SPIKE (TERENCE) MILLIGAN - ADVERTISEMENT SIGNED - HFSID 80235

SPIKE MILLIGAN
He signs a clipped advertisement for his children's book Badjelly the Witch
Advertisement signed: "Ta!/Spike Milligan", 3½x4, Clipped newspaper advertisement for his children's book Badjelly the Witch. Comedian TERENCE "SPIKE" MILLIGAN (1918-2002) gained fame as co-host of BBC radio's The Goon Show (1951-1960), which also featured Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe. The show featured a zany brand of improvised comedy which influenced later British humor. (John Cleese of Monty Python called Milligan "the great God to all of us.") He appeared in several other films and shows, and even turned the play Oblomov (1964), intended as a serious drama, into a hit comedy, with the rest of the cast obliged to play along with his ad-libbed lines. He called the Prince of Wales a "groveling little bastard" on live TV, but the two remained good friends and Milligan was subsequently knighted. Suffering from bipolar disorder, Milligan had at least ten nervous breakdowns, and during one episode tried to murder Peter Sellers but blundered instead through a plate glass window while entering Sellers' home. A competent musician, Milligan also wrote popular children's poems and songs. (While depressed, he also wrote serious poetry.)A wounded World War II veteran, Milligan wrote several volumes of humorous war memoirs. Bottom right edge torn. Edges lightly frayed. Otherwise, fine condition.