Spike met many people in his life, some famous and some not so famous. Here we look at some of the personal memories people have shared. Sometimes Spike took his crusades to almost unbelievable lengths. In 1986, he was thrown out of Harrods when he tried to stuff 28lb of spaghetti down the mouth of the food hall manager.

"I told him it might give him some idea of how a goose feels being force-fed maize to make paté de fois gras."

However, Spike loved his food from Harrods and often sent out for his favourite nibbles...

For example...

I met Spike at a book signing in York in 1994 - he was signing Wuthering Heights according to Spike Milligan (not, alas, his greatest literary achievement!). I went with a female friend who Spike took an instant liking to. "You're very pretty," he told her.

When I went up to him I said "I'm afraid I'm not so pretty, Spike" and he immediately put on one of his wide-eyed looks and said "Oh but you are - to me you're... beautiful! Won't you have dinner with me tonight?!" We then had an extremely long chat about jazz music and he seemed quite happy to talk to us for ages, regardless of the huge queue behind! I was then the editor of a comedy magazine at York University, and we humbly gave him a copy of the latest issue. He was going to write us a cheque for it but of course we gave him it free.

I wish now we'd let him pay - it would be wonderful to have a cheque for 40 pence signed by Spike!

Every day without Spike is more depressing than the last - like Eric so movingly said at the end of Heroes of Comedy, I don't like being in a world where he isn't.

Matt Jazz

An Australian fan recalls...

I remember him as a very troubled person at that time and was imbibing quite a lot (wines from the famous Barossa Valley).  To watch him work the audience was to watch the consummate entertainer and master of the ad-lib.  On the opening night he accidentally mis-pronounced the place name Wooloomooloo (Sydney) into Loomoowool and got a hilarious reaction.  From that night on for the rest of the season he mangled that word into funnier and funnier contortions. 

Whilst seated he also had a dummy and utilising the prevailing political scene, named it Gough Whitlam ( Leader of the Opposition and heading for Prime Ministership) and on the first night gave it a tap on the head with a baseball bat and got the laughs.  By the end of the season he was standing and walking all over the stage throwing and beating the "Stuffings" out of it with the audience rolling in the aisles.

Happy memories

Mal Woods