Gay & Lesbian

'My favourite Londoner is the comedian and stately homo Kenneth Williams. He manages to sum up British gentleman, English eccentricity, overt campness, cockney barrow boy and repressed homosexuality all in one brilliantly comic flare of the nostril.

'I first stumbled across Kenneth when I was a young boy, only about seven years old, and my first encounter with him would have been "Carry On Screaming". It was one of the better Carry Ons, and despite being really scared by Oddbod the hairy monster I was captivated by the prim poise of Kenneth as the electrifying Dr Watt – by this strangely pompous man with a gurning face. I grew up in poverty on a council estate outside Brighton, and he spoke like no one I’d ever heard before.

'After watching a few more Carry Ons, I was talking like Kenneth in the playground and so were many of my friends. It’s funny, really, because he grew up in a poor part of London and had made a conscious decision to speak like that. I suppose I identify with that desire to leave the past behind. Feature continues

'Kenneth morphed over the years from national comedy treasure to a desperately lonely figure. This image was fostered by rumours that he’d committed suicide and by the publication of his diaries, which showed a tragic man in the grip of terrible pain, completely at odds with his on-screen and stage persona. I don’t think I or anyone else loved him any less for this revelation; in fact, I probably felt closer to him and saw him as a more rounded (but incredibly complex) individual. But it’s terrible that he never had a significant personal relationship in his life.

'When you listen to "Round the Horne", he slips so many clever double entendres past the audience. Nowadays the double entendre is usually just smut or an obvious play on words, but he made it an art form. He played a character called Peasemold Gruntfuttock, a name that’s at once very common and also dangerously close to something incredible rude that you laugh when you hear it before the sketch even gets going. I’m convinced that half the time the audience didn’t know what they were laughing at, but were swept away by a flood of neurotic comic genius. They knew it was naughty, but they didn’t know why. He’s of an age that’s gone now, and as much as I love Russell Brand, there’ll never be another Kenneth.

'As a younger gay man I found his waspish image slightly annoying, but these days I find it something to be celebrated. There’s something in the old arch stereotypes that’s very English – English in a way we’ve almost lost now. Less than a handful of these British institutions survive today, most notably the wonderful Bette Bourne.

'He was accessible, or seemingly so. He was actually very private, but would never let that show. He was always switched on in public and ready to make anyone and everyone laugh. He was outrageous, too, and, despite what they say, people love to be shocked. He was an all-round entertainer the likes of which you rarely see now. He was a singer, an actor and a comedian. These days it’s hard enough to find a famous person who can do anything other than be famous for fame’s sake. God, I sound so old. I’m only 35, honest!

'I never met him, but I think if I had as a child I would have shown him my impersonation of him. He would probably have hated it, but been very gracious to me about it. If I met him as an adult, I’d say: "Kenneth, get laid, for fuck’s sake! Get laid and fall in love." '