Puckoon goes on general sale on dvd region 0 on the 23rd August. However, if you can't wait 'til then you can buy it from the 4th July from the Puckoon website at a reduced price with free P&P. What more could you ask for! 

Have you seen Puckoon? What do you think? Please email me with your views on the film - did it do Spikes novel justice?

To view a trailer of Puckoon click here

From the Manchester Evening News - Tuesday 1st April 2003

Odeon passes the Puck as Spike's film gets debut

MANCHESTER'S Odeon cinema came into its own again as it rolled out the red carpet to host the premiere of British film Puckoon.

The venue, which in the past has screened the UK debuts of such films as Tootsie with Dustin Hoffman, was back in the limelight as stars Sean Hughes, Jane Milligan and Milo O'Shea rolled up in black tie.

The movie, based on Spike Milligan's comic novel of the same name about the boundaries between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, also stars Elliot Gould, and Richard Attenborough in the part of narrator - at one point pencilled-in for the late Milligan to take.

But his actress daughter Jane, who was at the cinema with her aunt and uncle, kept it in the family, with a small part playing the wife of Sean Hughes' character, Madigan.

"I was very lucky to get this part and it's the only one I've ever had through influence," she laughs. "I think my father's humour shines through the film and I'm very pleased and very proud to be part of it.

"It's early days yet, because it's only a year since my father passed away, but it would be very sad if his work didn't get out there in the world. It would be a tragedy if all the books he had written were lost."

Only Fools And Horses star John Challis, who plays Boycie in the BBC sitcom, was among the celebrity faces in the audience for the charity premiere in aid of Barnardos, while Coronation Street's Angela Lonsdale, who had bought a silk tangerine outfit from Fabric Fashion for the occasion, arrived with good friend and former Rovers Return landlady Denise Welch.

The party continued afterwards with a traditional Irish "Hooley" and bangers and mash supper at Life Cafe on Peter Street.

And Coronation Street's Bruce Jones (Les Battersby), who joined the celebrations late, after a night shoot on the soap, proved that even celebrities aren't immune to being star-struck.

For, he dashed excitedly to tell pals: "I can't believe I've just been talking to Milo O'Shea - I used to love him when I was a kid."

One figure notable by his absence at last night’s bash was Puckoon’s Hollywood name, Elliot Gould.

The acclaimed star of The Long Goodbye, M*A*S*H and Ocean’s Eleven was due to make a special guest appearance alongside his fellow cast members – but got last-minute nerves.

Says one rankled insider: “We turned up to collect Elliot from Heathrow and he didn’t get off the plane. It turns out he was afraid to fly because of the international situation.

"We would have liked to have known in advance, though – we spent £8,000 on a first class ticket and ten per cent of that is definitely lost.”

Still, perhaps Gould was method acting. One of the last lines quoted by his character, Dr Goldstein, is: “I wouldn’t have come here from America if I’d known something like this was going to happen.”

Or maybe he was just a wuss – after all, veteran actor Milo O’Shea made the journey over from New York.

The Guardian - Tuesday July 23, 2002

'It's fantastical, magical stuff'

Spike Milligan's madcap novel Puckoon has finally been filmed. Richard Attenborough tells Bob Flynn why he just had to help

'I don't mind dying, I just don't want to be there at the time." As Richard Attenborough recalls Spike Milligan's famous quote, he roars with laughter, rocking back in his chair. Milligan died in February this year and the throwaway joke has now become the great absurdist's cinematic epitaph, scrawled in bold Celtic copperplate across the opening titles of the film version of his first novel, Puckoon, published in 1964. By now, Attenborough is almost in tears, but let's not mention weeping. Not yet anyway. Speaking just before the premiere of Puckoon at the Galway film fleadh earlier this month, he is pink-faced, effusive and exuberantly white-bearded, reeling off lines from writer-director Terence Ryan's adaptation of Milligan's satirical tale of the fictitious village of Puckoon which, one day during the partitioning of the country in 1924, is arbitrarily split between Northern and southern Ireland.

"When I first read it, I was laughing so much I was close to getting arrested - or peeing myself," Attenborough says. "I always loved Spike and what he did for British comedy. He moved it into another realm with the Goons. I knew them all, especially Peter Sellers, but Spike was the true original, the central genius. I couldn't wait to get involved in the movie."

As the film's omnipresent writer-narrator, Attenborough cajoles and commands characters played by Sean Hughes (hapless Dan Madigan), Elliot Gould (village doctor), and an array of veteran Irish actors, along with Milligan's daughter Jane as Madigan's ferocious wife.

Milligan claimed that his debut novel nearly drove him mad. Yet, despite the disjointed narrative, unashamed Paddywhackery and a structure in the style of a Joycean pastiche, Puckoon became a publishing phenomenon, never out of print and selling more than 6m copies.

Attenborough, normally associated with grandiose epics, hasn't acted for four years and is still smarting after the failure of his last directorial outing, Grey Owl. One gets the impression that the disarmingly passionate actor-director has had enough of mega-buck blockbusters. Puckoon was filmed in Ireland on a budget that wouldn't cover the catering costs on a typical Attenborough movie. It's certainly a long way from A Bridge Too Far. Has he stopped chasing Oscars? Attenborough leans forward and slams the table so hard the teacups rattle.

"Before we begin, I never fucking cried at the Oscars - that's myth," he says, referring to his emotional speech when accepting eight Academy awards for Gandhi in 1982. "In fact, I don't really like the Oscars; it's a commercial promotional event. It helps immeasurably to sell films, but it's hardly the Nobel prize."

It is all getting a little bizarre, even Milliganesque, when Attenborough sits back and laughs. The last of the old-school English film impresarios and chairman of innumerable arts organisations is relaxing into Galway's unpretentious atmosphere. The setting could not be more appropriate for the unveiling of a film inspired by Milligan, the troubled comedian who carried an Irish passport and whose coffin was draped in the Irish flag.

"Spike's humour was all about irreverence, and I like that," says Attenborough. "I know I'm regarded as an establishment figure, but I was crucified by the establishment for Oh! What a Lovely War, Gandhi and Cry Freedom. So I relate to Spike. Irreverence is an essential part of our culture. I admire that enormously."

Attenborough is 80 next year and does admit to having trouble remembering names, but remains "consumed by the movies. I don't take up many acting jobs these days, but this was irresistible. I liked the fact it was being made in Ireland and there was no big-budget hoopla involved. It was very invigorating and refreshing for me. And there were some old pals involved."

The old pals are Gould, a lifelong Milligan fan who appeared briefly in Attenborough's overstuffed, star-studded A Bridge Too Far, and Milo O'Shea, Attenborough's co-star in the 1970 film of Joe Orton's play Loot. All of them, says Attenborough, did Puckoon out of "an overwhelming adoration of Spike. Money was the least consideration. I'd have done it for a pint of Guinness. In fact, I think I did."

With this, he gets up and starts pacing the room, hands clasped behind his back, as if delivering a final briefing before the next escape attempt. "I'm beginning to think that we must get back to making movies like Puckoon, which are essentially indigenous, rather than trying to take on Hollywood at its own game. Look what happened to FilmFour. We keep making the same mistake, trying to invade America by sailing halfway across the Atlantic. You just sink without a trace."

Puckoon itself was partly filmed in Hollywood - Hollywood, Belfast, that is, the working-village folk-museum doubling as Milligan's divided town, where beer is cheaper in the northern half of the pub and corpses have to have newly issued passports to cross the customs post erected across the newly partitioned graveyard.

The ultimate irony is that Puckoon is the first ever co-production between Northern and southern Ireland. "It's fantastical, magical, mad stuff ," says Attenborough, "but, deep down, Spike was dealing with the division of a people for political ends."

Ten years ago, when Spike was 73, director Terence Ryan recorded the author's reading of the novel. Milligan was well aware that the recording was being made in case he died before the film was financed. It was partially true. By the time production began, a decade later, Milligan was in poor health.

"He was meant to be in the film but was too ill," says Attenborough. "He never made it to the set but would call and say, 'Get a bloody move on - I've not long to go.'" Yet Milligan saw the finished film before he died, with his daughter Jane by his side. He laughed all the way through. "Spike's humour is a very fragile thing on screen," says Attenborough. "You've got be careful not to damage the wonderful madness. But now that he's gone, as he would say, 'What are we gonna do now?' "

· Puckoon is released in the UK in October.

Cast:

Sean Hughes (Madigan)

Sean Hughes was born in London but moved to Dublin when he was five. In 1987 he started doing stand up comedy. In 1990 he won the prestigious Perrier Award for his one-man show A ONE NIGHT STAND WITH SEAN HUGHES. The comedy show played to capacity crowds in London and toured Australia for the Melbourne Comedy Festival in 1991, Los Angeles, Montreal, Toronto and throughout the UK.

In 1992 Sean wrote and starred in SEAN’S SHOW a 7 part situation comedy series for Channel 4 – the show was critically acclaimed and a second series was screened in 1993. He also developed and starred in SEAN’S SHORTS on BBC 2, a six-part comic documentary that was transmitted in 1994. He has most recently appeared in MURDER MOST HORRID on BBC 2 and GORMENGAST and THE GREATEST STORE IN THE WORLD for the BBC. He was until recently team captain of the comedy quiz show NEVER MIND THE BUZZCOCKS. He also hosts his own radio show on Sunday mornings on LONDON LIVE.

His film credits include THE COMMITMENTS, THE BUTCHER BOY, SNAKES AND LADDERS and FAST FOOD.
In 2000 Sean became the first stand up comedian to appear in Yasima Reza’s theatrical blockbuster ART at Wyndham’s Theatre in the West End.

Elliot Gould (Dr. Goldstein)

Leonard Maltin eloquently summed up Elliot Gould’s place in the post-studio era when he said “ Few screen actors during the 1960’s and 1970’s personified the changes in the American zeitgeist as did this curly-haired leading man whose engaging portrayals of wry, cynical, and often confused characters made him the counterculture favourite” his Oscar nominated performance in BOB & CAROL & TED & ALICE brought him his first big success which was capitalised upon and amplified in Robert Altman’s anti-war landmark MASH. Other works in the same vain followed – GETTING STRAIGHT, MOVE and LITTLE MURDERS before working again with Altman in THE LONG GOODBYE and NASHVILLE, CALIFORNIA SPLIT and THE PLAYER ( as himself).

Other films include BUGSY, AMERICAN HISTORY X, OCEAN’S ELEVEN, THE LADY VANISHES, THE LONG GOODBYE, A BRIDGE TOO FAR, THE NIGHT THEY RAIDED MINSKY’S. He has recently appeared Dr Jack Geller in the high successful NBC series FRIENDS.


Richard Attenborough (The writer/director/creator)

Richard is one of Britain’s best known film personalities with a professional career as an actor, writer, producer and director spanning over sixty years.
Following his graduation from RADA (he is now Chairman) he appeared in Noel Coward’s IN WHICH WE SERVE. Since then he has appeared in over 70 feature films including LONDON BELONGS TO ME, SÉANCE ON A WET AFTERNOON, 10 RILLINGTON PLACE, THE GREAT ESCAPE, THE LEAGUE OF GENTLEMEN, I AM ALRIGHT JACK, THE GUINEA PIG, BRIGHTON ROCK, PRIVATES PROGRESS, LOOT AND OF LATE, JURASSIC PARK and THE MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET.

Following his directorial debut OH WHAT A LOVELY WAR he directed YOUNG WINSTON, A BRIDGE TOO FAR, CRY FREEDOM, CHAPLIN, GREY OWL, A CHORUS LINE. His most successful film as a director GANDHI won many accolades including 8 Oscars, 5 BAFTA’s and 5 Golden Globes.

Daragh O’Malley (Father Rudden)

Daragh is a native of Ireland but spends much of his time in LA where he has persuded a successful film and television career for many years. His film and TV credits include CAL, THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY, WITHNAIL AND I, REBEL HEART, LONGITUDE, SHARPE, THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, CLEOPATRA etc.

The cast is brimming over with well known faces all who were keen to be associated with Spike Milligan, many of whom had grown up with the book as a favourite read. They include

John Lynch ( CAL, SLIDING DOORS, BEST), Griff Rhys Jones ( UP “N” UNDER, STAGGERED, WILT, NOT THE NINE O’CLOCK NEWS),Nickolas Grace ( BRIDESHEAD REVISITED, HEAT & DUST, AN IDEAL HUSBAND), David Kelley ( WAKING NED, GREENFINGERS), Milo O’Shea ( THE VERDICT, THE BUTCHER BOY, THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO), Freddie Jones ( THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO, COLD COMFORT FARM, THE ELEPHANT MAN), Joe McGann ( THE UPPER HAND, NIGHT & DAY), John Michie (TAGGART), Charles Lawson ( CORONATION STREET) Richard Riddings ( UP “N” UNDER, AUF WIEDERSHEN PET), Paul Loughran (EMMERDALE) Frankie McCafferty (BALLYKISSANGEL)., John Kavanagh (BRAVEHEART, CIRCLE OF FRIENDS).

Tuesday June 12, 2001

Richard Attenborough will star in a movie version of Spike Milligan's comic novel Puckoon which focuses on a pub split by the new border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic in 1922. Dickie and US star Elliott Gould, pals of Milligan, are appearing "for the price of a pint," according to reports. Les Blair directs.

A source revealed to the Ananova website that, "Getting this film underway has been a dream for Spike. He says it may be the last dream he ever has as he is now 82 and not in the best of health. But he is just so proud that he will be seeing Puckoon on the silver screen.

He has told Les Blair, 'No hold-ups. I may pop off at any time!'"