An Audience with Kenneth Williams

Madman Entertainment

R4 DVD

An Audience with Kenneth Williams dates from 1983 and is a delightful, witty and amusing series of recollections about his life and experiences, especially on stage and at the movies.

Williams begins with recollections of his time in the Army, and then reflects on his stage and radio experiences onto the Carry On films. He offers a couple of songs including a Ballad and a fun parody of a French ditty.

Williams is best known for his outrageously camp manner and his unique form of English upper class wit. It is true that his humour is very “stereotypical” yet in many ways this is the only way many gay men could be visible in this early days. It is too easy to forget the context of these comedies and to attempt to read modern day “political correctness” back into the past and not appreciate the period in which his style of comedy developed.

Certainly looking back much of the “Carry On” humour and the Kenneth Williams style could be seen as dated but he still puts on a damn good show and so many of his memories are filled with pathos as well as wit and humour. The twenty six Carry One films in which he starred still sell well and surprisingly new fans are uncovering them on a regular basis.

There is also a smell of bitterness and pain under the humour, Williams clearly took the dandy effete role as a defence against the kind of world he was forced to live in. His life was a very difficult one, he was a suspect in the death of his homophobic father and he was never able to form long term relationships, he died by his own hand in 1998.

An Audience with Kenneth Williams is an enjoyable experience with lots of touching memories, witty anecdotes and great humour. At the same I cannot help reflect on the tragedy of his life…

This review will appear in Volume 2 No.3 (2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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