Spike Milligan

Have just seen the new play about Spike Milligan, Surviving Spike, at Edinburgh and thought some members might be interested. Presumably it will tour or transfer to London.

It's based on a book by Norma Farnes, his agent, and I have say to the format of the play is pretty unadventurous - the Norma character narrates throughout, punctuating lots of short episodes where she interacts with Spike. The whole of her time with him, from first meeting to his eventual death, is covered.

The episodic nature means it can be a bit frustrating: a couple of actors cover everyone else - we see, say, one of Spike's mistresses or Norma's husband for about five seconds as Norma in narrator mode refers to them. I'm not saying it's a bad play as a result, but it felt like it could worked as a radio play. But you could also say it's what she saw so it's not trying to be a rounded picture. There's not a spelling out of context or any assessment of the relative merits of his different writings; she just registers relief when he's back on track etc. And you could also argue that the story is in their whole time together so taking a few events and exploring them in more detail wouldn't have done the job. Though there did seem to be an opportunity missed (or tactfully avoided?) when one of Spike's wives tells NF she can't take anymore and and we get no reaction from her at all.

The performances are good and there's a section where Spike is doing a live gig which obviously plays to Barrymore's strengths. Difficult to tell at that point how much was MB and how much Spike but that made it interesting. Mopre generally, he doesn't try to do an impersonation but you do get a sense of the man.

To sum up, if you know Milligan's story already, you won't particularly learn from this play - and the narrative format makes it rather old-fashioned as a piece of writing but if neither of these things matter too much you won't be let down by the central performances of Michael Barrymore and Jill Halfpenny as Norma.

If anyone else is in Edinburgh (apart from my train-announcing nemesis) I'd be interested to know what they thought.

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It's an interesting question why no Curse of Comedy Spike. Too many people (presumably inc Norma Farnes) to block it or deny access to the writings? Too often told a tale? The series seemed to rely on its audience being surprised by the revelations. Spike's status as a national treasure? Too short a time since his death?

Not a series I enjoyed - the Hancock one was particularly bad, emanating from a trashy book. (Read Philip Oakes's short memoir as an antidote.)

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I must read it - the dramatisation seems to have been very selective from your account of the book. One of its limitations as a play was that the Norma/narrator figure had little discernable character of her own other than to be a supertolerant ministering angel. Almost no sense of her own story. I don't know how near or far such a portrayal is to reality but it didn't help the play.

Maybe a further difficulty is that Spike's problems were public knowledge - the element of surprise in the BBC 4 shows to date would not be present. Plus, perhaps, he's simply too well loved, too much of an institution to be knocked down without any qualms from the audience.

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Again I stress I haven't yet read the biography but I do know that one consequence of a death can be that the survivors wrestle for ownership of the narrative - ie the wish to set the record straight, or to retain control of the story, can be a compelling enough force, quite apart from any thought of remuneration.

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When pressed by journalists for his opinion on Mick Jagger, Keith Richards is fond of quoting Zoot Sims's summation of Stan Getz: "He's a great bunch of guys."

I've also read and enjoyed the Humphrey Carpenter book and Spike & Co by Graham McCann - an account of all the ALS writers.

Interesting to see that the stage play borrows its title from John Antrobus's memoir "Surviving Spike Milligan" even though it's based on NF's book and is dramatised by Richard Harris (not the actor but the author of Stepping Out). I skimmed the Antrobus title in a library but can't remember how good or bad it was. Was it absorbed into the play, I wonder?