John Antrobus

John Arthur Antrobus{{Cite web|url=https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/officers/R9uL7h93p9UqwOp8zOA_8CesKf8/appointments|title=John Arthur ANTROBUS - Personal Appointments (free information from Companies House)|website=find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk}} was born at Woolwich, London.Contemporary Dramatists, ed. Kate Berney, St James Press, 1993, p. 19 His father was a regimental sergeant-major in the Royal Horse Artillery, and the family was stationed at the School of Artillery in Larkhill, on the edge of Salisbury Plain. After attending Bishop Wordsworth's School in Salisbury, Wiltshire, Selhurst Grammar School, Croydon, and King Edward VII Nautical College, London, where he was an apprentice deck officer in the Merchant Navy from 1950 to 1952, Antrobus attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, serving with the East Surrey Regiment from 1952 to 1955,Contemporary Dramatists, ed. James Vinson, St James Press, 1973, p. 36 but rebelled and dropped out of the Army.{{cite book|last=McCann|first=Graham|title=Spike & Co.|year=2006|publisher=Hodder & Stoughton|location=London|isbn=0-340-89809-7}}Herbert (1981) page 21 also mentions Sandhurst

After leaving the Army, spending time also working as a supply teacher and waiter, Antrobus pursued a future writing comedy, and went to Associated London Scripts (ALS), the writers' co-operative set up by Spike Milligan and Eric Sykes.McCann (2006) p. 156 Antrobus states "I met Spike in 1954 or 55. I had sent a sample script to Galton and Simpson and they took me on at Associated London Scripts". Antrobus and Milligan "wrote a couple of Goon Shows together. I wish I had done more of them with him but I wanted to be a playwright. I didn't realise they were golden times and how they gave life".{{cite book|last=Ventham|first=Maxine|title=Spike Milligan: His Part In Our Lives.|year=2002|publisher=Robson|location=London|isbn=1-86105-530-7}} p. 68 The two shows were The Spon Plague, and The Great Statue Debate, both broadcast in March 1958.McCann (2006) pp367-368Antrobus (2002) pp. 16, 32{{Cite web|url=http://www.thegoonshow.net/scripts_show.asp?title=s08e23_the_spon_plague|title=The Goon Show Site - Script - The Spon Plague (Series 8, Episode 23)|website=www.thegoonshow.net|access-date=19 September 2009|archive-date=20 September 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090920204235/http://www.thegoonshow.net/scripts_show.asp?title=s08e23_the_spon_plague|url-status=dead}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.thegoonshow.net/scripts_show.asp?title=s08e26_the_great_statue_debate|title=The Goon Show Site - Script - The Great Statue Debate (Series 8, Episode 26)|website=www.thegoonshow.net|access-date=19 September 2009|archive-date=23 September 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090923092832/http://www.thegoonshow.net/scripts_show.asp?title=s08e26_the_great_statue_debate|url-status=dead}}

At ALS, Antrobus also worked with Johnny Speight on The Frankie Howerd Show in 1956, After contributing material to the first Carry On film, Carry On Sergeant (1958), he wrote his first movie screenplay: for Idol on Parade (1959), starring Anthony Newley.Antrobus (2002) pp.44 During 1960 he worked with Milligan and Sykes in the second series of Sykes and A... (August- September 1960). He was also a contributing writer to the television series The Army Game, in the 1958 and 1961 shows, along with Larry Stephens, Maurice Wiltshire, and Lew Schwarz in 1958, and Brad Ashton, Barry Took, Marty Feldman and Wilshire in 1961.McCann (2006) pp. 350, 351. This article previously referred to him contributing to the spin-off show Bootsie and Snudge. However, McCann lists Antrobus amongst the writers for The Army Game, but not Bootsie and Snudge. During the 1960s and 1970s, he provided scripts for television series as diverse as That Was the Week That Was, Television Playhouse and Spike Milligan's Milligan in... {{Citation needed|date=December 2009}} Antrobus wrote for Milligan's last radio series, The Milligan Papers, a BBC Radio Collection released in 2002. Milligan said he did not actually like Antrobus.{{Citation needed|date=June 2021}}

Antrobus' best known play is the surrealist The Bed-Sitting Room (1963) (co-written with Milligan).Milligan, Spike, & Antrobus, John (1973) The Bedsitting Room. Tandem: London. First published in Great Britain by Margaret & Jack Hobbs, 1970. Published by Universal-Tandem Publishing Co Ltd, 1972. A film version was released in 1969 and a sequel from 1983. His other plays include Cane of Honour (1965), Captain Oates' Left Sock (1969), An Apple A Day (1970) and City Delights (1978). In October 2005, Antrobus and Ray Galton (with whom he had collaborated on the 1986 sitcom Room at the Bottom and Get Well Soon from 1997) unveiled their play Steptoe and Son – Murder at Oil Drum Lane at the Theatre Royal, York.

In 2010, Antrobus and Ray Galton's production of Not Tonight Caligula, originally written for Frankie Howerd, was recorded as a live radio play at The Leicester Square Theatre by The Wireless Theatre Company directed by Antrobus and starring Clive Greenwood in Howerd's role. Although largely retired, Antrobus still writes and is involved in fringe productions and talent scouting.

In 1958, John Antrobus married Margaret {{nee}} McCormick. They had two sons and a daughter.{{cite encyclopedia|title=ANTROBUS, John|encyclopedia=Who's Who in the Theatre|volume=1|page= 21|publisher=Gale Research Company|year=1981|issn=0083-9833|editor=Ian Herbert}}

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• {{cite book | last = Antrobus| first = John| title = You'll Come To Love Your Sperm Test (Playscript) in 'New Writers 4' . |year = 1965 | publisher = Calder and Boyars | location = London }} First produced Edinburgh, 1964.
• {{cite book | last = Antrobus| first = John| title = Trixie and Baba (Playscript 22) |year = 1969 | publisher = Calder and Boyars | location = London | isbn = 978-0-7145-0058-4}} First produced Royal Court Theatre, London, 1968. Televised 1971.
• {{cite book | last = Antrobus| first = John| title = Why Bournemouth? and Other Plays (Playscripts) |year = 1970 | publisher = Calder Publications | location = London | isbn = 978-0-7145-0641-8}} First produced, Almost Free, London, 1968
• {{cite book |last=Milligan |first=Spike |author2=Antrobus, John |title=The Bedsitting Room |publisher=Tandem |location=London|year=1973 }} First published in Great Britain by Margaret & Jack Hobbs, 1970. Published by Universal-Tandem Publishing Co Ltd, 1972. 1970 Spike Milligan and John Antrobus.
• {{cite book | last = Antrobus| first = John| title = Captain Oates' Left Sock (Playscript) |year = 1974 | publisher = Samuel French | location = London }} First produced Royal Court Theatre, 1969
• {{cite book | last = Antrobus| first = John| title = Help! I am a Prisoner in a Toothpaste Factory |year = 1978 | publisher = Robson Books | location = London | isbn = 978-0-340-25359-5}}
• {{cite book | last = Antrobus| first = John| title = Hitler in Liverpool (Playscript) |year = 1983 | publisher = Calder and Boyars| location = London }} First produced Gate Theatre, Notting Hill, London, 1980
• {{cite book | last = Antrobus| first = John| title = One Orange for the Baby (Playscript) |year = 1983 | publisher = Calder and Boyars| location = London }} First produced Gate Theatre, Notting Hill, London, 1980
• {{cite book | last = Antrobus| first = John| title = Up in the Hide (Playscript) |year = 1983 | publisher = Calder and Boyars| location = London }} First produced Gate Theatre, Notting Hill, London, 1980
• {{cite book | last = Antrobus| first = John| title = When Did You Last See Your Trousers? (Playscript) |year = 1988 | publisher = Samuel French | location = London }} First produced, Mold, Clwyd, 1986.
• {{cite book | last = Antrobus| first = John| title = The Boy With Illuminated Measles |year = 1988 | publisher = Knight| location = UK | isbn = 978-0-340-25360-1 }}
• {{cite book | last = Antrobus| first = John| title = Ronnie and the High Rise |year = 1998 | publisher = Robson| location = London | isbn = 978-0-86051-621-7}}
• {{cite book | last = Antrobus| first = John| title = Ronnie and the Flying Fitted Carpet |year = 1999 | publisher = Robson| location = London | isbn = 978-0-86051-822-8}}
• {{cite book | last = Antrobus | first = John | title = Surviving Spike Milligan: A Voyage Through the Mind & Mirth of the Master Goon | year = 2002 | publisher = Robson Books | location = London | isbn = 0-246-12275-7 }}

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Category:1933 births

Category:English male television writers

Category:English radio writers

Category:Living people

Category:Graduates of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst

Category:Writers from Aldershot

Category:English comedy writers

Category:British surrealist writers