BLESSED are the cracked for they let in the light. That's the catchy quote plastered on a sunny back window opposite a small, special room within a room at Woy Woy Library.
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The saying comes from the inimitable British comic, the late Spike Milligan. Whenever in Australia, he was a frequent visitor to Woy Woy, near Gosford. It was where his parents had decided to settle down many years before.
In fact, so much of a local identity did Spike become over time here that the little room at the rear of the library is devoted to this famous comic, the patron saint of silliness.
But hang on, wasn't the irreverent Spike Milligan also famous for saying, when he first arrived at the sleepy Central Coast suburb, that it was "the world's first above ground cemetery"? Well, yes, but all is forgiven, especially after he grew to love the place and become well known as an environmental campaigner.
Besides being a stage, film and TV performer, the hugely creative Terence Alan 'Spike' Milligan (1918-2002) was also a brilliant scriptwriter, a cartoonist, poet, a musician and author of more than 40 books ranging from silly children's verse to his WWII memoirs lampooning the military.
The memory of the raging mad Milligan - Spike's own phrase - is today also honoured with a statue in a London park and, about 1200 metres away from the Spike Milligan Room in Woy Woy library is another lasting monument.
It's the award-winning Spike Milligan Bridge (pictured), running parallel to the main railway line. Stretching for 85 metres, the cycleway bridge supports really catch the eye, soaring 25.8 metres above sea level. It is also very fitting that it is named in honour of Woy Woy's favourite adopted son as Spike developed a series of bike safety books for the NSW RTA in 1983.
The site plaque, unveiled in March 2008, modestly states that Spike gained worldwide recognition through his creative input and starring role in the long-running 1950s BBC radio comedy series, The Goon Show.
But that doesn't tell the whole story. Spike died 19 years ago in February, but it's no exaggeration to say he's definitely goon but not forgotten, even today. So, let's look a little closer now into the life and times of this master of the absurd who single-handedly created a theatre of the mind, initially with fellow comic legends, the great Peter Sellers and singer Harry Secombe.
Incredibly, Spike churned out his popular, if surreal, 30-minute comic scripts for nine years, revolutionising radio comedy and inspiring a generation of comedians, including the famous Monty Python team.
In fact, Sellers (well before his Pink Panther film fame) and Spike Milligan proudly claimed they had invented the whole of post-World War II British humour.
Sellers though was envious of Milligan's writing and inventiveness, while Spike was wishing he could break into films big time (like his comedy partner) and make millions.
Spike Milligan was a true tortured comic genius, a complicated, often infuriating soul, a manic-depressive, but one who was also very, very funny. He was born during the era of the British Raj in India, the son of an Irish captain.
Beyond the Baby Boomer generation, the immense fame and humour of The Goon Show is probably unknown to many today. After all, their last radio show was on January 28, 1960, except for a popular, live, one-off Royal Command performance on stage in 1972 with a pre-recorded Princess Anne clomping coconuts offstage.
The Goon Show cast, using a variety of funny voices with the supreme idiocy of Spike's scripts and aided by bizarre sound effects in those more innocent days were a sensation.
The show was first broadcast on BBC radio in May 1951 as Crazy People and re-titled as The Goon Show in June 1952.
As late as 2007, early morning reruns of The Goons on ABC Radio National were still attracting a regular, faithful audience.
That same year, a play called Ying Yong - a Walk With The Goons was staged at Newcastle's Civic Theatre featuring our own comic titan Jonathon Biggins.
The play was set in a mental hospital in 1959 with Spike having a breakdown, but still having to turn out radio scripts.
As co-creator and main writer of The Goon Show, the eccentric Spike had to keep his unique, creative fantasy world going. To appreciate the weird hilarity, you've just got to listen to it.
Episodes had zany titles like The House of Teeth and the Phantom Head Shaver and were peopled with characters such as the dimwit Eccles and the whingeing Bluebottle, having lecherous thoughts about Gladys Twit and wearing boxing gloves to bed.
Then there's the true blue British idiot and hero Neddie Seagoon, public school conman Hercules Grytpype-Thynne and the quavering-voiced Major Denis Bloodnok, military idiot and thief, who was traced by military police to Rangoon where he was found wearing false testicles in a freak show.
You get the idea of the insanity now?
Spike was finally awarded the British Comedy Award for Lifelong Achievement in 1994 where, with a sly smile, he famously called Prince Charles (a devoted fan) a "grovelling little bastard" on live TV.
Milligan was up to his same madcap antics, once also during the reading of a news item on NBN TV.
Earlier, back in Australia, Spike was in hot water for his disruptive antics during an ABC radio news bulletin in 1971. When a newsreader announced a new Qantas safety award, Spike piped up with the immortal words: "With only 33 crashes, folks!"
This led to future radio guests being banned from remaining in a studio during reading of a news bulletin.
Milligan was up to his same madcap antics, once also during the reading of a news item on NBN TV in the early days. As he read the news update, the announcer Neville Graham was suddenly wearing a German war helmet. Then from offscreen came a disembodied hand, fingers bunched together but with an index finger extended like a gun barrel. Then came Spike's unmistakable voice, with one loud word: "BANG!"
Besides his pioneering comedy decades before, Spike also appeared briefly in several movies.
My favourite cameo was in the swashbuckling version of The Three Musketeers in 1973 when he appeared as the sex-starved husband of busty Raquel Welch. Shaking uncontrollably, he announced: "And she's coming home TONIGHT! TONIGHT!"
Spike was finally awarded an honorary knighthood by the Queen for his services to entertainment in 2001. It was honorary because he was Irish and he'd refused to swear an oath of loyalty to the Crown the year before.
Milligan, naturally, was renowned for his one-liners, including: "I don't mind dying - I just don't want to be there".
So, his last words, etched on his tombstone in England are rather apt, although written in Gaelic to overcome church objections. The headstone reads: "I told you I was ill".
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