Comic Roots

Architecture, poetry, art and music were the formative influences on the aesthete known to millions as Kenneth Williams.

Architecture, poetry, art and music were the formative influences on the aesthete known to millions as Kenneth Williams: the slum architecture of St Pancras where he grew up; the liquid poetry of his grans fruity anecdotes; the art of the Marcel Wave practised by his hairdresser father, and the musical knees-ups of 'The Boot'.

His first rave notices (as Princess Angelica - aged 8) and his success in lederhosen made him follow his lieder to higher things. But even drawing maps was not enough and after the Army only the stage could bring the parts other careers cannot reach.