Friday, July 31, 2015
Spike Milligan / Peter Cook / Jonathan Miller / Peter Sellers: Bridge on the River Wye
One guess which popular movie is being satirized here. This Spike Milligan script was originally a Goon Show in 1957, and was then re-recorded as this 1962 LP with Milligan and Sellers and two up-and-coming talents from the Beyond the Fringe team, Jonathan Miller and Peter Cook. A classic piece of anarchy as always from Milligan, and great production values courtesy future Beatles producer George Martin. Milligan's underlying colonialist racism really comes to the fore here, though, in his performance as General Itchikutchi, and the way the cast wait on their laughs as they would in a live performance setting drains some of the energy from the comedy.
Album audio & artwork
DISCLAIMER: To the best of my knowledge, this work is out of print and not available for purchase in any format. If you are the artist and are planning a reissue, please let me know and I’ll remove it from the blog. Also please get in touch if you’ve lost your art &/or sound masters and would like to talk with me about my restoration work.
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I actually have this LP, though I haven't played it for years. With regard to what you call Milligan's colonialist racism, he was born in then British-ruled India, so probably absorbed some of the common attitudes of his time and place, but I doubt if he was deeply prejudiced.
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