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.