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Pedants' corner

Calum Wells and Amelia Wynne from the Daily Mail ...

5 replies

ImJustMadAboutSaffron · 03/04/2022 08:52

... really should go back to journalism school. They wrote about last night's Pointless Celebrities (which I really enjoyed and shed a tear at too):

Fans of the late Tom Parker struggled to contain their tears during the singer's posthumous appearance on Pointless Celebrities, which aired on Saturday night

I see what they mean, but it's not quite right, is it? Or is it?

OP posts:
Maternitynamechange · 03/04/2022 17:53

I wouldn’t say so. I don’t think you can posthumously appear anywhere unless you’re a ghost, can you? It was a posthumous screening I suppose.

ImJustMadAboutSaffron · 03/04/2022 18:18

Yes it read as if he'd filmed it when he was dead.

OP posts:
DadDadDad · 05/04/2022 16:24

I don't think it's wrong but it is a bit of a jarring phrasing, as the brain conjures the image of his body being wheeled on to the set - before realising the intended meaning.

I'm trying to think of a better wording that stays in the journalistic idiom:

Fans of the late Tom Parker struggled to contain their tears as the singer's appearance on Pointless Celebrities recorded shortly before his death was aired on Saturday night

Also avoids the word 'posthumous' which might not be familiar to all readers (of the DM; obviously readers of Pedants' Corner have prodigious vocabularies Grin ).

ImJustMadAboutSaffron · 05/04/2022 17:48

That's far better!

OP posts:
upinaballoon · 09/04/2022 12:47

I am a keen fan of commas so I would have put a comma after 'Celebrities' and another after 'death', DadDadDad.

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