Spike Milligan

1918 -- 2002

Terence Alan (Spike) Milligan was born in India in 1918. Though he lived in the UK and served in the British Army during WW2, he was declared stateless in 1960 and chose to take Irish citizenship. As such his KBE (knighthood) in 2000 was honourary.

His career began as a jazz trumpeter but even then he would throw in comedy sketches. Though he acted in radio, TV and film, Milligan is best known for writing and appearing in The Goon Show. The blend of surreal humour and crazy characters was not only popular at the time but hugely influential; the Monty Python's Flying Circus team freely acknowledged their debt to Milligan's earlier work.

Having suffered shell shock in the war and with bipolar disorder, Milligan had a long history of mental breakdowns. He missed a number of episodes of The Goon Show after an attempt to murder Peter Sellers (foiled by Milligan's wife warning Sellers that Milligan was on his way).

Despite (or, perhaps, because of) his illness, Milligan's dark humour never failed him. At the funeral of his friend and The Goon Show colleague Harry Secombe, Milligan said that he was glad Secombe had died first as he didn't want Secombe singing at his funeral. A recording of one of Secombe's songs was played at Milligan's memorial service in 2002.