Chris Turner: the 10 funniest things I have ever seen (on the internet)
The British musical comedian shares the comedy songs he grew up listening to, including Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, Monty Python and Spike Milligan
December 2022
Documentary opens up Spike Milligan’s ‘treasure trove’ of scripts and footage
Exclusive: Musical and children’s play are among vast archive explored in upcoming film about comedic genius
February 2022
Spike review – capering tribute summons the wise-cracking Goon’s spirit
Fast-paced portrait of Spike Milligan hurls us between the comic’s anarchic Goon Show sketches, cartoonish clashes with the BBC and the trauma of war
January 2022
‘The godfather of alternative comedy’: Eddie Izzard, Paul Merton and more on Spike Milligan
He was the shellshocked genius who channelled his anarchic brilliance into The Goon Show. Ian Hislop and Nick Newman explain why they’ve written a play about Spike Milligan – while comedians remember a legend
December 2021
2022 culture preview
Theatre, dance and comedy to book in 2022 – from Alan Partridge to Tennessee Williams
Amy Adams makes her West End debut, immersive dance confronts mental health and Steve Coogan’s alter ego embarks on a rare live UK tour
October 2021
Spike Milligan was the true father of modern satire, says Ian Hislop
Private Eye editor tellsof new play about the anarchic comic – and reveals his run-ins over Goons scripts with the BBC
July 2021
Michael Horovitz obituary
Iconoclastic poet, editor and leading light of British counterculture during the 1950s and 60s
May 2021
Marcel Stellman obituary
Record producer and lyricist known for Tulips from Amsterdam who brought the TV show Countdown to the UK
January 2021
Brief letters
A bridge too far for the renaming game?
Brief letters: Teachers and coronavirus | Honours and Spike Milligan | Art quiz | World leaders | Severn Bridge
November 2019
Brief letters
Don’t let don’t-knows triumph at the polls
Brief letters: Boarding schools | Wellington college fees | Steve McQueen’s Year 3 project | Spike Milligan’s election advice | Shared ancestry | Parliamentary disillusion
April 2019
Going, going, Goon: letters by Sellers and Milligan turn air blue
Previously unseen correspondence between the two comedians and musician Alan Clare is to be sold at auction
December 2018
Further reading
From Aesop to Adrian: books to inspire a love of reading
Tom Gates writer and illustrator Liz Pichon enjoys drama in the jungle, Milligan’s silly verse and The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole
October 2018
Ray Galton obituary
Half of the supremely talented writing duo who produced popular comedy hits such as Steptoe and Son and Hancock’s Half Hour
August 2018
Tantrums and tears: how Peter Sellers turned a pirate film into a shipwreck
The 1973 movie Ghost in the Noonday Sun, with Spike Milligan, never reached the big screen. Now its director, Peter Medak, reveals why
January 2017
Desert Island Discs: 75 defining moments from 75 years of castaways
The show’s first guest was marooned three quarters of a century ago this month. Here are the moments that made Desert Island Discs a radio classic
June 2016
Snoozes and silliness on show in archive pictures of BBC comedians
Compton Verney exhibition charts 60 years of comedy, from Hancock’s Half Hour to Miranda Hart
July 2015
Tell me another… comedy gems that inspired today’s standup stars
With a host of comedic talent set to appear at the Edinburgh festival fringe early next month, we asked some top names to identify the joke or moment that first tickled their funny bone…
September 2014
Spike Milligan statue unveiled in north London
The life-size bronze by John Somerville shows the comedian sitting on a bench in his former home of Finchley
