A stage show dedicated to the wartime memories of UK comic Spike Milligan reveals the beginnings of a unique comedy talent which still inspires the stars of today. Viv Hardwick reports on this unusual tour.

SPIKE Milligan’s influence on British comedy is legendary –in 1999 he was voted BBC’s Funniest Person of the last 1,000 years – thanks to being a founding member of The Goons, and inspiring some of the best UK comedy, everyone from Monty Python to Eddie Izzard.

A stage tribute to him, Spike Milligan’s Adolf Hitler: My Part In His Downfall, was long overdue and is currently touring the region, reaching Newcastle Theatre Royal next week after performances at York and Darlington.

Born in India in 1918, the son of an Irishborn Captain of the British Indian Army, Milligan performed as an amateur jazz vocalist and trumpeter before, during and after being called up for military service during World War II.

After sustaining war-wounds, he became a full-time entertainer, playing the guitar with a jazz and comedy group in concert parties for the troops. This became his living after the war. He then went on to secure world-wide fame with a radical new comedy project, The Goon Show as writer and star performer, alongside Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe and Michael Bentine.

Milligan’s best-selling World War II Memoirs were written throughout the Seventies, with the last volume (the seventh) published in the Ninties. In 1972 a film was made of the first book, with Jim Dale (from the Carry On films) as the young Spike and Spike himself as his own father. A prolific published writer and performer, Milligan was also a strident environmental campaigner. He died on February 27, 2002. His gravestone in Winchelsea, East Sussex reads, in Irish: “I told you I was ill.”

Tim Carroll, who adapted the books for the stage with Ben Power, says: “I was about 13 when I first came across Spike Milligan’s Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall. I picked up Spike Milligan’s war books again when I was in my thirties, and I found they really stood up.

“It struck me as a marvellous opportunity. But although Spike is the central character, it’s not an impersonation. This is Spike aged 23. Very different from when he was in The Goons, when he was almost 40, or from the Q shows, when he was 50 or 60.

“It isn’t always comic. But it’s insanely cheerful: the heroic refusal to take things seriously. Laughing in the face of death.

When you know what he went on to do after the war, you can see the seeds of that here. But you needn’t be a fan: I’d be very disappointed if you needed to know anything more about Spike than what we tell you here. He was a funny, sensitive man who went through the horror of war – and then told his story in a way that upsets our ideas of what war is like.”

The cast includes: Matt Devereaux, William Findley, Dominic Gerrard, Sholto Morgan (making his professional debut as Gunner Milligan) and David Morley Hale.

The production is designed by Laura Hopkins with lighting by James Farncombe and sound design by John Leonard. Choreography is by Sian Williams and Musical arrangement by Oliver Jackson.

■ Spike Milligan’s Adolf Hitler: My Part in his Downfall, Newcastle Theatre Royal, Tuesday-Saturday, evenings 7.30pm, Thursday matinee: 2pm, Saturday matinee: 2.30pm. Tickets: £8.50-£27. Box Office: 08448- 112-121 or theatreroyal.co.uk

SPIKE’S WARTIME HUMOUR:

A MAN called Chamberlain who did Prime Minister impressions spoke on the wireless; he said: “As from eleven o’clock we are at war with Germany”. (I loved the “we”).

“War?” said Mother. “It must be something we said,” said Father... It was a proud day for the Milligan family as I was taken from the house. “I’m too young to go,” I screamed as Military Policemen dragged me from my pram, clutching a dummy.

At Victoria Station I was given a travel warrant, a white feather and a picture of Hitler marked “This is your enemy”. I searched every compartment, but he wasn’t on the train.

Sergeant Major: “I suppose you know you are three months late arriving for your call up?”

Milligan: “I’ll make up for it sir, I’ll fight nights as well!”

Christ, I must be bored. I just thought of Catford.

Major Chater-Jack: “Milligan, we’ve just crossed the border into Tunisia.”

Milligan: “Fine, sir, I’ll carve a statue at once.”,p> How long was I in the army? Five foot eleven. Hands up anyone who’s been killed yet. Anyone hurt? Well, anyone annoyed, then... I think I’ll have a nap. Would you ask them to turn the volume down on the guns?

Sergeant Major: “Silence when you speak to an officer!”

Kidgell: “I was thinking about the landing.”

Spike: “Don’t worry about the landing, darling, I’ll hoover it in the morning.”

Edgington: “Isn’t there any bloody cure for seasickness?”

Spike: “Yes. Sit under a tree.” My second day in action, and not killed yet.

By God the Germans are bad shots.