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The Carte Blanche of Kenneth Williams

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BobbyOct 24, 2010
 

 
This is something that no doubt has fandom divided regarding the appreciation of Kenneth Williams. Kenneth had a style of playing the game that often played on his strengths as a comedic performer. No one on the show was quite like Kenneth. But often his style tended to consist on putting on funny voices or stretching words out, and adding several syllables into one syllable words. In addition, he just seemed to be given free reign to act like a immature brat, often screaming and bullying his fellow panelists (usually the ladies), and then turns around and does the exact opposite, often denying that he would ever stoop to such behavior mere moments after finishing one of his disgraceful tirades. On top of that, he would often decry and condemn other panelists for trying to do what he does on a regular basis, claiming that he never does the very thing he's challenging them on. And it reached an apex largely during the 70s but moreso in the 80s when Ian Messiter, Nicholas Parsons, and even the producers of the show began to cater to this outrageous behavior, or even feed his overinflated ego.

something else that I tended to notice was a change of opinion regarding his attitude towards Peter Jones that shifted from the early 70's to the 1980's. in the 70's it often seemed like Kenneth and Peter were rivals, largely because Peter was the first to openly challenge Kenneth's mannerisms and his outrageous behavior. this was of course fairly early in Peter Jones' involvement on the program, and there always seemed to be a sense of one upmanship between them, whenever Peter tried to start speaking on something Kenneth would be down on him like a ton of bricks, and Peter would try to get his own back (sometimes not always succeeding). but I recall one episode when Peter had managed to get into the lead for the first time since coming onto the program, and he commented that Kenneth seemed to be siding with Clement against him just because he happened to be in the lead for the first time in 8 weeks. and then two subjects later, Kenneth managed to take the lead and at the end of the round, Kenneth pretty much let Peter have it saying 'So there you are Peter Jones!' even though, as Nicholas pointed out, he had been in direct competition with Clement Freud in the previous round, and Kenneth replied 'because he was so smug when he was four in the lead, so smug. just sitting there like a cat with the cream'. Kenneth was also one to always jump on Peter and tell him to shut up if he's got nothing to say on a subject.

But in the 80's, Kenneth seemed more complimentary towards Peter. one occasion when Peter said he wished he could speak more fluently and elegantly, Kenneth challenged on deviation, saying that Peter Jones already speaks quite fluently and elegantly. And goes on to heap praise upon praise on him, and this actually manages to get Kenneth the subject.

still, he did bring a sense of drama to the program, a sense that the competition really did matter. i just didn't think it was right that he seemed to be treated like the Just a Minute Prima Donna. there's no denying Kenneth's talent, I've listened to plenty of episodes of Round the Horne to know he is exceptionally gifted, I've seen plenty of clips of talk show segments to know he is very intelligent. but to cater to his vanity and his ego in such a manner seems to go against what Just a Minute is all about, in that it is a team effort, so to allow Kenneth to hog the spotlight or the limelight all the time just didn't seem appropriate in my view.

 
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