Monday, June 21, 2021

Milligan's Q Show Scripts

 


Spike Milligan. The Q Annual (1979) Scripts and a few photos commemorating Spike Milligan’s TV series “Q” (intermittently from 1969 to 1982). I also looked at a few online videos. Typically Milligan, outrageously absurd and sometimes offensive, the skits I think show Milligan’s unassuaged pain and rage. It seems to me that his wartime experience left him with psychological wounds that he could not heal, (these days called “post-traumatic stress disorder”). An early attempt to cope led to The Goonshow, which was kept within bounds by his friendship with Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe, and the producers’ ability to tone down what I suspect were screams of psychic pain in the pre-production unedited scripts.
I don’t think “enjoyed reading this book” is the best way to describe the experience, but I can’t think of a better string of words. Essential for any Milligan fan, and worthwhile for anyone interested in the absurdist period of British radio and TV comedy. ***

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