Kenneth Williams was born on this date in 1926. 10 things you might not know about him.
Kenneth Williams was born in King’s Cross, London. His parents, Charles and Louisa, were also both born in London but there was a Welsh heritage going back many generations.
Williams got the acting bug when, as a student, his English teacher suggested he try out for a school play.
His father was a Methodist and thoroughly disapproved of Kenneth seeking a career in acting.
Kenneth attended art school and trained as an engraver. During his service in the second world war, he worked as a map maker. He also got the chance to act in shows to entertain the troops, and put his artistic skills to use by designing the posters for the shows. Later, Who’s Who would list calligraphy as one of his hobbies.
His father was a hairdresser, who took his own life in 1962. He drank carbon tetrachloride from a cough mixture bottle after his business failed. The inquest returned a verdict of death by misadventure, but it came to light later that at one point, Kenneth was suspected by Scotland Yard of poisoning his father.
Although best known for Carry On films, having starred in 26 of them, Williams actually hated them, at least partly because he didn’t think the cast were paid enough. In his diaries, Williams wrote that he earned more in a St Ivel advert than for any Carry On film. The fact that he didn’t get on with co-star Sid James didn’t help.
Williams claimed to be asexual and celibate, and his diaries appear to confirm this. He lived alone all his adult life and had few close companions apart from his mother, and no significant romantic relationships.
He was close friends with a gay couple called Tom Waine and Clive Dennis. It’s possible he was attracted to Tom, but they were never intimate. The three of them often went out on the town together.
Williams was a regular on the BBC radio panel game Just a Minute from its second season in 1968 until his death. He was also a member of the cast of radio shows with Tony Hancock and Kenneth Horne.
He died from an overdose at the age of 62 from an overdose. The coroner recorded an open verdict but opinion is divided as to whether it was accidental or deliberate. On the one hand, the last words he wrote in his journal were ‘ - oh – what’s the bloody point?’ On the other, he’d always bounced back from bouts of depression before, and had not left anything to his mother in his will, presumably as he expected to outlive her.
Beta
(Combat Team Series #2)
Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?
Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.
Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream.
Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.
Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.
Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.
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