Dearly departed part two

It was Cilla Black's funeral yesterday, processing through the streets of Liverpool and concluding in 'Paddy's Wigwam' - the Roman Catholic Cathedral in Liverpool.  A working-class lass who became a millionaire by the age of 25 through the delights of her singing and the highest-paid female television presenter in the 1980s and 1990s.  As William Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy observed as they wandered through a cemetery as children, none of the dead had anything bad written about them.
The coroner said that Priscilla White (her real name before a newspaper once got the colour of her surname wrong) was "a daughter of Liverpool and loved by all in the city."  But this is not true.  Indeed in many ways quite the opposite.  I remember, back in 1998, The Daily Mirror did a write-in survey asking for the 50 most hated people in Britain.  Unsurprisingly, given The Mirror's left-leaning slant and the make-up of its readership, Margaret Thatcher ('a quiet, unassuming old lady pensioner' as The Mirror disingenuously described her) topped the bill, followed by plenty of Conservatives e.g. John Major. William Hague, etc. Tony Blair also made the list as some saw beyond the smile, even then and, curiously, so did Richard Madeley (of Richard and Judy fame).  Yet I also remember Cilla Black featured prominently there, The Mirror surmising that many in Liverpool thought that she had betrayed her roots by going down south and living in Buckinghamshire.  Having a political journey from backing Harold Wilson to voting for John Major, along the way being an enthusiastic supporter of Thatcher along the way, would not have helped, especially in Liverpool.  Controversially trying to make a TV show out of the Zeebrugge Ferry Disaster by getting the survivors and medics to have a jolly sing-song through Bruges would have counted a black mark.  And then there may be those simply turned off by what they regarded as the tackiness of her televisual output (yet it found a home).
72 is a young age to go in our society and the tragic accident that led to the fatal stroke lends greater poignancy.  Despite the tributes though she was not universally loved.  I though would not put myself in either camp, acknowledging her singing career was the best part of her in my opinion.
Someone who certainly not claim to be adored everywhere is Stuart 'The Brand' Baggs, who has also died of unnatural natural causes, namely as asthma attack, compared to Cilla slipping over and banging her head on swimming pool tiles.  Only 27 (a palindrome to Cilla's age).  He blagged his way through The Apprentice until finally coming unstuck in the interview stage, prompting a furious Alan Sugar to gnash, "My advisers tell me that... you're full of shit!"  A richly deserved comeuppance, especially as more competent candidates had fallen by the wayside through his braggadocio winning the day for himself.
Since that most unceremonious of exits from the reality show, Baggs has actually built on his undoubted technical promise (via a few 'celebrity' appearances on gameshows like Pointless).  From his Isle of Man base, his internet service provision business was on the threshold of taking the next big step, mostly through his endeavouring industry. To be cruelly denied through not be able to reach his asthma inhaler in time makes one re-evaluate his public persona more kindly.