This Is Your Life: Spike Milligan 2

Spike MILLIGAN CBE (1918-2002)

THIS IS YOUR LIFE - Terence Alan "Spike" Milligan, comedian, writer and actor, was surprised by Michael Aspel at London's Euston Station.

Spike served in the 56th Heavy Regiment Royal Artillery, D Battery, during the Second World War, and met Harry Secombe while fighting in the North African Campaign. The pair teamed up with Peter Sellers and Michael Bentine after the war to create The Goon Show, which became a cult classic on BBC radio, running from 1951 to 1960. He had success on BBC television throughout the 1970s with Q..., a surreal sketch show series considered by many to be one of the landmarks in British comedy.

Spike also wrote and edited many books, including a seven-volume autobiographical account of his time serving during the war, beginning with Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall, published in 1971. His anarchic sense of absurdity and unique comic genius made him a model for succeeding generations of comedians and paved the way for a brand of alternative comedy.

Spike Milligan was a subject of This Is Your Life on two occasions – previously surprised by Eamonn Andrews in April 1973 at the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill-on-Sea.

"But I've been dead ten years!"

programme details...

Edition No: 908
Subject No: second timer
Broadcast date: Wed 15 Feb 1995
Broadcast time: 7.00-7.30pm
Recorded: Tue 24 Jan 1995
Venue: BBC Television Centre
Series: 35
Edition: 16
Code name: Chip

on the guest list...

Shelagh - wife
Laura - daughter
Harry Secombe - live link
Desmond - brother
Nadia - sister-in-law
Cliff Morgan
Alfred Marks
Jack Leaman
former comrades of the 56th Regiment of the Royal Artillery, D Battery
Toni Pontani
Johnny Speight
Roger McGough
John Paul Getty Jr
Eric Sykes
Sile - daughter
Andrew - son-in-law
Hastie - grandson
Brodie - grandson
Callum - grandson
John - son-in-law
Jay - grandson
Georgia - granddaughter
Barry Humphries

production team...

Researcher: Charles Boyd
Writer: Roy Bottomley
Director: Brian Klein
Associate Producer: John Graham
Executive Producer: Peter Estall
Producer: Malcolm Morris

names above in bold indicate subjects of This Is Your Life

related pages...

Spike Milligan

first tribute

It's a Funny Old Life

it's all about the comedy

Life Second Time Around

surprised again!

A Life Remembered

tributes to the original presenter

Ratings slump sounds death knell for This Is Your Life

Press speculation on the future of This Is Your Life

Screenshots of Spike Milligan This Is Your Life

Norma Farnes recalls this edition of This Is Your Life in her book, Spike An Intimate Memoir...

At the end of 1994 Spike caused a fuss at the British Comedy Awards, where he was given a Lifetime Achievement Award. Prince Charles had sent a tribute but as it was read out Spike said, 'Grovelling little bastard!' He meant it as a joke, but there was a furore. The following day he sent a telegram to Prince Charles saying, 'I suppose now a knighthood is out of the question.' His equerry assured us that they thought it was the funniest thing they had ever seen.

The next year Malcolm Morris, producer of This Is Your Life, rang to say they would like to do Spike again. He had done one once before in 1973 when nothing had gone right.

The second This Is Your Life was no more straightforward than the first. As Malcolm put it, Spike 'still moved on a different planet in a different time scale from us normal humans.' Spike was appearing for the BBC at Pebble Mill in Birmingham on 23 January and he and I were returning the next day on the 11.30am train to Euston station. Malcolm's people alerted the station's management, and as they were all Milligan fans, they agreed to place on the main station arrivals board a notice saying, 'Spike Milligan. This Is Your Life.' They said that they would only know which platform would be used five minutes before the train's arrival. I rang Malcolm on my mobile from the train's loo to say we were on our way and all was well. He was told that we would come in on platform five so he positioned his cameras, lights and sound there in readiness for our arrival. Then it was announced we would be arriving on platform two, so the crew ran over with the equipment and Michael Aspel stood by with the red book. In typical Milligan fashion the train then pulled up at platform five so, with seconds to spare, they rushed back and Michael was ready to meet him. Malcolm recalled the moment of truth:

'Stand by,' I said into my railway phone to the computer centre that controlled the station notice board. There were Spike and Norma strolling along without a care in the world. The notice board flashed, 'Spike Milligan. This Is Your Life.' Spike was in a world of his own and didn't notice it. Norma pointed it out to him, and, as he looked up, Michael stepped in for the surprise. 'You've already done me and now everyone thinks I'm dead,' said Spike. As Michael ushered him to a waiting car he added, 'Anyway, there's certainly nobody alive to appear on it.' In fact the show ran almost double the normal running time.

For me it was worth all the tension of the previous forty-eight hours to see the expression on Spike's face when Toni Pontani came on to the stage. He was astonished that she was there. It was the highlight of the night for him. After the show she said, 'Let's run away together.'

He looked at her so sadly, 'Darling Toni, we're too old.'

Norma Farnes recalls this edition of This Is Your Life in her introduction to Spike Milligan's book, Milligan's Meaning of Life...

That same year, I got a call from a dear friend of mine, Malcolm Morris, who was a producer and director of This Is Your Life for over twenty-five years. He rang me to arrange a dinner. 'It's part business, but please bring Jack (my partner), and we'll have food, wine, nostalgia and a few laughs along the way.' Jack and Malcolm had worked together for many years at Tyne Tees Television. Of course, it was to tell me he wanted to do a second This Is Your Life on Spike. He had already done one in 1973, and he thought Milligan warranted another. I was delighted and promised to give him all the help he needed, but there was one condition: he must invite Toni Pontani from Rome to be on the show.

I told him the story of Spike and Toni, whom he had met and fallen in love with in Italy in 1944, so it was Malcolm's turn to be delighted. When Toni appeared I don't think I'd ever seen Spike so stunned and lost for words. Did I really write that? Spike Milligan lost for words. Well, he was when, on 24 January 1995, Michael Aspel announced 'Toni Pontani'.

Several years later, in 1999, I went down to Rye, where Spike was living, to show him the cover of Spike Milligan: The Family Album. We were discussing some of the photographs he had chosen for the book. He stopped talking, looked up from a photograph and said, 'Toni was the love of my life.' She hadn't been mentioned. We hadn't even been talking about the army or Italy. It came from his soul unaided.

Producer Malcolm Morris recalls this edition of This Is Your Life in his book, This Is My Life...

Spike Milligan, like Peter Ustinov, is someone who we have featured twice on the show. It had been difficult the first time around and nothing had changed. We did not know what his movements were going to be because neither did he.

Spike is a person who will follow his mood as it suits him. The main stabilising influence in his professional life is Norma Farnes, who has managed him for over twenty years. She was the person I got in touch with. Yes, she confirmed, she had booked Spike for a television appearance on BBC's Pebble Mill, near Birmingham. Not only that, but she was going up there with him so that he could be monitored. With Spike you never knew how he would return to London. Would it be by train, plane, hired car or coach party – anything could happen as his mood dictated, but with Norma there we knew that they would be coming back by train to Euston at 1.30pm on 24 January 1995. A meeting was instantly set up with the Euston Station security office and with their liaison we arranged for our cameras and Michael to be hidden in a first floor balcony.

Now only two questions remained. First, which platform would he arrive at and second, how could we distract his attention while Michael ran up to him?

Spike is still very sharp and can also move fast when he chooses.

We decided to tackle the problem in two ways. First, a station announcement would say: 'Would Mr Spike Milligan please look at a message on the central notice board.' Second, the main notice board, which is controlled by a central computer, would be reprogrammed to go blank on all train information and then spell out the words: SPIKE MILLIGAN THIS IS YOUR LIFE. CONGRATULATIONS FROM BRITISH RAIL.

Various people were placed around the station waiting for my signal. I spotted him with Norma and gave the go-ahead to my station friend who spoke to the computer room on his mobile. Another signal cued the station announcer who then made the announcement just as the computer came to life and sent the sign across the board.

Travellers were puzzled as to what was going on and Michael got to Spike as he looked at Norma in amazement.

Before Norma had time to reply Spike saw the book. 'But I've just done a television show in Birmingham and anyway, everyone thinks I'm dead.'

'Oh no you're not,' said Michael. 'Off we go to the studio.'

Spike reacted with a smile and a moan. 'It was done twenty years ago, everybody I know is dead.'

That proved to be inaccurate as the programme, which is scheduled to run half an hour, ended up by being a one hour special... a classic in fact.

Humphrey Carpenter recalls this edition of This Is Your Life in his book, Spike Milligan: The Biography...

The awards and tributes in his later years also included a second appearance (in February 1995) on This Is Your Life. 'Missing from the BBC1 show,' reported Today magazine:

was 18-year-old James Maughan-Milligan [as James had now decided to call himself]. Student James... said: 'Spike rang to warn me that the show would be on. He assured me if it was up to him I would have been there.' ... a show spokesman said: 'We talked to Spike's agent and his family and it was thought better not to bring James and them together because they hadn't met.'

Series 35 subjects