Spike Milligan
A very personal portrait of the truly unique comedy genius of Spike Milligan, as told in his own words and featuring exclusive home movie footage. With contributions from those who worked with him, lived with him and were inspired by him.
Arguably the greatest comedian to have emerged in post-war Britain, Spike Milligan came into television from the seminal radio comedy - "The Goons". Spike's TV output was to lose none of that shows anarchic, surreal and devastatingly funny humour, as his series "Q" (1968-1980) and "There's A Lot Of It About" (1982) broke every known television and comedy rule in sketch after sketch of nonsensical brilliance. This compilation captures the highlights of those series, including such classic sketches as The Eurovision Joke Contest, Spike as the singing Viking Maiden, insects auditioning for a David Attenborough series and much more assorted lunacy from the world of an indisputable comic genius.
Filmed in Australia 1984, this rare previously unreleased live performance shows comic genius Spike Milligan at his best. Bizarre, surreal, inspired.
At the Castle of Gormenghast, the Groan family has ruled with dusty ceremony for more than seventy generations. A clever and ambitious new kitchen boy, Steerpike, begins to insinuate himself into the affections of Lady Fuchsia Groan and to murder his way to power.
Spike recalls his exploits in the army, setting up a jazz band and other sources of his comic inspiration. He patiently answers impertinent questions from Harry Secombe, Peter O'Toole, Lynsey de Paul, Roy Hudd and Denis Norden with often amusing answers.
Wolves, Withches and Giants gives a twisted and humorous take on classic fairy tales, narrated by Spike Milligan and adapted by Ed Welch.
A salesman starts to run a hospital radio station inside a facility for people with mental heath needs.
A silent comedy. Two accident-prone plumbers go to fix the plumbing at a home for retired gentle-folk on the coldest day of the year in Finland. Everything that can go wrong for these plumbers goes wrong.
A team of inept undertakers attempt to get a coffin to a funeral on time. An undertaker is in charge of moving a coffin from a home to the church. The home is on the 26th floor of a skyscraper; the stairs are narrow; the lift is small and prone to stop working. Chaos ensues.
A pirate crewman kills his captain after learning where he has hidden his buried treasure. However, as he begins to lose his memory, he relies more and more on the ghost of the man he just murdered to help him find the loot.
For years Yellowbeard had looted the Spanish Main, making men eat their lips and swallow their hearts. Caught and convicted for tax evasion, he's sentenced to 20 years in St. Victim's Prison for the Extremely Naughty. In a scheme to confiscate his fabulous treasure, the Royal Navy allows him to escape and follows him, where saucy tarts, lisping demigods and some awful puns and punishments await.
Spike Milligan sketch series created after the BBC apparently thought another 'Q' would confuse people - continues in the same anarchic & often politically incorrect vein.
An uproarious version of history that proves nothing is sacred – not even the Roman Empire, the French Revolution and the Spanish Inquisition.
Ten years ago exactly, more or less, give or take a day or two, six young men sat down, or maybe stood, or perhaps some of them just lounged, and wrote the first episode of a new series called Owl Stretching Time. They were called Graham Chapman , John Cleese, Terry Gilliam , Eric Idle,Terry Jones and Michael Palin and later both they and the series became known as Monty Python 's Flying Circus . Today they are the best known British comedy group in the world, famous from Cathay to Kathmandu, from Sydney to Sidcup (except in Japan where the programme is called The Gay Boys' Dragon Show ... say no more). To commemorate their tenth anniversary a BBC team tracked them down in the deserts of Tunisia where they were filming their Life of Brian and almost persuaded them to examine the genesis, the genius and the gender of Monty Python.
Brian Cohen is an average young Jewish man, but through a series of ridiculous events, he gains a reputation as the Messiah. When he's not dodging his followers or being scolded by his shrill mother, the hapless Brian has to contend with the pompous Pontius Pilate and acronym-obsessed members of a separatist movement. Rife with Monty Python's signature absurdity, the tale finds Brian's life paralleling Biblical lore, albeit with many more laughs.
Director Paul Morrissey applies a hefty dose of humor to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic detective story in this interpretation of The Hound of the Baskervilles. Comedian Peter Cook takes on the role of brilliant detective Sherlock Holmes, who's not so gifted here as he relegates much of the investigation of demonic dogs to his bumbling sidekick, Watson (Dudley Moore), while he spends time with his mother and searches for an assistant.
A collection of fourteen award winning animated short films including "Moonshadow," "The Last Cartoon Man," "Closed Mondays," and "Cosmic Cartoon".
The animation begins with a still frame of Teaser and his pet Firecat, pictured as they appear on the cover of the album bearing their names. The picture comes to life, and in the course of the animation, they find the fallen Moon, ride on it as it flies, and find a way to replace it in the sky. The beginning and ending story portions were written by Cat Stevens and narrated by Spike Milligan
Digby Geste joins his brother, Beau, in the Foreign Legion following the theft of a priceless family heirloom.
In this high-camp farce, Goons legend Spike Milligan stars as William Topaz McGonagall, an unemployed Scottish weaver and aspiring poet laureate who falls in love with Queen Victoria - a brilliant cameo by Peter Sellers - and thereafter devotes his banal poetry to her. Though McGonagall's solicitations are rejected by the Queen, it doesn't stop the turgid prose, and pathos, from overflowing as McGonagall hilariously attempts to become the greatest poet in the land. The image of the bad poet, trapped by his romanticism and inspired by a muse with a tin ear, appealed mightily to Spike Milligan, and this cult British spoof features the Goons show maestro at his ridiculous, genre-defying best.
An unscrupulous property developer wants to flatten the street to make way for new buildings.Householder George Roper is happy to take the offered money and run but his wife Mildred and their lodgers join with other residents to take a stand and keep things as they are, finally winning the day
Narrated by Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise, this documentary about "Laurel and Hardy", one of the most popular and critically acclaimed comedy double acts of the early Classical Hollywood era of American cinema. It features interviews with Jerry Lewis, Dick Van Dyke, Babe London, Marcel Marceau, Lucille Hardy (Ollie's wife), Bob Monkhouse, Hal Roach, Marvin T Hatley, Jack McCabe and many more.
American V.I.P James Burn II finds his son James Burn III (Bob Sherman) leading a giant "sleep-in" that has taken over Windsor Castle. He hires Nancy (Lulu) to get him out of the castle and into work. With the help of her crazy eccentric father, (Wilfred Hyde-White) who believes in working day and night and producing nothing and uses a fantastic astro-telescope for casual bird watching, she does just that !
The young D'Artagnan arrives in Paris with dreams of becoming a king's musketeer. He meets and quarrels with three men, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, each of whom challenges him to a duel. D'Artagnan finds out they are musketeers and is invited to join them in their efforts to oppose Cardinal Richelieu, who wishes to increase his already considerable power over the king. D'Artagnan must also juggle affairs with the charming Constance Bonancieux and the passionate Lady De Winter, a secret agent for the cardinal.
London, 1940. Aspiring jazz musician and future comedy legend Terence "Spike" Milligan reluctantly obeys his call-up and joins the Royal Artillery regiment at Bexhill, where he begins training to take part in the War. But along the way Spike and his friends get involved in many amusing - and some not-so amusing - scrapes. A film adaptation of the first volume of Spike Milligan's war diaries.
Digby consumes a bowl of Project X, a liquid growth formula. Soon, he becomes a sheepdog of gigantic size!
Armitage runs a chemical company that is on the verge of producing a gas that causes temporary disability. Clearly the military want it but it is also sought by a group of Japanese. Both Armitage and Madam Greenfly hire different people in the same detective agency to guard the gas and steal it respectively... confusion, double crosses and hilarity ensue...
Barry McKenzie sets off for England with his aunt, Edna Everage, to advance his cultural education. Bazza is an innocent abroad, fond of beer, Bondi and beautiful sheilas, but he soon settles into the Australian ghetto in Earls Court, where his old mate Curly has a flat.
An all-star cast highlights this vibrant musical adaptation of Lewis Carroll's immortal tale. One day, plucky young Alice follows a white rabbit down a hole and discovers a world of bizarre characters.
Young Socialists from Glasgow, Liverpool and Swansea march to London and discuss their economic struggles en route. Supporting them are Ken Loach, Corin Redgrave, Arnold Wesker and other leading cultural figures of the left of British politics. The march is intercut with scenes dramatising parallel injustices in the English Civil War era and earlier - featuring Frances de la Tour in queenly mode as Elizabeth I. The film's unconventional structure also features frequent extracts of the rousing pop concert, with the band Slade, which culminated the epic march.
The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins is a 1971 British comedy film directed and produced by Graham Stark. Its title is a conflation of The Magnificent Seven and the seven deadly sins. It comprises a sequence of seven sketches, each representing a sin and written by an array of British comedy-writing talent. The sketches are linked by animation sequences. The music score is by British jazz musician Roy Budd, cinematography by Harvey Harrison and editing by Rod Nelson-Keys and Roy Piper. It was produced by Tigon Pictures and distributed in the U.K. by Tigon Film Distributors Ltd..
The plot revolves around two heirs, Prince Frederick (Barry Gibb) and his brother Prince Marmaduke (Maurice Gibb), and their dying father (Frankie Howerd). On his death bed, The King orders his kingdom divided into two halves, the Kingdom of Jelly and the Kingdom of Cucumbers. Before the king even dies, Prince Frederick declares himself "King of Cucumbers" and Prince Marmaduke becomes the “King of Jelly”. The film intersperses comedy sketches with Bee Gees songs plus performances by Lulu and Blind Faith with cameo appearances.
Curry and Chips is a British sitcom broadcast in 1969 which was produced by London Weekend Television for the ITV network. Set on a factory floor of 'Lillicrap Ltd', it starred a blacked up Spike Milligan as an Asian immigrant who went by the name of Kevin O'Grady. It also featured Eric Sykes as the foreman, Norman Rossington as the shop steward, and other regulars were Kenny Lynch, and Sam Kydd. The series was written by Till Death Us Do Part writer Johnny Speight, but based on idea by Milligan. It was the first LWT sitcom to be made in colour, and all episodes still exist.
Sir Guy Grand, the richest man in the world, adopts a homeless boy, Youngman. Together, they set out to prove that anyone--and anything--can be bought with money.
Q... was a surreal television comedy sketch show from Spike Milligan which ran from 1969 to 1982 on BBC2. There were six series in all, the first five numbered from Q5 to Q9, and a final series titled There's a Lot of It About. The first and third series ran for seven episodes, and the others for six episodes, each of which was 30 minutes long. Various reasons have been suggested for the title. One possibility is that it was inspired by the project to construct the Cunard liner QE2, launched in September 1967, which was dubbed Q4. Another theory is that Milligan was inspired by the BBC 6-point technical quality scale of the time, where "Q5" was severe degradation to picture or sound, and "Q6" was complete loss of sound or vision. This was extended by some engineering departments to a 9-point scale, finishing at "Q9". According to Milligan's autobiography, the final series was renamed There's a Lot of It About after the BBC felt the public might find Q10 too confusing.
A BBC documentary portrait of Peter Sellers, filmed over a period of nine months in 1969 where director Tony Palmer interviews Sellers and friends and associates about the actor's career and life. At age 44, with 38 films already behind him, including Dr. Strangelove and two "Pink Panther" films, Sellers was then at the crest of his career. But his personal life, which included two bad marriages (and two more to come), a near-fatal 1964 heart attack, and increasingly disturbing personality disorders, was in tatters.
In the hazy aftermath of World War III, the fallout from a 'nuclear misunderstanding' is producing strange mutations amongst the survivors, and the noble Lord Fortnum finds himself transforming into a bed sitting room.
The World of Beachcomber was a surreal television comedy show produced by the BBC inspired by the Beachcomber column in the Daily Express newspaper. The show, like the column, consisted of a series of unrelated pieces of humour. Links between the items were provided by Spike Milligan, dressed in a smoking jacket and cap, as in the cartoon logo above the newspaper column. The other actors were a Who's Who of British comedy of the time, encompassing almost every supporting player seen or heard in comedy, not excluding people of diminutive stature. Likewise the writing staff included Milligan, Barry Took, John Junkin, Neil Shand and others. The producer was John Howard Davies. In all, 19 episodes were produced beginning in 1968. They were mostly shown on the new BBC 2 channel, which broadcast in colour using the 625-line PAL standard. BBC 2 was a minority-appeal culture channel, and thus allowed greater stretching of the boundaries of the art. Unfortunately, like many shows of the time, the original videotapes were wiped. Only one complete episode, on black and white 16mm film now survives of this show in the BBC archives, from the penultimate edition. In addition to this, excerpts for the 29.09.69 edition also survive. Audio soundtracks also survive for episodes Three and Four of the 1969 series. In addition to this, a soundtrack LP featuring excerpts from shows from series one was also released by PYE records, and rereleased on Audio Cassette in 1997.
The Telegoons is a comedy puppet show, adapted from the highly successful BBC radio comedy show of the 1950s.
Likeable country postman Harold Petts gets transferred from his village to London, where on his arrival he unwittingly foils a mail train robbery. Innocent in the ways of the big city, he is thought to be a member of another gang by both the train robbers and the police, who all suspect him of trying to rob the post office where he works.
A writer attempts to raise some cash by writing a book about the Loch Ness Monster. No publisher will take it because they all think there isn't really a monster. The writer and some of his friends make a fake monster and take photographs and then travel to Scotland to see if they can convince the locals.
This British men-on-a-mission spoof set during World War II finds intrepid officer Bill Travers leading three colorful compatriots into Nazi-occupied France to destroy an obnoxiously large, loud, and destructive enemy gun. See if this fearless foursome can stomp their Fascist foes and get back to their game of cricket! Spike Milligan, Gregoire Aslan, and Thorley Walters co-star.
A Christmas TV special in which Alice does not go through a looking glass, but through a TV set.
When the details of a secret torpedo are destroyed by an incompetent seaman, the crew of the ship rally round, when the Admiral needs the plans to show to a visiting scientist.
Portrait of Spike Milligan, then part of The Goon Show examining his views on comedy,
A short film without any direct action designed more as an experiment, with disjointed comic scenes with no common thread.
The Idiot Weekly, Price 2d was the first serious attempt to translate the humour of The Goon Show to television. It was made by Associated-Rediffusion during 1956 and was broadcast only in the London area. It combined elements of a sitcom and sketch comedy with Peter Sellers as the editor of a tatty Victorian newspaper, The Idiot Weekly. The headlines of the paper were used as links to comedy sketches. Although written mainly by Spike Milligan, there were many contributions from members of the writers' co-operative Associated London Scripts, including Dave Freeman and Terry Nation, with Eric Sykes credited as the script editor. The series was produced and directed by Richard Lester. It was followed by A Show Called Fred and Son of Fred. The title was revived by Spike Milligan for the Australian radio series The Idiot Weekly.
A Show Called Fred was the successor series to The Idiot Weekly, Price 2d. It was made by Associated-Rediffusion and broadcast only in London area. It was 25 minutes plus adverts. It was predominantly a sketch comedy attempting to translate the audio antics of the The Goon Show into visual antics in bizarre and often surreal comedy sketches which just suddenly ended with a new sketch beginning. Many performers played small parts in the shows like Ernest Clark, Jon Jon Keefe, Patricia Driscoll, etc. Famous people of the day like Hans and Lotte Hass were parodied. Canadian star, Patti Lewis had a singing spot about the middle of the show, and Max Geldray a music spot later on. There were few taboos with sketches showing people in various states of undress, cameramen, behind the scenes workers and the studios. The Ying Tong song was sung for no apparent reason at various times. The series was written by Spike Milligan and produced and directed by Richard Lester. It was followed by Son of Fred later in 1956. A half hour special Best of Fred was broadcast on 18 September 1963 combining surviving sketches from A Show Called Fred and Son of Fred. The 1995 convention of the Goon Show Preservation Society was billed as A Weekend Called Fred.
Joe is a young boy who lives with his mother, Joanna, in working-class London. The two reside above the tailor shop of Mr. Kandinsky, who likes to tell Joe stories. When Kandinsky informs Joe that a unicorn can grant wishes, the hopeful lad ends up buying a baby goat with one tiny horn, believing it to be a real unicorn. Undaunted by his rough surroundings, Joe sets about to prove that wishes can come true.
Son of Fred was the successor series to The Idiot Weekly, Price 2d and A Show Called Fred. It was made by Associated-Rediffusion and broadcast only in the London area, Midlands and Northern England. It was the third and final in a series of sketch comedy shows attempting to translate the humour of The Goon Show to television. Spike Milligan concentrated on writing and only made small walk on appearances, leaving the lead acting to Peter Sellers. The series was produced and directed by Richard Lester.
Supposedly filmed in 'Schizophrenoscope', it concerns Inspector Quilt of Scotland Yard's attempts to retrieve a 'Mukkinese Battlehorn' stolen from a London museum. Along the way he meets characters not dissimilar to Eccles, Henry Crun and Minnie Bannister from The Goon Show. This attempt to adapt Goon humour to the big screen was written by Harry Booth, Jon Penington and regular Goon show co-writer Larry Stephens. It was then heavily rewritten on the filmset by Sellers and Milligan.
The Goon Show hits the big screen. Professor Pure Heart absent-mindedly loses the top secret formula in Harry Jones' Grocery Shop. "Bats of the Yard", as Harry calls himself, finds it and attempts to return it to the Professor.
Let's Go Crazy is a 1951 comedy film marking an early appearance of Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers playing multiple roles.
When Harry and Spike visit Bristol to spend the winnings from Harry's latest Pools win, the boys are soon targeted by a gang of local counterfeiters.
A celebration of the life and career of Sir Harry Secombe, one of Britain's best-loved entertainers.
