Of course, Spike gets top billing on this list. He was the comedy genius, writer and performer who was the originator and central character of the Goon Show world.
Spike’s father, Leo Milligan, was an Irishman who’d joined the British Army to escape poverty in his homeland. He served in India, where Spike was born and lived until the age of 15, when he found himself back in England. The young Milligan learned to play trumpet, before finding himself in the army fighting in World War II. Spike wrote a series of amusing books recounting his experiences, starting with ‘Hitler, My Part in His Downfall’, but in truth, his war wasn’t just a laughing matter. The effects of the battlefield fatigue he suffered affected his mental health for the rest of his life.
Unfit for fighting, Spike gained experience on the entertainment front and, after the war, he found himself in London among hordes of young people looking to make their way in the entertainment business. He was an aspiring trumpeter and played in the Bill Hall Trio. A group evolved at the Grafton Arms, the pub run by part-time scriptwriter Jimmy Grafton, and Harry Secombe, who Spike knew from wartime, Michael Bentine and, eventually, Peter Sellers met up. Grafton took Spike under his wing and encouraged him to write radio scripts. With help and mentoring from Grafton, in 1951 the group eventually managed to get the anarchic, rebellious Goon Show on the BBC radio airwaves.
In the early days of the show, Spike was more scriptwriter than performer, particularly as far as the BBC pay department was concerned. While his fellow cast members were off performing in theatres and music halls around the country all week, Spike was left to grind out scripts. He co-wrote the first two series along with Larry Stephens, with Jimmy Grafton editing them. Then, during the third series, the BBC’s demands for 26 weekly scripts delivered on time became too much for Spike’s mental health. He was hospitalised after suffering a breakdown and was absent for a period during the series.
A further seven series followed, and the show went from strength to strength thanks to the sheer inventiveness of the storylines and performances. Initially, Spike hadn’t believed his performing skills matched the others, but while he was Eccles, Moriarty, Minnie and many others, he was easily their match during the heyday of the shows. However, the relentless pressure of writing scripts continued to take a toll, and he’d drop out of the show briefly on occasion.
The Goon Show ended as the 1960s began and Spike went on to be famous as many things, actor, film star even, author, poet, comedian, TV personality, activist. To many, the Goon Show was his greatest achievement. For Spike though, the memory was soured. He always said the pressures which were put on him as scriptwriter almost destroyed him.
The Goon Show Preservation Society 