Also wrote Tristram Cary, who did music for The Little Island, The Dermis Probe, and A Christmas Carol.
And I wrote someone in Australia who might have a copy of The Dermis Probe.
And I wrote someone at a Kenneth Williams fansite, asking if they know where to get Love Me Love Me Love ME or the soundtrack to Diary of a Madman, an unfinished animated movie which was released more recently as a radio play instead.
The point of all this? To track down the early short films and things we don't have!
THINGS WE DON'T HAVE --
The Little Island
Love Me, Love Me, Love ME
The Dermis Probe
One Pair of Eyes: Dreamwalkers - 1970ish BBC documentary narrated by Idries Shah. Williams is interviewed, and POSSIBLY a clip from the Nasrudin film is shown, involving bread.
Clapperboard? 1969? documentary about the making of the Nasrudin film, The Golden City. Roy Naisbitt has this apparently, and will send.
Appearance on The BBC's Do It Yourself Film Animation Show, as mentioned earlier - with guest host Bob Godfrey ... any other TV appearances not mentioned.
I wonder if any of his Oscar wins still exist, too!
Documentaries with Richard I've never seen:
Roger Rabbit and the Secrets of Toon Town (1988)
Who Made Roger Rabbit (2002)
The Curious Case of Inspector Clouseau (2002)
Hmm. The 2002 ones are probably on DVD? The 1988 one will be trickier.
Title sequences I've never seen ... I'm sure I can Netflix some of these, if I really want to get into that.
Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
Every Home Should Have One (1970)
Prudence and the Pill (1968)
The Spy with a Cold Nose (1966)
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966)
----
Love Me, Love Me, Love Me
A short - eight minutes - neurotic cartoon about a character named Squidgy Bod, who does everything wrong and is loved by everybody. It's also about Thermus Fortitude, who does everything right and is loved by nobody, except his stuffed alligator called Charlie.
Thermus takes a correspondence course in being lovable, and succeeds in becoming loved by everybody except his stuffed alligator, who is now indifferent.
He therefore throws Charlie out of the window, where he is trampled on by the passing Squidgy Bod. The moral? "When it comes to love, no one really has it good, especially stuffed alligators named Charlie".
Behind-The-Scenes
This engaging cartoon (distributed by British Lion) is a Thuberesque fairy-tale which benefits greatly from having its narrative delivered by Kenneth Williams in his richest plummy-idiot voice. The animation is kept to a minimum, the characterisation is excellent and witty, the linking words and sub-headings of the narrative are elaborately drawn in and decorated, all giving the effect of a far-out Victorian picture-book.
Kenneth recorded the narration for this cartoon on 18th January 1962. Kenneth was a talent who Richard Williams used on several occasions. In 1963 he recorded the narrative for Richard Williams's planned animation Diary Of A Madman, the reading of which was later broadcast on radio years after the film had been abandoned. He also provided voices for Richard Williams's animated film Arabian Knight.
Narrator Kenneth Williams
Writer Stan Hayward Director Richard Williams
Music Peter Shade Editor John Bloom
Produced by Richard Williams
A 1962 Richard Williams Animation Ltd film.
Eastmancolor - 8 mins.
The Diary of a Madman
Kenneth Williams This is rather a curiosity amongst Kenneths Work as it was originally started in 1963 as a soundtrack to a short animated film of Nicolai Gogol’s classic tale by Richard Williams. The fate of this film was similar to another of Richard Williams films that Kenneth was involved with voice over work on, The Thief and the Cobbler. Having, unfortunately, never been completed, the narrations performed by Kenneth survived, and it was this that was remixed by the BBC and broadcast.
The discussions about the film took place at Kenneth's flat on 11.30am on the 14th May 1963, with the recording actually taking place on the 23rd. The recording session started at 10.30am and continued throughout the whole day, finishing at 5pm.
It was nearly thirty years later, a few years after Kenneth's death, that the BBC re-edited the soundtrack with the first broadcast on R4, at 8.00pm on the 3rd February 1991. I beleive their was a repeat soon after this, but I haven't been able to confirm this yet.
Dramatisation by James Burke
Music by Peter Shade
Directed by Richard Williams
Produced by Ned Chaillet
Re-mixed for radio by John Whitehall
The last broadcast I know of was on ABC Classic FM on Wednesday 31-3-99 at 8pm (Australia). The recording does exist in the BBC archive.
Radio: Robert Hanks