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October 8, 2013

‘Begone dull care’ – Journalist, broadcaster and wit Ian Skidmore dies aged 84

By Dominic Ponsford

Tabloid journalist, broadcaster, wit and blogger Ian Skidmore has died aged 84.

Writing about his own mortality in his final blog post in August, Skidmore said: "Begone dull care?  I am having such a magic life it would be too ungracious not to enjoy it in such company down to the last heavenly Malt. 

"Thanks, everyone, for the memories. Sorry you can't all be at the various wakes. As I said before, glad I will be."

Skidmore joined the Manchester City News after national service in the army and went from there to the Yorkshire Evening Post, the Daily Despatch in Liverpool and finally the Daily Mirror in Manchester. He worked as night news editor of the Mirror, Sunday Mirror and People.

Skidmore went freelance in the 1960s, setting up an agency in Chester which covered the Moors Murders, and after marrying fellow jouralist Celia Lucas he moved to Anglesey in the 1970s where he spent 30 years presenting TV and radio programmes for BBC Wales.

In 2003 he moved to Cambridgeshire and since then has authored a  blog called Skidmore’s Island.

Former Mirror journalist Revel Barker has revived his Gentleman Ranters’ website to publish a tribute to Skidmore.

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He wrote: “He did more farewell performances than Sinatra and, like Ken Dodd, refused to get off the stage while people were still laughing.

“But – and I report this with a heavy heart – reporter, broadcaster and author Ian Skidmore has finally left the newsroom. He died peacefully, aged 84, at home on Thursday 3 October with his long-suffering wife, the journalist and award-winning writer Celia Lucas at his bedside.

“Skiddy and I never actually met in the flesh and yet became what he described as Great Old Friends. After a certain age you don't make new friends: you make only old friends. Ours was a purely electronic relationship, depending originally on the telephone, then on e-mail and finally on that miracle called Skype.

“About five years ago, when he decided he'd like to collect all his old columns into what he'd heard was called a Blog, he asked me about it and my IT-savvy daughter created blogs for the pair of us. His became Skidmore's Island (the name of a BBC radio 'station' he had invented on Anglesey); mine evolved into Gentlemen Ranters with Skiddy as its first mainstay contributor.”

Five years ago Barker published Skidmore’s autobiography, Forgive Us Our Press Passes, in what became the first of 30 books about journalism he has published

Barker wrote: “For most of his life as a newspaperman he had dictated his copy over the phone. Spelling and punctuation were not his strong suits. He argued that Shakespeare had been unable to spell his own name, at least not consistently, and one of the great poets, I think maybe Wordsworth, had totally ignored punctuation. On radio he had needed neither. When I asked him whether the picture editor's name was Harrap or Harrop, Skiddy replied: 'He answers to both.'”

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