"He's only got to lift his leg and he'll drown 50 kids!"

This week: Digby, The Biggest Dog in the World, a 1973 British family comedy in which an Old English Sheepdog accidentally drinks an experimental growth formula and raises the woof!

Leading the cast is Jim Dale as Jeff Eldon, an animal psychologist at a NATO research facility; when Spike Milligan (playing a shameless German stereotype) moves in next door he is all for having him impounded as he mistakenly believes Jeff thinks he is a dog.

It's part Disney family adventure, part monster movie parody and utterly British.

Did we forget to mention that other cast members include Angela Douglas, Norman Rossington, John Bluthal and Victor Spinetti? There’s also a cucumber the size of a bus, a mischievous chimp and a wonderful scene set in a roadside café.

Plus we ask: did Dulux pay for the outrageous product-placement? Do the special effects hold up? And why wasn’t Jim Dale a bigger star in Britain?

Joining Tyler is Graham Rinaldi, film writer and academic and huge Bowie fan, and please feel free to join in the Bowie drinking game as we discuss this fine film.

"Round the back for the old cherry brandy!"

Recorded in New York on 6 August 1963, this satirical comedy album brought together Peter Sellers, Anthony Newley, Joan Collins, Leslie Bricusse, Daniel Massey and Michael Lipton at the height of the Profumo Affair.

The midnight session accommodated Newley and Massey, whose Broadway shows had only just finished. The idea had been conceived less than two weeks earlier while Newley and Bricusse were holidaying in Montauk and they were keen to capitalise on Britain's appetite for political satire.

The recording became a celebrity gathering, attracting around 100 guests including Vivien Leigh, Sammy Davis Jr., Roddy McDowall and Peter Lawford. By 2am, according to one witness, Sellers and Newley were sharing Scotch from a thermos while cigarette smoke filled the studio. The entire session was completed in just three hours.

They rushed to release the album before public interest in the Profumo scandal faded but some record labels - notably Decca - were sniffy about its content, with mockery of the Royal Family a particular point of contention. Sellers responded: "Only a prude could possibly be offended by it."

The BBC banned it from radio play, although excerpts had appeared on television. Contemporary reviews ranged from praise to outrage, reflecting the record's deliberately provocative humour. The album remains a fascinating snapshot of Britain's early-1960s satire boom, when comedians and performers increasingly challenged the deference traditionally shown to politicians, celebrities and public institutions.

Joining Tyler to talk through the LP is Brett Tremble, who can be found on Bluesky @agnes-guano.bsky.social

This week we look at Invasion Quartet (1961), one of the most significant, if forgotten, films in Spike Milligan's career. Set in a military convalescent hospital on the English south coast during 1942, the story follows three disabled service officers and an ageing military veteran who decide to launch their own private invasion of occupied France to destroy a German super-gun known as "Big Hermann", whose shelling is disrupting both the war effort and their cricket matches. The result is a whimsical wartime adventure that one hack at the time described as "a skit on The Guns of Navarone."

The film was made shortly after Spike signed a contract with MGM's British subsidiary, soon after the Oscar nomination of The Running, Jumping & Standing Still Film. Invasion Quartet was part of MGM British's first production slate under Lawrence P. Bachmann, alongside future hits such as Village of the Damned and Murder She Said. While those films became major successes and spawned sequels, Invasion Quartet was one of the few productions that failed to make much impact at the box office.

The cast included Bill Travers, John Le Mesurier, Grégoire Aslan, Millicent Martin and Maurice Denham, with Eric Sykes appearing briefly as a German soldier.

Spike himself later dismissed the picture as "desperately unfunny" and often lamented his lack of success in films. It did, however, result in at least one happy outcome for the Milligan family...

Although Invasion Quartet quickly disappeared from view, it offers a fascinating glimpse of a period when British cinema attempted to turn Spike Milligan into a mainstream film star - and failed.

Joining Tyler this week is John Hewer of Hambledon Productions, who are soon to hit the stage with a brand new production of The Phantom Raspberry Blower of Old London Town. John discusses this in the show and details can be found here: https://hambledonproductions.com/phantomraspberryblower/