Just who are (were?) Joe and Kenneth?
Joe Orton was arguably the greatest British playwright of the 1960s (alongside Harold Pinter), with his dark comedy satires
Loot (1965) and
What the Butler Saw (1969) having become mainstays of the English-language stage. His life was chronicled more recently in the biopic
Prick Up Your Ears (1987).
Kenneth Williams, meanwhile, was one of the most celebrated post-war comedians to come out of Britain; together with Hugh Paddick, he played one half of "
Julian and Sandy", a duo of ultra-camp characters on radio series
Round the Horne, who effectively brought 'out' gay characters, gay slang, and so forth, into people's homes each week, at a time when homosexuality was still illegal in Britain. Almost twenty years after his death, Kenneth remains a great British institution, with his performances in 26 "Carry On" comedy movies familiar to almost anyone, and his famous cry of "
Infamy! Infamy! They've all got it in-for-me!" from
Carry On Cleo (1964) winning the title of "greatest one-liner in movie history" in an April 2007 poll of 1000 British comedy writers, actors, and fans.
Both Orton and Williams, who were close friends, are figureheads of 20th Century British gay cultural history.