Family footage revealed

Previously unseen family footage of Spike Milligan is to feature in a new film about the comic’s life.

His children have collaborated with a documentary-maker for the first time, allowing photos, audio recordings and home movies to be used.

I Told You I Was Ill – named after the gravestone epitaph Spike famously wrote for himself - aims to show him as a devoted father rather than the controlling, demanding, tortured genius of most biographies.

The 90-minute film, which premieres at the Adelaide Film Festival on February 22, is also first documentary on Milligan to come from Australia.

Director Cathy Henkel decided to make the film after visiting Woy Woy, the New South Wales town where Milligan’s parents emigrated to.

While there she visited the  annual Spikefest, a celebration organised by Spike’s brother Desmond, which includes the residents walking backwards through the street.

She told the Australian: "I started to realise there was a lot more to this man's work than I knew about. Then two [of his] daughters turned up in Woy Woy and when I discovered what an incredible father he had been - eccentric and mad and very, very loving - I was really interested."

 "He was a fascinating father because he didn't provide a lot of discipline. The household sounds like it was manic and crazy. Spaghetti was flying around the room and hitting the walls. There was complete chaos, but wonderful magic.

“They certainly weren't spoiled brats. What Spike passed on to them were absolutely wonderful life lessons.”

However, to this day there is animosity between his children, his illegitimate children and his third wife  Shelagh, mostly over his will.

His children form his first marriage to June Marlow - Laura, Sean, Sile – and Jane, from his second marriage to Paddy Ridgeway, have all contributed to the film.

But Henkel says his son Sean was not asked because he, too, suffers mental illness – nor were his illigitmate children James and Romany because "they were not a big part of his life".

Shelagh did contribute to the film, yet Henkel still decided she was  not "terribly courageous”.

“She said she found it very difficult being married to someone famous and sometimes she just wanted to keep him to herself. She didn’t want to share what was left of him with the kids or anybody else."

Henkel hopes the film, which includes interviews with the likes of Eric Sykes and Michael Palin, will “help shake off some of the stigma associated with manic depression”.

For more details, visit www.spikemilliganlegacy.com

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Published: 15 Feb 2005