Son of Fred was, some thirteen years before, the precursor to Milligan's celebrated Q series. Milligan announced that he was bored with conventional TV boundaries and began to experiment with surreal concepts using minimal scenery, simple props and the use of animation to link between sketches. But the format that would eventually become cult watching in the hands of the Monty Python team in the late 1960's, were a little premature for the audience 1950's, or so ITV thought and Son of Fred was cancelled after 8 shows.

It would be eight years before Spike Milligan would return to British TV with a full series. Sellers was contracted to do one more series for Associated Rediffusion and returned in 1957 for Yes, It's the Cathode-Ray Tube Show!

The dustbin dance from Son of Fred