h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Roger Bannister
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/mar/04/sir-roger-bannister-obituary

When I was a kid there were names that everyone knew, almost by osmosis without having to learn about them. Edmund Hillary, Donald Campbell, Yuri Gagarin, Stirling (who do you think you are) Moss, Richard Dimbleby, John Snagge, the entire 1966 England World Cup winning team, and of course, Roger Bannister.

The only British athletes I can think of off the top of my head are David Beckham and Sebastian Coe. The only Olympic gold medalists I can think of are the former Bruce Jenner, Michael Phelps, and Mark Spitz. It helps if the athletes are runners or swimmers. Swimming is the perfect sport. Running isn't far behind.

Ken Dodd
http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2018/mar/12/sir-ken-dodd-obituary

He was definitely one of those people about whom you could say that they broke the mold after he was made, and it's also a break, a severance with an entire tradition of British culture because was the last of the big name music hall comics (front-of-cloth, not front-cloth, if you're reading the link, because they performed in between other acts which needed some kind of equipment or scenery, in front of the curtain while the stage was being set behind it).

I'd like to have seen his show when he was in his heyday, the 60s mostly, and I was often close to the right part of the country to see it because he worked Blackpool so much, as did any comic who get a summer season there. And then later he did his famously long shows right up until last December I believe.

It's definably the end of an era.

He was also an actor and writer on television and the silver screen

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0230087/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

Stephen Hawking
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/mar/14/stephen-hawking-obituary

No comment necessary for someone as well know as he, but if a scientist could pick the day of their death, pi day's not a bad one to choose.

He probably lived thirty or forty years longer than anyone imagined he could. And he never retired! An absolutely fabulous life, even with the disability, though I'm sure he would have wished he could have stayed able-bodied.

though I'm sure he would have wished he could have stayed able-bodied...Hmnnn one wonders IF he was able bodied he would of had as much time to postulate?

Jim Bowen
http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-43403178

Add Jim Bowen to the list of deceased Comedians, along with Ken Goodwin, George Roper, Bernard Manning, Mike Reid, Lennie Bennett, Frank Carson, Colin Crompton and Charlie Williams.

Zena Skinner
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/mar/20/zena-skinner-obituary

Possibly not the first TV cook I ever saw but the one I first remember. I think my mum used to be a fan of Zena.

Katie Boyle
http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/mar/20/katie-boyle-obituary

Caterina Irene Elena Maria Imperiali di Francavilla. That's a name and a half.

Bill Maynard
http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/mar/30/bill-maynard-obituary

Like a lot of people I know, I couldn't stand Oh No, It's Selwyn Froggit!, but a few years ago I came across a sitcom that Maynard had starred in called The Gaffer. It ran for three series in the early 80s and it was about the owner of a small engineering business and the problems he faced with the bank and the union. The shop steward was played by Russell Hunter, and it was that which led me to The Gaffer because I wanted to see how Russell, who had played one of the most wretched characters television has produced - Lonely from 'Callan' - would be in a comedy. He did it very well, actually.

I recently discovered that the writer, Graham White, was himself a small businessman and based the series on his own experience of running a company. It was very well written, and the situations were (mostly) believable and real.

Anita Shreve

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anita_Shreve

I read her "The Pilot's wife" and "The weight of water."

The Light Bulb Shop
http://www.mystatesman.com/news/local/light-bulb-shop-dark-after-nearly-years/prRXY8K22CXpef7zTaXZgL/

So many Austin fixtures are going because of the city's growth and rent increases. Don't ever live in a boom town.

Carl Kasell
http://www.npr.org/2018/04/17/528656453/npr-newscaster-carl-kasell-dies-at-84-after-a-lifelong-career-on-air

This one won't mean much to our British readers.

When I first came here in 1999 and started listening NPR, there was a handful of voices that I quickly became familiar with. They were the NPR equivalents of Peter Donaldson, Brian Perkins and Charlotte Green. Newsreaders and continuity announcers. It's voices such as theirs who give a radio station its character, every bit as much as the programmes it broadcasts. Bob Edwards was one, and Carl Kasell was another.

And then there was Daniel Schorr, who was old enough to have been around for both the 2008 recession and the Wall Street crash His demise is recorded here, in the previous conversation F50359?thread=291646&skip=740&show=20#p98672202

Barbara Bush
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43805365

Put here just for the record.

Incidentally, as I imagine she might get a state funeral, I was reading the Wikipedia article on Joseph McCarthy yesterday and I was rather surprised to find that he got one.

I can't even remember much about what she did. There was RIF (Reading is Fundamental), but I don't know if she started it, or jumped on the bandwagon.

Teddy Johnson http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/jun/10/teddy-johnson-obituary

Every once in a while a name from what seems like the distant past appears in the obituaries and you think 'How could they still be alive?'. Teddy Johnson is one of those, and his wife, Pearl Carr, has yet to drop off the twig.

Glynn Edwards http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/jun/06/glynn-edwards-obituary

Dave the barman is one of the finest support characters ever to grace British television. Minder wouldn't have been the same without The Winchester Club, and the club wouldn't have been The Winchester without Glynn Edwards. He played the role to perfection. Apparently gentle most of the time, every once in a while a flash of the menace necessary to run a members-only drinking club that had small-time criminals as regulars, and frequent visitations from the local filth, came to the surface and you knew that he was not to be messed with.

This one slipped by me somehow, and it does sadden me a little.

Ivan Mauger
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/apr/19/ivan-mauger-obituary

He was the top rider at the time I was going to speedway regularly - in the early 70s. I only ever saw him ride once, at the Custom House stadium in Silvertown, where the West Ham speedway team used to ride. It was at the Lokeren Memorial meeting, which he won http://speedwayplus.com/lokeren_overview.shtml

All the big names were there that day and I think I got all of them, including Ivan, to sign my programme. Naturally, I don't have it any more.

It's pronounced 'Major' in case you were wondering.

I remember him racing a PLough Lane, I think he was with Exeter at the time...
One all his races, as expected...