While Twiggy was an excellent character, surely Geoffrey Hughes will be most fondly remembered as Eddie Yeats in Coronation St.
Meave binchy one of Ireland’s greatest authors has sadly passed away tonight.
“She loved lunch” was the rather unsurprising insight to her character from a 5 minute tribute in RTE this morning.
Con Houlihan RIP.
That’s sad news. Very good journalist
Must have been a fair age Sid…80s ??
:rolleyes:
RIP Con. A legendary character. I’ve always treasured this one of his:
‘Mike Sheehy was running up to take the kick - and suddenly Paddy dashed back towards his goal like a woman who smells a cake burning … Paddy crashed into the outside of the net and lay against it like a fireman who had returned to find his station ablaze’.
Very sad a great writer
RIP Con, in a class of his own 
he wrote like a simpleton-no wonder muldoons liked him
a cake burning ffs
Have a couple of collections of Cons articles. Jaysus but he was an awful writer.
You must nearly have been in the one class as him in school Fagan?
I recall once seeing Con drinking in Chaplins pub off D’olier Streer. He drank red wine from a cup while his female companion combed his hair. He sat in an area entitled ‘Con’s corner’ with a plaque. It all seemed very self indulgent.
i’d say most pubs would cherish someone like Con…by all accounts a heavy drinker but never any trouble …quite rare in fairness…
I once had the immense pleasure of his company , he drank brandy and milk mixed
sat beside him on a plane once-
Sid Waddell rip.
Michael Dokes
Top Gun and True Romance Director Tony Scott has apparently committed suicide by jumping from a bridge in LA
http://www.empireonline.com/images/image_index/150x180/1740.jpg http://www.empireonline.com/images/point.gif http://www.empireonline.com/images/point.gif
Some shocking and tragic news emerged from California on Sunday: veteran film director Tony Scott died by apparent suicide at the age of 68.
Scott was born in North Shields in 1944, the younger brother of fellow director (and, later, business partner) Ridley. His earliest foray into film was in front of the camera, not behind it, appearing at the age of 16 in Ridley’s directorial debut, a short film called Boy And Bicycle. He graduated from the Royal College Of Art, intending to become a painter, but was tempted into film and TV by his brother.
Launching his career crafting adverts for Ridley Scott Associates, he made his directing debut on television with an adaptation of Henry James’ The Author Of Beltraffio in France. But what he really wanted to do was make movies, and tried for several years to get a version of Anne Rice’s Interview With The Vampire. MGM instead persuaded him to shoot The Hunger, which he shot in 1982. The film was not a success on release and Scott returned to making ads for a couple of years.
But then, in 1985, producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer – who had admired his work on The Hunger – approached him to make Top Gun, primarily because they’d liked his work on a Saab advert that showed a Saab 900 racing a jet. The movie hit cinemas in 1986, became a massive hit and made a star out of Tom Cruise.
With his career launched anew, Scott would go on to direct the likes ofBeverly Hills Cop II, The Last Boy Scout, True Romance, Crimson Tide,Enemy Of The State, Spy Game, Domino, The Taking Of Pelham 123 and, most recently, runaway train drama Unstoppable, starring Denzel Washington and Chris Pine.
Along with his directing career, Scott and his brother became prolific producers in both film and television, helping a raft of younger filmmakers get their projects out into the world. At the time of his death, he was juggling several projects, including a planned Top Gun sequel, real-life dramaShadow Divers, biker pic Hell’s Angels and action drama Lucky Strike.According to the Daily Breeze, Scott left a suicide note in his car before jumping from the Vincent Thomas Bridge near Long Beach.
Talking to Empire around Domino’s release in 2005, Scott said, “I’m getting younger as I get older. It’s also a fear of losing the touch, which is why I keep fucking going. Whether you like the movie or don’t like it, as long as people continue to pay me to continue to experiment, I’ll keep doing that. I do a lot of research and I get paid to touch these other worlds and I want to keep trying to touch these new worlds and bring them to the screen, whether it’s the 18th Street Gang or the Vietnamese Gang, or bounty hunting or whatever it is. I love what I do.”
He’s survived by his wife, Donna, and two children. Our thoughts go out to his entire family.
RIP