Dennis Jeremiah (Spike) Mullins (2 October 1915 – 18 April 1994) was a comedy performer and writer. He wrote for a number of established performers, such as

Max Bygraves Walter William Bygraves (16 October 1922 – 31 August 2012), best known by the stage name Max Bygraves (adopted in honour of Max Miller), was an English comedian, singer, actor and variety performer. He appeared on his own television shows, s ...

and

Harry Secombe Sir Harold Donald Secombe (8 September 1921 – 11 April 2001) was a Welsh comedian, actor, singer and television presenter. Secombe was a member of the British radio comedy programme ''The Goon Show'' (1951–1960), playing many characters, m ...

, Kenneth Williams and Frankie Howerd. Perhaps his most famous work is scripting Ronnie Corbett's seated monologues during

The Two Ronnies ''The Two Ronnies'' is a British television comedy sketch show starring Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett. It was created by Bill Cotton and aired on BBC1 from April 1971 to December 1987. The usual format included sketches, solo sections, seria ...

TV series in the UK. He also worked, together with

Barry Cryer Barry Charles Cryer (23 March 1935 – 25 January 2022) was an English writer, comedian, and actor. As well as performing on stage, radio and television, Cryer wrote for many performers including Dave Allen, Stanley Baxter, Jack Benny, Rory B ...

as a writer for the groundbreaking British TV programme

The Frost Report ''The Frost Report'' is a satirical television show hosted by David Frost. It introduced John Cleese, Ronnie Barker, and Ronnie Corbett to television, and launched the careers of other writers and performers. It premiered on BBC1 on 10 March 196 ...

, where Corbett first met his later performing partner, Ronnie Barker.

Early life

Mullins was born in London during World War I to working class parents. The Mullins family lived near a film studio, and the infant Spike was frequently used in silent movies. While still in his teens, he signed on as galley boy on a cargo ship, After four years, he returned home to work as a stevedore, which he did until the outbreak of World War II, At this point he joined the RAF. After his release from the RAF in 1945, he did a number of manual jobs while attempting to make a living at comedy writing; he met with little success. After marrying, he stopped writing and spent the next 16 years supporting his growing family in a number of manual jobs.

Career

Finally, in 1963, after encouragement from his wife, he sent some material to Max Bygraves, and received a positive reposes (and more importantly, got paid). As a result, Mullins finally managed to break into the writing profession. He soon found himself on the fringes of the sizeable and diffuse writing team for The Frost Report, together with the likes of Marty Feldman and

Dick Vosburgh Richard Kennedy Vosburgh (27 August 1929 – 18 April 2007) was a Grammy-nominated, Tony-nominated American-born comedy writer and lyricist working chiefly in Britain. Early life Vosburgh was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He persuaded his f ...

. The show was a focus for a significant amount of writing and performing talent who would go on to be extremely successful, being responsible, at least in part, for

Monty Python Monty Python (also collectively known as the Pythons) were a British comedy troupe who created the sketch comedy television show '' Monty Python's Flying Circus'', which first aired on the BBC in 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four ...

and

The Goodies The Goodies were a trio of British comedians: Tim Brooke-Taylor (17 July 1940–12 April 2020), Graeme Garden (b. 18 February 1943) and Bill Oddie (b. 7 July 1941). The trio created, wrote for and performed in their eponymous television comed ...

, as well as The Two Ronnies. Of course, by this stage, Mullins was significantly older than the mostly Oxbridge-educated team that was around him. As such, he concentrated more on co-writing with the likes of Cryer (which included writing for Harry Secombe's solo vehicle, ''The Harry Secombe Show''), and

Colin Bostock-Smith Colin Bostock-Smith (born 1942)"I was born in 1942, so I was exactly the right age for rock and roll when it all happened./ref> is a British television and radio comedy writer. Early career Until the age of 30, he was a journalist, noting in a re ...

on the Jim Davidson show

Up the Elephant and Round the Castle ''Up the Elephant and Round the Castle'' is a British television sitcom, which aired from 1983 to 1985, and was produced by Thames Television for the ITV network. Starring comedian Jim Davidson, who played the role of Jim London, the show spaw ...

. He also contributed material to the game show Family Fortunes. He also wrote an autobiography, entitled ''Me, To Name But A Few''.Listing at Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3216924-me-to-name-but-a-few

References

British comedy writers 1915 births 1994 deaths Writers from London 20th-century British comedians {{UK-comedian-stub