Q (TV series)
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Spike Milligan's Q was a television comedy sketch show which ran from 1969 to 1983 on BBC2. The first and third series ran for seven episodes, with the remainder running for six episodes, each of which was 30 minutes long. Each series was numbered, starting with Q5 - possibly because the project to construct the Cunard liner QE2, launched in September 1967, was dubbed Q4 - and continuing in ascending order, through to Q9. Rather than call the final series Q10, Milligan opted to call it There's a Lot of it About.
Though many found it to be more "hit and miss" than Milligan's earlier work, especially The Goon Show, it is considered by many to be one of the landmarks in British comedy, in particular Q5, which preceded Monty Python's Flying Circus. Q5 first aired on 24 March 1969 - a matter of months before Flying Circus - and is seen by many as a forerunner to it. The Pythons themselves remember that, having seen Q5, they had been forced to scurry around for a new hook for their series, as the format they had been intending to use had now already been done. It was from this that their "stream of consciousness" theme evolved. Michael Palin recalls "Terry Jones and I adored the Q shows...[Milligan] was the first writer to play with the conventions of television". More blatantly, Python stole Milligan's producer, Ian MacNaughton, something Milligan never really forgave.
While Flying Circus had four series between 1969-1974, due to his tempestuous relationship with the BBC, Milligan had to wait until 1975 for his second series to be commissioned. The series continued to be commissioned sporadically after this. Q7 appeared in 1977, Kuwait (Q8) shortly after in 1978, Q9 in 1980 and There's a Lot of it About in 1982. Milligan resented the BBC for the cold attitude they took towards the series in comparison with series like Flying Circus, and always maintained that, given the opportunity, he would have produced more.
Q gave centre stage to Milligan's freeform surreal wit. The sketches came thick and fast, running into one another, making outrageous leaps from one subject or location to another and often stopping with no apparent conclusion. This was a response to the work of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore in Not Only... But Also, where funny sketches had been undermined by the inability to think up of a punchline which was funnier than the rest of the sketch (a style that was picked up by Python). Even the costumes were madcap and contradictory - every one was labelled with luggage tags, and Spike seemed to have a fondness for large noses and hats. However, Spike was criticised for his tendency to make racially charged jokes, especially regarding Jews and Pakistanis, and the series as a whole was decidedly politically incorrect, even by the standards of the 1970s - almost every episode featured an appearance by the scantily-clad, mammoth-breasted 'glamour stooge' Julia Breck.
Sadly, as was the case with many other BBC series from this era, some of the material has been wiped.
Regular cast members
- Julia Breck
- John Bluthal
- David Lodge
- Chris Langham
- Stella Tanner
- Bob Todd
- David Rappaport
- Robert Dorning
- Keith Smith
- Rita Webb
Memorable Sketches
- The 100 Metre Standing Still Race
- The Opera Season at Covent Garden featuring the Raspberry-Blowing Viking Maiden (Milligan) and her band playing a kettle, a frying pan and a feather duster.
- The Two Weeks Lost Forever in the Bermuda Triangle Holiday.
- A policeman sacked from the force upon hearing "God Save The Queen" emanating from a sewer in Catford.
- Two archeologists discover Cleopatra's tomb only to turn back in disgust when they realise "she's dead!"
- The First Irish Space Flight in the intrepid ship/shed Guinness III.
- A demonstration of knife throwing followed by fork throwing, spoon throwing and table throwing...
- Euro Joke! Variations on a theme of "Waiter! Waiter, there's a fly in my soup!" which includes the English reply of "Oh yeah!" the French reply of "Do not worry, sir, the spider on the bread roll will get him," the (extremely bad taste) German reply of "Jewish swine!!" (before shooting the fly), the Israeli reply of "That'll be a pound extra, sir!" and the final Irish reply of "Don't worry, sir, I'll save him!!!"
- "The Late News, to be precise, an Hour Late!" (The simple humour in this joke was so funny that even Spike was laughing at it as he said it). The sketch ended with the lights in the news studio going out after the news had been read, and Spike bumbling about in the dark, banging into the desk.
- A man in the bath is interrupted by a wet-suit wearing conman (Milligan) who emerges from under the water first, claiming to be from the "Sub-Aqua Anti-Pollution League" then appearing again from the toilet bowl dressed as a policeman requiring "money to use for evidence!"
- Insects auditioning for the next series of David Attenborough are regaled by Milligan's insect casting director's tales of filming a Charlton Heston epic and of "neutronizing Adolf Hitler by squirting formic acid from my posterior!"
- "We interrupt this programme to inform you that this is an official BBC interruption!!"
- The "Idiot of the Year" featuring Pogue Mahone, who wins a free burial at sea with the coffin of his own choice.
- An artist is dividing the Mona Lisa up into numbered sections.
- Invalid Mr. Tangible is informed by his Doctor that he has, firstly "Acute Halitosis" to which he replies, "Oh that's very nice of you," and secondly that he has "A Toupee!" He miserably leaves the clinic as everyone laughs at him, before we are informed that he "had his toupee surgically removed and lived to the ripe old age of 123." When asked why he wears glasses with no lenses, he replies "Because I have perfect eyesight." His stool sample is a goldfish bowl with two fish swimming in it, to which he replies "I drink a lot of pond water!"
- The World's Only Idiot Scout Troupe show us around their hut before engaging us with a rendition (one note sung continuously) of "Ralph Reader's Riding Along on The Crest of A!"
- Police Constable Sergeant (we don't hear the rest of his name because the minister dies of a heart attack) reads the Parable of the Good Samaritan in a "British Bobby" style ("And I sayeth unto you, evenin' all! And it come to pass that a man, Jewish, 5 foot 3 was proceedin' along the Jerusalem/Jericho highway...there sprungeth out on 'im three thieves who beated out of 'im the crap...!!")
- Pakistani Daleks. A typical 1970s housewife welcomes home a dalek from a hard-days work exterminating people. The dalek's response to all problems is extermination followed by 'put them in the curry'
Memorable quotes
SPIKE : Good evening. Welcome to Lewisham.
ARAB : You're welcome to it too.
(Julia Breck enters, wearing a skimpy corset and a black veil over her face. Spike lifts the veil.)
SPIKE : Oh, it's a woman!
(Following a fake obituary at the beginning of an episode)
SPIKE : I may be dead but I still have my pride! Run telecine!
GERMAN DINER : Waiter, there is a fly in mein zoup!
SPIKE (as WAITER) : Jewish swine!! (shoots fly in soup)
SPIKE : Hello Housewives, are you tired of finding the right stuffing for your bird, well here is the ideal stuffing. (Holds up a box with "Stuffed" written on it.) Yes, "Stuffed"! Go out and get "Stuffed" today!
DOCTOR (MILLIGAN): (Getting rapidly out of his chair and staring intensely at camera) This is a doctor sketch! (Eyes patient suspiciously) What do you want?
PATIENT: Doctor, do you have anything for Amnesia?
DOCTOR: (Incredulous) For WHAT?
(Patient scratches his head)
MILLIGAN: (Grinning, to camera, out of character) For people with bad memories, here it is again!
PATIENT: Here's what again?
DOCTOR: (Forgetting) Erm...er...(gives withering, cross-eyed look to camera followed by a freeze-frame!!!)
DOCTOR: Tell me, why do your glasses have no lenses in them?
MR. TANGIBLE (Milligan): Because, I have perfect eyesight.
(Milligan runs to the entrance of the BBC, the building having just "broken down," with a crank)
MILLIGAN: That's the trouble with the BBC, none of the parts work!!
PIRATE CAPTAIN: Avast, ye lubber!!
MILLIGAN: I can't avast my lubbers any more! I keep telling you I've got nothing left below the waist!!!
OFFICER CRAPPER (Milligan): (Having just popped his head out of a man's toilet cistern) By the way, sir...I should get a strong mortice lock to put on that lid if I were you. Clink, clunk!! You know it makes sense!!!!
INSECT CASTING DIRECTOR: (Milligan, who comes out into the waiting room to find all the other insects making loud clicking noises) STOP THAT CLICKING!! Stop that clicking!!! We'll all go blind!!!!!
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