dark beige: THE GYPSY CURSE THAT KILLED VINE, MCGOOHAN, MONTALBAN AND MORTIMER IS FINALLY COMING FOR ME

THE GYPSY CURSE THAT KILLED VINE, MCGOOHAN, MONTALBAN AND MORTIMER IS FINALLY COMING FOR ME

Posted by Posted by Dark Beige On 22:59

By Nick Owen

I didn't think anything of it at first. When I read that David Vine had sadly finally died of a heart attack, while I was leafing through the Daily Express on Wednesday morning, I was saddened, certainly, but not that surprised as David was quite old and I just presumed that the notorious stress and strain of hosting A Question of Sport had finally got to him.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/front_page/7824275.stm

Nevertheless, even then, there was still perhaps a faint feeling of unease at the very back of my mind, as the long buried memories of June 3rd 1976 started to bubble to the surface. But I just thought "don't be silly, David was old, that's all", and carried on. 24 hours later, I'm just sitting there leafing through my classic autobiography "In the Time of Nick" (my favourite ever book, with a foreword by no less a TV titan than Greg Dyke himself), when I hear on the radio that Prisoner star Patrick McGoohan has died. Patrick was 80 and had battled with his health for quite some time, living a fairly reclusive life, but still, I was starting to get nervous, and I nearly dropped my mug of Kenco Rappor in shock.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUKTRE50E19M20090115

Was it possible? Was the past coming back to haunt me as I'd always feared? It had been over 32 years since that fateful night in Taplow, when five seemingly random stars, each representing different colours of the entertainment spectrum (sports journalism, writing and acting, acting and writing) had almost accidentally come together to celebrate a mutual friend's birthday (he was a popular agent), but had ended up murdering a young gypsy girl, and I'd always wondered if the curse she had vowed on us in her dying moments would finally come back to haunt me.

Was it just a coincidence? So far I had only heard about Patrick and David, so things weren't that bad - but if I heard even a peep about Ricardo or Sir John I knew I was going to hit the roof. Well, you can guess what was going to happen next...

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/TV/01/14/ricardo.montalban/

The curse was coming true! I knew we were too damn cocky that night, arrogantly snarling that "no one would ever know" what we did as we wickedly had our way with the gypsy girl, with Ricardo in particular showing that it wasn't only Khan who could have a wrath...and that even if Frank Drebin wasn't around, he could still be involved with a naked gun.... By today I didn't even want to open a newspaper or switch on a TV or radio, as I was so terrified about what I might find. And lo and behold, there I was in ignorant semi-bliss when my bitch of a wife revealed the ugly truth - Sir John Mortimer had died as well! Now I'm cowering under the bed, just waiting for the Gypsy's curse to take me away - I won't come out until I'm dead as I'm so scared.

Ironically, if the case should ever come to court and we should ever have to answer up to a higher legal power and be judged on our terrible crime, Sir John's famous fictional character Rumpole would have been a help. But now it seems that instead we're being hunted down by some kind of spectral justice, and besides, being represented by a fictional character would actually be a bit weird.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7833156.stm

Update: I totally forgot Tony Hart was there: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7836112.stm

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