The Oldie of the Year Award winners

The Oldie magazine has named Bill Wyman, the former Rolling Stone, the 2024 Oldie of the Year in recognition that he certainly still has snap in his celery. He recently penned a childhood memoir, Billy in the Wars.

Does he fret about posterity and his posthumous reputation? ‘Not really. I’m not that sort of bloke. Maybe the whole war experience changed my perspective on life, but to me it’s all about getting up each day and just being able to enjoy the important things, like nature, history, and friends and family’.

Gyles Brandreth was there to present the prizes at the National Liberal Club. Other winners include the actors Nanette Newman, star of Stepford Wives, and John Standing, the Oldie In-Laws of the Year. They are both 90 and are respectively mother-in-law and son-in-law because John is married to Nanette's daughter, Sarah Forbes, 65, whose father was the famous British film director, Bryan Forbes.

And Mike Leigh, 81, is our Silver Screen Golden Oldie in honour of a lifetime of smash hits from Abigail's Party to Mr Turner.

And Mail cartoonist 'Mac', 88 takes the Lead-in-his-Pencil award. During the pandemic Mac drew a police car chasing the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, an officer bawling ‘Oy! Two metres apart!’

Christian Lamb, 104, is our Oldie D-Day Mastermind. She is one of the last surviving planners of D-Day. She painstakingly created detailed maps to guide the crews of the landing craft that ferried the men to the Normandy beaches.

And,finally, Manette Baillie,102, made her first ever jump, plunging from 7,000 feet up in the air over Beccles Airfield, Suffolk. The former wartime Wren is the Oldie Flying Angel.

You can hear a full recording and see more images at www.theoldie.co.uk