Kenneth Williams was an English 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.
After a short spell in repertory theatre as a serious actor, Williams turned to comedy and achieved national fame in Hancock’s Half Hour. When Hancock steered his show away from what he considered gimmicks and silly voices, Williams found he had less to do. Tiring of this reduced status, he joined Kenneth Horne in Beyond Our Ken, and its sequel, Round The Horne (1965–68). His roles in Round the Horne included Rambling Syd Rumpo, the eccentric folk singer; Dr Chou En Ginsberg, MA (failed), Oriental criminal mastermind; J. Peasemold Gruntfuttock, telephone heavy breather and dirty old man; and Sandy of the camp couple Julian and Sandy.
The Rambling Syd sketches generally began with a short discourse on the nature of the song, which would inexorably follow; these discourses and the songs involved suggestiveness and double entendre. For this, Rambling Syd was customarily introduced by Kenneth Horne, who would set things up by (for example) inquiring as to the nature and origin of the song. Rambling Syd would (usually) respond with an “Ello, me dearios”, before launching into the ensuing detailed explanation which left a great deal to the imagination.
The songs themselves pushed and extended boundaries of sexual suggestiveness, using nonsense (or little-known) words such as ‘moolies’ and ‘nadgers’ in suggestive contexts. Many of the words used by Rambling Syd were invented by the Round the Horne scriptwriters Barry Took and Marty Feldman, who wrote the majority of the songs’ lyrics, based upon traditional folk songs. Some were existing words used in a suggestive context, such as ‘artefacts’ (often used in an archaeological context for things such as grave goods) and ‘nadgers’, which had already appeared in The Goon Show.
On 3 July 1967, Williams, in the guise of Rambling Syd, recorded a series of the songs before a live audience at Abbey Road Studios. In his diary, Williams wrote that “the laughter was so intrusive it broke up the rhythm of some of the songs”. One of the producers told Williams that the audience had been given a party before the recording and most were drunk.
