A Sad Start To 2016

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2016, has started very sadly, as well known names, exit our mortal world! Probably not well known to those outside the UK, the first shock came with the death of the DJ of my younger days,Ed Stewart, who was one of the first disc jockeys to clamber aboard the Pirate 'pop' stations, anchored in the North Sea, among many others starting out on their careers. David Bowie, followed along quite quickly, love him or hate him, he was an institution, outrageous, talented and a large part of the '60's music scene. On January 14th. one of my favourite British actors, also followed into the realms of the immortal, Alan Rickman, humorous,charismatic and a brilliant and extremely popular actor. He brought a whole new perspective, into playing 'villains', as demonstrated in Die Hard, playing Hans Gruber and others, although as the romantic cello-playing ghost "Jamie" in Truly Madly Deeply, he also gave a memorable performance. Robin Hood,Prince of thieves, was a great backdrop for his talents as the Sheriff of Nottingham, for which he collected a Bafta...but for the younger generation,he is known as Severus Snape in the Harry Potter films. He has played many and diverse roles, too many to mention, and finally married his lifelong companion,Rima Horton in secret last year. All in all, not a bad CV, for a kid born on a council estate in Acton, West London,son of a factory worker,who died when Alan was just 8yrs old.