Radio
Genius remembered
Michael Vestey
Spike Milligan's extraordinary life was remembered in a tribute on Radio Two on Christmas Eve, Vivat Milligna!, presented by Denis Norden. Milligan died last February at the age of 83, the surviving member of the Goon Show quartet, the others being Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe and Michael Bentine. The BBC director general Greg Dyke said then. 'As the writing brains behind The Goon Show he was the founder of modern comedy.'
That seems about right. As Stephen Fry put it, 'In Spike you saw no tradition at all. He was entirely his own made, Irish self. He came out of nowhere and if there is a definition of genius one of the best ones is that, whatever province you're in, you leave it different. He left comedy different and it was never the same after him.' Norden played extracts from the Goon shows of the 1950s, and it really was apparent how surreal, anarchic and advanced the comedy was for that decade. Satire as we came to know it had not been thought of then, though writers were getting closer to it in various ways.
In The Goon Show Milligan took the roles of the stupid Eccles, Miss Minnie Bannister and Count Moriarty; Sellers played Hercules Grytpype-Thynne, a suave cad, the boy scout Bluebottle, and Willium 'Mate' Cobblers, an elderly cockney who called everyone mate. One of the show's announcers, Andrew Timothy. had to leave in 1953, saying he feared for his sanity. Milligan suffered several mental breakdowns throughout his life, and was a manic depressive who found it difficult to cope with pressure. He relieved this by spraying the BBC with letters of scorn and complaint, all filed away by executives; some were read out in this programme.
He had a particular obsession in the early 1960s with presenting a music programme called Housewives' Choice which was broadcast every weekday morning. The BBC took fright at the thought of such an unpredictable performer hosting the show and struggled to explain why he wasn't suitable. Eventually, the show came to an end and hostilities ceased. Somewhere in the archives the BBC found a recording of a news bulletin on Australian radio in which Milligan kept interrupting the announcer who, after maintaining his composure, eventually cracked and gave in to helpless laughter.
Milligan painted in his spare time and, appearing on Desert Island Discs, was asked by Roy Plomley which painting he would like to take to his desert island. "Saturday Night Over Arles," ' he replied, `by Vincent Van Gogh.' Where is it, do you know?' I haven't got it,' came the reply. Norden said Milligan was never completely proud of The Goon Show, as he blamed it for his nervous breakdowns throughout that period. The programme's title comes from Milligan's habit of introducing himself as Milligna, the well-known typing error. I hope it had an audience on Christmas Eve, when most people are quite preoccupied, of course. It could easily fit in to Radio Four.
Well, the great secret in The Archers on Radio Four was finally out last month when Jennifer Aldridge discovered the truth about her husband Brian's affair with Siobhan Hathaway (Caroline Lennon) and that he has a love child. It was the most successful story line the series has had in recent years, increasing the listening figures, it is said, by 200,000 an evening to around five million a week. Bets were being taken across the country as to when Jennifer (Angela Piper) would find out, but Brian (Charles Collingwood) told her himself after his stepdaughter Debbie (Tamsin Greig) forced him to.
Those of us addicted to The Archers do not answer our telephones between 7 and 7.15 in the evenings. The answerphone goes on — that's how bad it is. When we meet we discuss the plot and characters as if they were real people though, fortunately, we do not fool ourselves that they are. The men in white coats would have to be called in if we did. The acting is of high quality; the scene where Brian confessed to Jennifer was quite harrowing.
The soap seems to have lost some of the political correctness that crept in under the editorship of Vanessa Whitburn: the absence of references to the early countryside marches; the introduction of an Asian solicitor who, absurdly in an English village, was terrorised by racists; an anti-men tone presenting them as stupid and where women took control; and a homosexual pub landlord portrayed as saintliness itself. It was all becoming too much, but Ambridge these days seems to have settled down. Thanks to satellite TV I will have been listening to it during my short break in Italy this week, so that I can go and explain to uncomprehending locals the latest developments and what the New Year holds for Brian and Jennifer.
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