I’m sure it’s just my imagination, but every year it seems that around Christmas time people start dying in greater numbers than at any other time during the year. I’m not making light of it in any way. But it’s something I’ve struggled with since I was a kid.
I mentioned a few days ago that Virna Lisi had died (which is slightly depressing, as she is connected with my youth). Then this week or so we have had the deaths of Jeremy Lloyd (who wrote some TV shows which are also associated with my younger days), Billie Whitelaw (the maid in the original Omen film, but famous for many other roles), Joe Cocker (who did With a Little Help From My Friends at Woodstock), and Ian McLagan (of The Faces and Small faces), Bobby Keys (Rolling Stones sax player).
Outside showbiz, there has been the terrible incident up in Glasgow where six people died after a bin lorry drove into them. No deaths, but injuries in a similar incident in Nantes, France. Then several shootings in America, plus the murder of an off-duty policeman in Liverpool. Another shooting death, this time in Sheffield. And there are several others – some involving children.
Christmas can be a depressing time – I wonder if that has anything to do with it? A kind of self-fuelling cycle?