Spike Milligan

Acting

Spike Milligan

Born 1918-04-16 · Ahmed Nagar, India

Terence Alan Patrick Seán "Spike" Milligan KBE (April 16, 1918 – February 27, 2002) was a comedian, writer, musician, poet, playwright, soldier, and actor. His early life was spent in India, where he was born, but the majority of his working life was spent in the United Kingdom. He became an Irish citizen in 1962 after the British government declared him stateless. He was the co-creator, main writer and a principal cast member of The Goon Show, performing a range of roles including the popular Eccles. Milligan wrote and edited many books, including Puckoon and his seven-volume autobiographical account of his time serving during the Second World War, beginning with Adolf Hitler: My part in his downfall. He is also noted as a popular writer of comical verse, much of his poetry was written for children, including Silly Verse for Kids (1959). After success with the ground-breaking British radio programme, The Goon Show, Milligan translated this success to television with Q5, a surreal sketch show which is credited as a major influence on the members of Monty Python's Flying Circus.

Acting credits

Life of Brian poster
7.8

Brian Cohen is an average young Jewish man, but through a series of ridiculous events, he gains a reputation as the Messiah. When he's not dodging his followers or being scolded by his shrill mother, the hapless Brian has to contend with the pompous Pontius Pilate and acronym-obsessed members of a separatist movement. Rife with Monty Python's signature absurdity, the tale finds Brian's life paralleling Biblical lore, albeit with many more laughs.

Life of Brian

1979

The Three Musketeers poster
6.7

In 17th century France, young D'Artagnan wants to join the King's Musketeers, but instead befriends three legendary musketeers—Athos, Porthos, and Aramis—and together, they become embroiled in the political intrigue surrounding King Louis XIII and his adversaries, particularly the powerful Cardinal Richelieu.

The Three Musketeers

1973

Yellowbeard poster
5.6

For years Yellowbeard had looted the Spanish Main, making men eat their lips and swallow their hearts. Caught and convicted for tax evasion, he's sentenced to 20 years in St. Victim's Prison for the Extremely Naughty. In a scheme to confiscate his fabulous treasure, the Royal Navy allows him to escape and follows him, where saucy tarts, lisping demigods and some awful puns and punishments await.

Yellowbeard

1983

History of the World: Part I poster
6.7

An uproarious version of history that proves nothing is sacred – not even the Roman Empire, the French Revolution and the Spanish Inquisition.

History of the World: Part I

1981

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland poster
6.3

An all-star cast highlights this vibrant musical adaptation of Lewis Carroll's immortal tale. One day, plucky young Alice follows a white rabbit down a hole and discovers a world of bizarre characters.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

1972

The Magic Christian poster
5.8

Sir Guy Grand, the richest man in the world, adopts a homeless man, Youngman. Together, they set out to prove that anyone--and anything--can be bought.

The Magic Christian

1969

The Bed Sitting Room poster
5.9

In the hazy aftermath of World War III, the fallout from a 'nuclear misunderstanding' is producing strange mutations amongst the survivors, and the noble Lord Fortnum finds himself transforming into a bed sitting room.

The Bed Sitting Room

1969

The Banana poster
NR

The Velvet Underground's John Cale tells the story behind Andy Warhol's famous LP cover, Auberon Waugh and John Walters recall their first encounters with the fruit after the war, and footballer Brendan Batson considers how they became a symbol of racism hurled from the terraces

The Banana

1997

Mr. H Is Late poster
7.0

A team of inept undertakers attempt to get a coffin to a funeral on time. An undertaker is in charge of moving a coffin from a home to the church. The home is on the 26th floor of a skyscraper; the stairs are narrow; the lift is small and prone to stop working. Chaos ensues.

Mr. H Is Late

1988

The Last Remake of Beau Geste poster
5.7

Brothers Beau, John and Digby Geste join the Foreign Legion, where they fall under the rule of tyrannical Sergeant Markoff. Beau and John are assigned to Fort Zinderneuf, where Markoff tries to break their spirit, aware of a dark family secret concerning a fabulous jewel one of them carries. As tensions rise, Arabs attack the fort and rivalries must be thrown aside in a desperate battle for life.

The Last Remake of Beau Geste

1977

A Kid for Two Farthings poster
6.7

Joe is a young boy who lives with his mother, Joanna, in working-class London. The two reside above the tailor shop of Mr. Kandinsky, who likes to tell Joe stories. When Kandinsky informs Joe that a unicorn can grant wishes, the hopeful lad ends up buying a baby goat with one tiny horn, believing it to be a real unicorn. Undaunted by his rough surroundings, Joe sets about to prove that wishes can come true.

A Kid for Two Farthings

1955

The Hound of the Baskervilles poster
4.4

When a nobleman is threatened by a family curse on his newly inherited estate, detective Sherlock Holmes is hired to investigate.

The Hound of the Baskervilles

1978

Invasion Quartet poster
6.5

This British men-on-a-mission spoof set during World War II finds intrepid officer Bill Travers leading three colorful compatriots into Nazi-occupied France to destroy an obnoxiously large, loud, and destructive enemy gun. See if this fearless foursome can stomp their Fascist foes and get back to their game of cricket! Spike Milligan, Gregoire Aslan, and Thorley Walters co-star.

Invasion Quartet

1961

Hitler: The Comedy Years poster
5.0

A documentary about the portrayal of Adolf Hitler in popular culture.

Hitler: The Comedy Years

2007

The Last Impresario poster
5.5

Michael White might just be the most famous person you’ve never heard of. A notorious London theatre and film impresario, he produced over 300 shows and movies over the last 50 years. Bringing to the stage the risqué productions of Oh! Calcutta!, The Rocky Horror Show and to the screen Monty Python and the Holy Grail, as well as introducing Merce Cunningham, Pina Bausch and Yoko Ono to London audiences, he irrevocably shaped the cultural scene of the 1970s London.

The Last Impresario

2014

Spike Milligan I told you I was ill... A live tribute poster
9.0

One of many tributes following the death of Spike Milligan. Comedians, actors and musicians join forces to present a live tribute featuring a selection of comic highlights from Spike's life. From recreations of his most famous sketches to readings of Milligan's own poems and extracts from his controversial wartime memoirs, these are all interspersed with archive film clips of the great man himself, showcasing his inimitable comic genius.

Spike Milligan I told you I was ill... A live tribute

2002

The Pythons: Somewhere in Tunisia, Circa A.D. 1979 poster
7.3

Ten years ago exactly, more or less, give or take a day or two, six young men sat down, or maybe stood, or perhaps some of them just lounged, and wrote the first episode of a new series called Owl Stretching Time. They were called Graham Chapman , John Cleese, Terry Gilliam , Eric Idle,Terry Jones and Michael Palin and later both they and the series became known as Monty Python 's Flying Circus . Today they are the best known British comedy group in the world, famous from Cathay to Kathmandu, from Sydney to Sidcup (except in Japan where the programme is called The Gay Boys' Dragon Show ... say no more). To commemorate their tenth anniversary a BBC team tracked them down in the deserts of Tunisia where they were filming their Life of Brian and almost persuaded them to examine the genesis, the genius and the gender of Monty Python.

The Pythons: Somewhere in Tunisia, Circa A.D. 1979

1979

Group Madness poster
9.0

A behind-the-scenes documentary of the making of 1983's Yellowbeard

Group Madness

1983

Man About the House poster
4.9

An unscrupulous property developer wants to flatten the street to make way for new buildings. Householder George Roper is happy to take the offered money and run but his wife Mildred and their lodgers join with other residents to take a stand and keep things as they are.

Man About the House

1974

The Adventures of Barry McKenzie poster
5.3

Barry McKenzie sets off for England with his aunt, Edna Everage, to advance his cultural education. Bazza is an innocent abroad, fond of beer, Bondi and beautiful sheilas, but he soon settles into the Australian ghetto in Earls Court, where his old mate Curly has a flat.

The Adventures of Barry McKenzie

1972

Rentadick poster
4.2

Armitage runs a chemical company that is on the verge of producing a gas that causes temporary disability. Clearly the military want it but it is also sought by a group of Japanese. Both Armitage and Madam Greenfly hire different people in the same detective agency to guard the gas and steal it respectively... confusion, double crosses and hilarity ensue...

Rentadick

1972

Watch Your Stern poster
5.9

When the details of a secret torpedo are destroyed by an incompetent seaman, the crew of the ship rally round, when the Admiral needs the plans to show to a visiting scientist.

Watch Your Stern

1960

Postman's Knock poster
4.9

Likeable country postman Harold Petts gets transferred from his village to London, where on his arrival he unwittingly foils a mail train robbery. Innocent in the ways of the big city, he is thought to be a member of another gang by both the train robbers and the police, who all suspect him of trying to rob the post office where he works.

Postman's Knock

1962

Ghost in the Noonday Sun poster
4.9

A pirate crewman kills his captain after learning where he has hidden his buried treasure. However, as he begins to lose his memory, he relies more and more on the ghost of the man he just murdered to help him find the loot.

Ghost in the Noonday Sun

1973

Behind the camera

The Super Secret Service poster
4.5

Burlesque comedy dealing with "MI-15", the Super Secret Service, on the trail of a mysterious foreign spy named Q.

The Super Secret Service

1953

The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film poster
5.6

A short film without any direct action designed more as an experiment, with disjointed comic scenes with no common thread.

The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film

1959

The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins poster
5.0

A septet of satirical vignettes based on the Seven Deadly Sins.

The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins

1971

The Great McGonagall poster
5.6

In this high-camp farce, Goons legend Spike Milligan stars as William Topaz McGonagall, an unemployed Scottish weaver and aspiring poet laureate who falls in love with Queen Victoria - a brilliant cameo by Peter Sellers - and thereafter devotes his banal poetry to her. Though McGonagall's solicitations are rejected by the Queen, it doesn't stop the turgid prose, and pathos, from overflowing as McGonagall hilariously attempts to become the greatest poet in the land. The image of the bad poet, trapped by his romanticism and inspired by a muse with a tin ear, appealed mightily to Spike Milligan, and this cult British spoof features the Goons show maestro at his ridiculous, genre-defying best.

The Great McGonagall

1975

The Best of Spike Milligan poster
NR

Widely regarded as the greatest post-war British comedian, Spike Milligan transitioned from the groundbreaking radio comedy The Goons to television without losing any of his anarchic, surreal humor. His series Q (1968–1980) and There’s A Lot Of It About (1982) shattered comedy conventions with sketch after sketch of absurd brilliance. This compilation features classic moments like The Eurovision Joke Contest, Spike as a singing Viking maiden, and insects auditioning for a David Attenborough documentary. Interwoven with these are unique interstitials featuring Bruce Hammal at Milligan’s home—but in true Spike fashion, the interviews become sketches themselves, complete with his long-suffering comedy butler, Piles. This release is a slightly re-edited, repackaged version of the 1995 BBC VHS Spike Milligan: One Man and His Ideas.

The Best of Spike Milligan

2004

Let's Go Crazy poster
5.4

Let's Go Crazy is a 1951 comedy film marking an early appearance of Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers playing multiple roles.

Let's Go Crazy

1951

No artwork available
NR

Spike stars with Bob Todd, Bill Kerr, Graham Stark, Valentine Dyall, and Sheree Winton & a final TV outing for moustachioed 'token Italian' comedy actor Mario Fabrizi, who died 18 months later, aged just 38.

Spike Milligan: A Series of Unrelated Incidents at Current Market Value

1961

The Last Goon Show of All poster
7.0

Sellers, Secombe and Milligan reunite for one last show.

The Last Goon Show of All

1972

Badjelly the Witch poster
NR

This imaginative tale was written by Spike Milligan for his own children in 1973. It is a classic fairytale full of weird and wonderful surprises about good triumphing over evil and defeating BadJelly the Witch - ‘the baddest witch in the world’. The exciting new style of animated characters directly interact with Spike as he draws and tells their story. Tim and Rose live with their Mummy and Daddy and Lucy their cow, who provides them with milk for breakfast. When Lucy disappears one day, the children decide to look for her and so begins their adventure.. On their journey they meet all sorts of weird and wonderful creatures, such as Binklebonk the Goblin, Dinglemouse, Dulboot the Giant and BadJelly the Witch herself who captures the children and imprisons them in her castle. Like all fairy stories, BadJelly the Witch does eventually have a happy ending and the children and Lucy are returned home safe and sound.

Badjelly the Witch

2000