In the 1960s, fabulous queer characters were hiding in plain sight on the BBC radio show Round the Horne, which featured two squealing gays speaking in barely-veiled innuendo. They were using a form of gay British slang known as "Polari" that's all but died out today.
Decades later, Tork Shaw would listen to tapes of the episode in the car with this family, and he'd hear something of himself in the bookish, aristocratic, quick-witted gays like Kenneth Williams and Hugh Paddick on the radio. He didn't quite fit in at school -- everyone around him was sporty and posh -- so he cultivated a caustic wit, modeled on the Round the Horne's Julian and Sandy, Oscar Wilde, and Noel Coward. He was kind of a young-boy version of Downtown Abbey's Dowager Countess. Despite being a small, unathletic kid, his classmates grew a bit scared of him and he was voted "worst bully" in his class.
But by the time he was teenager, he was feeling ready to set that aside. "I didn't want to be mean anymore," he said. "What happens if I let go of everything I've done in the past?"
Well, let's find out on tonight's episode!
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Here are a few delightful Julian and Sandy segments from Round the Horne on the BBC:
Buy Julian & Sandy : http://www.audiogo.com/uk/julian-and-sandy-kenneth-williams-gid-14057 A collection of fab sketches from 'Round the Horne's most flamboyant duo.In this first fantabulosa selection of sketches from BBC Radio's classic comedy 'Round the Horne', we find that two infamously outrageous resting thesps from Carnaby Street are game on for a variety of entrepreneurial endeavours.As Kenneth Horne trolls along in search of some essential service or other, the tinkle of a doorbell invariably brings him to one of Julian and Sandy's bona establishments.
Julian and Sandy were characters on the BBC radio programme Round the Horne in 1965-1968, played respectively by Hugh Paddick and Kenneth Williams, with scripts written by Barry Took and Marty Feldman. According to a BBC Radio 4 programme on the characters they were named after the writers Sandy Wilson and Julian Slade.
And the show Gimme Gimme Gimme that Tork mentioned:
gimme gimme gimme is a british tv show made in the 90s it really funny if you guys like it i will uploads all 19 episodes
And though it might be unfamiliar to Americans, here's Kenneth Williams in some Carry On films:
Funny scene from my fave Carry On Film, notice the two trying to keep there laugh in after accidentally banging heads at 0:45!!
One of my favourite scene of one of my favourite movies of all times. Have a good laugh!:-)
http://www.freewebs.com/kennethwilliams 'Carry On Camping' (1969) Kenneth Williams and Hattie Jacques
Music:
Parisian Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/