No headstone on Milligan's grave

Spike Milligan was buried near his home in East Sussex

Comedy legend Spike Milligan's grave still has no headstone, more than two years after his death.

The delay is because his family have not decided what the gravestone should say.

The former goon was buried close to his home in Udimore, East Sussex, after he died in February 2002.

Fans visit his grave but it is marked only by some plants and a small statue.

Only a joke

Mr Milligan famously quipped that he wanted his gravestone to say: "I told you I was ill."

But his widow Shelagh told the BBC on Tuesday that the line was only a joke and it was not an epitaph he would have wanted.

Some 700 people attended a memorial service for Spike Milligan

She said she and other relatives were still to decide what the stone should say.

Milligan formed the Goons with Peter Sellers, Harry Secombe and Michael Bentine and was widely regarded as one of the greatest influences on British comedy.

A private funeral was held for him at St Anthony of Padua Church in Rye, close to his home and was attended by about 100 mourners.

The comedian was buried at St Thomas' Church in nearby Winchelsea, his coffin draped in the Irish flag.

About 700 people attended a memorial service for him at St Martin-in-the-Fields in central London in June 2002.

Bill Horsman of the Goon Show Preservation Society, said: "He wrote his own epitaph "I told you I was ill" and I'm not sure whether that should be there but we would like to see a proper headstone for Spike."