He was one of the funniest men in the world. He was also probably its most famous manic depressive. Apart from appearing in many hilariously funny TV shows, Terence Alan Milligan1 also found time to write most of the brilliant Goon Shows, one of the best children's books ever written - Badjelly the Witch - and a biography of his war exploits - Adolf Hitler, My Part In His Downfall which will outlive many heavier, more 'worthy' tomes on World War 11. 2
With his brilliance came problems. There were several breakdowns and his behaviour sometimes went over the top, as in Harrods3 one day when he tried to stuff 12kg of spaghetti down the food hall manager's mouth so he would know how geese felt when they were force-fed maize to produce pate de foie gras.
Last of the Goons
The last of the Goons - he once told fellow Goon Harry Secombe 'I hope you go before me because I don't want you singing at my funeral' - some of his scripts for the show were described as 'the Marx Brothers on radio'. But he left them behind years ago. As he said on his 75th birthday:
When I look back, the fondest memory is not really of the Goons, it's of a girl called Julia with enormous breasts.
On a more sombre note, he told the Sunday Star-Times in 1995:
I'm only appreciated for The Goon Show, that's what they think of when they think of me and I'm really p****d off with that.
Much of his whimsy had a point. When he was made an honorary CBE in 1992, he remarked:
I can't see the sense in it, really. It makes me a commander of the British Empire. They might as well make me a commander of Milton Keynes - at least that exists.
The son of an Irish sergeant-major4 in the Royal Artillery - 'My father had a profound influence on me, he was a lunatic' - Milligan served with that regiment in the war.
Origins of the Goon Show
A trumpet player, he took part in many wartime shows and met Secombe along the way. Back in Civvy St, Milligan and Secombe - by now a comic at the 'tits and bums' Windmill Theatre - met up and combined with Peter Sellers and Michael Bentine to 'pitch' a comedy show to the BBC. The corporation tried it out in May, 1951, and called it Those Crazy People but with Bentine and Milligan on the same programme, it was one crazy person too many and the show lasted briefly before Bentine went. It then became The Goon Show and Milligan was on his way. He co-wrote every show and claimed that it was responsible for his first breakdowns.
Of his long-running feud with the BBC, Milligan said:
They wanted jokes. We didn't have jokes, we had semi-lunacy.
Life After The Goons
At Milligan's insistence, the show ran down its final curtain in 1960 and he did some stage work, some film and a lot of TV shows, most notably The World of Beachcomber and Q5, which has been called the precursor of Monty Python. He also made many appearances on talk shows and was often hilariously ill-prepared, which could make for some exciting or boring television depending on his mood swings.
A fast writer - Private Eye magazine once ran a cartoon showing a book store window sign reading 'Spike Milligan will be here to write his latest book at 3pm' - he was also prolific which could produce dross along with the gems. But many war veterans reckon that his irreverent memoirs of 1939-45 sum up the madness, the boredom and the occasional hilarity of the times better than anything written before or since.
Spike was also an inspired and observant poet as the following little ditty proves:
There are holes in the sky where the rain gets in
But they're ever so small
That's why rain is thin.
A Harsh Critic
He did, of course, become tired of comedy. He said of American comedy that it was 'as funny as a baby with cancer' and he had no time for British comedians such as Rik Mayall.
Rik Mayall is putrid. Absolutely vile. He thinks nose-picking is funny and farting and all that. He is the a*****e of British comedy.
Milligan, despite his often outrageous and sometimes boorish behaviour was anything but. He was, as another comedian Eddie Izzard put it 'the godfather of alternative comedy'.
The man who performed his own send-up of the BBC doing his obituary, died at Rye, Sussex, on February 23, 2002. He was 83. He did not believe in heaven or hell. 'When you snuff, you just go.' he said.
Further Information
More of Spike's work - including information about his other books - is detailed at the linked site.
Related BBC Site
The BBC tribute page (including lots of links).
