Twice Ken Is Plenty

Kenneth carries on from beyond the grave

Selling your entire life on eBay is becoming quite the thing these days, but Kenneth Williams wasn't around when a great chunk of his went up for sale. The writer and broadcaster Wes Butters was surfing the internet one night when he washed up on the auction website - where, to his astonishment, a man called Robert Chidell was flogging a Williams treasure trove.

Chris Maume, The Independent, 6th September 2009

You never know what weird and wonderful stuff you can find on eBay. Late in 2005, Wes Butters came across papers put up for auction by the godson of Kenneth Williams. Among the memorabilia, Butters found a 1966 script, Twice Ken Is Plenty, written by Kenneth Horne and Mollie Millest, that had never been broadcast. But not for long. Actors Robin Sebastian and Jonathan Rigby revive the two Kens in front of an audience, who are clearly having fun, at the BBC Radio Theatre. The story pivots around the duo's attempts to infiltrate the inner recesses of Broadcasting House, meaning a great deal of doors get opened (cue those familiar sound effects), a welter of bad puns, Light Programme in-jokes and buckets of innuendo. Like all nostalgia, it can disappoint at times, but mostly, it is a joyous, glorious titterfest that will have you groaning in bad-pun heaven.

Frances Lass, Radio Times, 1st September 2009

It is mysterious how today's Twice Ken Is Plenty, the Lost Script of Kenneth Williams, ever made it to air. It goes out this morning on Radio 4 and it is, indeed, a novelty. The script turned up among the effects of the late Kenneth Williams, was bought by writer and presenter Wes Butters, is performed by two of the actors who act the parts of Kenneth Horne and Kenneth Williams in a stage version of Round the Horne. It was written by Kenneth Horne and Mollie Millest and offered, all those years ago, to the head of comedy at the time, who turned it down. Being turned down is, sometimes, a sign of something being ahead of its time. Not here. I listened to the preview disc with feelings akin to those of watching a neighbour's totally talentless child in a school concert. But judge for yourself.

Gillian Reynolds, The Telegraph, 1st September 2009