Obituaries

And co-founder of the London Marathon. Top man

Interesting to see RB’s point of view

https://twitter.com/PhilipPullman/status/970417290964537345

I always liked the tale of Norris McWhirter’s announcement of the result. Spinning it out for maximum effect.

“As a result of Event Four, the one mile, the winner was R. G. Bannister of Exeter and Merton colleges, in a time which, subject to ratification, is a track record, an English native record, a United Kingdom record, a European record, in a time of three minutes…” .at which the rest of McWhirter’s announcement was drowned out in the enthusiastic uproar.

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Ken Dodd. Died in the house where he was born. Married two days ago. I did like the line after his acquittal on tax evasion charges. I couldn’t have owed the inland revenue anything. I lived by the seaside. :smiley:

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Chain Reaction - Series 12, Tim Vine Interviews Sir Ken Dodd, Episode 6 - @bbcradio4 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08k1sv1

Just brilliant.

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The tax thing isn’t worth going on about bar the fact that it probably inspired the creation of the two most famous diddy men. Diddy Pay and Diddy Eckerslike.

I liked Dodd as a person. I ran into him regularly in the butcher’s shop on Allerton Road. He was hilarious in there just ordering lamb chops. Absolute feckin’ mayhem as everybody pissed themselves laughing at the goings-on. Feck knows what one of his shows would have been like.

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One of his oldest jokes is now sadly appropriate:

Ken Dodd died
did 'e?
No, Doddy.

My Dad used to take me on an annual pilgrimage to see Ken Dodd at the Winter Gardens, Blackpool. That was a few weeks after he’d seen him on the work’s outing, as no two nights were ever the same.
We’d stagger out like everyone else completely exhausted and in agony as we’d laughed so much & for so long.

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Saw him twice and vowed after the first time not to see him again, I was aching with laughter. Started at 19.30hrs 'ish and finished at 01.00 hrs 'ish, you can only laugh so much, there were shouts of ‘get off Doddy’, to which he replied ‘you’ll get home ok, there’ll be a milk float along shortly’.
Took my daughter to see him the second time, ‘they were the worst dad jokes ever, he’s amazing’.
RIP Doddy, you were the last of the greats.
Just seen on the news that someone has tweeted :-

Ken Dodd’s funeral will take place on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday and possibly some of Saturday.
I think he would have liked that.

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I was forced to go to see one of his gigs in the late 80s by friends and I’ve never laughed so much. How he kept up the quality for nearly 6 hours I will never know. A unique talent. RIP.

Ken Dodd - Just a brilliant individual RIP

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A huge loss to the universe and human understanding. Also a shining example of how good the NHS is.

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Nice interview on the radio this morning with an American professor who worked with him. He described SH as an incredible man who, while everyone was looking for answers he was the only one who said ‘but what about the questions. If you don’t ask the correct questions then how can you get the correct answers? He knew the questions.’

I thought that was a very good description of the man.

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Very sad news. True genius.

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A rare talent.

“My expectations were reduced to zero when I was 21. Everything since then has been a bonus”

RIP

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Very sad news.

I attened 2 of his public lectures about the universe in Oxford. His genius was futher demonstrated by his ability to explain mind bending subjects in a way that mear mortals like me were able to comprehend.

RIP Stephen Hawking.

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