The Secret Life of Kenneth Williams
The Secret Life of Kenneth Williams
71/07/14 1 Curious Yellow
71/07/21 2 Brief Encounter
71/07/28 3 Harem Nights
71/08/04 4 The Great Exhibition 
71/08/25 7 A Terribly Strange Bed
71/09/01 8 The Black Widow
73/04/03 9 The Menace of Bra
73/04/10 10 The Light That Failed
73/04/17 11 The Bloody Tower
73/04/24 12 The Terror of Grymsdyke Priory
73/05/15 15 Jungles Drums
73/05/22 16 Treachery In High Places 
73/05/29 17 The Mummy's Curse
73/06/05 18 Those Tingles Down My Spine
73/06/12 19 The St. Valentine's Day Massacre
73/06/19 20 The Phantom Train of Loch McDoom
Cold Comfort Farm is the amusing story of Flora Poste,
a sensible young woman from London who goes to live with
relatives in Sussex, the eccentric Starkadders.
The author, Stella Gibbons, had grown up among weird relations.
When she was just eleven she had to talk her father out of committing
suicide, and was astonished to realize that he was actually
relishing their melodramatic conversation. Her family seemed
partial to creating scenes, but with a clear thread of pretence running through their ‘performances’.
Gibbons felt that the genre of the rural novel – ‘The Loam and
Lovechild School of Fiction’ - had run its course and offered
itself to parody. Writers such as Mary Webb irritated her, so
she offered an alternative vision of country living. Stock
characters – the religious bigot, the overbearing matriarch, the local Lothario etc. –
were reinvented. There are passages which mock the style of D.H. Lawrence:
note, for example, the characters Mr Mybug and Seth Starkadder. 
Reference to Cold Comfort Farm usually triggers the famous quote
that there was ‘something nasty in the woodshed’. Aunt Ada Doom
claims to have seen it when she was ‘no bigger than a titty wren’.
Gibbons would never reveal what the ‘something nasty’ was; but
it represents childhood trauma, whether real or imagined, and the
way its ‘victims’ use it to excuse their behaviour.
The novel contains delicious examples of local dialect and of parodied
rural expressions. Here, Kenneth Williams reads the book on the radio.
xx/xx/xx 22 Cold Comfort - part 1
xx/xx/xx 23 Cold Comfort - part 2
xx/xx/xx 24 Cold Comfort - part 3
xx/xx/xx 25 Cold Comfort - part 4
xx/xx/xx 26 Cold Comfort - part 5
xx/xx/xx 27 Cold Comfort - part 6
And, of course, how can any Kenneth Williams fan not remember Julian and Sandy!?
Round the Horne (BBC) - xxxxxx - 001 - Christmas Round the World
Round the Horne (BBC) - xxxxxx - 002 - Julian and Sandy - Abbey
Round the Horne (BBC) - xxxxxx - 003 - Julian and Sandy - Academy of Ballroom Dancing
Round the Horne (BBC) - xxxxxx - 004 - Julian and Sandy - Beat Songs, Ltd.
Round the Horne (BBC) - xxxxxx - 005 - Julian and Sandy - Bijou Tourettes
Round the Horne (BBC) - xxxxxx - 006 - Julian and Sandy - Books
Round the Horne (BBC) - xxxxxx - 007 - Julian and Sandy - Caterers
Round the Horne (BBC) - xxxxxx - 008 - Julian and Sandy - Dance
Round the Horne (BBC) - xxxxxx - 009 - Julian and Sandy - Gift Boutique
Round the Horne (BBC) - xxxxxx - 010 - Julian and Sandy - Homes and Landscape Gardens
Round the Horne (BBC) - xxxxxx - 011 - Julian and Sandy - Mindreaders
Round the Horne (BBC) - xxxxxx - 012 - Julian and Sandy - Nature Clinic
Round the Horne (BBC) - xxxxxx - 013 - Julian and Sandy - Performers
Round the Horne (BBC) - xxxxxx - 014 - Julian and Sandy - Pets
Round the Horne (BBC) - xxxxxx - 015 - Julian and Sandy - Private Detective Agency
Round the Horne (BBC) - xxxxxx - 016 - Julian and Sandy - Prods
Round the Horne (BBC) - xxxxxx - 018 - Julian and Sandy - Seances 
Round the Horne (BBC) - xxxxxx - 019 - Julian and Sandy - Seats
Round the Horne (BBC) - xxxxxx - 020 - Julian and Sandy - Song Publisherettes
Round the Horne (BBC) - xxxxxx - 021 - Julian and Sandy - Keep Britain
Round the Horne (BBC) - xxxxxx - 022 - Julian and Sandy - Le Casserole
Round the Horne (BBC) - xxxxxx - 023 - Julian and Sandy - Rent-A-Chap
Round the Horne (BBC) - xxxxxx - 024 - Julian and Sandy - Promotions
Round the Horne (BBC) - xxxxxx - 024a - Julian and Sandy - Studio
Round the Horne (BBC) - xxxxxx - 025 - Julian and Sandy - Bona Ads
Round the Horne (BBC) - xxxxxx - 026 - Julian and Sandy - Bona Bodybuilders
Round the Horne (BBC) - xxxxxx - 027 - Julian and Sandy - Bona Bouffant
Round the Horne (BBC) - xxxxxx - 028 - Julian and Sandy - Bona Christmas
Round the Horne (BBC) - xxxxxx - 029 - Julian and Sandy - Bona Estate Agents
Round the Horne (BBC) - xxxxxx - 030 - Julian and Sandy - Bona House
Round the Horne (BBC) - xxxxxx - 031 - Julian and Sandy - Bona Law
Round the Horne (BBC) - xxxxxx - 032 - Julian and Sandy - Bona Male Models
Round the Horne (BBC) - xxxxxx - 033 - Julian and Sandy - Bona Press 
Round the Horne (BBC) - xxxxxx - 034 - Julian and Sandy - Bona Rags
Round the Horne (BBC) - xxxxxx - 035 - Julian and Sandy - Bona School of Languages
Round the Horne (BBC) - xxxxxx - 036 - Julian and Sandy - Bona Sea Dogs
Round the Horne (BBC) - xxxxxx - 037 - Julian and Sandy - Bona Soul Mates
Round the Horne (BBC) - xxxxxx - 038 - Julian and Sandy - Bona Tax Consultants
Round the Horne (BBC) - xxxxxx - 039 - Julian and Sandy - Bona Tours, Lmt.
Round the Horne (BBC) - xxxxxx - 040 - Julian and Sandy - Bona TV, Ltd.
Round the Horne (BBC) - xxxxxx - 041 - Julian and Sandy - Bona Carnaby Street Hunt
Round the Horne (BBC) - xxxxxx - 042 - Julian and Sandy - Bona Guided Tripettes
Round the Horne (BBC) - xxxxxx - 043 - Julian and Sandy - Lazy Bona Ranch
Round the Horne (BBC) - xxxxxx - 044 - Julian and Sandy - No Julian, No Sandy
Round the Horne (BBC) - xxxxxx - 045 - Julian and Sandy - Time and Motion
Round the Horne (BBC) - xxxxxx - 046 - Julian and Sandy - Wardrobe