Can you tell if he’s dead yet? The secret life and death of Rolf Harris

Rolf Harris, the disgraced entertainer and sex offender, is dead. Harris’s death was confirmed yesterday – but his death certificate showed that he passed away at his home in Bray, Berkshire, on 10 May. This confirmed what many journalists already knew: a fortnight ago, a private ambulance was photographed backing into the doorway of his riverside home. News organisations were ramped up to full alert. Old obituaries were dusted down, pages drawn up, commentators considered for comment. And then…nothing.

Two weeks elapsed, almost to the minute, from the moment the rumours began to swirl to the official confirmation yesterday of his death at the age of 93. The tipping point came when a carer travelled to the local register office for births, deaths and marriages in Maidenhead to officially report his passing. His death certificate, describing him as an artist – rather than Britain’s second most notorious entertainer paedophile, as more had come to think of him – was duly issued yesterday morning. As