This is where the story really starts: Having enjoyed success on the stage with The Wipers Times and Trial By Laughter Nick Newman & Ian Hislop hit upon the idea of writing a play about Spike Milligan, focusing on his Goon Show years and highlighting his running battles with the BBC. And so they did. 

As the play's publicity puts it: "Flanked by his fellow Goons and bolstered by the efforts of irrepressible sound assistant Janet, Spike takes a flourishing nosedive off the cliffs of respectability, and mashes up his haunted past to create the comedy of the future. His war with Hitler may be over, but his war with Auntie Beeb - and ultimately himself - has just begun." 

SPIKE premiered at the Watermill Theatre in Newbury at the beginning of 2022 and was a big success. Regular listeners to this show will know that Tyler spoke to Nick, to John Dagleish (who played Milligan) and to Margaret Cabourn-Smith (Janet) earlier this year - all those shows are available in the archive. 

Then it was announced that SPIKE would be setting out on a nationwide tour from September and that there would be a few new additions to the cast - most notably the role of Spike himself was to be taken on by actor Robert Wilfort (known for Gavin & Stacey, Sex Education and going down a waterslide in his underpants). Although it was a hugely challenging role to tackle Robert threw himself into it with brio and the new production is drawing rave reviews from critics and audiences alike. 

Tyler managed to catch Robert for an entertaining chat ahead of a run of shows at the Malvern Festival Theatre last month.

The show is running until 26th November and fast selling out: for more information and booking see SPIKE | Touring the UK this autumn (spiketheplay.co.uk)