What (deceased) well known people do you remember with affection?

Percy Thrower and Geoffrey Smith, good old fashioned TV gardeners. Percy used to remind me of my dad, seemed to be a gentle man.

George Cansdale did quite a lot of TV - he was, I recall, I great proponent of fancy rats as children's pets - that was probably if you couldn't get hold of a python...

My first "boy friend " George Harrison. My best friend and i thought he was wonderful.

Gally I can only remember it was something about animals.

feetle Some years ago my Mum and Dad were staying at a hotel in Norfolk. Mum was sitting in the lounge when a man in dark trousers, a white jacket and bow tie, plonked himself on the arm the sofa and started to chat to her. Mum thought it rather odd that a waiter had settled himself down next to her and engaged in leisurely conversation.

My Dad, who was a great jazz fan, came into the lounge and when Mum recounted what had happened and pointed the man out, Dad told her that the "waiter" was Kenny Ball - he and his band were playing at the hotel.

Was he a vet? Seem to remember him appearing on childrens programmes (in black and white!)

Does anyone remember George Cansdale? He was the guest speaker at some sort of presentation evening at my school in Romford one November. If my memory serves me well, it was he that talked about his first radio music broadcast when he was, naturally, very nervous. He'd got through the whole broadcast without a hitch and then came to the last piece of music which he announced to be: "The Bum of the Flightlebee".

We were still excited and giggling coming out of school as we made our way down the road on that cold November night. There was a shout of shock from somebody behind us whose brother had come to the school to meet her. It was then we all learned that Kennedy had been assassinated.

All people that I worked with, in my days as a musician...

Dustin Gee (remember him? Very funny man.)
Eric Morecambe (a banker in these lists!)
Roy Castle (ditto)
Kenny Ball
Terry Lightfoot
Lennie Bennett

One I knew from childhood - Barry Took

Joyce Grenfell - a brilliant comedienne, but never nasty with it. A big-hearted woman.

Deedaa I felt the same about Patti. I too have read her book and realised that her life wasn't all a bed of roses. And Tegan I used to think why did he pick her but looking back on some of the photos and films I can see she was rather lovely. Thanks for the tip about the programme. I will tune in.

I never understood why men found Patti Boyd so attractive [she always looked a bit weasely to me].

I actually felt sad when Bing Crosby died. My parents had a good record collection and we would play cards or Mah Jong on a Sunday evening listening to Bing, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald....Then we got a telly!!

Norman Wisdom
Richard Briers
Amy Winehouse

Oh KatyK the things I would have done to Patti if I could have got hold of her! The silly thing is I have since read her book and found her so much nicer than I thought and terribly upset about his death.

"Living in the Material World" is definitely worth a watch

The programme about George Harrison 'Living in the Material World' is being repeated on BBC4 next Friday.

I loved the Two Ronnies they made me rock with laughter! Freddie Mercury, Queen was never quite same without him! I was quite young but remember being shocked when Martin Luther King was shot and even more so for Anwar Sadat, they both did so much for civil liberty, they weren't,t just celebrities!
Steve McQueen, great actor,ditto Liz Taylor. Although I recognise she divided opinion I was very sad at the death of Margaret Thatcher I am one of those who thought she did a lot of good for this country?

Yes he was lovely Deedaa. I remember the day he got married to Patti I couldn't eat my tea! I think if I had been you I would have been following my dad to work. I had about a thousand pictures of them, loads of memorabelia, all of which I bundled into a bin bag and put in the dustbin
when I considered I had grown out of them. Oh dear - the mistakes we make in life.

George was lovely wasn't he KatyK ? I saw them play several times but that was as close as I got it was very frustrating because my Dad worked at EMI and saw quite a lot of them and never even got me an autograph!

Beatle George Harrison. I was an avid Beatles fan and saw them live about 5 times when they came to my town. I won a competition once to sit behind them on stage (along with about 50 other winners) when they recorded a programme called Thank Your Lucky Stars. Many years later I came across a photo of them on the show in a book about the 60s and I am sitting directly behind them - about a foot from my lovely George! I have had the picture blown up and framed. I also saw them at my local town hall. A couple of us skipped school even though we didn't have tickets.
To cut a long story short some kind soul left a door open and we sneaked in and stood at the back and saw the concert. On our way to the auditorium we opened a broom cupboard with the idea of hiding in there and jumping out on the Beatles when they came off stage. Unfortunately the cupboard was occupied by some other fans with the same idea. That afternoon George had come to a broken window to chat to about 6 of us who were waiting there. I'lll never forget it. I have been on local radio a couple of times talking about my Beatles memories of which there are many. George was my absolute favourite famous person of all time.

Bob Marley and Spike Milligan

Chalky's been dead for a while Tegan Rick Stein still gets quite choked up talking about him.
I can remember being very anti Linda McCartney although I don't know why, when she was so pro animals. I think Jane was probably better suited to Gerald Scarfe though, they seem to have been very happy.

The S.O. went to one of the first concerts that Wings did; I think they just phoned up somewhere in Nottingham and said [we're going to do a gig]. We were all a bit sniffy about Linda being in the band at the time, weren't we, but, of all of the Beatles Paul was the one that always wanted to perform live [still does, sadly] and it was the fans that put paid to that. Funny that those of us that dreamed of marrying a Beatle were then put out by the fact that one of them actually married someone quite plain and ordinary; as if it was more painless if they married someone that we couldn't aspire to be.
...I didn't know Chalky was dead ...
Deedaa...listen to Tom Ravenscroft on Radio 6 [his son]. It's as if he never left [Glastonbury has never been the same, though; I wish they'd get Tom to do it [in fact, I might write to the Beeb about it]

Despite all the things I said about her when she married Paul McCartney, (I was of the opinion he should have married Jane Asher,) I felt sad when Linda McCartney died. She was a devoted wife and mother and campaigned for animal welfare. Her tribute concert showed how much her family cared for her and she was 'of our time'.

Les Dawson, Roy Castle - he seemed such a nice decent man.

Me too *gillybob