Related Research Articles
Kenneth Charles Williams was a Welsh actor. He was best known for his comedy roles and in later life as a raconteur and diarist. He was one of the main ensemble in 26 of the 31 Carry On films, and appeared in many British television programmes and radio comedies, including series with Tony Hancock and Kenneth Horne, as well as being a regular panellist on BBC Radio 4's comedy panel show Just a Minute from its second series in 1968 until his death 20 years later.
Polari is a form of slang or cant used in Britain by some actors, circus and fairground showmen, professional wrestlers, merchant navy sailors, criminals, sex workers and the gay subculture. There is some debate about its origins, but it can be traced back to at least the 19th century and possibly as far as the 16th century. There is a long-standing connection with Punch and Judy street puppet performers, who traditionally used Polari to converse.
Charles Kenneth Horne, generally known as Kenneth Horne, was an English comedian and businessman. He is perhaps best remembered for his work on three BBC Radio series: Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh (1944–54), Beyond Our Ken (1958–64) and Round the Horne (1965–68).
Round the Horne is a BBC Radio comedy programme starring Kenneth Horne, first transmitted in four series of weekly episodes from 1965 until 1968. The show was created by Barry Took and Marty Feldman, who wrote the first three series. The fourth was written by Took, Johnnie Mortimer, Brian Cooke and Donald Webster.
Douglas Arthur Smith was a British radio announcer and comedian who spent 25 years with the BBC. He began his broadcasting career with the BBC European Service in 1946 and later worked as an announcer and newsreader on the Home Service and the Third Programme. He is probably best remembered as the formal announcer on Beyond Our Ken (1958–1964), its successor Round the Horne (1965–1968) and the short-lived Stop Messing About (1969–1970), where his "BBC accent" was used to comic effect. In this role, he advertised Dobbiroids and the huge number of naïve sound effects he made to assist in the development of humorous and often bizarre plots. Smith performed "Nobody Loves a Fairy When She's Forty" in an episode of Round the Horne. Many of his roles were portrayals of inanimate objects, e.g., volcanoes, "and I, Douglas Smith, play the part of the volcano", and "I, Douglas Smith, in my most taxing role to date, play the part of the world.".
Betty Marsden was an English comedy actress. She is particularly remembered as a cast member of the radio series Beyond Our Ken and Round the Horne. Marsden also appeared in two Carry On films, Carry On Regardless (1961) and Carry On Camping (1969).
Beyond Our Ken is a BBC radio comedy programme first broadcast between 1958 and 1964. It starred Kenneth Horne, with Kenneth Williams, Hugh Paddick, Betty Marsden, Bill Pertwee, and, as announcer, Douglas Smith. The title is a play on the name Kenneth and the familiar expression "beyond our ken".
Hugh William Paddick was an English actor. He starred in the 1960s BBC radio show Round the Horne, performing in sketches such as "Charles and Fiona" and "Julian and Sandy". He and Kenneth Williams were largely responsible for introducing the underground language polari to the British public.
Irene Joan Marion Sims was an English actress, best remembered for her roles in the Carry On franchise, appearing in 24 of the films.
Flowers of the Forest, or The Fluuers o the Forest, is a Scottish folk tune and work of war poetry commemorating the defeat of the Scottish army, and the death of James IV, at the Battle of Flodden in September 1513. Although the original words are unknown, the melody was recorded c. 1615–1625 in the John Skene of Halyards Manuscript as "Flowres of the Forrest", although it might have been composed earlier.
"Oh, My Darling Clementine" is a traditional American western folk ballad in trochaic meter usually credited to Percy Montross (1884), although it is sometimes credited to Barker Bradford.
Eric Hugh Peter Merriman was a British radio and television writer, who provided material for numerous comedians including Frankie Howerd, Terry Scott and Morecambe and Wise.
"My Grandfather's Clock" is a song written in 1876 by Henry Clay Work, the author of "Marching Through Georgia". It is a standard of British brass bands and colliery bands, and is also popular in bluegrass music. The Oxford English Dictionary says the song was the origin of the term "grandfather clock" for a longcase clock. In 1905, the earliest known recording of this song was performed by Harry Macdonough and the Haydn Quartet.
"Streets of Laredo", also known as "The Dying Cowboy", is a famous American cowboy ballad in which a dying ranger tells his story to another cowboy. Members of the Western Writers of America chose it as one of the Top 100 Western songs of all time.
The Fraser Hayes Four, originally called The Fraser Hayes Quartette, was a British close harmony vocal group, formed by the musicians Jimmy Fraser and Tony Hayes in the late 1940s, disbanded in 1953, and re-formed in 1956. The four original members were Jimmy Fraser (Potts), Tony Hayes, Dave Mason and June Ellis. The group split for good in late 1969. They are best known for providing musical interludes on the BBC Radio comedy programmes Beyond Our Ken and Round the Horne.
Strawberry Fair is an English folk song.
Oh! What A Carry On! is a 1971 compilation album of songs performed by actors from the Carry On... film series, and released on the budget Music For Pleasure label. Many were novelty songs with most, such as those by Jim Dale, having previously been released as singles. None were recorded specifically for this album or had any direct relationship to the Carry On films. For example, Kenneth Williams' songs as Rambling Syd Rumpo, which Gramophone magazine described as the best on the album, were taken from Round the Horne and Jim Dale's songs had been hits in the 1950s.
"The Unfortunate Lad", also known as "The Unfortunate Rake", is a traditional folk ballad, which through the folk process has evolved into a large number of variants, including the country and western song Streets of Laredo.
Charlotte Olivia Milligan Fox was an Irish composer, folk music collector and writer.
References
- ↑ Stevens, Christopher (2010). Born Brilliant: The Life Of Kenneth Williams. John Murray. p. 206. ISBN 978-1-84854-195-5.
- ↑ 'Nadgers' is one of many words with sexual innuendo which emerged in the 1950s and 1960s to evade strict BBC censorship. The etymology is uncertain, but possibly based on 'gonad'. When Rambling Syd Rumpo on Round the Horne asked "What shall we do with the drunken nurker?", the answer he gave was "Hit him in the 'nadgers' with the bosun's plunger...'til his 'bogles' dangle".
- 1 2 "The Best of Rambling Syd Rumpo". AllMusic . Retrieved 13 June 2012.
- ↑ Stevens, Christopher (2010). Born Brilliant: The Life Of Kenneth Williams. John Murray. p. 225. ISBN 978-1-84854-195-5.
- ↑ Kenneth Williams (1984). The Kenneth Williams Diaries. HarperCollins. p. 618. ISBN 0006380905.
- 1 2 "Rambling Syd's Ganderbag". Freespace.virgin.net. Archived from the original on 27 September 2011. Retrieved 13 June 2012.
- ↑ Stevens, Christopher (2010). Born Brilliant: The Life Of Kenneth Williams. John Murray. p. 282. ISBN 978-1-84854-195-5.
- 1 2 "The Best Of Rambling Syd Rumpo". Amazon UK. Retrieved 13 June 2012.
- ↑ "The Best of Rambling Syd Rumpo". Discogs.com. Retrieved 13 June 2012.