RIP January 2016

Glenn Frey

January 2016 has rapidly come to a close and it is noticeable how many celebrities have left us during the month.

Amongst others, these have included:

Actors, Alan Rickman 69 (Harry Potter, Die Hard, Love Actually - pancreatic cancer), Dan Haggerty 74 (The Life and Times of Grizzy Adams - spinal cancer) and

Frank Finlay 89 (Bouquet of Barbed Wire - undisclosed causes).

Musicians, David Bowie 69 (liver cancer), Glenn Frey 67 (Eagles - complications following intestinal surgery and Paul Kantner 74 (Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship – multiple organ failure.

Earlier in the month British disc-jockey and radio broadcaster Ed Stewart died aged 74  after suffering a stroke, and today the sad news has broken of the passing of Irish-British radio and TV broadcasting legend, Sir Terry Wogan at the age of 77, after a short battle with cancer.

I always put Sir Terry in the same bracket as Cilla Black (who left us in the latter half of 2015). Both were UK TV/Radio institutions, with Cilla being the face of ITV and Sir Terry performing a similar duty with the BBC. Both of them were greatly loved, seemed perfectly at home with all sections of the population and were reportedly genuinely nice people.

 Cilla interviewed by Sir Terry

I grew up listening to Sir Terry on radio and watching him on TV. No-one is immortal, but you always had this notion that he would be around forever and even his colleagues on BBC Radio 2 were expecting his return to his Sunday morning programme next month.

The fact that he pulled out at the last minute of last November’s BBC Children in Need appeal on TV maybe should have brought about an idea that he was not in the best of health, but until today there would not have been too many people who wouldn’t have expected him to front the 2016 appeal.

January 2016 has been a sad month for many reasons and this has certainly not been improved by the loss of Sir Terry Wogan. RIP.