#... every beginning is hard!!!!!

[kenneth-williams-diaries]

LAURENCE OLIVIER and KENNETH WILLIAMS in THE BEGGAR'S OPERA, a 1953 British historical musical film, a Technicolor adaptation of John Gay's 1728 ballad opera of the same name.

“By September (1952) I was back in London. Peter Eade (KW’s manager) told that Herbert Wilcox had remembered me, that he was producing a film of The Beggar’s Opera with Laurence Olivier as MacHeath, and that he wanted me to meet the director, Peter Brook, for the part of Jack. I went down to Shepperton Studios, full of apprehension, clutching a few sheets of paper comprising the scene between Heath and the pot-boy at the inn where the hero is hiding. I had to wait until the day’s shooting was over and then found myself facing both the director and Sir Laurence. I read the scene rather haltingly and my accent was criticized: ‘He’s supposed to be cockney, you know.’ ‘But I’m a cockney’, I protested. ‘I was born in the Caledonian Road.’ They didn’t seemed convinced. I returned home on the train resigned to defeat, thinking the part would go to someone else. Next day, however, Peter rang to tell me I’d got the role and that I was to have a costume fitting ‘for a period pot-boy’. At the costumiers I was duly attired in waistcoast and breeches and looked rather like a junior footman. But when I arrived on the set there was as much disapproval for the costume as there had been for my accent. ‘No, no, it’s far too smart,’ said Sir Laurence, and Peter Brook agreed. ‘Yes, he’s a pot-boy in a hostelry, not an attendant at Chatsworth. Take the waistcoast away.’  The wardrobe people obliged. ‘And dirty the shirt down.’ The garment was trampled in dirt  and liberally stained, and I was produced again. ‘No, it’s still too smart. Tear the shirt and dirty the breeches and stockings.’ The clothing was torn to tatters, my face daubed with dirt and eventually they seemed reluctantly satisfied. This inauspicious beginning, coupled with my awe for Sir Laurence, created inhibitions which I never managed to overcome, and I was bad in the role. (...) I was relieved when the job was finished.”

Kenneth Williams Just Williams - An Autobiography (1985)

Years later ...

Mags (Maggie Smith) told me over dinner that Larry Olivier said to her, about me ‘I think he’s got sex appeal.’ Of course, I don’t think it’s true, but what a charming thing to have said about one. The Kenneth Williams Diaries - 20 December 1963

Kenneth’s appearance opposite Sir Laurence available on YouTube

Excerpt from "The Screen on Review", New York Times, 25 August 1953:

“Although the ideal marriage between films and opera is not effected in "The Beggar's Opera," on which the curtain was rung up yesterday at the Baronet, it is a generally happy liaison and one that is a credit to both media. For this Technicolor screen version of John Gay's 225-year-old work is a kaleidoscopic view of truly colorful facets of the London dear to Hogarth and is as unrestrained as its author's name. While it deviates from its original intent and now lampoons neither opera nor political personalities, it is still a spirited musical.”