In celebration of what would have been Kenneth Williams’ 100th birthday on 22 February, 2026 David Benson revisits his classic performance in a new and revised version of the hit show.
In a dazzling display of impeccably honed stage craft, Benson gives an unsparing portrayal of the tormented comic genius, lurching from hilarity to self-pity in public and in private.
Benson will bring the much-missed ‘Carry On’ actor, radio star and chat show raconteur roaring back to life, with an uncanny portrayal which has received unanimous praise from Williams’ closest friends including Dame Maggie Smith and Dame Barbara Windsor.
“How did you know all that? That’s just what it was like having dinner out with Kenny. A bloomin’ nightmare!” said Dame Barbara Windsor of the performance.
Dame Maggie Smith, after hearing Benson impersonating Williams in a radio interview immediately wrote to the young actor: “You ‘put the heart across me,’ as the Irish say – for I thought it was Kenneth!”
In 1975, at the age of 13, Benson wrote a short story called “The Rag-and-Bone Man” for a contest on the BBC 1 children’s series Jackanory, a daily programme to encourage reading which featured an actor reading from children’s novels or folk tales while seated in an arm-chair. Kenneth Williams was one of the most popular presenters reading read 69 books over the life of the programme. Benson’s story was chosen as a winner from 15,000 entries by Kenneth Williams himself, who then performed the story on national television.
Fifty years on, David Benson says: “At the time, it was a huge embarrassment to me. I was now associated in the minds of my enemies at school with the most outrageously camp man in England. For a schoolboy desperately struggling with his sexuality in the hostile environment of 1970s Britain, the connection was mortifying. As I found out at school next day…”
Ironically, the publication of Williams’ own diaries in 1994 revealed a man who was every bit as terrified of his sexual nature as the Birmingham schoolboy whose writing caught his eye.
In this new edition of the legendary show, Benson includes extracts from the only recording that exists of that 1975 broadcast and, with characteristic honesty, tells of the day a BBC researcher came to visit and by chance captured on tape the terrifying truth of the boy’s home-life: his mother’s dangerous descent into paranoid psychosis.
My LIfe With Kenneth Williams 2026 UK tour dates
FAVERSHAM
The Alex
Sunday 25th January at 7:30pm
https://thealex.org.uk/event/my-life-with-kenneth-williams/
WINCHESTER
Theatre Royal
Wednes day28th January at 7:30pm
https://www.theatreroyalwinchester.co.uk/whats-on/my-life-kenneth-williams
HENLEY
Kenton Theatre
Thursday 29th January at 7.30pm
https://thekenton.org.uk/events/think-no-evil-of-us-my-life-with-kenneth-williams/
KENDAL
Brewery Arts
Friday 6th February at 8pm
https://www.breweryarts.co.uk/event/my-life-with-kenneth-williams/
STIRLING
Macrobert Arts Centre
Saturday 7th February at 7.30pm
On sale TBC
BEDFORD
Quarry
Friday 13th February at 7:30pm
https://quarrytheatre.ticketsolve.com/shows/873678233/events
SHREWSBURY
Theatre Severn
Saturday 14th February at 7:30pm
https://www.theatresevern.co.uk/shows/whatson/my-life-with-kenneth-williams/
COLCHESTER
Mercury
Tuesday 17th February at 7:30pm
https://www.mercurytheatre.co.uk/event/my-life-with-kenneth-williams/
GUILDFORD
Yvonne Arnaud
Friday 27th February at 7:45pm
Saturday 28th February at 2:45pm & 7:45pm
https://www.yvonne-arnaud.co.uk/whats-on/my-life-kenneth-williams
GORLESTON
Pavilion
Friday 6th March at 7.30pm
On sale TBC
PETERBOROUGH
Cresset
Friday 13th March at tbc
On sale TBC
EXETER
Barnfield
Friday 20th March at 7:45pm
On sale TBC
WEYMOUTH
Pavilion
Sunday 28th March at 2.30pm
On sale TBC
Running Time Approximately 2 hours (inc interval)
Age Suitability 12+
