Poem from his collection Ice Cream For A Broken Tooth

Kenneth Williams would have been 100 years old this weekend, had he not died of an overdose in April 1988.

And in tribute, Robin Ince reads a tribute to the comedian – who he briefly encountered when he worked in the toy department of Harrods as a youth. 

It refers to the late comic’s fear of intimacy, closeness to his mother, and outrageous behaviour to become the centre of attention.

The verse comes from Ince’s poetry collection, Ice Cream For A Broken Tooth, which was subtitled ‘poems about life, death, and the odd bits in between’ and which was published last summer and is available from Bookshop.org, below.

Published: 21 Feb 2026