Just A Minute

I have to bear much of the responsibility for the spreading of this story. Years ago I mentioned on the website that a woman guest had walked out of a recording once because they were upset by Kenneth’s remarks. I used to regularly receive requests for more details which I politely declined for some time. But one day I let the cat out of the bag and rather wish I hadn’t. Why? Because I’m a journalist by profession and try not to make factual claims that I wouldn’t be prepared to print under my name in a newspaper or air on the radio. I don’t think my claim about Nyree Dawn Porter quite meets that test and if I were publishing this in the paper, I would want to check it a bit more.

 

But with that proviso, I’d say this – I would be happy to say that an incident like this did occur, ie, a walk-out by a woman guest. It is mentioned in one of the books about Kenneth and in some of the obits that were written about him in 1988, and in other places. It also happens to explain the odd number of recordings in the fourth season.

 

My information that it was Nyree comes second-hand. But it is a very good source – you would be impressed if I named the person, who was present at the recording. But I don’t have that person’s permission to name them, so I won’t. Still, memories can play tricks over the years, hence my saying it’s not quite as definite as the fact that there was a walk-out.

 

For those who say that she seems thick-skinned and/or that everyone knew that Kenneth was just performing... I’m a very amiable polite person, but in my working career I have been in situations where people burst into tears because of things I said. I’ve been in tears because of things said to me once or twice. It may be just not the words – sometimes people have had a bad day – the cat’s died, they’ve had a bad argument with their partner, they’ve missed out on a major part, they couldn’t sleep the previous night, they’ve got a throbbing wisdom tooth. I think it is quite possible for anyone to suddenly think they are just not in the right mood to take part in a light-hearted game.

 

As for Kenneth, yes, as someone said in the thread, 90 percent of his antics were for fun. Russell Davies says in the foreword to the diaries that Kenneth was more likely to fall into a sullen silence and only speak when he was asked to, if he was seriously annoyed with something.

 

Nevertheless, there isn’t much doubt that Kenneth could be difficult, both professionally and personally. Professionally he did very little serious work in the last 10 to 15 years of his life because he was known as difficult to work with. Personally most of his friends say he could be terribly rude and offensive to people.

 

So I don’t have the same doubts that the two Stevens have.