Milligan's War: The Selected War Memoirs of Spike Milligan

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a b Eden, Richard (19 June 2011). "Comedian Spike Milligan's children await details of legacy after death of his widow Shelagh". The Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022 . Retrieved 10 July 2020. Chipperfield, Mark (13 April 2001). "Australia: A town called Woy Woy". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022 . Retrieved 10 October 2015. Farnes, Norma (2003). Spike: An Intimate Memoir. London: Fourth Estate. ISBN 978-1-84115-786-3. OCLC 52738571. Adolf Hitler: My Part in his Downfall, is the first of Spike Milligan's seven memoirs that recount his recollections of life in the army during World War 2. I read this book as a teenager in the mid-1970s (or, put another way, a very long time ago) and I loved it and have always meant to read it again. It was even better than I had remembered.

Close in stature to Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear in his command of the profound art of nonsense' Guardian One issue was a large vacuum-sealed tin of ‘Emergency Chocolate’, only to be eaten in the event of, say, being surrounded by the Enemy. That night, in bed, surrounded by the Enemy, I ate my Emergency Chocolate. Spike Milligan interviewed by Bernard Braden". YouTube. Archived from the original on 11 December 2021 . Retrieved 23 May 2014. The play continued running as an improv comedy. The decision soon caused it to break all box office records at the Lyric. After five weeks it was rechristened Son of Oblomov and moved on 2 December 1964 to the Comedy Theatre in the West End. It would run there for a total of 559 performances. As the play was substantially new each night it drew record numbers of repeat traffic. [45] [47] Spike's silliness is infectious and the book contains a winning combination of word play, self deprecating humour and social history. And, a very credible evocation, of the life of a conscript at the start of the war right down to the smelliness of the army uniforms and how nobody got the correct size. The book contains plenty of surprising and frequently outrageous anecdotes, many of which are loud out loud funny.

The novel had been adapted for the stage by Italian writer Riccardo Aragno. [44] Aragno's script for Oblomov was bought by Milligan's production company in early 1964. Milligan had long nurtured hopes of transitioning from comedy to serious drama. To this end, Milligan rehearsed for seven weeks with director Frank Dunlop and castmates Joan Greenwood, Bill Owen, and Valentine Dyall at the Lyric Hammersmith. Spike Milligan Room". Gosford City Council. Archived from the original on 22 March 2012 . Retrieved 30 August 2012. The Phantom Raspberry Blower of Old London Town ran as a serial in The Two Ronnies in the 1970s. [105] Barnes, Peter (August 2002). Barker, Clive; Trussler, Simon (eds.). " 'An Uncooked Army Boot': Spike Milligan, 1918–2002". New Theatre Quarterly. 18 (Part 3 [Intq 71]): 205–210. doi: 10.1017/S0266464X02000295. ISBN 978-0-521-52404-9. ISSN 0266-464X.

In a 2005 poll to find the "Comedians' Comedian", he was voted among the top 50 comedy acts, by fellow comedians and comedy insiders. In a BBC poll in August 1999, Milligan was voted the "funniest person of the last 1,000 years". [87] The Spike Milligan memorial bench in the garden of Stephen's House in Finchley The sixth volume of Spike Milligan's off-the-wall account of his part in World War Two sees our hero doing very little soldiering. Because it's 1946. Rather, he is now part of the Bill Hall Trio - a 'Combined Services Entertainment' inflicted on unsuspecting soldiers across Italy and Austria - and is largely preoccupied with the unbearably beautiful ballerina, Ms Toni Fontana ('Arghhhhhhhhh!). But he must enjoy it while he can before he is demobbed and sent home to Catford - so he does ... Milligan's mother became an Australian citizen in 1985, partly in protest at the circumstances which led to her son's ineligibility for British citizenship; Milligan himself was reportedly considering applying for Australian citizenship at the time as well. [93] The suspension bridge on the cyclepath from Woy Woy to Gosford was renamed the Spike Milligan Bridge in his memory, [94] and a meeting room in the Woy Woy Public Library is also named after him. [95] Radio comedy shows [ edit ]Taylor, Jerome (18 November 2008). "Auction reveals the secret life of Spike Milligan". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 24 May 2022 . Retrieved 18 November 2008. In the 1970s, Charles Allen compiled a series of stories from British people's experiences of life in the British Raj, called Plain Tales from the Raj, and published in 1975. Milligan was the youngest contributor, describing his life in India when it was under British rule. In it he mentions the imperial parades there: VOLUME FOUR OF SPIKE MILLIGAN'S LEGENDARY MEMOIRS IS A HILARIOUS, SUBVERSIVE FIRST-HAND ACCOUNT OF WW2 Korn, Eric (21 February 2007). "Spike Milligan's People". Times Online. Archived from the original on 22 October 2009.

Singh, Anita (12 November 2012). "Spike Milligan's gravestone returned after family feud". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022 . Retrieved 14 January 2021.a b c Carpenter, Humphrey (2004). Spike Milligan: The Biography. London, UK: Hodder and Staughton. p.8. ISBN 978-0-340-82612-6. Monty: His Part in My Victory (1976). This and the previous two books were released and publicised as the first, second and third part respectively of a trilogy. Nobody seemed at all comfortable in their roles and the audience began to hoot with laughter when Milligan's slipper inadvertently went spinning across the stage into the stalls. That was the end of Spike's playing straight. The audience demanded a clown, he became a clown. When he forgot his words, or disapproved of them, he simply made up what he felt to be more appropriate ones. That night there were no riotous first night celebrations and most of the cast seemed to go home stunned. The following night Milligan began to ad lib in earnest. The text of the show began to change drastically. The cast were bedevilled and shaken but they went along with him... Incredibly, the show began to resolve itself. The context changed completely. It was turned upside down and inside out. Cues and lines became irrelevant as Milligan verbally rewrote the play each night. By the end of the week, Oblomov had changed beyond recognition. Andre Morell came again... and afterwards said 'the man is a genius. He must be a genius—it's the only word for him. He's impossible—but he's a genius!'. [46] Six-Five Special, first aired on 31 August 1957. Spike Milligan plays an inventor, Mr. Pym, and acts as a butcher in a sketch. [96]

Tiring of comedic roles, Milligan sought out more serious material. He had read Ivan Goncharov's Oblomov and felt a kinship with the title character, who declines to leave his bed to face the world. According to Scudamore's biography:My namer is Maria Antonoinetta Fontana, but everyone call me Toni.''I'm Spike,' sometimes known as stop thief or hey you.'Yeser, I know.' Games, Alexander (2003). The Essential Spike Milligan. London, UK: Fourth Estate. p.vii. ISBN 0-00-717103-X. After a stringent Physical Examination they told me. “Sorry, your eyesight isn’t up to what we need for a pilot; however, we have a number of vacancies for rear gunners.”