Gone but not forgotten - the good people we lost in 2024

Janey Godley, the Scottish comedian, died in hospital surrounded by her loved ones in November

At the start 2024, sporting legends Franz Beckenbauer, JPR Williams and Barry John all passed away.

For those of a certain age, these guys were our teenage heroes, people on whom we conferred immortality. But then we all kick the bucket in the end.

Some last the course much longer than expected, such as snooker legend Ray Reardon who died in July at the ripe old age of ninety-one, despite spending his professional life in smoke-filled billiard halls, in a sport whose World Championship was even sponsored by a cigarette company.

The world of entertainment said goodbye to the great Maggie Smith, a giant figure in theatre and cinema. She again was someone we all assumed would go on forever, as she had been a near constant figure on our screens for five decades from The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie right up to the Harry Potter movies.

Ian Lavender, best known as Pike in Dad’s Army was another to have shuffled off this mortal coil in the past year.

I got to know him quite well around ten years ago, when he performed a number of Fringe shows about his memories of the series. He was a genuinely lovely man, and was totally at ease with the notion that his place in the public consciousness was forever summed up in six words. Namely “stupid boy” or “don’t tell him, Pike”.

Whenever people shouted “stupid boy” as he walked past them on George Street, his response was invariably a smile and a wave.

In the Scottish comedy community, we also lost two of our own. My old mate Stu Who died in May. Back in the late eighties and early nineties, he was one of the pioneers of the burgeoning stand-up scene in this country, a founder member of STV’s The Funny Farm. When I started out in the business, the guy was already a living legend.

Similar to Ian Lavender Janey Godley, who passed away last month, was forever associated in the minds of the public with a couple of catchphrases.

One was “Frank, get the door”, from her re-voicing of Nicola Sturgeon’s lockdown press briefings. The other was “Trump is a c**t”, a placard she waved when the US President visited his Turnberry golf resort.

In the autumn, Alex Salmond died while at a conference in North Macedonia. The former First Minister was a larger-than-life character in both senses.

He may have divided opinion, but he did take this country to the brink of self-determination. Our hopes fell short but in Big Eck’s words “the dream will never die”.

We have also seen the last of many who may not have died but have spectacularly shot themselves in the foot in 2024. People like former Edinburgh City Council leader Cammy Day, MasterChef host Gregg Wallace, Tory leadership wannabe James Cleverley and demented ex-PM Liz Truss.

To them I offer my heartfelt thanks. This column would be much more difficult to write without clowns like them to take the p*** out of.

Happy New Year when it comes. And lang may yer lum reek.