Kenneth Williams: Born Brilliant: The Life of Kenneth Williams

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Such was its success that Decca Records rush released a cast recording of the production in early 1960. There’s an endless amount to pick through including his sexuality (and the inherent impact of that in the era he was living through), his sneering petulance and his relationship with his mother.

Williams started his acting career in repertory theatre and worked with the Watford Palace Theatre, which was being run by Jimmy Perry, the creator of Dad's Army some years later. Williams also met many of his future co-stars including Michael Knowles, Colin Bean, Donald Hewlett and Mavis Pugh.Williams was an only child and in 1956 bought a house one and a half miles away from his parents' house. Journalist and author - I am the TV critic of the Daily Mail, with a column five days a week to review the previous night's television.

i just finished the Kenneth Williams diaries and what is amazing is that he barely acknowledges the 60's pop culture around him.

Stevens has persuaded a lot of Kenneth Williams' surviving friends and relatives to be interviewed, but unfortunately the results are disappointing. It isn't a book that I'd say you'd read for fun because as I said above, Williams is a miserable sod. I get the impression that in his own mind he never quite achieved what he wanted to get out of life. This book is a full portrait and makes it very clear that Kenneth Williams was much more that the Carry On character he played in twenty-nine movies.

However, he was deemed insane, reprieved and sent to Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum (now Broadmoor Hospital) instead.In December 2005, Williams pleaded guilty to capital murder, aggravated robbery, and theft of property for killing Jenkins and received another life sentence.