The Kenneth Williams Diaries: A Review

What a carry on

 

I read the Kenneth Williams Diaries many years ago, and this review is from memory, and how I felt about them at the time. As time goes by, memory can often be unreliable. Inevitably, I am finding that it is the books that I really enjoyed which are the ones that I have better memories of. 

The bad ones have long since been forgotten. 

But here is the reason I read Williams Diaries. I wanted to find out more about what life was like on the set of the Carry On films — the films for which he became famous. Truth is, at times, he is somewhat dismissive of them. He doesn't hold back.

But, the Kenneth Williams Diaries is a book that I am happy to give five stars. 

For a start it is a book that despite its 850 plus pages is just a snapshot of Williams life. He kept a diary for more or less every day of his adult life. The volumes sat there in his home, and after he died it was Russell Davies that took on the job to condense it down to the book that we get to read.

I sometimes wonder what it would be like to read all of them. Davies probably had to read through a lot of mundane, everyday life entries to get to the good bits. Even then, much was probably left out. Williams diaries and letters collection were eventually bought by the British Library and as far as I know that is where they still are. 

Williams was prolific when it came to writing about his own life. He was a complex character. Like many in the UK at the time, I got to see him because of those Carry On films. Williams own view of those films were that they were probably below him. I don't think he liked them very much. They were a job of work, and they didn't always pay that well. 

He wanted more out of his acting, and he was a classically trained actor. 

He could be kind, intelligent, caring and very funny, but also nasty, short-tempered, and horrible to anyone he took a dislike to. A listen to the Just A Minute radio broadcasts he made for the BBC, you can hear how he loses it from time to time. 

The diaries record his opinions about others. They are, a sort of, confession. Many wondered what he had written about them in his “infamous” diaries. More so after he died.

As he got older, his insecurities about his life are on full show in the diaries, especially around his health. His sad end, and the mystery around how his life ended (certainly at the time), is there for all to see. He does say occasionally, “what's the point?” The impression is that he felt that he never quite achieved what he wanted to get out of life.

The ending of the diary is somewhat sad — unlike a Carry On film.

It's a fantastic read — even the mundane bits, but I do think it helps to have seen the “public” face of Williams to really appreciate the other side of his character that comes out in his diaries. If you read it expecting jolly japes, and all fun and games, you will be disappointed. The dairies are of the "warts and all." variety.

Edited and updated, 23 November 2025.