Was Kenneth Williams Britain’s answer to Paul Lynde and vice versa?

Paul Lynde was accused of stealing his mannerisms from Alice Ghostley.

KW seems like he is still a bigger name. But yes he used to make the rounds on talk shows making scat jokes. In his diary he was very conscious of taking lousy work and not being respected for his talents.

I thought John Inman was the British Paul Lynde?

Lynde was hysterical, but Williams' verbosity and command of his subject was something that Lynde never displayed. To be fair, their chat shows could be more "meatier" than the talk shows we had. I love how Sir John laughs hysterically and how completely amused she is by her old friend.

Also, the Joe Orton diaries contain lots of fun bits of Joe, Ken, and Kenneth in Morocco and the hijinks they would get up to.

^^ "more 'meatier'" Ugh, sorry for the double comparative.

Hijinks = adolescent whores

These guys are a bit much (they think Karl Lagerfeld was a “Bad Gay”). But their Orton episode was very good.

KW thought of himself as an unappreciated acting talent when in truth he was very one note with a bizarre style of delivery. His diaries are interesting but overall a bleak experience. He impresses as an extremely bitter man particularly in later life.

The book of his letters (I don’t think it was the diaries ?) includes his anal sex poem. Entitled “The Smell” IIRC.

He also wrote about his giant gaping nostril. Hard to act around that thing.