Kenneth Williams on Parkinson - 17/02/73 (2/2)

[@deidraboswell8451]

I’m obsessed with KW

[@karadenizin-kizi]

Maggie Smith's voice is magnificent :)))

[@MatthewHurstFilm]

"... indiscretion. I read the Betjman poem ['Death In Leamington'] with Maggie - holding the book between us - and it worked very well." - from The Kenneth Williams Diaries (p. 444)

[@jackmeough6338]

Just beautiful.

[@MatthewHurstFilm]

"Saturday, 17 February [1973]. To TV studios for the 'Parkinson Show'. I was introduced to Sir John Betjeman and he was a great delight. One of the most loveable and kindly, gentle people I've ever met. On the show itself, it all got very woolly and serious and Maggie went terribly post. She was obviously intensely nervous. When I got on, I wasn't much better and I was foolishly babbling about train strikes being against the essence of socialism etc. so I will doubtless reap the whirlwind of ...

[@marcharrison1970]

They don't do TV like this now.

[@bensimps123]

@Slowlondon betjeman the greatest poet ever thats sat opposite kenneth !!

[@BelatedCommiseration]

Maggie Smith is so elegant and graceful...such a beauty really...she is the ideal person to embody the pathos of that poem, and of course Williams read well too but is not as evocative.

[@lisamcdonald1014]

I can't believe that she's dead

[@Slowlondon]

Can anyone tell me from whom the poem is and how it is called?

[@finncullen]

Death in Leamington, by Sir John Betjeman (who is the older man on the show)