Spike Milligan spent the 1940s fighting the war – and the 50s fighting the BBC. That’s the argument ventured by Ian Hislop and Nick Newman in their play about the tormented comedian, who channelled his combat experiences into that “shellshock on radio” sensation, The Goon Show. Spike focuses on the early years of Milligan’s still-fragile success. Audiences love the show, it makes his co-stars Harry Secombe and Peter Sellers famous – but Milligan struggles with overwork, PTSD symptoms and the open disdain of the BBC’s top brass.
It’s a sympathetic portrait, then, of the Anglo-Irishman, the more so for John Dagleish’s likably hangdog turn in the title role. It’s Milligan with a pinch of Harry Corbett thrown in: shabby, chippy and unable to stop cracking wise, even when there’s a noose around his neck. Director Paul Hart summons the spirit of the Goons with a fast-paced, capering production, one short scene after another hurling us from the Grafton Arms back to the battlefields of Monte Cassino and forward to the recording studios of the BBC.
