Died, Died, Died...

[poliphilo]

Stirling Moss died. He was the greatest English racing driver in an era when racing drivers had the glamour and life expectancy of wartime fighter pilots. I never followed the sport but everybody in my boyhood knew his name. When someone did something mean or stupid on the road what you shouted at them was, "Who do you think you are- Stirling Moss?" So not only a hero but a by-word. These days the phrase is, "Who do you think you are- Lewis fucking Hamilton?"

Lord Armstrong of Ilminster died. He will remembered for popularising the phrase "economical with the truth"- and for using it to deflect the charge that he'd lied. He was a senior Civil Servant so lying was pretty much his profession. The Telegraph must think him important because it gave him a full page obituary.

Tim Brooke-Taylor died. He was an Oxbridge entertainer- a contemporary of Cleese and Chapman who- if the dice had fallen differently- might have been a Python. Instead he became a "Goodie" which isn't the same thing at all.

Comments

[sovay]

Tim Brooke-Taylor died.

I am very, very sorry about him. I saw him first as the automatic hospital visitor, lonely patients, for the use of. His climactic breakdown is still sometimes quoted in our household: "NURSES NURSES NICE BIG JUICY ONES."

[poliphilo]

I'd never seen that sketch before. Great stuff.

And that's a beardless Bill Oddie in the bed, I think.

[sovay]

And that's a beardless Bill Oddie in the bed, I think.

I think you're right!