teenage me used to greatly enjoy with its mix of cartoons, stunts and games and its showcase for the best in the baggy Madchester music scene. It was her that she met her husband and the father of her two young children, cameraman Ian Hindle.

As well as presenting the weather, Dianne also presented the Inside Out North West current affairs and local interest series, worked for BBC Radio Manchester and appeared as herself in the film Grow Your Own, and in the Steve Coogan comedy drama series Sunshine. 

Presented with a cake by the NWT team for twenty years service with the show

There are many heartfelt tributes being paid right now from colleagues and admirers, but the most touching one I've seen comes in the shape of a poem from Lemn Sissay, which I'll share here;

She saw and named storms,
With calm and hazel eyes,
I shalln't think of her as 'passed away',
I'll think of her as sun rise.

Indeed. I'll be preparing myself for some tears coming in today's bulletins.

RIP

RIP June Whitfield

Sad to hear that June Whitfield passed away yesterday morning at the age of 93.

Whitfield had been a constant in British comedy since the late 1940s, creating an impressive through-line from Jimmy Edwards to Jennifer Saunders, with Terry Scott inbetween. As a result, this feels very much like the end of an era.

Born in Streatham in 1925, Whitfield made her stage debut at the age of just three years old, as part of Robinson's Dance Studio. She graduated from RADA in 1944 and began to appear on radio alongside the likes of Wilfred Pickles in the immediate post-war period. In 1951, she was part of the London cast of South Pacific and scored her big break two years later in Edwards' radio show Take It From Here, playing Eth, the fiancee to Ron Glum. This would become so beloved by the nation that they would later have their own spin-off entitled The Glums.

Throughout the 1950s and '60s Whitfield worked alongside the likes of Frankie Howard, Arthur Askey, Benny Hill and, memorably, Tony Hancock in the iconic episode, The Blood Donor. But it was her partnership with Terry Scott that many will remember her for. The pair first worked together in the 1960s sketch series Scott On..., this led to a sitcom Happy Ever After, which in turn led to their most famous collaboration Terry & June which ran for 65 episodes.

The rise of alternative comedy in the 1980s seemed to sweep away much of the twee middle class suburban values of the previous decade's comedy, but June Whitfield emerged not only unscathed but somewhat cherished. A guest appearance in French and Saunders in 1988 led to Jennifer Saunders asking her to play her mother in the sitcom Absolutely Fabulous which made its debut in 1992 and has continued, in one form or another, until the big-screen film version just two years ago. The sitcom introduced Whitfield to a new generation of fans who rightfully regarded her as a comedic national treasure. Her most recent TV work was in the 2014-2016 BBC1 sitcom Boomers and several guest appearances as a nun in EastEnders.

Radio continued to be a favourite medium of Whitfield's even when she was at the height of her TV fame. She was a regular performer on Radio 2's The News Huddlines with Roy Hudd from 1984 to 2001 and portrayed Miss Marple in a series of 12 radio play adaptations from 1993 to 2001. She also starred in four Carry On films and was made a Dame in 2017.

RIP