Foreword by Eddie Izzard
Spike Milligan: The Godfather of Alternative Comedy
He wrote The Goon Show in the 1950s. Those crazy scripts 'pushed the edge of the envelope' as astronauts like to say. From his unchained mind came forth ideas that just had no boundries. And he influenced a new generation of comedians who came to be known as 'alternative'.
I first heard the Goons on Radio Dubai in 1974. (I told Spike this - he laughed and thought I was mad.) A suitably surreal medium to hear them on.
My dad said, 'I think you might like this.' We recorded the programme. on my brother's Sharp tape recorder - and I was hooked.
He was stationed in Bexhill-on-Sea during the war and I was stationed there during the 70s. He manned a gun - I sold ice creams. Both equally as dangerous (except mine wasn't). This was the connection that linked Spike to me and I needed that connection to believe I could make it out of Bexhill (I was digging a tunnel).
Spike was also in The Three Musketeers as Raquel Welch's husband who spies on her for Charlton Heston. A great piece of acting in a nightshirt. Spike went on to win the Nobel Prize for scene stealing with his role (well - he should have).
With his books and poetry and TV series and of course the Goons, his legacy will live on forever. His writings were timeless and so they age very well (try listening to the Goons now - it still kicks). In his later years I tried to do a gig in Rye (his home town) to see if he'd watch it and hopefully like what I did.I was looking for parental approval. I never did it in the end because I thought he might just tell me to 'fuck off' - as he would sometimes do on a summer's day (not just to me - to anyone).
But he was a giant of comedy and creation - who will not be forgotten.
Eddie Izzard
A recent review from the New Zealand Herald
The Essential Spike Milligan
12.08.2004 Reviewed by GRAHAM REID
On national Poetry Day a couple of weeks ago a television news team buttonholed people on the street and asked them to recite a piece of poetry. One guy did an impromptu local variant of Spike Milligan's Silly Old Baboon.
By coincidence, that very day a letter writer to this paper expressed outrage about et.al being chosen for the Venice Biennale by referring to her previous work, "a portable toilet with donkey and exploding noises", as hardly unique: "Just listen to Major Bloodnock in any Goon Show of nearly 50 years ago. I hope she credited Spike Milligan for the inspiration."
That Milligan — who died two years ago — should still walk through our collective memory is hardly surprising; the man was a wit for all seasons, whose songs, poems and surreal musings touched people for their humour and turn of phrase.
This excellent collection takes the long and inclusive view of Milligan's diverse works: here are the lyrics to his 56 hits I'm Walking Backwards to Christmas and the Ying Tong Song ("Ying tong ying tong ying tong ... ") alongside selections from his Silly Verse for Kids ("On the Ning Nang Nong where the cows go Bong! And the monkeys all say Boo!").
There is the first radio script from 51 when Harry Secombe, Michael Bentine, Peter Sellers and Milligan appeared as Crazy People, plus the opening chapter of his hilarious novel Puckoon, a kind of deranged and Irish Under Milk Wood which began: "Several and half metric miles North East of Sligo, split by a cascading stream, her body on earth, her feet in water, dwells the microcephalic community of Puckoon."
Yet in the very absurdity of the malapropism (of the kind which inspired John Lennon's two books) there is poetry, and that side of Milligan is also represented here. Milligan was a tragic clown whose life was punctuated by nervous breakdowns, manic depression (of which he made light sometimes) and lost love. This from Toni about his first serious girlfriend: "But the road we ascended/had finally ended/Addio amore. Toni."
Elsewhere he rails against the insanity of war (The White Flag, Soldier, soldier) and man's indifference to animals. Short moralistic pieces like Once upon (Man's inhumanity to animals, then his own kind) have the ring of Oscar Wilde about them.
But for most Milligan was the funny man and so attention naturally turns to his scripts for The Bed Sitting Room and The Two Ronnies (their classic The Phantom Raspberry Blower of Old London Town).
Milligan was an absurdist but everywhere there is a disconcerting ring of truth, captured in a witty, pointed and deflating epigram such as this: "A lot of learning can be a little thing."
Reviews
Ben Arnold, Jockey Slut magazine
'A testament to one of our most absurdly talented comedians. Poignant, nonsensical and hilarious... a more than appropriate epitaph.'
Chris Power, The Times
Wonderful anthology. A superbly sustained piece of comedy
Synopsis
A Spike Milligan opus, containing everything from classics to hidden gems, with a foreword by Eddie Izzard. When Spike Milligan died in 2002, he left behind one of the most diverse legacies in British entertainment history - as well as a legion of devoted fans and admirers. Milligan's themes ranged from environmental issues to the war, from nostalgia to depression, and his prolific output covers some of the most evocative events of the 20th century, in a style both twistedly comic and harrowingly honest.
From the pioneering lunacy of "The Goon Show" through his first novel "Puckoon" to the war memoirs that began with "Adolf Hitler: My Part in his Downfall", Milligan wrote with a passionate honesty that combined lyricism with all-out lunacy. This posthumous anthology, compiled with the co-operation of his closest circle, provides a comprehensive guide to Milligan's work, as well as shedding light on some less familiar areas, from pre-"Goon Show" days and "Telegoons" to his "Q" series for television.
From the Publisher
Spike was one of the most loved and influential figures in post war comedy. This collection, compiled by Alexander Games is the essential volume for fans both young and old as well as the perfect introduction for those wishing to get to know him a little better.
Foreward written by Eddie Izard
From the Back Cover
The encyclopaedic, comprehensive, utter and absolute, top to bottom, holy, unholy, sacred, profane, lurid, lewd, offensive, vulnerable and utterly charming Milligan.
"September 3rd, 1939. The last minutes of peace ticking away. Father and I were watching Mother digging our air-raid shelter. "She's a great little woman," said Father.
"and getting smaller all the time," I added."
brilliantly childish, genius and silly! I luv ya Spike
Only Spike Milliagan could be so brilliantly childish and observational.... so many try yet cant carry off the innocent yet deep poems and humour in this book.
Although I found reading the Goon show scripts sections a bit hard - and skipped most of them... (they wern't really of my generation, more my dads era....im sure i'll go back and read them later ).... but i really take my time reading the poems and re-reading them as they as genius yet silly and one can get.
A fabulous piece of escapism.... and his biography bits are great too..... a must read! A true eccentric!
The Essential Spike Milligan
This book is a stroll through the work of one of the most productive comic writters of modern times.This book contains extracts from his many books and scripts of some the most memorable Goon Shows.Also interleaved between these gems are poems ,silly verse for kids and letters he sent and recieved when championing his many causes.
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