Birthday: 16 April 1918, Ahmednagar, Bombay Presidency, British India
Birth Name: Terence Alan Patrick Sean Milligan
Height: 180 cm
Spike was born an 'Army Brat', the son of an Irish Captain in the British Raj in India. Educated in a series of Roman Catholic schools in India and at Lewisham Polytechnic in England, he spent his formative years playing the fool and playing the trumpet in local jazz bands.He joined the British Army himself (under protest if you believe h...
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Spike was born an 'Army Brat', the son of an Irish Captain in the British Raj in India. Educated in a series of Roman Catholic schools in India and at Lewisham Polytechnic in England, he spent his formative years playing the fool and playing the trumpet in local jazz bands.He joined the British Army himself (under protest if you believe his auto-biogs) as a conscript at the outbreak of WWII. He served in the Royal Artillery as Gunner Milligan through the North African and Italian campaigns. He got a bit too close to an exploding shell and was hospitalised with shell-shock. On his escape from army life he started his "real" work as an author and humourist.Most famous for 'The Goon Show' with Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe (and originally Michael Bentine), these radio shows are commonly regarded as re-writing the rules of comedy (even before Monty Python). However under the pressure of writing all the scripts he suffered a breakdown and became a clinical manic-depressive.He was fondly regarded as the last of the great British eccentrics and had written a wealth of comic poetry mainly for children, a few novels and his multi-volume auto-biography. Spike was also a keen (fanatical?) environmental campaigner. Show less «
[on Chris Evans] He is without any talent. All he can do is small talk. The smartest thing I ever he...Show more »
[on Chris Evans] He is without any talent. All he can do is small talk. The smartest thing I ever heard him say was "good morning". The moment I saw him talking, I thought "you're an idiot". The best I can wish him is an early death. Show less «
The fondest memory I have is not really of the Goons. It's of a girl called Julia with enormous brea...Show more »
The fondest memory I have is not really of the Goons. It's of a girl called Julia with enormous breasts. Show less «
I don't mind dying - I just don't want to be there.
I don't mind dying - I just don't want to be there.
[on his 62nd birthday] Any man can be 62, but it takes a bus to be 62A.
[on his 62nd birthday] Any man can be 62, but it takes a bus to be 62A.
Money couldn't buy friends but you got a better class of enemy. - Puckoon 1963
Money couldn't buy friends but you got a better class of enemy. - Puckoon 1963
[on Peter Sellers] I think his mother had gained such an incredible influence over him that he virtu...Show more »
[on Peter Sellers] I think his mother had gained such an incredible influence over him that he virtually abdicated his own rights to any individual personality. Finally, he had to invade other bodies to register at all. He had to inhabit, he was like a ghoul, he had to feast off somebody else! But he did it so well, it became an art. He was not a genius, Sellers, he was a freak. Show less «
[on Rik Mayall and his kind of comedy] Rik Mayall is putrid. Absolutely vile. He thinks nose-picking...Show more »
[on Rik Mayall and his kind of comedy] Rik Mayall is putrid. Absolutely vile. He thinks nose-picking is funny and farting and all that. He is the arsehole of British comedy. Show less «
World peace could be a possibility...if it weren't for all those damned foreigners!
World peace could be a possibility...if it weren't for all those damned foreigners!
A sure cure for seasickness is to sit under a tree.
A sure cure for seasickness is to sit under a tree.