IN THIS benighted age, with a host of deplorable characters blazing their hideous trails across the heavens, there are apparently few things in which we can take solace.

Yet one enduring comfort is – and has always been – that one day, sooner or later, death will come knocking at [insert name of terrible person here]’s door and put a stop to their dreadful designs.

Whether in the form of cancer, cardiac arrest, falling masonry or over-enthusiastic perusal of “classic literature,” the grim reaper will have its way in the end, though he seems to be taking his sweet time with some.