Spike Milligan

Spike Milligan

Terence Alan Patrick Seán "Spike" Milligan Hon. KBE was a comedian, writer, musician, poet, playwright, soldier and actor. His early life was spent in India, where he was born, but the majority of his working life was spent in the United Kingdom. He became an Irish citizen in 1962 after the...

 made wrote and performed in three series of the radio comedy program The Idiot Weekly

The Idiot Weekly

The Idiot Weekly was a radio programme made by the Australian Broadcasting Commission.-Background:Transcriptions of the Goon Show were broadcast on Australian radio from late 1955. When Spike Milligan visited his parents in Woy Woy in 1958, the Australian Broadcasting Commission signed him for a...

for the Australian Broadcasting Commission

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...

 in 1958-1962. Six episodes were remade by the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 in 1963 as The Omar Khayyam Show.

The cast was Spike Milligan

Spike Milligan

Terence Alan Patrick Seán "Spike" Milligan Hon. KBE was a comedian, writer, musician, poet, playwright, soldier and actor. His early life was spent in India, where he was born, but the majority of his working life was spent in the United Kingdom. He became an Irish citizen in 1962 after the...

, John Bluthal

John Bluthal

John Bluthal is a Polish-born British film and television actor, mostly in comedy. He is best known for his work with Spike Milligan and for his roles in the television series Never Mind the Quality Feel the Width and The Vicar of Dibley.-Early life:Bluthal was born in Galicia, Poland, of Jewish...

, Bob Todd

Bob Todd

Bob Todd was an English comedy actor, mostly known for appearing as a straight man in the sketch shows of Benny Hill and Spike Milligan. For many years he lived in Tunbridge Wells, Kent....

, Bill Kerr

Bill Kerr

William 'Bill' Kerr is an Australian film and television actor. He was born into a performing arts family in Cape Town, South Africa, but grew up in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia....

 and Barry Humphries

Barry Humphries

John Barry Humphries, AO, CBE is an Australian comedian, satirist, dadaist, artist, author and character actor, best known for his on-stage and television alter egos Dame Edna Everage, a Melbourne housewife and "gigastar", and Sir Les Patterson, Australia's foul-mouthed cultural attaché to the...

 with music by George Chisholm

George Chisholm (musician)

George Chisholm OBE was a Scottish jazz trombonist.Born in Glasgow to a family of musicians, Chisholm's musical career began in the Glasgow Playhouse orchestra. In the late 1930s he moved to London, where he played in dance bands led by Bert Ambrose and Teddy Joyce...

 & his Jolly Jazzers. The producer was Charles Chilton

Charles Chilton

Charles Chilton MBE is a BBC radio presenter, a writer and a producer. Born in Bloomsbury in London, England, he never knew his father - who was killed during World War I - and when he was six his mother died as a result of having a botched abortion, so he was raised by his grandmother. He was...

.

It was broadcast weekly from 27 December 1963. The episodes were (in broadcast order) Ned Kelly, The Ashes, The Prime Minister's Trousers, The Flying Dustmen, The America Cup and Walzing Matilda. The scripts had minor changes to remove some references to Australian locations and personalities unfamiliar to British audiences. However some better known personalities remained, notably Sir Donald Bradman

Donald Bradman

Sir Donald George Bradman, AC , often referred to as "The Don", was an Australian cricketer, widely acknowledged as the greatest batsman of all time...

.

Episode	Title	Original broadcast date
1	Ned Kelly	27 December 1963
2	The Ashes	3 January 1964
3	The Prime Minister's Trousers	10 January 1964
4	The Flying Dustman	17 January 1964
5	The America Cup	24 January 1964
6	Waltzing Matilda	5 February 1964

All six episodes survive in the BBC archives and in private collections.