SPIKE Milligan took a very long time to make his debut at the Edinburgh Fringe. It was not until August 1990 that his name could be found in the Fringe programme.
That June, the Glasgow Herald reported: “Milligan, 72, a founder member of the Goons radio comedy team of the 1950s and a veteran of several BBC television comedy series, has been at the top of the showbusiness ladder for decades but the Edinburgh Fringe had hitherto eluded him”.
“There will be no interval, except for those who want one,’’ Milligan quipped as he announced the Fringe engagement.
His show, Visiting District Milligan, ran for a week at the Assembly Rooms.
Among those theatre critics who were impressed by the show was Mark Fisher.
Writing in The List he said: “Just as he has a child-like joy of the cheap pun and the gloriously incongruous, so in his serious poetry does Spike Milligan display an unabashed openness that borders on the naive.
“Sensitivity, individuality and humour are characteristics of all of his work both comic and straight, and after an evening in his presence you’re left convinced that the man is nothing if not genuine.
“The blend of the surreal and the profound is reminiscent of Ivor Cutler, though despite his 72 years and insistence that this is a poetry reading, Milligan is inevitably more animated than the dry-witted Scot.
“At turns hilarious and touching, Visiting District Milligan is worth stealing a ticket for”.
When Milligan died, aged 83, in 2002, comedians and broadcasters paid tribute to his lasting influence on British comedy.
Eddie Izzard described him as the “godfather of alternative comedy”, while Nicholas Parsons said: “There will never be another Spike. He broke the mould of comedy. He took comedy into the world of fantasy; it was surreal and different and amazing. He created a whole new attitude to humour.”
Read more: Herald Diary
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here