Spike Milligan's Q

Why hasn't this yet been released on DVD in its complete form?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkOAUht3G5o

Either because the BBC wiped the tapes or it wasn't very good

The Q series: Q5 to Q9 and 'There's a lot of it about' [Q10] was pretty good for it's time, and the original Q5 beat Monty Python at it's own game. But as Spike [to quote Spike himself] was regarded by some at the BBC as the social pariah of light comedy, the series was relegated to BBC2 obscurity and missed by many [but not the new Monty Python team, who were apparently aghast that Spike had beaten them to it]. Some material, like The Goodies, was also sarcastically politically incorrect which may have led to the few [if any] reruns, and only a small selection of sketches ever made it onto DVD/VHS. Plus a few of the earlier Q episodes have been wiped [probably in the BBCs massively misjudged clear out in the early 1970s when Dr Who, Not only but Also, Ronnie Barker's 'His Lordship Entertains', and many other shows ended up in the dustcart to save money on archiving as the BBC moved from B&W to colour].

From my childhood recollections, I suppose some of Q5's [and Monty Pythons] surreallist roots could be seen within the children's fave ITV show 'Do not adjust your set [1967-1969]' that starred Denise Coffey, David Jason, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam and the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band - and many of these cult kids TV episodes are lost as well.

I remember watching the landmark Q5 series as an 13 year old in 1969 and being blown away by it (subsequent seasons weren't so good or ground-breaking, but I still enjoyed them). As the Monty Python team pointed out, Spike was the first to realise you didn't need a sketch punchline - one sketch finnished with Spike suddenly interrupting and saying 'I'm bored, I don't want to do this anymore' or the characters in the sketch would suddenly form a line and walk towards the viewer repeatedly chanting 'What are we going to do next, What are we going to do next'. I liked the later sketches where a nice lady married a Dalek who then comes home after a bad day at the office, and the one where a doctor solemnly informs the worried patient 'I'm terribly sorry...you have a toupe' (and it was a bad one). I guess you had to be there.

There's a few later Q sketches in:
The Best of Spike Milligan [DVD]

Hopefully the BBC will relent and release the surviving Q5-Q10 (There's a Lot of It About) half hour episodes sometime soon [thanks for reminding me of them]. However, the BBC seem very fickle about releasing old archive footage, with even shows on VHS not making it to DVD. As well as Carradale's link, theres quite a few more recent Q sketches on YouTube including Spike's Dalek sketch, English Language, The Q5 Piano Song, The Surgery, First Irish Rocket To The Moon, and 'Pim Pom Pom Pom Pom'.

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John Cleese : "Shows prepare the way for other shows, and sometimes shows that make genuine breakthroughs are missed. Spike Milligan's Q5 was missed...when we first saw Q5 we were very depressed because we thought it was what we wanted to do and Milligan was doing it brilliantly. But nobody really noticed Q5". Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam concurred. Jones noted that "watching Q5, we almost felt as if our guns had been Spiked! We had been writing quickies or sketches for some three years and they always had a beginning, a middle and a tag line. Suddenly, watching Spike Milligan, we realized that they didn't have to be like that"

Cleese cites a conversation between himself and Terry Jones: "We both happened to watch Spike Milligan's Q5, and one or the other of us phoned up and said kind of jokingly but also rather anxiously, 'I thought that's what we were supposed to be doing?' And the other one said, 'That's what I thought too.' We felt that Spike had got to where we were trying to get to, but if you'd asked us the previous day, we couldn't have described very well what that was. However, when we saw it on the screen we recognised it, and in a way the fact that Spike had gone there probably enabled us to go a little bit further than we would otherwise have gone"

I actually have the Best of Q as a VHS that the BBC released in the 1980s. Methinks that because a lot of the material would be considered very racist today the BBC would not re-release this as a DVD.

Aye. I had Q9 and there's a lot of it about off air...
pity was I used Betamax ho ho. ;(

The BBC have shown no interest in releasing 'The Telegoons' on DVD either. As a long-time Milligan/Goon Show enthusiast I was for years disappointed by this, especially since the BBC had successfully packaged, sold and then repackaged and sold audio recordings from the radio show for decades. Then I saw half a dozen episodes from an 'unofficial' source. It was atrocious. I don't think that is why the BBC have so relentlessly left it on the shelf, though: there is also a seriously unattractive visual racial stereotyping that would not pass muster these days. Of course that raises the question of whether a 'cultural artefact' from a different age and perspective should be censored or assessed/appreciated in the context of its original conception and broadcast, but the general lack of quality must ultimately put the nail in its coffin.

I have to say, retrospectively, many of these shows (which I once loved) now fail to pass muster just on the grounds of being excruciatingly embarrassing to watch. Though there are one or two sketches and jokes that still amuse, I can hardly bear to see most of the output of the Pythons (with the notable exception of the excellent 'Fawlty Towers') and Milligan. I do fondly remember Spike Milligan's sketch involving a cashpoint and a police constable.

Balls to the fear element. I died laughing when i first saw this around 700 years ago.....And i still double up at this......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0n88tZQc4Q&feature=related

Good to see that a post I put up over a year ago has finally garnered some interest! I have to disagree with you over whether it's a question of taste or quality as Jim Davidson has a number of DVDs on the market! We're talking about arguably the greatest humourist from the last 100 years si I say, if there's material - release it! I'm sure there's enough to muster a decent 'Milligan at the BBC' box set rasther than the Best Of we currently have. (Incidentlly, I have written to 2Entertain who sent back the standard response that it is not yet on their radar.)
PPS. If it is a question of quality, does this also explain why Rutland Weekend Television has yet to be released on DVD - another high on my wish list to see.

Why is Jim Davidson always brought up whenever comedy and racism as a an issue crops up. I recently checked out some of his material to find out what all the fuss was about and didn't find much that was outrageously offensive especially compared with the likes of Bernard Manning, Jerry Sadowitz and yes even Spike Milligan. The difference being that those comedians I find funny while Davidson I do not.

I'm not arguing for *witholding* a release of the Q series in any form (or 'The Telegoons' either, come to that). Nor am I in favour of censorship. Publish all, I say. Clearly our individual taste does not and should not map exactly the same territory as anyone else's. Why the Beeb fail to release *some* programmes to a reasonably certain market I don't know but it's clear when considering 'The Telegoons' that its production values were extremely low, the narrative -- or even the dialogue -- was sometimes incoherent (a situation that is not assisted in any way by the production, which tends to increase the confusion) and the puppet used for (apparently *all*) non-white characters is particularly unattractive and stereotypical. I simply suggest that those are the reasons why the BBC haven't released the show to DVD, but I wouldn't personally object to its release. I just wouldn't add it to my Amazon shopping basket.

Milligan was a talented -- and sometimes funny -- guy. When he was on form there were probably few who could match him. I was a huge fan as a youngster and there are still jokes, sketches, interviews and prose by him that make me laugh. But undirected he could easily become tiresome and that wasn't at all helped by the bestowing of the title 'genius'. I think it rather led Spike to believe his smallest comedic twitch was funny and that was sadly not the case. He's not alone of course: there are many who, having gained a reputation, mistakenly behave as if they are the sage of comedy.

You might want to petition Network DVD as well as the BBC's partner 2Entertain: Network specialise in archive television material and although the majority of their comedy releases are from Independent television shows, their catalogue does include some BBC material.

The Telegoons are available... all episodes... on EBay from a source that sells with or without DVD cases. They claim to have licenced the rights from Grosvenor Films (or whoever came after them) and that the release is totally legit. I have bought and they seemed OK, or as good as 16mm can be - which I think they are.

Spike was definitely a "one-off" in comedy but I never thought his work really came off on television. Although they now sound rather dated, the "Goon Shows" on the Radio were head and shoulders above anything else being done in comedy at the time; virtually all comedy since that time owes a colossal debt to what Spike Milligan did (at considerable cost to his own health) on those shows. The transfer of "The Goons" into the TV series "Telegoons" was not a success, because the humour needed radio to really work.
There were flashes of genius in the "Q" TV series but there was just too much weak and sometimes frankly embarrassing material. I would prefer to remember Mr. M. for what he did on the steam-driven wireless (!), plus the very funny books, plays and poems that he wrote.

I think that's very fair comment, Sou'Wester.

That's a real shame, it's very hard to find Q9 anywhere! Do you still have the tapes?

Yes
and a Betamax player I mothballed 10 yrs back
I'll have to dig them out and couple it to a DVD recorder

Superb, I'd be willing to offer payment for your time & effort, if you could get the disks to me. Or I could trade other parts of the series, if you liked.

My neighbour was saying this too? So I just looked out of curiosity and I found this for him on eBay, if it helps anyone?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Spike-Milligan-complete-series-of-Q6-Q7-Q8-Q10-transfered-from-VHS-to-DVD-/111009393866?pt=UK_DVD_Film_TV_OtherFormats_GL&hash=item19d8acecca

Just £8.50 + £1.50 p&p - but there is no Q9 though sadly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZeIHAPNhZU