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 "Max" Bygraves (16 October 1922 – 31 August 2012) was an English comedian, singer, actor and variety performer. He appeared on his own television shows, sometimes performing comedy sketches between songs. He made twenty ''Roya ...

and

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

Kenneth Williams Kenneth Charles Williams (22 February 1926 – 15 April 1988) was a British actor and comedian. He was best known for his comedy roles and in later life as a raconteur and diarist. He was one of the main ensemble in 26 of the 31 ''Carry ...

and

Frankie Howerd Francis Alick Howard (6 March 1917 – 19 April 1992), better known by his stage-name Frankie Howerd, was an English actor and comedian. Early life Howerd was born the son of a soldier Francis Alfred William (1887–1934)England & Wales, Deat ...

. Perhaps his most famous work is scripting

Ronnie Corbett Ronald Balfour Corbett (4 December 1930 – 31 March 2016) was a Scottish actor, broadcaster, comedian and writer. He had a long association with Ronnie Barker in the BBC television comedy sketch show ''The Two Ronnies''. He achieved promine ...

'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 10 April 1971 to 25 December 1987. The usual format included sketches, solo se ...

'' 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'', where Corbett first met his later performing partner,

Ronnie Barker Ronald William George Barker (25 September 1929 – 3 October 2005) was an English actor, comedian and writer. He was known for roles in British comedy television series such as ''Porridge (1974 TV series), Porridge'', ''The Two Ronnies'', ...

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 A dockworker (also called a longshoreman, stevedore, docker, wharfman, lumper or wharfie) is a waterfront manual laborer who loads and unloads ships. As a result of the intermodal shipping container revolution, the required number of dockwork ...

, 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 response (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

Marty Feldman Martin Alan Feldman (8 July 1934 – 2 December 1982) was a British actor, comedian and writer. He was known for his exophthalmos, prominent, strabismus, misaligned eyes. He initially gained prominence as a writer with Barry Took on th ...

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

Monty Python's Flying Circus ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' (also known as simply ''Monty Python'') is a British surreal humour, surreal sketch comedy series created by and starring Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, and Terry Gilliam, w ...

'' 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 The Goodies (TV series), ...

'', as well as ''The Two Ronnies''. 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 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 James Cameron Davidson (born 13 December 1953) is an English stand-up comedian, actor, singer and TV presenter. He hosted the television shows '' Big Break'' and '' The Generation Game''. In 2014 he was the winner of the 13th series of ''Cel ...

show, ''

Up the Elephant and Round the Castle ''Up the Elephant and Round the Castle'' is a British television sitcom, which aired from 30 November 1983 to 7 November 1985, and was produced by Thames Television for the ITV network. Starring comedian Jim Davidson, who played the role of J ...

''. He also contributed material to the game show ''

Family Fortunes ''Family Fortunes'' is a British television game show based on the American game show ''Family Feud''. The programme ran on ITV from 6 January 1980 to 6 December 2002. A celebrity version, '' All Star Family Fortunes'', followed from 2006 to ...

''. He also wrote an autobiography, entitled ''Me, To Name But A Few''.

References

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