Milligan, Terence Alan Patrick Sean

▪ 2003

“Spike” 

      Irish writer and comedian (b. April 16, 1918, Ahmadnagar, India—d. Feb. 27, 2002, Rye, East Sussex, Eng.), was the leader and the last surviving member of the zany band of comedians who created and presented the 1950s BBC radio hit The Goon Show. His anarchic sense of absurdity and unique comic genius made him a model for succeeding generations of comedians and paved the way for the Monty Python brand of alternative comedy. Milligan was raised in India and Burma (now Myanmar), where his father was in the British army, and moved to England with his family in 1933. He himself served in the army during World War II and, when he was wounded in combat, began a struggle with manic-depressive illness that lasted the rest of his life. Toward the end of the war, Milligan met Harry Secombe, and the two worked together entertaining the troops. After the war they, along with Peter Sellers and Michael Bentine, began hanging out at the Grafton Arms pub and working on comedy routines. BBC radio began broadcasting the group's work in 1951, as Crazy People, and in 1952 it was renamed The Goon Show. As such it continued until early 1960 (though Bentine soon left the show) and became a cult classic. Milligan later acted onstage and in small parts in movies—including Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979)—and wrote numerous books of poems, war memoirs, the play The Bedsitting Room (with John Antrobus; first performed 1962), and a number of television series. He also supported a multitude of causes, especially environmental ones. Because Milligan's father was Irish and Milligan was born in India—and despite Milligan's years of military service—the British government did not consider him a citizen; rather than take an oath of allegiance, he took Irish citizenship. Nonetheless, he was made an honorary CBE in 1992 and was given an honorary knighthood in 2000.

* * *