Dear 2016, we've had enough already

If you were a film, you would be a blockbusting tear-jerker of an epic with teasing, rare, highs and record lows.

You were not simply content with a methodical killing -off of of those public figures held dear - starting strongly in January with David Bowie, Alan Rickman and Victoria Wood,

Other much-loved national heroes have fallen victim to the curse of this traumatic year.

Terry Wogan. Paul Daniels. Mohammed Ali. Prince. Ronnie Corbett. Jean Alexander (Hilda Ogden) and Kenny Baker.

The list goes on and on.

2016 teased us briefly with a few Olympic and Paralympic highs and Wimbledon victory.

But eradicating a generation’s role models and heroes was not enough.

The rocky road to Brexit was loaded with explosive moments, entertaining in its incoherence and baffling in its results, the real fallout of which we have yet to experience as we embrace our island mentality and put up the barriers to all comers.

Segueing beautifully into Brexit, which saw the nation split in half about our future role in Europe, panic briefly ensued as news of a supermarket war with suppliers saw a brief run of the nation’s most loved or hated kitchen cupboard spread - Marmite.

Panic buying saw shelves emptied as an already Brexit-battered public took to the ground with their quintesentially British toast toppings.

Meanwhile around the world new cases of Ebola emerged and a number of terrorist attacks, including the bombing of Istanbul airport, saw lives lost needlessly.

But 2016 was - is - far from done.

Here in Britain we have been watching with a sense of impending inevitability as the US election came to a close.

Much as the Brexit result shocked the establishment, so did the emergence of Trump, as president.

Where the US shook its head as we made a collective decision to leave the European Union, we shook ours as they elected a man with little or no political experience and shaky opinion of women, minorities and immigrants to run, arguably, the most powerful country in the world.

Frankly, after all we’ve put up with from you 2016, we seriously need inspiration.

Which is when we need our talented idols of screen, music and comedy idol to give us hope, sing us through the bad times and entertain us happy again.

Shame they’re all dead.