Bitchy, Talented, Flawed

• Date: 12.11.2007
• Book: Kenneth Williams Diaries
• Author: TCRH

Review

It is said Kenneth Williams used these diaries as a threat: "you'll be in the diaries" a constant refrain in arguments with friends and colleagues.

He certainly comes through on his promise. Few, if any, of his contemparies escape the searing vitriol of his pen.

But the portrait of Williams that comes through is unsympathetic, pitiful at best, decidedly unpleasant at worse.

His sexuality and his pains to keep his homosexuality secret were undoubtedly not conducive to a happy life. But reading entry after entry of bitching and moaning you begin to wonder if Williams had the humanity to form meaningful relationships on any level.

There is an arrogance about his view of comedy that his canon - at least eight Carry On's too many, a thousand panel and chat show appearances - does not justify. His inabilty to see that his camp caricature was entirely incongruous with what Tony Hancock and his team were trying to achieve gives a clue as to why his career levelled out.

His career was a series of wasted opportunites: back in his dingy flat Williams justifies this as him being true to himself. Rather he was scared to extend a talent that was becoming increasingly dated.

I don't hold the view of Williams as comedy genius. That doesn't stop these diaries being a fascinating and absorbing read. That you leave them with a feeling of sadness is perhaps the inevitable epitaph to the life Williams chose to lead.