RIP Mysteic Meg

[80sChav]

Mystic Meg of the fame of predicting fortunes, particulary at the advent of the National Lottery in 1994 sadly pased away the other day aged 80

RRIP Mystic Meg

[HG]

I didn't see this one coming

[George 1978]

Anyone who had never had the News of the World gracing their Sunday Morning breakfast table in the late 1980s and early 1990s (good for them if that was the case), and in particular, the Sunday magazine supplement, probably would have never heard of Mystic Meg - that was until the mid 1990s when the National Lottery found her a more mainstream niche, predicting the lottery numbers - but was she ever spot on? Adverts for the NOTW between Christmas and New Year used to say that they would have a special supplement for the year ahead where Meg would predict what sort of year one was supposed to have. I think that Meg would have had a more prominent profile had it not been for people like Russell Grant and his regular horoscope features in newspapers and on television.

My parents took the NOTW (I used to skip to the Fun Day part in the Sunday magazine for the jokes and "Small Talk by Roger" strips when I was having my Sunday lunch), and on page five or seven, Mystic Meg would be there right on schedule, telling Virgos like myself what likes in store for the week ahead. And also the cryptic "Message from Beyond the Grave" which probably meant something to one or two readers such as: "Laura from Cheltenham - the deeds are in the suitcase in the attic" sort of thing. And then the National Lottery came along. There could be a lot of truth of Meg predicting her demise - Patric Walker was the astrologer for my local newspaper at the time of his death, and when his passing was announced, it had been mentioned in the press that he would have predicted such a thing as well.

And the National Lottery TV coverage was good for her as well - she might have got paid the equivalent for getting "five numbers and the bonus" for her spot on the show, but she had really made her mark when Brian Conley impersonated her in around 1995 as "Septic Peg". "This week's winner will be a man... or indeed they will be a woman". You know that you have arrived when that happens! I know that she was a bit more low-key in more recent years, probably due to retirement, but I think that she will always be remembered for the NOTW's Sunday magazine; horoscopes and of course the National Lottery, and I think that she had have been more prominently known earlier on had it not been for established astrologers such as Russell Grant.

She was quite a novelty character in her 1990s heyday - just like an actress in character, and I think that anyone who was Libra or Scorpio, not to mention Capricorn will remember her fondly for a long time to come.

[George 1978]

It is ironic that there is an Oasis soft drink advert made in the mid 1990s which featured Mystic Meg and had the now departed Paul O'Grady as the voiceover on it!

It can be seen on the O'Grady tribute thread.