Kenneth Williams

3/12/80 Today I went to BBC TV Centre for Tomorrow's World, & it was a hell of a day: beginning with exercises in track suits on apparatus ... the eating of synthetic foods and then me demonstrating the watch which gets its energy from body heat on the wrist. [B'cast 2/1/81]

3/10/86 We saw the removal men taking all the stuff for the tart in that flat who was moving out! ... She took a lot of stuff with her, including mirrors.

1/10/85 We were sitting in deckchairs when a voice said 'Hallo Kenneth' and it was Lionel Bart. It seemed incredible that this sad, disillusioned pale invalid was the dynamic host of those Moroccan days. He admitted 'I got through millions of pounds in a few short years.'

29/9/68 To the Playhouse to do 2 'Just A Minute' shows. I chaired the first one and was on the panel in the next. These two were both v. good, and we were all on form & the audience was absolutely splendid.

27/9/78 Walked home in a bemused state, smiling at strangers.

26/9/79 he told us 'that pub called The Angel is the haunt of all the local homosexuals' saying the word with two O's like the sound in Bow. When I expressed surprise he told me 'oh yes, there are loads round here!' like a Leigh fisherman talking about cockles

25/9/73 I shouted at some man 'You keep away from us! I can tell by the redness of your nose you've got cold germs!' and he scuttled off revealing white clogs on his feet! I shouted 'And get rid of those ridiculous shoes too!'

15/6/61 I saw Fenella Fielding today in Connaught Sq. It was a hot day and she was in furs! She looked quite fantastic & oddly fragmented. #RIP

11/9/64 It's rather marvellous (when I think of the influence Coward has had on my acting) that I should be now recording two of his most famous songs for HMV.

10/9/63 Pinewood, arrive 7.45. Tank sequence. All day in the bloody rowing boat, till I was aching all over. Charles Hawtrey was pissed. Breath smelled appallingly. It's a disgrace. Still, one must be charitable.

9/9/65 Found some marvellous lines of Cicero - "To be wholly idle is not idle, and wholly alone, is not alone ..."

7/9/65 It is ironic that in so many ways I resemble my father so much. We are alike in so many things, both of us shared a sense of inferiority, both of us disliked the governing class and its accent

6/9/65 Went to see a revival of the Leslie Howard picture Pimpernel Smith. The charm and radiance of L.H. still triumphs over technical & artistic badness. His was the most mysterious quality.

19/8/50 Richard Burton is really charming

18/8/69 In the post office at 10.45 a woman said 'I have seen you on television & I didn't think you were so good'

17/8/70 Sitting at the desk. The eyes full of tears. I am so lonely. I am so unhappy. I always have been.

13/7/67 The Lords have passed Leo Abse's bill, legalising homosexuality in England: it's all right between consenting adults in private except the services! and in Scotland. So it won't do any good for the queens of Dundee & the like.

10/7/74 To see Carry on Dick (trade show) . . . It was diabolical. The pace is deadly ... at one point I thought it looked as if everyone was ill or something.

5/7/67 He [Joe Orton] also said he'd started a diary which would contain details of all the sexual encounters in his life. Stan W. said after, of Joe and Ken, 'Aren't they both boring? They're always talking about themselves.'

3/7/62 Went to the butcher for steak for my lunch. He said to me 'I think you're a bit of prime meat myself . . . four and sixpence my angel