During most of the late 1930s and early 1940s Milligan performed as an amateur jazz vocalist and trumpeter before, during and after being called up for military service in the fight against Nazi Germany, but even then he wrote and performed comedy sketches as part of concerts to entertain troops.

Milligan wrote most of Series 4 himself, but from Series 5 ( coinciding with the birth of the Milligans ' second child, Seán ) and through most of Series 6, he collaborated with Eric Sykes, a development that grew out of his contemporary business collaboration with Sykes in Associated London Scripts.

Director John Goldschmidt's film The Other Spike dramatised Milligan's nervous breakdown in a film for Granada Television, for which Milligan wrote the screenplay and in which he played himself.

Milligan also wrote verse, considered to be within the genre of literary nonsense.

He frequently wrote for and / or performed with many other leading comedy performers and writers of the period, including Tony Hancock, Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers, John Antrobus and Johnny Speight.

Sykes and Milligan are credited as the co-writers of all but the first six of the 26 episodes in Series 5 ( 1954 – 55 ) and three episodes of Series 6 ( 1955 – 56 ); Sykes also wrote a 15-minute Goon Show Christmas special, The Missing Christmas Parcel, broadcast during the Children's Hour on 8 December 1955.

Peter Milligan penned the other new series, Enigma, and continued Shade, the Changing Man, while Ennis continued Hellblazer, Delano wrote Animal Man, Fantasy author Rachel Pollack took over Doom Patrol and Horror author Nancy Collins wrote Swamp Thing.

With J. Milligan, he wrote the 2003 book The Wisdom of Big Bird ( and the Dark Genius of Oscar the Grouch ): Lessons from a Life in Feathers ( ISBN 0-375-50781-7 ).

* English comedian Spike Milligan wrote a quatrain entitled " Myxomatosis " in 1971.

* Spike Milligan wrote a parody of the novel called Black Beauty According to Spike Milligan ( 1996 ).

* In The Truth About the AIDS Panic, Michael Fitzpatrick and Don Milligan wrote that there is ' no good evidence that Aids is likely to spread rapidly among heterosexuals in the West '.

Milligan returned to Human Target with a straight to graphic novel story " Final Cut ", after which he wrote all of 21 issues of the ongoing series for Vertigo.

In 2007, Milligan wrote a continuing series featuring Infinity, Inc. Max Fiumara was scheduled to do art chores on the book.

Spike Milligan wrote a parody of Nineteen Eighty-Four for The Goon Show entitled 1985, broadcast on 4 January 1955.

When Milligan wrote The Idiot Weekly, an Australian version of The Goon Show, Eccles often made appearances in the script.

Milligan eagerly exploited the possibilities the new technology offered — the tapes could be edited, so the cast could now ad-lib freely, and tape also enabled the creation of groundbreaking sound effects.

* Harper of the Only God: Selected poems by Alice Milligan ( 1993 ), edited by Sheila Turner Johnston

“ Women in the Society of Friends ”, by Janet Scott in A Quaker miscellany for Edward H. Milligan, edited by David Blamires, Jeremy Greenwood and Alex Kerr, published by David Blamires ( 1985 ) ISBN 0-9510152-1-4

Milligan made several forays into television as a writer-performer, in addition to his many guest appearances on interview, variety and sketch comedy series from the 1950s to the 2000s.

Spike Milligan, writer of The Goon Show, remarked that a lot of blue innuendo came from serviceman's jokes, which most of the cast understood ( they all had been soldiers ) and many of the audience understood, but which passed over the heads of most of the BBC producers and directors, most of whom were " Officer class.

Having spearheaded the " British invasion ," by head-hunting such writers as Moore, Gaiman, Delano, Grant Morrison, Garth Ennis and Peter Milligan, Berger was well suited to head up the new line, as she was already editing many of the series which would form the core of the early Vertigo output.

It had many notable writers including Ray Alan, John Cleese, Barry Cryer, Spike Milligan, David Nobbs, David Renwick, John Sullivan, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Laurie Rowley.

Speight was one of many writing talents on that series which also included the star Sykes, John Antrobus and Spike Milligan.

Also during 1967, Stigwood purchased a controlling interest in Associated London Scripts, a writers ' agency co-founded by Spike Milligan and Eric Sykes around 1954, in which many of Britain's best comedy and television scriptwriters had been involved.

Milligan updated and adapted many of Ditko's concepts, while adding his own ideas to embark upon one of the most bizarre titles published by DC.

This was not well received by some fans of the title, and many wanted " their " X-Force back, a comment Milligan would later parody in the pages of the title.

Maggs directed many leading actors in often award-winning productions, including Rowan Atkinson, Leslie Nielsen, Christian Slater, Stephen Fry, Jonathan Pryce, Robin Williams, Hugh Laurie, Juliet Stevenson, Jim Broadbent, Patricia Hodge, Alison Steadman, Harry Secombe and Spike Milligan.

In addition, the welcome relief from Latin courses allowed many academic students to intensively study instrumental and vocal music, and some outstanding, notable careers were launched, guided from the outset by the expertise of John P. Murdie ( band and music theory ) and Carman Milligan ( chorus and music theory ).

Keyes ' other books include The Fifth Sally, The Minds of Billy Milligan, The Touch, Unveiling Claudia, and the memoir Algernon, Charlie, and I: A Writer's Journey.

It spawned a number of books and magazines and poetry by lesser-known artists such as Alice Furlong, Ethna Carbery, Dora Sigerson Shorter and Alice Milligan around the turn of the century.

* Spike Milligan repeatedly refers to the piece in his autobiography Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall ( 1971 ) and in the subsequent books in the series as ' the bloody awful Warsaw Concerto '.

Vizard studied Law and Philosophy at the University of Melbourne ; he practiced as a lawyer and was a partner in a City Law firm ; he has written for and produced various Logie and AFI award winning television show-from Fast Forward to Kangaroo Palace ; he has hosted his own 5 night a week national Tonight Show, Tonight Live With Steve Vizard for which he was three times nominated for and won a Gold Logie in 1991 ; he has interviewed over two thousand major names, from Audrey Hepburn, Oliver Stone, Mel Gibson, Robin Williams, Sir Bob Geldof, Peter Allen, Patrick Swayze, Bob Hope, Sir Peter Ustinov, Shirley MacLaine, Michael Parkinson, Spike Milligan, Edward de Bono, Robert Ludlum, Sir Harry Secombe, and Prime Ministers and politicians ; he founded one of Australia ’ s largest independent Production houses, Artist Services, which was subsequently sold to Granada ; he has been the President of the National Gallery of Victoria and the Chairman of the Victorian Major Events Company, securing events such as the World Cycling Champioships and the World Gymnastics Championships ; he has appeared on the cover of Time and Rolling Stone ; he was an elected representative to the 1999 Constitutional Convention ; he was Father of the Year in 2001 ; he was embroiled in three highly publicised legal proceedings, involving the theft of moneys by his former accountant from the Vizard Companies, and Vizard's civil penalty in 2005 for breaching directors duties ; he has broadcast on the Austereo, Fairfax and Macquarie Radio Networks and in 2011 was nominated for best Talkback Presenter in Australia ; he was Chairman of the World Swimming Championships ; and he has written several books ranging on topics ranging from humour to Australia's population policy.

Although he did not perform as much in the early shows Milligan eventually became a lead performer in almost all of the Goon Show episodes, portraying a wide range of characters including Eccles, Minnie Bannister, Jim Spriggs and the nefarious Count Moriarty.

The film of Puckoon, starring Sean Hughes and including Milligan's daughter, the actress Jane Milligan, was released after his death.

As a result, Milligan became a regular visitor to Australia and made a number of radio and TV programmes there, including The Idiot Weekly with Bobby Limb.

Sykes was the subject of Thames Television's This Is Your Life, broadcast on 25 December 1979 with guests including Sean Connery, Spike Milligan, Douglas Bader and Hattie Jacques.

* Spike Milligan in much of his work including the Goon Show.

A stage actress and model who had appeared as an extra in The Persuaders !, a secretary in The Saint, and other TV shows and films, she started to appear as an extra in BBC comedy productions, including The Two Ronnies, Morecambe and Wise and Spike Milligan.

Milligan also produced the one-shots The Eaters and Face in 1995 for the " Vertigo Voices " sub-imprint, and a number of other miniseries, including The Extremist ( 1993 ), Tank Girl: The Odyssey ( 1995 ), Egypt ( 1995 – 1996 ), Girl ( 1996 ), The Minx ( 1998 – 1999 ), and Vertigo Pop!

He was a contemporary of figures including Christopher Hitchens, John Redwood, William Waldegrave, Edwina Currie, Stephen Milligan, John Scarlett, William Blair, Bill Clinton and Gyles Brandreth.

He became friends with leading members of the British comedy scene including Dudley Moore, Peter Cook, Alan Bennett, Jonathan Miller, Spike Milligan, Willie Rushton and fellow Australian expatriate comedian-actors John Bluthal and Dick Bentley.

It was filmed in England and Australia with an all-star cast including Spike Milligan, Peter Cook, Dennis Price, Dick Bentley, Willie Rushton, Julie Covington, Clive James and broadcaster Joan Bakewell.

Outraged at losses due to theft and delay at London's riverside wharves, Milligan headed a group of powerful businessmen, including the chairman of the West India Merchants of London, George Hibbert, who promoted the creation of a wet dock circled by a high wall.

He was a contemporary of figures including Christopher Hitchens, Robert Jackson, William Waldegrave, Edwina Currie, Stephen Milligan, John Redwood, William Blair, Bill Clinton and Gyles Brandreth.

He married Catherine Mary Milligan ( Kitty ) in 1812, and they had 13 children, including Robert, later the Governor of Maryland.

Most of the annuals included a foreword from an editor of the Express newspapers or a celebrity fan, including Margot Fonteyn ( ballet dancer ), Adam Faith ( singer ), Spike Milligan ( comedian ), Sir Malcolm Sargent ( conductor ), Jim Clark ( F1 champion ), Sean Connery ( actor ), Frank Sinatra ( singer ) and Tommy Cooper ( comedian and magician ).

Many guest stars appeared on the programme, including George Best, Spike Milligan, Roy Kinnear, Geoff Capes and Charles Hawtrey.

Many of the houses, including the former residence of Spike Milligan ( now marked by a blue plaque placed in 2004-see picture in this article ), have been replaced by modern housing or apartments.

McMahon also runs McMahon Management ( MCM ), an agency that represents Australian actors including Luke Mitchell, Esther Jackie Anderson, Gabrielle Fitzpatrick, Daniel Daperis, Glenda Linscott, Mauricio Merino Jr, Chris Milligan and Andrew James Morley.

Clayton has composed, scored and recorded incidental music for spoken word albums including such titles as The Secret Garden ( read by Glenda Jackson ), A Journey to the Center of the Earth ( read by Tom Baker ), Puckoon ( read by Spike Milligan ), and Black Beauty ( read by Angela Rippon ).