"The grownups are leaving, one by one"

 (- Jonathan Freedman, The Guardian, 19/12/20)

Some deaths knock you sideways onto another track altogether, which quickly diverges from the one you were on. Others are just a bump on the way. There have been plenty of the latter (and many in between), but I'm lucky enough to have reached the age of 69 without any of the former.

The loss of people you don't know personally can only be a bump, though maybe a big one. (Jerry Garcia's death in 1995 hit me like a ton of bricks.) And this year there have been plenty of bumps.

The first was the Terry Jones, Monty Python stalwart. The only TV programme I would watch every week in the early 70s. At uni we would re-live the best sketches the next day in the Beehive at lunchtime, and end up laughing just as much. The shocking thing is he was only 77 and had suffered from dementia for several years. I'm 70 next year.

The next unwanted news was the loss of lovely and brilliant Tim Brook Taylor. The Goodies was essential (silly) viewing in the 80s and through that I discovered the radio show "I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue" in which he was a regular from 1972 onwards until Covid-19 took him. In the 1990s I would record these shows on cassette tape if I was going to be busy at 6:30pm on a Monday; I have nearly all of the official CD releases and they are funny even after multiple plays. Tim is someone I shall really miss.

Sean Connery, as James Bond, was the coolest. I don't remember my first Bond film, but I do remember devouring each of them at the earliest opportunity (probably on TV); in a cinema it was probably Diamonds are Forever in 1971. Seeing these films now is cringe-making, especially Bond's attitude towards women, but at the time he was suave, tough, sophisticated, and somehow charmed every woman he met into bed without even trying. Connery was great in "The Untouchables", too.

Diana Rigg I've already written about. And Ian Holm.

I know she was a good actor, but Barbara Windsor was forever a Carry On personality for me. Saucy, but in a family sense (unlike Mary Millington from the same era, who was saucy in an adult sense) with an irrepressible laugh. The films don't stand the test of time, but they were proper fun in their day.

John le Carre wrote top class characters and classy, intricate, stories. I liked his Smiley books the best (though felt that the ending of the recent one, A Legacy of Spies, was disappointing). He gave me many hours of reading enjoyment, for which I am will always be grateful. 

Peter Green - founder of Fleetwood Mac after a spell as John Mayall's guitarist. I remember him for those wonderful early singles: Albatross, Green Manalishi, Man of the World.

Chadwick Boseman: The Black Panther; a great actor to play a great character. And a great stand-alone film, but also an essential chapter in the epic saga that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

I've left possibly the saddest celebrity death till last. I never watched Love Island and I knew nothing about Caroline Flack. But the death by suicide of someone in their prime and without a life-limiting physical illness is never right. As I learned more about her circumstances, the wronger it became. 

And then, on the Strictly Come Dancing Christmas special they showed a clip of her 2014 contemporary dance with Pasha Kovalev and I remembered. I'm not an avid watcher of Strictly, but without doubt this was the most beautiful and moving 2 minutes I'd ever seen on TV.

 I found the full dance on YouTube. It left me quietly sobbing.