276°
Posted 20 hours ago

Kenneth Williams: Born Brilliant: The Life of Kenneth Williams

£6.495£12.99Clearance
ZTS2023's avatar
Shared by
ZTS2023
Joined in 2023
82
63

About this deal

He had worked with producers David Croft before on Hugh and I, and Jimmy Perry at the Watford Palace Theatre. hosted the weekly entertainment show International Cabaret and was a reader for the children's story-reading series Jackanory on BBC1. Direct from the studio sale these pieces of art/sculpture are collectors pieces and already proven investment acquisitions for the future. His diaries give a truthful and compelling picture of a life and career in "the business", the Carry Ons, theatre (one serious triumph as The Dauphin), television, radio, actor, director, voice-over: he did the lot. David Benson's 6 minute video of David Benson's Kenneth Williams walk showing the Argyle Square area of London where Kenneth grew up.

The author tries to correct the impression that Williams hated his father, Charlie, and gives a more sympathetic portrait than emerges from the diaries; he quotes an extract from 1961 that refers to both parents as "darlings". These haunting images show some of the UK's worst criminals in full colour, including the notorious Teacup Poisoner and escaped Broadmoor patient, the Mad Parson. It's a fantastic read, but I do think it helps to have seen the "public" face of Williams to really appreciate the other side of his character that comes out in his diaries. This compilation features eleven extracts from 'Pieces Of Eight', and seventeen from 'One Over The Eight'. In 1940, he was 1 years old and lived in Van Zandt, Texas, with his father, mother, and grandmother.My younger brother took this off my hands years ago and recently mailed it back to me as a surprise. I loved his sharp wit, and felt pain for his constant depression, his hatred of himself and of his sexuality, his love for his mother, his pain over her death, his constant wish for death himself. There was, however, one weak spot in the disguise - he had no black shoes to wear with his parson's clothes. Williams stopped in his pre-teen years, saying "I reached the conclusion that being the offender doesn't give you any more advantage than being a victim. A rare snapshoot of a man who didn't actually live through his times, but was an uneasy passenger throughout the the late 40's to his death in the late 80's.

Even if only for a wonderful snapshot of British life through Kenneth Williams' eyes, this book is worth every moment it took to read over 800 pages! Initially, I rented out the downstairs rooms and it produced some money but there were problems, like tenants not paying the rent. At 801 pages long, ‘The Kenneth Williams Diaries’ are not a quick read, but as you follow the actor from his adolescence through to his golden years, you really unravel the true Kenneth Williams, the sad clown behind the camera.Rarely supervised, Williams started smoking marijuana at the age of 6, and joined the Gangster Disciples and started drinking beer at the age of 9. Williams' parents both had learning difficulties, and his mother was a drug addict who smoked while she was pregnant. Perhaps the most exciting discovery was the script for the feature film that they wrote for Tony Hancock but which was never made, THE DAY OFF. They're not the funniest movies ever and some of the humour is dated but they are enjoyable to watch. Williams withdrew from several successful plays after they became established precisely because they became established.

Kenneth Williams' work on the "Carry On" series is well documented and it's well known that he had regrets about not being taken seriously as a straight actor.He then went on to say that the programmes which he enjoyed the most are "older comedies, but programmes like Would I Lie to You?

Asda Great Deal

Free UK shipping. 15 day free returns.
Community Updates
*So you can easily identify outgoing links on our site, we've marked them with an "*" symbol. Links on our site are monetised, but this never affects which deals get posted. Find more info in our FAQs and About Us page.
New Comment