Posted in: BBC, CBS, Current News, TV | Tagged: ghosts, simon farnaby

How The Death of a Conservative Politician Inspired a Half Naked Ghost

Stephen Milligan was a British Conservative politician who died in 1994 and inspired a character for both the BBC and CBS sitcom Ghosts.

Stephen Milligan MP was a British Conservative politician and journalist who died in 1994. As a student, he was Oxford Union and the Oxford University Conservative Association and became an editor and correspondent for The Economist magazine, a presenter of the BBC's World Tonight, foreign editor and Washington correspondent at The Sunday Times, and a European correspondent for the BBC.

In 1990 he was selected by the Conservative Party to stand as a Member of Parliament for Eastleigh, a seat he won in the General Election of 1992. He has an early government job as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Jonathan Aitken, Minister of State for Defence, and was tipped for high office. However, he died in 1994 in his home in Hammersmith, London, reportedly self-strangled during an act of autoerotic asphyxiation. After not appearing in Parliament as expected, his secretary Vera Taggart went to his home to try and find him. She found his corpse naked except for a pair of stockings and suspenders, with an electrical flex tied around his neck, his head covered, and an orange in his mouth. His death was ruled as a misadventure.

The nature of his death was exposed by the British tabloids and was used to counter Prime Minister John Major's "Back To Basics" campaign for the Conservative Party, and in a subsequent by-election, his seat was taken by the Liberal Democrats.

Hat Trick Productions, producers of the satirical news TV show Have I Got News For You, sent black bin bags, oranges, and black stockings to journalists to publicise a new season, forcing the BBC to subsequently apologise to Milligan's parents.

Twenty-five years on, however, the idea of a Conservative MP dying in such a fashion was the inspiration for Julian in the BBC sitcom Ghosts, played by Simon Farnaby, in a show co-written by him. Aiming for a more family-friendly story, Julian, who died in 1993, was simply trouser-less. He died of a heart attack in the middle of cheating on his wife with another politician. The character has reflected the parody of Conservative MPs previously epitomised by Rik Mayall in The New Statesman as greedy, cynical, opportunist psychopaths. He is the one who almost kills Alison in the show by pushing her out of a window in an attempt to murder her.

Eventually, in the show, Julian discovers that all he is remembered for by the public is the manner of his death. But does discover he has a daughter who has entered politics – though, to his disdain, she is standing for the Green Party.

The US version of the show also created an entirely bottomless telekinetic character in Trevor, played by Asher Goodman, choosing a stockbroker rather than a politician, with similar personality traits. Though sadly, they choose to show that at heart, Trevor is a selfless, giving person, and his lack of trousers and underwear was because he gave them to a friend in need, his persona is all bluster, and he also didn't try to kill Sam.

The BBC version of Julian has, however, remained as cynically manipulating and self-serving as ever – though with the fifth season upon us, is there a chance that Julian may change his ways and finally get sucked off?

With French and Spanish adaptations of Ghosts on the cards, it seems even odder than the death of a minor British Conservative MP in the early nineties should have led to this international tribute act. I think we can say pretty clearly that it's not what he would have wanted.

The Ghosts fifth and final series airs on BBC 1 and the BBC iPlayer from the 6th of October.

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