The words are, in a reference to his Irish ancestry, (and because the local Diocesan authorities thought it too lighthearted an inscription to be engraved in English), in Gaelic. He had once joked that a suitable headstone inscription would be "I told you I was ill" and that is indeed what is on his own headstone. Spike Milligan died of of liver disease on 27th February 2002. It's difficult to imagine that Monty Python's Flying Circus would have existed but for Milligan's influence. His 'Fresh Fruit Song' sketch is a classic example of such.Īs the writer and performer of the seminal Goon Show and 'Q' series, he was a hero figure and inspiration to many of the prominent British comedy writers and performers of the late 20th century. "Hello, I'm Spike Milligna - the well-known spelling mistake".Īnother common strand was visual and musical/sound-effect humour. : "We marched for the best part of a day." He had once quipped that he wanted his headstone to bear the words 'I told you I was ill.' He was buried at St Thomas churchyard but the Chichester diocese refused to allow this epitaph. Milligan's comedy frequently employed wordplay. The headstone of Spike Milligans grave in St Thomas Church in Winchelsea, East Sussex, UK. In his non-depressed moments, he loved everybody. I once heard him on stage, and clearly depressed, replying to a heckler who complained that his act was anti-Indian, say "I'm not racist. War (and peace), the British army and colonial legacy feature throughout his comic and literary work.Ī life-long sufferer from bipolar disorder, he could be moody and irascible as well as gentle and possessed of an inspired comic genius. That factual record says much about the character and comic preoccupations of the man. 'Terence Alan Patrick Seán Milligan was born in India to an English mother and an Irish father who was serving in the British Army'. Background to Spike Milligan's last wordsĪ biography of Milligan might well begin with:
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