![](https://www.sardinesmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/5390.jpg)
Show: Spike
Society: Yvonne Arnaud Theatre
Venue: Yvonne Arnaud Theatre. Millbrook, Guildford, Surrey GU1 3UX
Credits: By Ian Hislop and Nick Newman. Extracts from The Goons used with the kind permission of Spike Milligan Productions. The Watermill Theatre Production.
Type: Sardines
Performance Date: 20/09/2022
Spike
All photos: Pamela Raith Photography
My dad would have loved this – if he’d still been alive!
The Watermill Theatre’s production of Spike , written by none other than Ian Hislop (yes, of Have I Got News for You fame) and Nick Newman, is currently touring ths UK and the stop off in Guildford at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre this week may be the show’s closest shave to the capital.
Amateurs will already know the pair of playwrights from writing the screenplay and following stage adaptation for A Bunch of Amateurs. That film starred Burt Reynolds and in the onstage Q&A following Spike, on press night, Mr H. mentioned that at the time they were told that Burt’s wig probably cost more than the entire writing budget for the film! Hislop and Newman’s stage adaptation of A Bunch of Amateurs has become incredibly popular with… yes, amateurs. So much so that we even popped into the offices of Private Eye to interview the pair, pre-pockdown (who remembers pre-lockdown?) – anyway, it’s worth a mention here, but what about Spike?
He was certainly a genius, as are the intelligent writers behind the new piece. The vast majority of the play is set at the BBC in the recording studio that housed The Goon Show. We’re in the mid-1950s and Michael Bentine has left so we’re on at least the third series (of the show’s nine-year run). Alongside the show’s creator and writer, Spike Milligan, is of course Harry Secombe and Peter Sellers – the former of which was a war-buddy of Spike.
What really comes across is the war that Milligan waged against the BBC, which was very pompous in those days (and all represented by the brilliant Robert Mountford). Spike was only on half the wages of Secombe, a mere £18 per week. Even Peter Sellers was paid a whopping £32 weekly so you can see how the BBC looked upon Mr M, and where they considered the ‘talent’ to be. No matter how obsurdist or ludicrous the comedy was, you can’t ignore your writer of a show that’s getting millions of listeners every week. The Goons even broke into the charts with mad numbers such as I’m Walking Backwards for Christmas and The Ying Tong Song. The long-running show would also inspire writers such as Galton and Simpson (Steptoe and Son, Hancock’s Half Hour), Douglas Adams (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy), Frankie Howerd and The Monty Python Team. It certainly was the time to be very, very silly.
Spike Milligan’s work represents a seminal moment in the history of British comedy. Who can forget Spike Milligan, after receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2009 British Comedy Awards, responded to Prince Charles’ – now King Charles III – praise of him, read aloud by a young Jonathan Ross, with, “Grovelling Ba***rd!” to which the room of celebrities errupted in laughter (of course).
Not only do you have to write this correctly, you need a cast and director who – all of which – completely understand the type of comedy you’re producing. To that end it was nice to see Spike’s daughter, who is in charge of the Milligan estate, Jane Milligan, also at the Q&A championing her late father’s work. And make no mistake, ‘work’ it was. It may have looked like a load of silly nonsense but Spike wrote many, many episodes of The Goon Show entirely alone. It was facinating to hear from Jane how Spike’s gravestone, which famously says, “I told you I was Ill!” had to be written in Gaelic after the church refused to sanction the joke.
We’ve mentioned the writers already. Directed by Paul Hart the fast-paced show is a real collaborative effort by the whole company, but special praise should go to Robert Wilfort as Spike Milligan (and who can also play the trumpet), Jeremy Lloyd as Harry Secombe, Patrick Warner as Peter Sellers and arguably Margaret Cabourn-Smith who takes on three roles but especially Janet. As Janet, Cabourn-Smith earns herself a well-deserved round of applause after taking the audience through various ingenius sound effects used during the 1950s on radio. Oh, she also hosted the post-show Q&A… did I mention that (or the splits – see photo at the top)?
I don’t know how long this show will last, but it certainly deserves to. The niche and bizarre humour is brilliant but may not be fully appreciated by today’s young audiences. For that you probably had to be around during the 1950s. Either that or you need to be our new King!