“Oh, stop messing about!” Celebrating one hundred years of Kenneth Williams, David Benson returns with a major UK Tour of his legendary portrait of the outrageous comedy star in a revised 30th anniversary version of his critically acclaimed solo show Think No Evil of Us: My Life with Kenneth Williams launching 25 January, 2026.
Benson’s original solo-show, Think No Evil of Us: My Life with Kenneth Williams, described as ‘An exhilarating one-man tour-de-force’ by the Independent on Sunday and as ‘A masterpiece of comic timing’ by the London Evening Standard, debuted at the Edinburgh Fringe 30 years ago. Now, in celebration of what would have been Williams’ 100th birthday on 22 February, 2026, Benson revisits his classic performance in a new and revised production.
In a dazzling display of impeccably honed stage craft, the Fringe First winner will give an unsparing portrayal of the tormented comic genius, best loved for his appearances in the Carry On films, as he lurches from hilarity to self-pity, in public and in private. Benson brings the much-missed chat show raconteur roaring back to life with an uncanny portrayal which has received unanimous praise from Williams’ closest friends, including his Carry On co-star Barbara Windsor who, after seeing the original production, declared, “How did you know all that? That’s just what it was like having dinner out with Kenny. A bloomin’ nightmare!”
His great friend, the late Maggie Smith, meanwhile, 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!”
The revised show also reveals Benson’s own personal connection to his comedy hero -The Jackanory Connection. 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 some 69 books over the life of the programme. Benson’s story was chosen as a winner from 15,000 entries by Williams himself, who then performed the story on national television.
Fifty years on, David Benson recalls, “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 the 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 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, 25 January, 7.30pm | WINCHESTER Theatre Royal, 28 January, 7.30pm | HENLEY Kenton Theatre, 29 January, 7.30pm | KENDAL Brewery Arts, 6 February, 8pm | STIRLING Macrobert Arts Centre, 7 February, 7.30pm | BEDFORD Quarry, 13 February, 7.30pm | SHREWSBURY Theatre Severn, 14 February, 7.30pm | COLCHESTER Mercury, 17 February, 7.30pm | GUILDFORD Yvonne Arnaud, 27 February, 7.45pm & 28 February, 2.45pm & 7.45pm | GORLESTON Pavilion, 6 March, 7.30pm | PETERBOROUGH Cresset, Friday 13th March, time TBC | EXETER Barnfield, 20 March, 7.45pm | WEYMOUTH Pavilion, 28 March, 2.30pm | With more dates to be announced soon…
Age Suitability 12+
Tickets here.
