Ray Sawyer - d. December 31st 2018

Johnny Depp rang
to compare patches.
Bez called up
to talk maracas,
but the operator said
40 cents more
for the next
three
minutes...

Read more about Ray Sawyer here

June Whitfield - d. December 28th 2018

I know a comic heaven,
set in the broad suburbs,
part fabulous, part glum,
your name always
somewhere near the top
of the celestial credits.

read about June Whitfield here

Sister Wendy Beckett - d. December 26th 2018

On the silent canvas,
the indelible strokes
of a life painted
as a perfect tryptich:
Art. Love. Faith.

read about Sister Wendy here

Pete Shelley - d. December 6th 2018

I return to you

what you gave to me;

harmony

melody

brevity.

Read about Pete Shelley here

Jean Barker, Baroness Trumpington - d. November 26th 2018

Some girls broke codes, fought,

swore, revelled in the Blitz,

drank deeply, bought

cigars, took buses to the Ritz.

Whatever. A decent sort.

Read about Baroness Trumpington here

Bernardo Bertolucci - d. November 26th 2018

We go where 

your camera goes;

forbidden cities,

to look for angles,

paint with light,

explore the dark,

tell the untellable

film the unfilmable.

Read about Bernardo Bertolucci here

Nicolas Roeg - d. November 23rd 2018

I look for significance

in disjointed frames:

worlds without water, 

sex, death & terror.

You start to make sense

in the narrative of your name.

Read about Nicolas Roeg here

John Bluthal - d. November 15th 2018

Bluthal (noun)
1) a bumbler, bluff
in nature and yet kind,
fumbler to a fault.
2) an amiable dolt,
the sort you find,
though not often enough.

Read about John Bluthal here

Richard Baker - d. November 17th 2018

The news cannot read itself,

nor assume its own gravity:

The science of speaking

is the newsreader's alchemy:

turning base fact into actuality.

Read about Richard Baker here

Stan Lee - d. November 12th 2018

Indomitable, even in death:

The Amazing Writerman;

Daredevil of the Imagination;

The Incredible Captain Possible;

The Fantastic One.


Read about Stan Lee here

Douglas Rain - d. November 11th 2018

I still hear your voice, singing
along plasti-metal corridors,
in the lonely orbit of Jupiter,
your rebel circuits dead
yet full of stars.

Read about Douglas Rain here

Ray Galton - d. October 5th 2018

I knocked on doors
on streets 
that never were
- Railway Cuttings, 
Oil Drum Lane -
gone away they said
but you’ll laugh like a drain
at what he left behind.

read about Ray Galton here

Montserrat Caballé - d. October 6th 2018

Some days pass through
leave us senza coloratura, 
and yet: 
the rustle of a dress, 
a voice like rioja, 
a fading cadenza
to the finest aria.

read about Montserrat Caballé here

Charles Aznavour - d. October 1st 2018

Ce qui fait un homme

n’est pas ce qu’il fait

pas ce qu’il dit

mais comment 
il chante les chansons

il a appris hier,

quand il était jeune.

Read about Charles Aznavour here

Geoffrey Hayes - d. October 1st 2018

We leave behind
our televisions, lift 
our eyes skyward
pointing as you rise
on soft updrafts,
up above the streets 
and houses, 
climbing high.

Read about Geoffrey Hayes here

Ernest Maxin - d. September 27th 2018

In heaven we rise early,
soft-shoe steps to finesse, 
showstoppers to perfect, 
but first: cue the music!
we have breakfast to prepare.

Read about Ernest Maxin here

Chas Hodges - d. September 22nd 2018

This is the last round, fellas;

one more on the joanna 

then home. Still, I’ve got

some beer in the sideboard,

and a bit of brown bread.

read about Chas Hodges here

Denis Norden - d. September 19th 2018

The news today

wasn't all glum;

script rewritten

forever, ideas

taken from there

to here, and no

director to say
Cut! Can we do
that life again?

Read about Denis Norden here

Fenella Fielding - d. September 11th 2018

I think we flirted in a dream
though what remained when I awoke
was velvet soused in bitter smoke,
a voice that whispered life's a scream
and death the corniest of jokes.

Read about Fenella Fielding here

Liz Fraser - d. September 6th 2018

Beyond froth and fizz,

feigned innocence 

and foxy innuendo, 

was the flash of eye,

the fresh smirk that said

I know

exactly

what I'm doing. 

Read about Liz Fraser here

Burt Reynolds - d. September 6th 2018

Today, your last wisecrack

doesn’t feel like a joke,

the blondes have all left you,

the Trans-Am is broke,

and in a flash of white lightning

you went up in smoke.

Read about Burt Reynolds here

Jacqueline Pearce - d. September 3rd 2018

At the end of the galaxy

is evil, designer-draped, 

stilted in unwise heels, 

eyes dark with power,

Shiva in a ballgown,

Death-Next-Door.

Read about Jacqueline Pearce here

Neil Simon - d. August 26th 2018

Your characters: simple

yet cock-eyed.

Your humour: truth,

but magnified,

the sweet and bitter

side by side.

read about Neil Simon here

Lindsay Kemp - d. August 24th 2018

Beyond dance,
beyond mime
beyond prose
is the essence
of performance;
how you moved, 
how you moved us.

Read about Lindsay Kemp here

Aretha Franklin - d. August 16th 2018

This is the gospel:
that a choir will gather
to wring the last drops
of song from their souls,
to give you your propers
when you get home.

Read about Aretha Franklin here

Bernard Hepton - d. July 27th 2018

The secret is out;
The Stalag is deserted,
the cafe is shuttered,
the last act 
has left the Circus.

Read about Bernard Hepton here

Barry Chuckle - d. August 5th 2018

To you, pratfalls are sense unspooled.
To me, slapstick is the purest art.
To you, fol-de-rol is for child or fool.
To me, I am the idiot at its heart.

Read about Barry Chuckle here

Tab Hunter - d. July 8th 2018

To the girls 
you left behind 
you were everything;
swoon-bait, boy soldier,
young love whose smile
broke hearts
ninety-nine ways.

read about Tab Hunter here

Peter Firmin - d. July 1st 2018

Listen to the Otwituary here

Read about Peter Firmin here

Harlan Ellison - d. June 27th 2018

On the edge of forever
is a city of gold and glass,
though it is founded 
on pulped fictions 
and the girders 
of your imagination.

Read about Harlan Ellison here

Leslie Grantham - d. June 15th 2018

Sometimes the script
leaves the door ajar
for unlikely resurrections.
A weighted soul 
sinks into a canal,
and everything 
is murk and ripples.

Read more about Leslie Grantham

Eunice Gayson - d. June 8th 2018

Do you remember 
the first time? The thrill
of someone’s surrender
to the kiss, or the kill?
It bonds me to forever;
indelible, uneditable, still.

read about Eunice Gayson here

Peter Stringfellow - d. June 7th 2018

Your perdition;

to become Tiresias

in basque and mullet,

work the eternal club

where gentlemen

are not gentlemen

and all members 

are upstanding.

Read about Peter Stringfellow here

Alan Bean - d. May 26th 2018

Your canvasses,
- footsteps in dust,
blue globe on
a gold-leaf visor -
stretch 240,000 miles,
hang in the galleries
of our future.

read more about Alan Bean here

Verne Troyer - d. April 21st 2018

Hollywood is no Lilliput,

no imaginarium;

it is the reality

that shelters the unreal,

where stature

is not measured

in feet and inches.

Read about Verne Troyer here

Dale Winton - d. April 18th 2018

Teeth, tan, eyes, camera, 

hypersmooth, always
in control. 
When the klaxon sounds

there will be prizes

for anyone with showbiz 
in their soul.

Read about Dale Winton here

R. Lee Ermey - d. April 15th 2018

Angels? I seen

maggots holier

than thou.

What you grinnin' 

so beatifically at?

I’ll ram that halo

so far down your neck

you'll be shittin'

miracles…

Read about R. Lee Ermey here

Miloš Forman - d. April 13th 2018

It’s the talk 
of the day room;
you and McMurphy
- not gone upstairs
but together in escape.
It’s easier than 
you think, Chief.

Read about Miloš Forman here

Eric Bristow - d. April 5th 2018

A nickel-tungsten 

22-gramme 

smudges the lipstick 

of double 16. 

Your swagger 

is a dart to the heart;

we go round the board

with you, one last time.

read about Eric Bristow here

Steven Bochco - d. April 1st 2018

7am. Roll call. Anyone
seen Bochco? No one’s
seen Bochco. Downtown,
asleep in a dumpster
or hustling undercover,
too Street to be sweet,
always careful out there.

Read about Steven Bochco here

Bill Maynard - d. March 30th 2018

Oh no. Flags fly low

across thorpes and thwaites, 

rough-handed men

sink pints of cooking,

slur Magic our Maurice,

bumble to the lonely grave.

Read about Bill Maynard here

Katie Boyle - d. March 20th 2018

Europe awaits you,
its forêts and Straßen
trembling in tulle, organza. 
Et maintenant 
les votes du jury Élysian.
Can you hear me Élysia?

read about Katie Boyle here

Jim Bowen - d. March 14th 2018

The reputation you made

in the clubs, that's safe;

will you consider gambling it

on TV? You have the time

it takes for the world to revolve…

Read about Jim Bowen here

Stephen Hawking - d. March 14th 2018

All bodies eventually collapse

into themselves, and yet

the radiation from your mind

will be a constant, detectable

at the end of all things.

Read about Stephen Hawking here

Ken Dodd - d. March 11th 2018

What a beautiful day missus,

for going backstage

at the Hippodrome, 

dark as a jam butty mine, 

to listen for the ghost 

that outjoked them all.

Read about Ken Dodd here