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The Oiriginal Foursome - Kenneth Williams

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bobbyshaddoe3004Apr 6, 2007
 

 
Time now for my next bit of discussion on the original fourosme,
since my first bit didn't exactly go over well in discussing Derek
Nimmo. Perhaps this will be more of a potboiler. or something.

Time to speak on someone that many believe to have contributed to the
initial success and longevity of the series as it moved out of the
late 60's and full on into the 70's and 80's. The man with the spun
gold hair, the man who flip flopped in his views more often than
Senator John Kerry, the enormous cult who came all the way from both
King's Cross and Great Portland Street, Kenneth Williams.

I must say that certainly Kenneth added a great deal to the series,
he was lively, spontaneous, intelligent, very funny, bombastic, but
could also be rather petulant, and immature, although I wonder if
that was part of his performance on the show. In addition, he was
quite witty and very good at playing the game as well.

what was always interesting was how whenever Kenneth was doing
something very visual, it always prompted Nicholas to stop the whole
show to explain to the listeners just what Kenneth is doing, even
though more often than not we can imagine and picture in our heads
what he's up to and have no need for any play by play commentary on
Nicholas' part.

what was always a great pleasure was the fact that Kenneth seemed to
act like winning the game was always important, so he added that
level of drama to the show that many other players would bring to the
table whenever they would argue over decisions and points and
essentially trying to get their point of view across. Kenneth was
without a doubt a master of this, the way he would scream yell, bang
the table, shout at people and hurl insults at people left and right
and center.

some of the best stuff had to be whenever he would kiss Clement
Freud, as it usually displayed his camp sensibilities, and the way
his voice would change from East End cockney and working class, to a
feminine voice, to being upper crust and posh.

of course, it was Kenneth that introduced the notion of elongating
words and vowels in order to get fewer words into the time he was
speaking, in order to get to the end of the seconds without actually
hesitating. it seemed to be a rather borderline issue at times,
because he would stretch words out beyond the point of hesitation and
rarely would be penalized for it, but yet when other people did it at
the time, they'd be penalized for hesitation, which wasn't entirely
fair to let Kenneth get away with that sort of thing.

In fact, I remember once in an episode, Andree Melly challenged him
for talking slowly, got a huge laugh from it, but not a bonus point.
Then later on in the program, Kenneth challenges her for speaking
slowly, and Nicholas then says 'If I take the subject away from
Andree for speaking slowly, can I take it away from you the next
time' and Kenneth screams out 'NO NO NO!!!'

another one of Kenneth's particular quirks would often be his
behavior towards women on the show, he would go on this chauvinistic
tack of shouting and screaming at women, sometimes for being stupid
in whatever it was they were saying on a subject, usually this was
directed at Aimi MacDonald.

however, this was usually done only in the context of generating
humor, because it was not well known that Kenneth actually had a
great love for the women that came on the show. Was great friends
with Sheila Hancock, Andree Melly and Aimi MacDonald, and also I
believe Geraldine Jones, possibly the only woman aside from Elaine
Stritch that he never abused. in fact, according to my friend Dean,
Kenneth actually had considered marriage to a woman several times
because of a great desire to have children.

it's a shame that wasn't to be, I can only imagine a Kenneth Williams
Jr. or even a daughter named Cleo perhaps carrying on his wonderful
legacy.

amongst the man's other credits, well we all know he started off
doing Hancock's Half Hour' with Tony Hancock, but was fired because
of professional jealousy. then of course working on 'Beyond Our Ken'
and 'Round The Horne' with the Kenneth Horne Troupe, consisting of
Kenneth Horne, Betty Marsden, Bill Pertwee and another gentleman
who's name I can't seem to recall at the moment.

I remember hearing several episodes of 'Round the Horne' and always
thought that Kenneth worked rather well alongside these incredible
actors, as Kenneth brought to life several memorable characters.
Amongst my favorites were definitely J. Peasemold Gruntfuttock, folk
singer Rambling Syd Rumpo and of course Sandy of 'Julian & Sandy'.

the amazing thing is, although he is also well known for all
the 'Carry On' films he did, I never saw any of them. so I can't
comment on the films that were also a huge part of Ken's repetoire.

it was sad to hear him slowly deteriorate during the late 80's on the
program, not even mustering the energy to say much of anything during
most shows, and to hear about his passing, it was a definite blow to
the show. although, his influence and legacy can still be heard in
the forms of such camp individuals as Graham Norton, Julian Clary and
Chris Neil.

I'll now open the floor to anyone else that wishes to comment.

 
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