Kenneth Williams | Good Afternoon | 1977

A cut down version of an interview conducted by Mavis Nicholson with comedy Icon and avid Diarist - Kenneth Williams. In these segments Williams discusses why it is important to keep a diary and what he would like done to them one he is "gone" first transmitted 06 JAN 1977
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Quote: VT15634

[@cBearTV-]

Mavis was such a clever interviewer she managed to ask questions that didn't seem to be intrusive yet led the interviewee to give actually quite deep answers. I don't know why she stopped working in interview format, but her work should be a reminder to journalists today about how they can conduct an interview and get revealing and personal answers without being offensive or simply looking for shock value. Does anyone know if Mavis carried on working in journalism after her TV work finished?

[@cecilefox9136]

Kenneth Williams what an amazing human being!

[@MrWindermere123]

Kenneth Williams left school at 14 but is clearly a well-read and highly intelligent man - an intellectual in fact. I can see why being famous for funny voices and Carry On films might have irritated him as he grew older. At the endof his life he seemed to be bitter and isolated despite his many talents.

[@BeautifulNorfolk]

Interesting interview. He's such a legend!😀

[@Volker_GR]

The Germans knew and loved Kenneth Wiliams as well (the carry on movies were very popular here). His name might not be familiar to everyone and of course we didn't know his real voice at the time (dubbing), but his facial expressions and especially his nostrils were always considered as 'very british' and eccentric, in a loving way. 🙂

[@volvof12able]

I adore that man of course he was an actor first and foremost but what an intellect he had such a wonderfully observant oritor of life And master lyricist his command & use of the english language is masterful.

[@jimcobain4381]

Fascinating man

[@TheEchovoices]

oh i want more he was so wonderful I just cannot believe he is gone after all these years yet

[@CityThatCannotBeCaptured]

I agree. We don't want to let him go. I don't anyway.

[@marywilliams9858]

I have his diary and it is excrutiatingly funny.

[@CityThatCannotBeCaptured]

Oh wow. I would love to read it.

[@danw1374]

He was such a fascinating man. Oh to have spent just a few minutes in his company.

[@EmmaRiddle543]

I have his collected diaries and it’s a bit depressing and upsetting.

[@1911olympic]

Excellent interview, where he showed his deep intellectual side without being a clown too much.

[@robbryant52]

Mavis she is so attractive and great with her guests

[@trevorkeyes2376]

33 years hes been gone.

[@benfisher1376]

36 now

[@mintythemoose]

@@benfisher1376 This is hard to believe how quickly the decades pass, yet he is so alive and present in 2024. Wonderful guy.

[@benfisher1376]

@mintythemoose I wish there were still talented and intelligent celebrities today.

[@johnking5174]

In Kenneth's diary, he revealed that his agent managed to get the appearance fee for this interview of Kenny to £100, that was a lot Thames Television to pay for a guest. The usual was around £50, as it was seen the guest had more to benefit from the interview than the show. But £100 was nice in 1974. Around £1,150 in 2018.

[@StarWarsJay]

Wow. I remember my grandad giving me £50 around then (maybe in 75) to buy toys. How generous. He must have won the pools or something. That’s a huge amount to casually give a child.

[@badwolfsigma6591]

Great interview, would love to see the whole interview

[@electricrussell]

Wow, my speakers are vibrating like crazy due to Kenneth's voice. Anyone else?

[@WhippetOut]

Love Mavis Nicholson and Kenneth Williams. Great interview as always. But I’m obsessed with the Monstera Deliciosa.

[@samoyedpuppy]

What a great little interview, I have read the book of his diaries, it's quite depressing in places, he was not a happy man, especially in the last few years of his life.

[@Catharguy]

He's really missed on film and television, now sadly gone and much lamented.

[@davidevans3227]

..thankyou so much for sharing this, but why only six minutes? i see this all the time on YT.. just a tantalising short clip.. such a shame.. but always great to listen to him 🙂 ..thankyou..

[@musicbybackinnyc1]

4.33,that famous laugh lol

[@ameliaquartermain4220]

I was crying is that weird?

[@EgoShredder]

+Function v2 There is nothing weird about outward emotion in any circumstance.

[@marywilliams9858]

No if you love him.

[@danw1374]

No it's not weird. It's because you don't get people like Kenneth anymore in showbiz.

[@davidevans3227]

..agree with all said here.. 🙂

[@jessiejames7492]

Well his diaries are being condensed in to a book and for sake. It's full of his acid tongue jibes ' it's called ACID DROPS.

[@marywilliams9858]

jessie james I read a collection of his diaries. Hysterically funny.

[@jessiejames7492]

youre lucky.

[@ishmael2586]

This is what we've lost. Still, at least we've got james corden.

[@stevebbuk]

There wasn't a careful editor at all Kenneth, which makes the legacy of your diaries one of equivocation.

[@watchtowersociety6995]

asexual?

[@CityThatCannotBeCaptured]

Asexual means without sexual desire but it is accepted I think that he was gay.

[@lorenzomagazzeni5425]

How long it took to learn that fake upper class accent. Nobody ever asked him Weird.

[@jonathangems]

The trouble with Anne Franks's famous diary is that it was written with a ball-point pen, and ball-point pens (known as 'biros') weren't manufactured and sold to the public until after she died. The first ball-point pens - which were then very expensive - were first manufactured and sold (in America) in 1946.

[@annjohns8096]

She used a fountain pen you plum

[@uszatku9417]

What a bizarre assertion...

[@davidevans3227]

..so you're implying ann franks diary is fake?

[@davidevans3227]

..just been looking at google re pens and it is accepted that someone else wrote a bit in biro, not anne frank..

[@josealmeida76]

@@jakebealing338 Not really mind-blowing. Many times an invention gets its inventor's name: Gillette, Ford, Honda, MacDonald's, Rolls-Royce, Morse (code), Braille (system), Colt...

[@philipusher4282]

Good grief. Comparing Anne Frank's diary and the tragic fallout of her life with oddball actor Kenneth Williams' sordid and pathetic recollections is just plain bizarre.

[@asc.445]

I watched Mavis when I was a child. Fascinating lady.