“She’s one of those rare people who make things and places suddenly marvellous by just being there.”
Kenneth Williams
Introduction
The recent passing of Dame Maggie Smith has caused an outpouring of love for this great and versatile actress. Dig a bit deeper into the many levels of this national treasure, and you will find a very endearing friendship between Maggie and Kenneth Williams. Described as kindred souls, Maggie and Kenneth were as thick as thieves when together, two giggling friends who fed off each other’s brilliance. Smith credits Williams for constantly enriching many of her roles, pinching from him. With Kenneth, she could be herself, two Essex and London-born actors who loved being common as muck despite their eventual social standing. Maggie loved Kenneth’s waspish humour and, in his diaries, which are often dark and critical of others in the industry, is highly complementary to his dear friend. With Maggie, he could be himself, sharing not only his fascinating intellectual brain but going out and just having fun. He loved her urchin quality. A man who lived in the limbo of his homosexuality, unable to be himself in public. Camp, but not openly gay. Maggie gave him the confidence he lacked unless he played up to an audience. The nasal twanging persona masked an actor who wasn’t comfortable in his skin.
A Meeting of Minds
“She’s physically adroit and can fold her arms in such a way that they disappear.”
Kenneth Williams
Maggie and Kenneth first met in August 1957 while performing in a West End revue written by Bamber Gascoigne called Share My Lettuce. It would forge a friendship that would last until Williams’s early death in 1988 at the age of 62 after a suspected suicide from an overdose of tablets from his galley kitchen medicine cabinet. Long before the days of his Carry On film performances, Williams touted himself as a serious actor. His early-stage performances show his depth and range. Roles that were poignant and memorable. Smith noticed his brilliance, a rare talent to hold an audience in the palm of your hand and captivate them.
Yet, away from the footlights, Kenneth loved to be the child he could never be. He had overbearing parents who hated his career choice and wanted him to take over the barber’s shop in King’s that his parents, Charlie and Lou, had run for so many years. Charlie died from drinking some form of bleach, and it was often thought that his son may have killed him. Lou remained his constant companion until her death, living across the hallway in the block of flats he lived in in King’s Cross. A man who could only be openly gay with his friend Joe Orton or the occasional gay experience abroad.
Yet his friendship with Maggie Smith showed a softer side to Williams. They would link arms and laugh. A gay friend who we are all probably envious we didn’t have. With a cigarette in one hand and a glass of something stronger in the other, these two friends would paint London red, shopping together, going to theatres, dining in restaurants, and drinking in smoky clubs. He was no longer that depressive soul that he was when alone. An experience that Kenneth brilliantly recounted in a Parkinson interview.
“When we went to Fortnum & Mason, where she was after a particular type of bra, a very grand assistant in Fortnums, which was very heavily carpeted, beautiful very soft pile; you hardly heard as you entered… this woman said, “yes, I have this particular bra, m’am” and she said it was seven guineas, and Maggie said, “Seven guineas for a bra! Cheaper to have your tits off!”, and the place was in uproar! They had obviously never heard anyone being quite so forthright in that kind of establishment.”
Kenneth also had warm words for his dear friend in his diaries.
Tuesday, 6 February
“Maggie came round. We had dinner at Peter Mario. Came back to the flat for coffee and talked till 4 o’c!! It was foolish but this girl draws me like a magnet and I am inextricably involved with her. It is a knot that I will never want, or be able, to untie.”
This was a friendship was endearing and lasting. Maggie may not have been able to save Kenneth from his inner demons, but she helped him escape them for periods of his life. They share an intellectual outlook on life, but one where they can be fun and naughty. She accepted the whole package of Williams. The man who loved to fart and expose his bum in public. He was a reluctant comedian who fell into the role of court jester by chance but was a master of his domain. Maggie loved him like an adopted brother, and their love remained long after his death. A love that Maggie shows in glimpses. An actress who was a very private woman hated giving interviews, except Kenny was present. An actress who was given the rare privilege of spending time at Kenneth’s inner sanctum, his sparsely furnished London flat, where no one was allowed to use his toilet come hell or high water.
