Spike: paying homage to the comic genius behind The Goon Show

As a new play based on the life of Spike Milligan opens 20 years after his death, Nick Newman tells Nick Smurthwaite the BBC did not initially understand The Goon Show and failed to recognise that Milligan was the brains behind it, and how he and co-writer Ian Hislop used Milligan’s protracted battle with the Corporation to form the backbone of the piece