OF THE BBC
THE TWO RONNIES CARRIE FISHER SHEP THE DOG GORDEN KAYE JIMMY SAVILE
RONNIE Barker and Ronnie Corbett met at the Buckstone Club in the Haymarket, London, where Corbett was serving drinks between acting jobs.
They were invited by David Frost to appear in his new show, The Frost Report, with John Cleese. Frost may as well have dug their graves! Barker died of heart failure at the Katherine House hospice in Adderbury, Oxfordshire, on October 3, 2005, aged 76.
On March 31, 2016 – in a year peppered by celebrity death – Corbett died aged just 85 at Shirley Oaks Hospital in Shirley, London, surrounded by his family. IN 1977, Fisher starred as Princess Leia in George Lucas’s science- fiction film Star Wars opposite Mark Hamill and Harrison Ford.
The movie, and its two sequels, made Fisher an international megastar admired the world over by countless millions.
Had Carrie stayed in Hollywood, she may have been safe.
But, in 2016, she made the mistake of going on Graham Norton’s BBC1 chat show to plug her new book The Princess Diarist.
You guessed it… within weeks of stepping into a BBC studio, Carrie was stone cold dead. SHEP became the main Blue Peter dog in 1977. He is remembered by TV viewers as inseparable from Blue Peter presenter John Noakes.
Noakes’ common refrain was “Get Down Shep!” – which became a national catchphrase.
Unfortunately, in 1987, with the Curse snapping at his heels, Shep got down – and stayed down.
Noakes, terrified the Curse may catch up with him next, sobbed like a baby when talking about the death of his pal during an edition of The Weakest Link. HIS cheery sign- off catchphrase every Saturday morning was “That’s your lot for this week… see you next week!”
But last Saturday, BBC legend Brian Matthew dropped STONE DEAD!
The 88- year- old had presented Sounds of the Sixties on Radio 2 since 1990. Now he’s gone.
But even as the tears flowed at Brian’s untimely death, questions were already being asked.
Why had the BBC announced his passing a full 48 hours before he breathed his last?
And why do so many BBC stars end up on the mortician’s slab?
Today, Sunday Sport reveals the result of a shock investigation that points to a sinister cult of DEATH at the BBC.
Because for many, it seems, signing a BBC contract is like putting a loaded gun to your head… AS bumbling café owner Rene Artois during World War II, Gorden was a Saturday night favourite in the brilliant BBC comedy ‘ Allo ‘ Allo. Of course, he’d found mainstream fame years earlier in Coronation Street, where he played Elsie Tanner’s nephew. Had he stayed on ITV, Gorden may have lived out a long and happy life. But he tied his colours firmly to the BBC mast. The consequences, of course, were dire. First of all, he got twatted on the head by a plank of wood during a storm in 1990. And on 23 January this year he died, aged 75. FEW who have appeared on the BBC have made an impact like DJ and presenter Savile.
From the early days of Radio One to the heights of Jim’ll Fix It, Savile bestrode the Corporation like a colossus.
Directors bowed to him, producers feared him. The public loved him.
But nobody is bigger than the Curse of the BBC and, despite his amazing physical fitness, Savile died in October 2011, aged just 84.
But the Curse was not done. After his death, allegations about Savile’s private life destroyed forever his reputation as a fundraiser.