They are a dwindling number as time goes by, but in the merry month of May they enjoyed one last laugh. The "they" are the fortunate ones who enjoyed the Goon Show, a pioneering BBC radio comedy series from the 1950s during the heyday of its founding members, Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe, and Michael Bentine. The last laugh was provided courtesy of Spike, gone to meet his Maker two years ago, in 2002, at the age of 83.

Ever since then fans who visited his grave in St. Thomas's Church in Winchelsea, East Sussex, were surprised to find it lacked a headstone. Why this was so was because relatives and the Chichester Diocese disagreed over his chosen epitaph, a typical Milligan jest: "I told you I was ill."

Clerical tut-tutting thought it was inappropriate. What to do? A brilliant improvisation worthy of the Great Goon himself overcame the impasse.

Milligan had been born and christened Terrance Allan Milligan, in Ahmed Nagar or Ahmadnagar, India to an Irish-born officer in the British army. Though he lived most of his life in Britain and served in the British army, he was declared stateless in 1960, and took Irish citizenship. Thereafter he held an Irish, not British, passport.

So, if the English words of the epitaph caused concern, perhaps their translation in Irish would pass muster. They did. All objections were waived, and the long delayed headstone is now in place with the inscription "Duirt me leat go raibh me breoite", the literal Gaelic translation of "I told you I was ill".

As the BBC itself has reported, Bill Horsman, chairman of the Goon Show Preservation Society, said: "News of the headstone going up on Spike's grave is marvellous. We had been very concerned for some time about the situation."

The headstone inscription begs the question: Does God prefer Irish to English?… Bloody marvellous!

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