Kenneth Williams

Radio Times review

"Oh - what's the bloody point?" Kenneth Williams was, as they say, "good value" on chat shows. Wogan could engage automatic pilot as Williams whipped the audience into hysterics, riffing through anecdotes and voices. As this clip show proves, he was a ludicrously witty man - a smutty, funny C3PO. So of all his notable quotables, why is it the defeated final line of his diary that is now inescapable? Oh infamy, infamy...

Because the truth is, Williams doesn't fit the "tears of the clown" stereotype. He didn't suffer in silence: he told interviewers and the nation about his depression, narcissism and various complexes. His skill - whether on Round the Horne, Carry On, or on the sofa - is that he always said the unsayable. It's just that he made you laugh while doing it.

Jim Dale 'wasn't good friends with the Carry On clique'

The TV veteran reveals he was snubbed by Sid James and Kenneth Williams when he appeared on This Is Your Life.

Radio Times review

"Now let's really see those chests come out!" Kenneth Williams urged Barbara Windsor in Carry On Camping - triggering the saucy, bra-pinging reveal that opened the floodgates for the bawdier tone of the Carry Ons that followed in the 1970s.

Jacki Piper and the Amazonian Valerie Leon are among the former totty invited down Memory Lane in this concluding part, while June Whitfield lends an air of dignity (despite playing Miss Prodworthy in the startlingly anti-feminist Carry On Girls). The tone struggles to keep celebratory while charting the grim demise of the franchise into single-entendre smut, as well as the deaths of the Carry On stalwarts - some so long ago now.

Radio Times review

If you have a favourite Carry On, the chances are it features in this edition. Episode one covered the film series's faltering early steps, up to Carry On Jack. Now we're wading into the golden period, the mid-to late 60s, with genre spoofs Carry On Spying, Cleo, Cowboy and Screaming.

Barbara Windsor is starkly absent from this affectionate celebration, but her co-stars Jim Dale, Amanda Barrie and Julian Holloway reminisce with joy. The extraordinary Fenella Fielding returns to a former haunt used in Screaming, Anita Harris revisits Follow That Camel's Saharan location (Camber Sands), while Angela Douglas is taken Up the Khyber (Snowdon). There's also a lovely tribute to Hattie Jacques and rare behind-the-scenes footage of Sid James and Kenneth Williams at work.

Radio Times review

It's easy to pooh-pooh the Carry On films. Yes, they were formulaic and increasingly smutty but they stormed the UK box office in the 1950s and 60s, before becoming a primetime staple on BBC One and ITV in the 70s. Many now have a period charm and are still amusing.

With mainstays Kenneth Williams, Sid James, Joan Sims and Hattie Jacques long dead, this affectionate three-part history calls in semi-regulars. It takes Shirley Eaton and Liz Frazer back to Pinewood Studios, Rosalind Knight and Sally Geeson to film locations, and reunites Bernard Cribbins and Juliet Mills for the first time in 50 years. Rather touching.

I had a real treat this week, meeting Kenneth Williams, or rather Robin Sebastian the man who plays him so superbly in the new Hancock's half Hours. Can any comic actor have given his audiences so much pleasure while obtaining so little for himself? I suppose I could be talking about either Kenneth Williams or Tony Hancock. They both suffered from deep depression and both died alone, having taken overdoses. Thank heaven many of their recordings have survived, and that where they haven't many of the scripts have. You can hear my interview with Robin Sebastian and the rest of the programme here.

Most of us are here today, gone tomorrow, but not Williams and Hancock. They are truly immortal, at least on radio.

5 reasons Tommy Cooper biopic is best in a long time

We've had Hattie Jacques, Eric Morecambe and Kenneth Williams to name but a few. However ITV's two-hour-long film dedication to the life of Tommy Cooper, Not Like That, Like This, is the best biopic there's been for a while.

TV loves a tragic stand-up... but who's next?

We've had Kenneth Williams, Kenny Everett, Frankie Howerd and Steptoe & Son - now Tommy Cooper is getting the tears-of-a-clown dramatic treatment.