A true comic genius and legend in his own time has passed away. Spike Milligan, last of the Goons, has joined the great light entertainment division in the sky. To many American viewers he may be most familiar from his appearance in Gormenghast and from a line in Are You Being Served? about him appearing in a commercial coming through the bottom of a boat. To Brits, and most of the rest of the civilized comedy world, he was far better known as a groundbreaking humorist and important pop culture personality.
Best known for his inspired collaboration with Peter Sellers, Michael Bentine and Harry Secombe as The Goons, Milligan spent a lifetime entertaining a grateful planet on radio (the Goons), television (Q5, the Tele-goons, Gormenghast) film ( Invasion Quartet, Down Among the Z Men and Yellowbeard) and print (Adolph Hitler - My Part in his Downfall) . The influence the Goons and their Goon Show had on, not only British but also World, comedy scene can not possibly be understated, nor can Millgan's influence on the Goons. It was Milligan who wrote most of the series and provided many of its greatest moments and characters including the coolly sinister Moriarty and the indefinably daft Eccles.
Milligan, shell shocked during WWII, suffered great bout of depression throughout his life and these struggles sometimes are quite evident in his work. Milligan was unquestionably a comic genius but his prolific career has quite a few patchy spots (Curry and Chips and The Melting Pot, a pair of politically incorrect 70's sitcoms featuring Milligan in blackface, spring to mind). Despite this Spike Millgan remained active, if increasingly archaic, well into his senior years.
Never Mind Never Mind the Buzzcocks
The advert seemed so promising, Never Mind the Buzzcocks was about to premiere as part of VH1's new lineup. What an inspired choice, I thought, to bring this brilliantly funny pop music panel show to America. Finally the genius of host Mark Lamarr and regular panelists Phil Jupitus and Sean Hughes would conquer the States. Alas, no such luck. Though the VH1 version follows the NMtB formula pretty closely it proves that sometimes it's not the structure of a show that makes it work as much as the chemistry of the structure with the right people. The original version had the right cast, the VH1 version couldn't go much farther wrong, providing a pair of unfunny standups hosted by an unfunny comedy writer. A massive disappointment.
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