Blimey I thought they were dead !

Ali Bongo ! Ray Alan ! The Krankies ! Emu! Mike Yarwood !

Can we think of anyone else we've seen over the past few weeks that have reappeared as talking heads on the 'Story Of Light Entertainment', after not been seen on screen regulary for the last 15 to 20 years, & thought 'Blimey I thought they were dead'?

Jeanette Krankie nearly did die a year or so ago after falling off a hydraulic "beanstalk" on stage at the Pavillion Theatre, Glasgow.

She and husband Iain were replaced in the panto by "shell-suit Bob" and another actor from River City. Nice piece of casting, actually.

Not sure why you would assume they are all dead just because they are not on the box. Unless you've heard otherwise, isn't it safer to assume they are alive somewhere?

I saw David Bellamy talking about Steve Irwin the other day. I thought he was dead.

David Bellamy fell out of favour with the BBC, after making some 'off-message' comments about global warming. This is why he hasn't appeared recently.

Mike Yarwood decided to take a year-long sabbatical in 1987 from ITV, and ITV (Thames) didn't renew his contract; possibly owing to falling ratings, also the success of vicious parody shows ( Spitting Image etc) and alternative comedy. MY was considered 'old-guard'.

Consequently he has been in semi-retirement. He next popped up on Des O'Connor's Christmas special, doing a spoof Christmas message as John Major. He then did a one-off appearance on Have I Got News For You to much acclaim. Last time I saw him was on a Channel 4 documentary about himself a few years ago.

I thought Ray Allen was dead too. He looks very frail now, bless him!

By the way, is it me or has Cilla had her face ironed? She looks awfully youthful now.

I thourgh Stanley Baxter was died, but this show proved me wrong!

[quote="Roger Mellie"]

Having a female prime minister didn't help his career much either!

The Krankies - its funny how Jeanette is now just a little old woman really, yet we've always seen her dressed as a schoolboy. Wasn't their last proper TV appearence on 'Its Only TV But I Like It' back in 2001?

I don't like the fact Emu has been revived. To me, Emu died with Rod Hull.

I remember watching the later editions of The Paul Daniels Magic Show in the early nineties - mainly because my Uncle produced it then and it was like we were ordered to watch it. Great camera trickery and Saturday night TV for its time.

Anyway, I reckon this has been the best compilation documentary series on BBC2 in a long while. I've enjoyed it all.

Wasn't the last Paul Daniels series simply called "Magic"? It was excellent.

Throughout the programme my parents were going "oooh, didn't know he/she was still around!"

The Krankies aren't even all that old -- 59 according to Wikipedia. Why would they be dead?

[quote="Inspector Sands"]

True! In his Channel 4 documentary (or BBC programme called Who Do You Do ), MY said that he tried to impersonate Maggie, but it didn't work, so he switched to doing Prince Charles instead

For sketches involving Maggie, they usually drafted in Margaret Brown. I think they got her to play Diana also?

[quote="Roger Mellie"]

It was Janet Brown - well known as a comedienne and impressionist in her own right - and the wife of Carry-On start Peter Butterworth.

See http://www.geo.ed.ac.uk/scotgaz/people/famousfirst1155.html