I’ve always been a fan of comedy.

Sounds a stupid thing to say doesn’t it? I mean, who isn’t? Everyone likes a laugh, don’t they?

But, there’s comedy and there’s ‘comedy’.

There’s After Life and there’s Mrs Brown’s Boys.

There’s Detectorists and there’s Two Pints Of Lager…

Very different shows, catering for what I suspect are very different audiences.

I’ve not yet met anyone who likes both the former and the latter.  For me – and in the two examples above – it’s the former. Every time.

But, I’ve always had a penchant for the absurd and the wacky.

I grew up with Python and The Goodies, Not The Nine O’clock News and The Young Ones, all of them anarchic and unconventional.

And I can trace this love of silly humour all the way back to 1977, when I read Spike Milligan’s war memoir “Rommel? Gunner Who?”

I don’t know how or why that book came to be in my possession; whether I just happened across it or whether it was recommended to me, I just don’t know. But I do remember reading it in the back of my dad’s Cortina on our way down to Minehead during the holidays, and I was just crying with laughter.

In later years I discovered Spike’s radio triumph The Goon Show and spent a fortune acquiring as many shows as I could on cassette tape from HMV.

I joined the Goon Show fan club and would motorcycle into London, for meet ups with them, once a month. A friendly and enthusiastic bunch who were sometimes a little too, er… enthusiastic. Occasionally, Spike himself or Michael Bentine would venture down and buy the drinks and a brilliant night of storytelling would ensue.

Through the club, I made a penpal. Of course, these were pre-internet days and so yes, an actual pen was used and we would write ridiculous letters back and forth to each other. She even put me up (or put up with me) for a month in her home in California.

Which was nice.

As a quite active member of the club, I sort of became part of the inner circle and was very excited once, when Spike invited a small group of us to his house for dinner. Unfortunately, I couldn’t go that day, as I had a family function to attend.

“Oh well, maybe next time.”

There wasn’t a next time.

Many comedy historians cite Milligan as the man who changed the face of British television and radio comedy, and I think that’s true. His influence can certainly be seen in some of the comedy  programmes that I mentioned earlier.

But, for me, he’s just the man who brought hours of laughter and joy into my life, both directly and indirectly, and for that, I thank him dearly.

He died 21 years ago, today.