3) Spike Milligan
“I have the body of an eighteen year old. I keep it in the fridge”
Comedian, writer, musician, poet, playwright, soldier and actor; Milligan was what we might refer to as a national treasure. The Goon Show influenced British comedy, including the legend that is Monty Python’s Flying Circus. He was born in India and spent some of his childhood in Burma, so not actually a Brit technically. He wasn’t allowed a British passport, despite having fought for the country because he refused to swear an Oath of Allegiance. Thanks to Irish parentage he got an Irish passport.
Before being drafted for the war effort he enjoyed some time as an amateur jazz vocalist and trumpeter. He also holds the esteemed accolade of being the only poet who’s work I can recite, and it goes like this:
There’s holes in the sky
where the rain gets in
But they’re ever so small
that’s why rain is so thin
Milligan received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the British Comedy Awards in 1994 and when a personal congratulatory message came from Prince Charles he famously said “little grovelling bastard”. Milligan was an environmentalist at heart and in 1971 attacked an art exhibition with a hammer. The “art” consisted of catfish, oysters and shrimp which were to be electrocuted.
☛ Next: 24 Downright Strange Gravestones
