Hello I'm Kresti Young and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs archive.

For rights reasons we've had to shorten the music.

The program was originally broadcast in 1987 and the presenter was Michael Parkinson. For 40 years our castaway has occupied a unique place on stage, screen and radio.

He made his reputation during the 50s and 60s in review and on the London stage.

He starred in some of the masterpieces of radio, like Hancock's half hour, round the horn, and just a minute.

He made an international reputation by being a regular in the Carry On films.

He's been described, and rightly rightly so as one of the great

institutions of British entertainment. He is Kenneth Williams. Kenneth do you think you

might take to the solitary life on this desert?? Oh yes, I'm very practical.

Michael, after all, I did my war service all over the place,

in dear Burma, and some of the conditions under which we lived were primitive indeed.

Admittedly, we were backed up by army logistics, but every now... And some of the conditions under which we lived were primitive indeed.

We were backed up by our logistics, but every now and again you were left in some of these

encampments with the bear.

And they said you really had to use some imagination to eke out what food there was available

and you had to do things like mega fire and cook with very primitive materials just a dixie and stuff like that I don't

know whether we'd even have a dixie on the desert island of course you can have them

certainly what about music would that be a boon a companion to you I I mean, it's always been. Always been a great solace to me, yes. And my tastes of

always been toward the funereal, the dirge like in music. I love things like Requiem Masses. I love the Requiem of Fori and the one of Brahms, Deutchez Requiem, I love that.

So what about your first choice then?

Well, it's interesting, you see.

I did mention my love of the Forre Requiem.

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