EARLY RELEASE: Spike Milligan - GROVELLING BASTARD
Added 2025-10-18 16:10:35 +0000 UTCHappy Saturday guys! Hope you're having a great weekend 😊
Comments
wow thanks Ian for all the info! It seams Spike lived quite the life. Had no idea he worked with Peter Sellers! I'll have to check out the Goon Show :)
Megan Ruth
2025-10-19 10:30:38 +0000 UTC😂 brilliant!
Megan Ruth
2025-10-19 10:26:42 +0000 UTCAfter this, Spike wrote to the Prince of Wales asking him whether a Knighthood was now out of the question. The Prince replied, 'Keep grovelling'
BA
2025-10-19 08:42:29 +0000 UTCTerence Alan Milligan was born in 1918 in India. His father was a somewhat eccentric Irish Captain. When the family returned to London young Spike went to work at the Woolwich Arsenal as a junior clerk and would play trumpet in various jazz bands around the South East London area. He was called up in 1939 and drafted to the Royal Artillery where he formed his own jazz band with members of his Company and played at dances before being shipped off to Africa. In 1943, when attempting to set up a telephone post he was shelled by the Germans and suffered severe shell-shock, causing the first of many bouts of depression, Classified as unfit for combat duties, Spike was drafter into a concert party unit where he spent the rest of the War; his wartime memoirs became best sellers and are worth a read. Carrying on in Civilian life with The Bill Hall Trio but left to become a radio scriptwriter before getting together with Harry Seacombe and Peter Sellers to create the Goon Show - an anarchic comedy which the BBC didn't understand at all - but it drew huge ratings. In the 60s Spike branched out into Tv with the equally anarchic "Q" series - Monty Python before Monty Python had been created by Cleese, Chapman & Co. Throughout his life Spike also wrote a few novels - "Puckoon" being the most popular and books of nonsense poetry. His Comedy poem, "The Ning Nang Nong" was voted the most popular children's poem in the 90s. He died in 2002 of kidney failure at his home in Rye, Sussex and was buried in nearby Winchelsea. His grave bears the Gaelic inscription "Duirt me leat go me breoite" - which translates as "I told you I was ill". There are quite a few Q sketches on YouTube including the "Pakistani Dalek", the "Irish Moon Rocket" and my favourite the Policeman reading the parable of "The Good Samaritan" as though it were a statement in court.
Ian Harrison
2025-10-18 23:12:37 +0000 UTC
