Spike Milligan | |
|---|---|
 Milligan,c. 1990 | |
| Born | Terence Alan Milligan (1918-04-16)16 April 1918 |
| Died | 27 February 2002(2002-02-27) (aged 83) Rye, East Sussex, England |
| Resting place | St Thomas's Church,Winchelsea, East Sussex, England |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1951–2002 |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 6 |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom |
| Branch |  British Army |
| Years of service | 1940–1945 |
| Rank | Lance bombardier |
| Unit | Royal Artillery |
| Battles / wars | Second World War |
Terence Alan "Spike"Milligan (16 April 1918 – 27 February 2002) was an Anglo-Irish[a] comedian, writer, musician, poet, playwright and actor. The son of an English mother and Irish father, he was born inBritish India, where he spent his childhood before relocating in 1931 to England, where he lived and worked for the majority of his life.
Milligan was the co-creator, main writer, and a principal cast member of the British radio comedy programmeThe Goon Show, performing a range of roles including the charactersEccles andMinnie Bannister. He was the earliest-born and last surviving member ofthe Goons. He took his success withThe Goon Show into television withQ5, a surreal sketch show credited as a major influence on the members ofMonty Python's Flying Circus.
He wrote and edited many books, includingPuckoon (1963) and a seven-volume autobiographical account of his time serving during theSecond World War, beginning withAdolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall (1971). He also wrote comical verse, with much of his poetry written for children, includingSilly Verse for Kids (1959).
Terence Alan Milligan was born inAhmednagar, India, on 16 April 1918[1] during theBritish Raj,[2] the son of an Irish father, Leo Alphonso Milligan,MSM,RA (1890–1969), aregimental sergeant-major in theBritish Indian Army,[3][4][5] and English mother, Florence Mary Winifred (née Kettleband; 1893–1990). He spent his childhood inPoona and later inRangoon, capital ofBritish Burma. He was educated at the Convent of Jesus and Mary, Poona, and later atSt Paul's High School, Rangoon. His father remained in the Indian Army after the end of the First World War, steadily promoted till "the family's lifestyle became almost lavish"; Milligan considered that "My old man lived the life of a gentleman on sergeant's pay".[3][6]
After Army cuts meant his father's position was no longer required, Milligan travelled by sea, from India to England for the first time. He arrived on a winter's morning and was bemused by the climate, so different from India's, remembering the dock's "terrible noise, and everything so cold and grey."[2] The Milligan family lived in England in somewhat straitened circumstances, Leo Milligan only being able to find "a poorly paid job in the Associated Press photo library"; Milligan recalled his mother being "often tense and angry... a domestic tyrant" due to having to manage on "next to no income".[3] After moving toBrockley, south eastLondon from the age of 12 in 1931, Milligan attended Brownhill Road School (later to be renamed Catford Boys School) and St Saviours School, Lewisham High Road.
After leaving school, he worked as a clerk in theWoolwich Arsenal, played thecornet and discovered jazz. He also joined theYoung Communist League[1] to demonstrate his hatred ofOswald Mosley'sBritish Union of Fascists, who were gaining support near his home in south London.[1]
Disliking his first name, he began to call himself "Spike" after hearing the bandSpike Jones and his City Slickers onRadio Luxembourg.[7][8]
During most of the late 1930s and early 1940s, Milligan performed as an amateurjazz vocalist, guitarist, and trumpeter before, during and after beingcalled up for military service in the fight againstNazi Germany,[1] but even then he wrote and performed comedy sketches as part of concerts to entertain troops. After his call-up, but before being sent abroad, he and fellow musician Harry Edgington (whose nickname "Edge-ying-Tong" inspired one of Milligan's most memorable musical creations, the "Ying Tong Song") composed surreal stories, filled with puns and skewed logic, as a way of staving off the boredom of life in barracks. Abiographer describes his early dance band work: "He managed to croon likeBing Crosby and win a competition: he also played drums, guitar and trumpet, in which he was entirely self taught." Milligan acquired a double bass, on which he took lessons and would pluck in jazz sessions.[9] He hadperfect pitch.[10]
During theSecond World War, Milligan served as asignaller in D Battery (later 19 Battery),56th Heavy Regiment, Royal Artillery, as Gunner Milligan, 954024. The unit was equipped with the obsoleteFirst World War eraBL 9.2-inch howitzer and based inBexhill[11] on the south coast of England. Milligan describes training with these guns in part two ofAdolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall, claiming that, during training, gun crews resorted to shouting "bang" in unison as they had no shells with which to practise.[12]
Milligan's unit saw action as part of theFirst Army in theNorth African campaign and then in the succeedingItalian campaign. Milligan was appointedlance bombardier and was about to be promoted tobombardier, when he waswounded in action in the Italian theatre at theBattle of Monte Cassino. Subsequently, hospitalised for a mortar wound to the right leg andshell shock, he was demoted back to gunner by an unsympathetic commanding officer (identified in his war diaries as Major Evan "Jumbo" Jenkins).[citation needed]
After hospitalisation, Milligan drifted through various rear-echelon military jobs in Italy, eventually becoming a full-time entertainer. He played the guitar with a jazz and comedy group calledThe Bill Hall Trio in concert parties for the troops. After being demobilised, Milligan remained in Italy playing with the trio but returned to Britain soon after. While he was with theCentral Pool of Artists (a group he described as composed "of bomb-happysquaddies") he began to write parodies of their mainstream plays, which displayed many of the key elements of what would later becomeThe Goon Show (originally calledCrazy People) withPeter Sellers,Harry Secombe andMichael Bentine.[13][14]
Milligan returned to jazz in the late 1940s and made a precarious living with the Hall trio and other musical comedy acts. He was also trying to break into the world of radio, as a performer or script writer. His first success in radio was as writer for comedianDerek Roy's show. After a delayed start, Milligan,Peter Sellers,Harry Secombe andMichael Bentine joined forces in a comedy project,The Goon Show. During its first season the BBC titled the show asCrazy People, or in full,The Junior Crazy Gang featuring those Crazy People, the Goons, to make the programme palatable to BBC officials, by connecting it with the popular group of theatre comedians known asThe Crazy Gang.[15]
The first episode was broadcast on 28 May 1951 on theBBC Home Service.[16] Milligan did not perform as much in the early shows, but eventually became a lead performer in almost all of theGoon Show episodes, portraying a wide range of characters includingEccles,Minnie Bannister, Jim Spriggs and the nefariousCount Moriarty.[17] He was also the primary author of most of the scripts, although he co-wrote many scripts with collaborators, most notablyLarry Stephens andEric Sykes. Most of the early shows were co-written with Stephens (and edited byJimmy Grafton) but this partnership faltered after Series 3. Milligan wrote most of Series 4 but collaborated with Eric Sykes from Series 5 (coinciding with the birth of the Milligans' second child, Seán) and through most of Series 6, a development that grew out of his business collaboration with Sykes inAssociated London Scripts.[18][19] Milligan and Stephens reunited during Series 6 but towards the end of Series 8 Stephens was sidelined by health problems and Milligan worked briefly withJohn Antrobus. The Milligan-Stephens partnership was finally ended by Stephens' death from a brain haemorrhage in January 1959; Milligan later downplayed and disparaged Stephens' contributions.[20]
The Goon Show was recorded before a studio audience and during the audience warm-up session, Milligan would play the trumpet, while Peter Sellers played on the orchestra's drums.[21] For the first few years the shows were recorded live, direct to 16-inchtranscription disc, which required the cast to adhere closely to the script, but by Series 4, the BBC had adopted the use of magnetic tape.[22] Milligan eagerly exploited the possibilities the new technology offered: the tapes could be edited, so the cast could now ad-lib freely, and tape also enabled the creation of groundbreaking sound effects. Over the first three series, Milligan's demands for increasingly complex sound effects (or "grams", as they were then known) pushed technology and the skills of the BBC engineers to their limits—effects had to be created mechanically (throughfoley) or played back from discs, sometimes requiring the use of four or five turntables simultaneously.[22] With magnetic tape, these effects could be produced in advance and the BBC engineers were able to create highly complex, tightly edited effects "stings" that would have been difficult using Foley or disc. In the later years of the series manyGoon Show "grams" were produced by members of theBBC Radiophonic Workshop, an example being the "Major Bloodnok's Stomach" effect, realised by Dick Mills.[23]
Although the Goons elevated Milligan to national stardom, the demands of writing and performing the series took a heavy toll. During Series 3 he had the first of several seriousmental breakdowns, which also marked the onset of a decades-long cycle ofbipolar disorder. In late 1952, possibly exacerbated by suppressed tensions between the Goons' stars, Milligan apparently became irrationally convinced that he had to kill Sellers. When he attempted to gain entry to Sellers's neighbouring flat, armed with a potato knife, he accidentally walked straight through the plate-glass front door. He was hospitalised, heavily sedated for two weeks, and spent almost two months recuperating; fortunately for the show, a backlog of scripts meant that his illness had little effect on production.[24] Milligan later blamed the pressure of writing and performingThe Goon Show for his breakdown and the failure of his first marriage.[25]
Milligan made several forays into television as a writer-performer, in addition to his many guest appearances on interview, variety and sketch comedy series from the 1950s to the 2000s.The Idiot Weekly, Price 2d (1956), starring Peter Sellers, was the first attempt to translate Goons humour to TV; it was followed byA Show Called Fred andSon of Fred, both made during 1956 and directed byRichard Lester, who went on to work withThe Beatles.[citation needed] During a visit to Australia in 1958, a similar special was made for theAustralian Broadcasting Commission, "The Gladys Half-Hour", which also featured local actorsRay Barrett andJohn Bluthal, who would appear in several later Milligan projects. In 1961, Milligan co-wrote two episodes of the popular sitcomSykes and a..., co-starring Sykes andHattie Jacques and the one-off "Spike Milligan Offers a Series of Unrelated Incidents at Current Market Value".[citation needed]
The 15-minute seriesThe Telegoons (1963), was the next attempt to transplant the Goons to television, this time usingpuppet versions of the familiar characters. The initial intention was to "visualise" original recordings of 1950s Goon Show episodes but this proved difficult, because of the rapid-fire dialogue and was ultimately frustrated by the BBC's refusal to allow the original audio to be used. Fifteen-minute adaptations of the original scripts by Maurice Wiltshire were used instead, with Milligan, Sellers and Secombe reuniting to provide the voices; according to a contemporary press report, they received the highest fees the BBC had ever paid for 15-minute shows.[26] Two series were made in 1963 and 1964 and (presumably because it was shot on35 mm film rather than video) the series has reportedly been preserved in the BBC archives.[citation needed]
Milligan's next major TV venture was the sketch comedy seriesThe World of Beachcomber (1968), made in colour forBBC 2; it is believed all 19 episodes arelost.[27] In the same year, the three Goons reunited for a televised re-staging of a vintageGoon Show forThames Television, withJohn Cleese substituting for the lateWallace Greenslade.[28]
In early 1969, Milligan starred inbrownface in the situation comedyCurry and Chips, created and written byJohnny Speight and featuring Milligan's old friend and colleague Eric Sykes.Curry and Chips set out to satiriseracist attitudes in Britain in a similar vein to Speight's earlier creation, the hugely successfulTill Death Us Do Part, with Milligan "browning up" to play Kevin O'Grady, a half-Pakistani–half-Irish factory worker. Milligan was also involved in the programmeThe Melting Pot.[29]
DirectorJohn Goldschmidt's filmThe Other Spike dramatised Milligan's nervous breakdown in a film forGranada Television, for which Milligan wrote the screenplay and in which he played himself.[citation needed] Later that year, he was commissioned by the BBC to write and star inQ5, the first in the innovativeQ... TV series, acknowledged as an important forerunner toMonty Python's Flying Circus, which premiered several months later. There was a hiatus of several years, before the BBC commissionedQ6 in 1975.Q7 appeared in 1977,Q8 in 1978,Q9 in 1980 andThere's a Lot of It About in 1982.[30] Milligan's daughter, Laura, conceived and co-wrote an animated series calledThe Ratties (1987). Milligan narrated the 26 five-minute episodes. He later voiced the animated seriesWolves, Witches and Giants, which aired on ITV from 1995 to 1998.
Milligan wrote verse, considered to be within the genre ofliterary nonsense. For example:"It's due to pigeons that alight; on Nelson's hat that makes it white." His poetry has been described by comedianStephen Fry as "absolutely immortal — greatly in the tradition ofLear."[31] One of his poems, "On the Ning Nang Nong", was voted the UK's favourite comic poem in 1998 in a nationwide poll, ahead of other nonsense poets includingLewis Carroll and Edward Lear.[32] Thisnonsense verse, set to music, became a favourite in Australia, performed week after week by the ABC children's programmePlayschool. Milligan included it on his albumNo One's Gonna Change Our World in 1969, to aid theWorld Wildlife Fund. In December 2007 it was reported that, according toOFSTED, it is among the ten most commonly taught poems in primary schools in Britain.[33]
While depressed, he wrote serious poetry, much of which is compiled inOpen Heart University.[34][35] He also wrote a novelPuckoon and a series of war memoirs, includingAdolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall (1971),"Rommel?" "Gunner Who?": A Confrontation in the Desert (1974),Monty: His Part in My Victory (1976) andMussolini: His Part in My Downfall (1978). Milligan's seven volumes of memoirs cover the years from 1939 to 1950 (his call-up, war service, first breakdown, time spent entertaining in Italy and return to Britain).[36]
Milligan also wrote comedy songs, including "Purple Aeroplane",[citation needed] which was a parody of the Beatles' song "Yellow Submarine". He wrote the lyric to saxophonist/composerDuncan Lamont's "English Folk Song", heard on jazz singerTina May's 2021 album,52nd Street (and Other Tales).[37][38] He was the narrator for Lamont'sSherlock Holmes Suite, commissioned by the City of London to commemorate the first appearance of Sherlock Holmes inThe Strand magazine.
Bernard Miles gave Milligan his first straight acting role, asBen Gunn, in theMermaid Theatre production ofTreasure Island. Miles described Milligan as,
... a man of quite extraordinary talents ... a visionary who is out there alone, denied the usual contacts simply because he is so different he can't always communicate with his own species.[39]
Treasure Island played twice daily through the winter of 1961–1962 and was an annual production at the Mermaid Theatre for some years. In the 1968 production,Barry Humphries played the role of Long John Silver, withWillie Rushton asSquire Trelawney and Milligan as Ben Gunn. To Humphries, Milligan's "best performance must surely have been as Ben Gunn ..., Milligan stole the show every night, in a makeup which took at least an hour to apply. His appearance on stage always brought a roar of delight from the kids in the audience and Spike had soon left the text far behind as he went off into a riff of sublime absurdity".[40]
In 1961–1962, during the long pauses between the matinee and the evening show ofTreasure Island, Milligan began talking to Miles about the idea he andJohn Antrobus were exploring, of a dramatised post-nuclear world. This became the one-act playThe Bedsitting Room, which Milligan co-wrote with John Antrobus and which premiered at theMarlowe Theatre,Canterbury on 12 February 1962. It was adapted to a longer play and staged by Miles at London's Mermaid Theatre, making its debut on 31 January 1963. It was a critical and commercial success and was revived in 1967 with a provincial tour before opening at London'sSaville Theatre on 3 May 1967.Richard Lester later directedthe film, released in 1969.[41][42]
Tiring of comedic roles, Milligan sought out more serious material. He had read Ivan Goncharov'sOblomov and felt a kinship with the title character, who declines to leave his bed to face the world. According to Scudamore'sbiography:
Milligan's fans and the theatrical world in general found it hard to believe that he was to appear in a straight play ... He refused to be serious when questioned about his motives. In the story, Oblomov decides to spend his life in bed. Spike decided to identify with his character, and told disbelieving reporters that he thought it would be a nice comfortable rest for him. This was of course, prevarication. Spike was actually intrigued with Oblomov and had read a translation of Ivan Goncharov's novel.[43]
The novel had been adapted for the stage by Italian writerRiccardo Aragno.[44] Aragno's script forOblomov was bought by Milligan's production company in early 1964. Milligan had long nurtured hopes of moving from comedy to serious drama. Milligan rehearsed for seven weeks with directorFrank Dunlop and the cast membersJoan Greenwood,Bill Owen, andValentine Dyall at theLyric Hammersmith.
The first preview was on 6 October 1964. During this performance Milligan was struck by stage fright and forgot nearly all of his lines. He quickly began making up things to say to the cast, turning the drama into an impromptu improv session. Noticing that a drama critic who'd given rave reviews to Milligan's other stage comedies was in the audience, Milligan ended the first performance by shouting "Thank God,Milton Shulman's in!"[45]
The play was savaged in the theatrical press butOblomov's producers had booked the play into the Lyric for three weeks. Anxious to recoup their investment by any means, they gave Milligan carte-blanche on stage. Milligan's antics included starting the play while sitting with the audience, yelling for the cast to entertain him. Another night he wore a false arm that fell out of his sleeve when co-star Ian Flintoff, playing Oblomov's doctor, shook Milligan's hand. When Flintoff complained toBill Kerr, a friend of Milligan, that he was making a mockery of their hard work Kerr replied: "We have to put up with all the shit, mate, because it pays the rent."[45]
Joan Greenwood, who played Olga, later recalled that her husbandAndré Morell thought the first performance was so appalling that they should get Greenwood out of her contract. According to Scudamore,
Nobody seemed at all comfortable in their roles and the audience began to hoot with laughter when Milligan's slipper inadvertently went spinning across the stage into the stalls. That was the end of Spike's playing straight. The audience demanded a clown, he became a clown. When he forgot his words, or disapproved of them, he simply made up what he felt to be more appropriate ones. That night there were no riotous first night celebrations and most of the cast seemed to go home stunned. The following night Milligan began to ad lib in earnest. The text of the show began to change drastically. The cast were bedevilled and shaken but they went along with him ... Incredibly, the show began to resolve itself. The context changed completely. It was turned upside down and inside out. Cues and lines became irrelevant as Milligan verbally rewrote the play each night. By the end of the week,Oblomov had changed beyond recognition. Andre Morell came again ... and afterwards said 'the man is a genius. He must be a genius—it's the only word for him. He's impossible—but he's a genius!'.[46]
The play continued to run as an improv comedy. The decision soon caused it to break all box office records at the Lyric. After five weeks it was renamedSon of Oblomov and moved on 2 December 1964 to theComedy Theatre in theWest End. It ran there for 559 performances. As the play was substantially new each night it drew record numbers of repeat traffic.[45][47]
On 22 April 1965,Queen Elizabeth andher family attended as part of her 39th birthday celebration. Just after the curtain rose, a group of four latecomers attempted to slink to their seats directly in front of the royal family. Milligan immediately shouted: "Turn up the house lights! Start everything again!" He pointed to the blushing foursome and cried, "That's cost you your knighthood!"[48]
Then, noticing thatPeter Sellers was seated betweenPrince Charles andPrincess Margaret, Milligan asked in a loud voice: "Is there a Sellers in the house?" Sellers immediately shouted, "Yes!" Milligan launched into a vaudeville routine aboutPrince Philip's suspenders, with Sellers participating from his seat with the royals. This culminated in Milligan giving a high-kick, lobbing one of his bedroom slippers at Sellers, only just missing Prince Philip's head. Once back in bed with co-star Joan Greenwood, Milligan spent the rest of the performance poking fun at the Queen for bringing her son to such a racy play. The play ended with Milligan unsheathing akatana on stage and asking the Queen to knight him for his efforts that night; she declined. The performance ran 45 minutes over its scheduled ending. Prince Charles reportedly saw the play five times.[45][48]
In a 1988 interview withBernard Braden, Milligan described theatre as being important to him,
First it was a means of livelihood. And I had sort of lagged behind my confederates, that I ... remained in the writing seat. And I realise that basically I was quite a good clown ... and the one and only chance I ever had to prove that was inOblomov when I clowned my way out of what was a very bad script ... I clowned it into a West End success and uh, we kept changing it all the time. It was a tour de force of improvisation ... all that ended it was I got fed up with it, that's all."[citation needed]
In 1959Ken Russell made a short35 mm film about and with Milligan entitledPortrait of a Goon. The making of the film is detailed in Paul Sutton's 2012 authorised biographyBecoming Ken Russell.[49] In 1971 Milligan played a humble village priest in Russell's filmThe Devils. The scene was cut from the release print and is considered lost but photographs from the scene, together withMurray Melvin's memory of that day's filming, are included in Sutton's 2014 bookSix English Filmmakers.[50]
As illustrated in the description of his involvement in theatre, Milligan often ad-libbed. He also did this on radio and television. One of his last screen appearances was in the BBC dramatisation ofMervyn Peake'sGormenghast and he was (almost inevitably) noted as anad-libber.[citation needed]
One of Milligan's ad-lib incidents occurred during a visit to Australia in the late 1960s. He was interviewed live on air and remained in the studio for the news broadcast that followed, during which Milligan constantly interjected, adding his own name to news items.[citation needed] As a result, he was banned from making any further live appearances on theABC. The ABC also changed its national policy so that guests had to leave the studio after interviews were complete. A tape of the bulletin survives and has been included in an ABC Radio audio compilation, and also on the BBC tribute CD,Vivat Milligna.[citation needed]
Film and television directorRichard Lester recalls that the television seriesA Show Called Fred was broadcast live. "I've seen very few moments of genius in my life but I witnessed one with Spike after the first show. He had brought around a silent cartoon" and asked Lester if his P.A. took shorthand. "She said she did. 'Good, this needs a commentary.' It was a ten-minute cartoon and Spike could have seen it only once, if that. He ad-libbed the commentary for it and it was perfect. I was open-mouthed at the raw comedy creation in front of me."[51]
Milligan contributed occasional cartoons to the satirical magazinePrivate Eye. Most were visualisations ofone-line jokes. For example, a young boy sees theConcorde and asks his father "What's that?". The reply is "That's a flyinggroundnut scheme, son." Milligan was a keen painter.[52][53]
In 1967, applying a satirical angle to a fashion for the inclusion ofSuperman-inspired characters in British television commercials, Milligan dressed up in a "Bat-Goons" outfit, to appear in a series of television commercials forBP.[54] A contemporary reporter found the TV commercials "funny and effective".[54] Milligan appeared withPeter Sellers in an advert forBenson & Hedges in 1973. Milligan requested that his fee was paid to ASH: Action on Smoking and Health. When this was refused, he gave the money to charity instead. The advert was popular with the public and also won several industry awards.[55] From 1980 to 1982, he advertised for theEnglish Tourist Board, playing a Scotsman on a visit around the different regions of England. Other advertising appearances included television commercials forKellogg's Corn Flakes, the LeylandMini,Commonwealth Bank of Australia, andPlanters nuts.[citation needed]
In the 1970s,Charles Allen compiled a series of stories from British people's experiences of life in theBritish Raj, calledPlain Tales from the Raj and published in 1975. Milligan was the youngest contributor, describing his life in India when it was under British rule. In it he mentions the imperial parades there,
The most exciting sound for me was the sound of the Irregular Punjabi Regiment playing thedhol andsurmai [a type of drum]—one beat was dum-da-da-dum, dum-da-da-dum, dum-da-da-dum! They wore these great long pantaloons, a gold dome to their turbans, khaki shirts with banded waistcoats, double-cross bandoliers, leather sandals, and they used to march very fast, I remember, bursting in through the dust on the heels of an English regiment. They used to come in with trailed arms and they'd throw their rifles up into the air, catch it with their left hand—always to this dum-da-da-dum, dum-da-da-dum—and then stamp their feet and fire one round, synchronising with the drums. They'd go left, right, left, right,shabash!Hai! Bang! Dum-da-da-dum—it was sensational![56]
In 1988, while visiting his mother inWoy Woy (on the shores ofBrisbane Water), Milligan composed and orchestrated aGrand Waltz for Brisbane Water and gave it to the symphony orchestra of nearby Gosford.[57] Symphony Central Coast has performed it occasionally since, including a 2020 YouTube video as aCOVID-19 isolation project.[citation needed]
Milligan married his first wife, June (Marchinie) Marlow, in 1952; Peter Sellers was best man. They had three children, Laura, Seán and Síle, and divorced in 1960.[58]
He married Patricia Ridgeway in June 1962, withGeorge Martin as best man and the marriage produced one child, Jane Milligan. The marriage ended with Patricia's death from breast cancer in 1978.[58][59]He reportedly had two children by other mothers.[60]
His third wife was Shelagh Sinclair, to whom he was married from 1983 until his death on 27 February 2002.[58] Shelagh, who was 25 years younger than Milligan, died in June 2011.[60] Upon marrying Shelagh, Milligan made a new will which left his entire estate to his wife. The children unsuccessfully attempted to overturn the will. A High Court judge ruled that Shelagh was entitled to his whole estate, and his children should receive only "what was surplus to requirements".[60]
Four of his children collaborated with documentary makers on a multi-platform programme calledI Told You I Was Ill: The Life and Legacy of Spike Milligan (2005).[61]
In October 2008, an array of Milligan's personal effects was sold at auction by Shelagh, who was moving into a smaller home. These included his vast library of books and memorabilia and a grand piano salvaged from a demolition and apparently played every morning byPaul McCartney, a neighbour in Rye in East Sussex.[62] His children were distressed by the sale.[60]
Milligan hadbipolar disorder for most of his life, having many seriousmental breakdowns, several lasting over a year.[63] He spoke candidly about his condition and its effect on his life,
I have got so low that I have asked to be hospitalised and for deep narcosis (sleep). I cannot stand being awake. The pain is too much ... Something has happened to me, this vital spark has stopped burning—I go to a dinner table now and I don't say a word, just sit there like a dodo. Normally I am the centre of attention, keep the conversation going—so that is depressing in itself. It's like another person taking over, very strange. The most important thing I say is 'good evening' and then I go quiet.[64]
Milligan was born in theBritish Empire to an English mother, and felt that he was thus entitled toBritish citizenship, especially after having served in the British Army for six years. When British law related to Commonwealth-born residents (which had given him a secure place) changed, he applied for a British passport in 1960. The application was refused, partly because he would not swear anOath of Allegiance. Through his Irish father, he avoidedstatelessness by becoming anIrish citizen in 1962 and remained so for the rest of his life; this status gave him almost the same rights as a British citizen.[7][65][66]
Milligan wasagnostic, saying that he "sometimes prayed in moments of desperation on the off chance that somebody might be listening, but he always felt that he was talking to a void". Milligan was raisedCatholic and expressed the view that "someone raised a Catholic was always a Catholic", referring to himself as a Catholic throughout his life.[citation needed]
In 1974 Milligan was arrested for shooting atrespasser with anair rifle. He defended himself in court and was given aconditional discharge.[67]
Prince Charles was a fan of Milligan. When Milligan received the Lifetime Achievement Award at theBritish Comedy Awards in 1994, the prince sent a congratulatory message to be read out on live television. Milligan interrupted the message to call the prince a "little grovelling bastard".[8] He later faxed the prince, saying: "I suppose aknighthood is out of the question?"[citation needed]
In reality, he and the prince were very close friends, and Milligan had already been made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1992 (honorary because of his Irish citizenship).[64] He was made an honoraryKnight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in 2001.[68]
On 23 July 1981, the Prince of Wales andLady Diana Spencer were presented with a poem about the forthcomingRoyal Wedding, delivered toBuckingham Palace on a 3-foot-9-inch parchment scroll, written under the pen name MacGoonical. A ridiculous verse written in the style ofWilliam McGonagall, the ode was commissioned by the Legal and General Assurance society as a "mark of esteem and affection". The verse, titled "Ode to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales on the occasion of his Weeding", begins:
He was a strident campaigner on environmental matters, particularly arguing against unnecessary noise, such as the use of "muzak".[70]
In 1971, Milligan caused controversy by attacking an art exhibition at theHayward Gallery with a hammer. The artwork included catfish, oysters, and shrimp that were to be electrocuted.[71] He was a staunch and outspoken opponent of the scourge ofdomestic violence, dedicating one of his books toErin Pizzey.[72]
Milligan retained hisblack humour into later life. In 1980, during the funeral ofPeter Sellers, he quipped toHarry Secombe, "I hope you die before me, because I don't want you to sing at my funeral." (A recording of Secombe singing was played at Milligan's memorial service.) In 1990, he also wrote his ownobituary, in which he stated repeatedly that he "wrote theGoon Show and died".[74]
Milligan died fromkidney failure, at the age of 83, on 27 February 2002, at his home onDumb Woman's Lane nearRye, Sussex.[60][75] On the day of his funeral, 8 March 2002, his coffin was carried to St Thomas Church inWinchelsea, East Sussex, and was draped in theflag of Ireland.[76] He had once quipped that he wanted his headstone to bear the words: "I told you I was ill." He was buried at St Thomas' churchyard but the Chichester diocese refused to allow thisepitaph.[77] A compromise was reached with theGaelic translation of "I told you I was ill",Dúirt mé leat go mé breoite, and in English, "Love, light, peace". The additional epitaphGrá mhór ort Shelagh can be read as "Great love for you Shelagh".
According to a letter published in theRye and Battle Observer in 2011, Milligan's headstone was removed from St Thomas' churchyard in Winchelsea and moved to be alongside the grave of his wife,[78] but was later returned.[79]
From the 1960s, Milligan was a regular correspondent withRobert Graves. Milligan's letters to Graves usually addressed a question to do withclassical studies. The letters form part of Graves's bequest toSt John's College, Oxford.[80]
The film ofPuckoon, starringSean Hughes, including Milligan's daughter, actress Jane Milligan, was released after his death.[citation needed]
Milligan lived for several years in Holden Road,Woodside Park,Finchley, north London, and at The Crescent,Barnet, and was a contributing founder and strong supporter of the Finchley Society. His house in Woodside Park has since been demolished but there is ablue plaque in his memory on the block of flats now on the site.[81]
A memorial bench featuring a bronze likeness of Milligan sits near his former home in Finchley.[82] Over ten years the Finchley Society, led by friend and local resident Barbara Warren, raised funds—the Spike Milligan Statue Fund—to commission a bench and statue of him by local sculptor John Somerville and erected in the grounds ofAvenue House at Stephens House and Gardens in East End Road, Finchley. The memorial was unveiled on 4 September 2014 at a ceremony attended by local dignitaries and showbusiness celebrities includingRoy Hudd,Michael Parkinson,Maureen Lipman,Terry Gilliam,Kathy Lette,Denis Norden andLynsey de Paul.
There is a campaign to erect a statue in theLondon Borough of Lewisham where he grew up. After coming to England from India in the 1930s, he lived at 50 Riseldine Road, Brockley and attended Brownhill Boys' School (later Catford Boys' School, which was demolished in 1994). There is a plaque and bench at theWadestown Library,Wellington, New Zealand, in an area called "Spike Milligan Corner".[83]
In a 2005 poll to find the "Comedians' Comedian", he was voted among the top 50 comedy acts, by fellow comedians and comedy insiders. In a BBC poll in August 1999, Milligan was voted the "funniest person of the last 1,000 years".[84]
In the feature film adaptation of his novelAdolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall, Milligan was played byJim Dale, while Milligan played his father. He was portrayed byEdward Tudor-Pole inThe Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004). In a 2008 stage play,Surviving Spike, Milligan was played byMichael Barrymore.[85]
On 9 June 2006, it was reported thatRichard Wiseman had identified Milligan as the writer of theworld's funniest joke as decided by the Laughlab project. Wiseman said the joke contained all three elements of what makes a good gag, anxiety, a feeling of superiority and an element of surprise.[86]
Eddie Izzard described Milligan as "The Godfather of Alternative Comedy". "From his unchained mind came forth ideas that just had no boundaries. And he influenced a new generation of comedians who came to be known as 'alternative'."[87]
Members ofMonty Python greatly admired him. In one interview, which was widely quoted at the time,John Cleese stated "Milligan is the Great God to all of us".[88] The Pythons gave Milligan a cameo role in their 1979 filmMonty Python's Life of Brian, when Milligan happened to be holidaying inTunisia, near where the film was being shot; he was re-visiting where he had been stationed during the war.Graham Chapman gave him a minor part inYellowbeard.[citation needed]
After their retirement, Milligan's parents and his younger brother Desmond moved to Australia. His mother lived the rest of her long life in the coastal town ofWoy Woy on theNew South WalesCentral Coast, just north ofSydney. Spike became a regular visitor to Australia and made radio and TV programmes there, includingThe Idiot Weekly withBobby Limb. He also wrote several books includingPuckoon during a visit to his mother's house in Woy Woy. Milligan named the town "the largest above-ground cemetery in the world" when visiting in the 1960s.[89]
Milligan's mother became anAustralian citizen in 1985, partly in protest at the circumstances which led to her son's ineligibility for British citizenship; Milligan was reportedly considering applying for Australian citizenship at the time.[90] The suspension bridge on the cyclepath from Woy Woy toGosford was renamed the Spike Milligan Bridge in his memory and a meeting room in the Woy Woy Public Library is also named after him.[91][92]
Milligan contributed his recollections of his childhood in India for the acclaimed 1970s BBC audio history seriesPlain Tales From The Raj. The series was published in book form in 1975 byAndré Deutsch, edited byCharles Allen.[citation needed]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1951 | Penny Points to Paradise | Spike Donnelly | |
| Let's Go Crazy | Eccles / Waiter | Short Uncredited | |
| 1952 | Down Among the Z Men | Eccles | |
| 1953 | The Super Secret Service | Co-writer, short | |
| 1954 | Calling All Cars | Narrator | Short, withCardew Robinson |
| 1955 | A Kid for Two Farthings | Indian with Grey Beard | Uncredited |
| 1956 | The Case of the Mukkinese Battle-Horn | Sgt. Brown / Eccles / Catchpole Burkington / Minnie Bannister (voices) | Short |
| 1960 | Watch Your Stern | Ranjid | |
| Suspect | Arthur | ||
| The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film | Himself | Short | |
| 1961 | Invasion Quartet | Godfrey Pringle | |
| What a Whopper | Tramp | ||
| 1962 | Postman's Knock | Harold Petts | |
| 1966 | Fish and Milligan[110] | Fisherman | |
| 1969 | The Bed Sitting Room | Mate | |
| The Magic Christian | Traffic Warden 27 | ||
| 1971 | The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins | Tramp | (segment "Sloth") |
| 1972 | Rentadick | Customs Officer | |
| The Adventures of Barry McKenzie | Landlord | ||
| Alice's Adventures in Wonderland | Gryphon | ||
| 1973 | Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall | Leo Milligan | |
| Digby, the Biggest Dog in the World | Dr. Harz | ||
| The Three Musketeers | M. Bonacieux | ||
| Ghost in the Noonday Sun | Bill Bombay | ||
| 1974 | The Cherry Picker | Mr. Lal | |
| Man About the House | Himself | ||
| 1975 | The Great McGonagall | William McGonagall | |
| 1976 | Barney | Hawker | Also known asLost in the Wild |
| 1977 | Fantastic Animation Festival | Narrator: "Moonshadow" | |
| The Last Remake of Beau Geste | Crumble | ||
| Dot and the Kangaroo | Mr. Platypus (voice) | ||
| 1978 | The Hound of the Baskervilles | Policeman | |
| 1979 | Monty Python's Life of Brian | Spike | |
| 1980 | Amazing Scenes | Narrator | Documentary film about Australian fringe theatre, featuringCircus Oz,Wimmins Circus,Reg Livermore,Los Trios Ringbarkus, and others |
| 1981 | History of the World, Part I | Monsieur Rimbaud | (The French Revolution) |
| 1983 | Yellowbeard | Flunkie | |
| 1985 | No 73 | Episode: "Non Returnable" | |
| Super Gran | Zoo Keeper | Episode: "Supergran and the Missing Hissing" | |
| Kenny Everett's Christmas Carol | Ghost of Marley | Television film | |
| 1986 | The Sooty Show | Episode: "Sootograms" | |
| 1987 | In Sickness and in Health | Fancy Fred | 1 episode |
| 1988 | Mr. H Is Late | Roadsweeper | Television short |
| The Ratties | Narrator (voice) | ||
| 1989 | The Mini Is 30[111] | Himself | Television documentary |
| 1993 | The Big Freeze | Der Schauspieler | Television film |
| The Great Bong | Unknown role (voice) | ||
| 1995–1998 | Wolves, Witches and Giants | Narrator, Molly, The Giant, The Giant's Wife | 10 episodes |
| 1999 | The Nearly Complete and Utter History of Everything | Lord Nelson | Television film |
| 2000 | Gormenghast | De'Ath | TV Mini-series |
| Badjelly the Witch | Self, various characters | Television film | |
| The Unknown Peter Sellers | Himself | AMC television documentary |
According to Spike Milligan is a series of literarypastiche novels. Each part of the series was a rewriting of an original novel, with surreal comic elements added.
The War (and Peace) Memoirs. (The seven memoirs were also recorded as talking books with Milligan reciting them.)
Does not includeGoon Show-related recordings
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
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Quotations from Wikiquote
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