Spike Milligan would have been 93 today.

I only have to think of him and I smile. He was a wonderful comedy genius. My dad loved him and had exactly the same dotty sense of fun.

Happy Birthday Spike. I hope you are up there somewhere still making my dad laugh.

I was going to make up my own Milligan style poem here in tribute, but I can’t think of anything nearly good enough. Here instead is one of his most famous and probably my dad’s favourite:

On the Ning Nany Nong
Where the Cows go Bong!
And the Monkeys all say Boo!
There’s a Nong Nang Ning
Where the trees go Ping!
And the teapots Jibber Jabber Joo.
On the Nong Ning Nang
All the mice go Clang!
And you just can’t catch ‘em when they do!
So its’s Ning Nang Nong!
Cows go Bong!
Nong Nang Ning!
Trees go Ping!
Nong Ning Nang!
The mice go Clang!
What a noisy place to belong,
Is the Ning Nang Ning Nang Nong!!