This television programme is so live that the participants are larger than life . Actress Valerie Van-Ost queens it behind a dummy screen as a bedraggled Spike Milligan (right) and actor Bill Kerr pay close attention , during rehearsals of The Bed-Sitting Room , at the Mermaid Theatre . This post-atomic comedy was written by Spike and John Antrobus and directed by Spike with assistance from John D. Collins 17 October 1966