Editing Spike Milligan (section)

==Legacy==
[[File:Milligan plaque.jpg|thumb|The Holden Road plaque]] 
[[File:Monkenhurst 02.JPG|thumbnail|[[Monkenhurst]], [[Monken Hadley|Hadley]], where Milligan lived from 1974]]
From the 1960s, Milligan was a regular correspondent with [[Robert Graves]]. Milligan's letters to Graves usually addressed a question to do with [[classical studies]]. The letters form part of Graves's bequest to [[St John's College, Oxford]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.sjc.ox.ac.uk/discover/about-college/library/special-collections/personal-papers/|title=Personal papers|website=St John's College|access-date=21 December 2017|archive-date=13 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180113065742/https://www.sjc.ox.ac.uk/discover/about-college/library/special-collections/personal-papers/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The film of ''[[Puckoon]]'', starring [[Sean Hughes (comedian)|Sean Hughes]], including Milligan's daughter, actress Jane Milligan, was released after his death.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0276428/ |title = Puckoon|website = [[IMDb]]|date = 4 April 2003}}</ref>

Milligan lived for several years in Holden Road, [[Woodside Park]], [[Finchley]], at The Crescent, [[Chipping Barnet|Barnet]], and was a contributing founder and strong supporter of the Finchley Society. His old house in Woodside Park is now demolished but there is a [[blue plaque]] in his memory on the block of flats on the site.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.londonremembers.com/memorials/spike-milligan-home|title=Spike Milligan – home|website=London Remembers|access-date=10 May 2018}}</ref>

A memorial bench featuring a bronze likeness of Milligan sits in his former home of [[Finchley]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://londonist.com/2014/11/londons-famous-bench-dedications |title=London's Famous Bench Dedications |date=21 October 2016 |website=Londonist.com |access-date=12 October 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180306002313/https://londonist.com/2014/11/londons-famous-bench-dedications |archive-date=6 March 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref> Over ten years the Finchley Society, led by friend and local resident Barbara Warren, raised funds—the Spike Milligan Statue Fund—to commission a statue of him by local sculptor John Somerville and erected in the grounds of [[Avenue House]] in East End Road. The memorial was unveiled on 4 September 2014 at a ceremony attended by local dignitaries and showbusiness celebrities including [[Roy Hudd]], [[Michael Parkinson]], [[Maureen Lipman]], [[Terry Gilliam]], [[Kathy Lette]], [[Denis Norden]] and [[Lynsey de Paul]].

There is a campaign to erect a statue in the [[London Borough of Lewisham]] where he grew up. After coming to the UK from India in the 1930s, he lived at 50 Riseldine Road, Brockley and attended Brownhill Boys' School (later Catford Boys' School, which was demolished in 1994). There is a plaque and bench at the [[Wadestown, New Zealand|Wadestown Library]], [[Wellington]], New Zealand, in an area called "Spike Milligan Corner".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/77190064/goon-but-not-forgotten|title=Goon but not forgotten|website=Stuff|first=Caitlin|last=Salter|date=24 February 2016|access-date=9 May 2018}}</ref>

In a 2005 poll to find the "Comedians' Comedian", he was voted among the top 50 comedy acts, by fellow comedians and comedy insiders. In a BBC poll in August 1999, Milligan was voted the "funniest person of the last 1,000 years".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/events/millennium/aug/winner.stm|title=BBC News – Millennium: Spike Milligan|website=news.bbc.co.uk|access-date=21 December 2017}}</ref>
[[File:Spike Milligan memorial bench.jpg|thumb|The Spike Milligan memorial bench in the garden of Avenue House in [[Finchley]]]]
Milligan has been portrayed twice in films. In the adaptation of his novel ''Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall'', he was played by [[Jim Dale]], while Milligan played his father. He was portrayed by [[Edward Tudor-Pole]] in ''[[The Life and Death of Peter Sellers]]'' (2004). In a 2008 stage play, ''Surviving Spike'', Milligan was played by [[Michael Barrymore]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/berkshire/content/articles/2008/02/11/surviving_spike_review_feature.shtml|title=Review: Surviving Spike|first=Amita|last=Sharma|publisher=BBC|location=Berkshire|date=11 February 2008|access-date=21 December 2017}}</ref>

On 9 June 2006, it was reported that [[Richard Wiseman]] had identified Milligan as the writer of the [[world's funniest joke]] as decided by the Laughlab project. Wiseman said the joke contained all three elements of what makes a good gag: anxiety, a feeling of superiority and an element of surprise.<ref>{{cite news|title=Spike 'wrote world's best joke'|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/5064020.stm|work=BBC News|date=9 June 2006}}</ref>

[[Eddie Izzard]] described Milligan as "The Godfather of Alternative Comedy". "From his unchained mind came forth ideas that just had no boundaries. And he influenced a new generation of comedians who came to be known as 'alternative'."<ref name=Games>{{cite book|last=Games|first=Alexander|title=The Essential Spike Milligan|year=2003|publisher=Fourth Estate|location=London, UK|isbn = 0-00-717103-X|page=vii}}</ref>

Members of [[Monty Python]] greatly admired him. In one interview, which was widely quoted at the time, [[John Cleese]] stated "Milligan is the Great God to all of us".<ref name="ScudamoresMilliganbio170">Scudamore (1985), p. 170.</ref> The Pythons gave Milligan a cameo role in their 1979 film ''[[Monty Python's Life of Brian]]'', when Milligan happened to be holidaying in [[Tunisia]], near where the film was being shot; he was re-visiting where he had been stationed during [[World War II|wartime]]. [[Graham Chapman]] gave him a minor part in ''[[Yellowbeard]]''.

After their retirement, Milligan's parents and his younger brother Desmond moved to Australia. His mother lived the rest of her long life in the coastal town of [[Woy Woy, New South Wales|Woy Woy]] on the [[New South Wales]] [[Central Coast (New South Wales)|Central Coast]], just north of [[Sydney]]. As a result, he became a regular visitor to Australia and made radio and TV programmes there, including ''[[The Idiot Weekly]]'' with [[Bobby Limb]]. He also wrote several books including ''Puckoon'' during a visit to his mother's house in Woy Woy. Milligan named the town "the largest above-ground cemetery in the world"<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/australiaandpacific/australia/717965/Australia-A-town-called-Woy-Woy.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/australiaandpacific/australia/717965/Australia-A-town-called-Woy-Woy.html |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |title=Australia: A town called Woy Woy |work=The Telegraph |date= 13 April 2001|access-date=10 October 2015|last1=Chipperfield |first1=Mark }}{{cbignore}}</ref> when visiting in the 1960s.

Milligan's mother became an Australian citizen in 1985, partly in protest at the circumstances which led to her son's ineligibility for British citizenship; Milligan himself was reportedly considering applying for Australian citizenship at the time as well.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2507&dat=19851210&id=fPQ9AAAAIBAJ&pg=5352%2C2028766|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130411014207/http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2507&dat=19851210&id=fPQ9AAAAIBAJ&sjid=AUkMAAAAIBAJ&pg=5352%2C2028766|url-status=dead|title=The Glasgow Herald – Google News Archive Search|date=11 April 2013|archive-date=11 April 2013|access-date=21 December 2017}}</ref> The suspension bridge on the cyclepath from Woy Woy to [[Gosford]] was renamed the Spike Milligan Bridge in his memory,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rms.nsw.gov.au/roadprojects/resources/documents/posters/spike_milligan_bridge.pdf |title=Spike Milligan Bridge, Woy Woy |publisher=Rms.nsw.gov.au |access-date=23 May 2014}}</ref> and a meeting room in the Woy Woy Public Library is also named after him.<ref>{{cite web|title=Spike Milligan Room|url=http://www.gosford.nsw.gov.au/library/meeting-facilities/spike-milligan-room|publisher=Gosford City Council|access-date=30 August 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120322014849/http://www.gosford.nsw.gov.au/library/meeting-facilities/spike-milligan-room|archive-date=22 March 2012}}</ref>