New exhibit shows archive pictures of BBC comedians

Compton Verney exhibition charts 60 years of comedy, from Hancock's Half Hour to Miranda Hart.

Where does all the best comedy come from? Death & War

Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe, Eric Sykes and the rest all experienced war. That made their comedy different to today's.

Remembering Sir Harry Secombe and Neddie Seagoon

How would you react to the phrases "needle-nardle-noo" or "what, what, what what, what!"?

This is scarcely a trace of a story-line, hence all the gags and lunatic gooneries are without dramatic connection, and situation comedy cannot survive without a plot to supply the situations. The gallery of character can hardly be said to interact with one another; in many cases they exist solely in terms of a single outlandish idea or costume, with little else in the way of discernible personality. In this situation the natural comics Spike Milligan, Harry Secombe, Marty Feldman - thrive; the the others however - in particular Michael Hordren, Rita Tushingham and Ralph Richardson - are quite unable to sustain the interest which their predominant postition in the film demands.