Prince 'fed up' of praising Spike

Prince Charles has become so fed up with people asking him about Spike Milligan that he has refused to discuss the comic genius.

Biographer Humphry Carpenter was spurned when he asked St James's Palace for an interview about the prince's comic hero.

And he told the Cheltenham literature festival: "He said no because he was basically fed up with Spike.

"Spike was dead by then so I don't know what was going on in the prince's head about him."

Charles has been a lifelong fan of The Goons and led tributes to Spike when he died in February last year, at the age of 84.

At the time he said: "I shall miss his irreverent and hysterical presence and can only say that the world really will be the poorer for his departure."

And he paid tribute to the comic when he received a lifetime achievement honour at the 1994 British Comedy Awards, earning the rebuke that he was a "grovelling little bastard".

To buy Humphrey Carpenter's biography of Spike, with 30 per cent off

Published: 13 Oct 2003