The Ballad of the Woggler’s Moulie

by Harry on September 2, 2013

I really have no excuse for posting this. This year is the 25th anniversary of Kenneth Williams’s death, maybe? Its just that my 6 year-old-son came downstairs the other day talking about Chiswick flow, and moulies, and then, today, sang the whole song, pretty much word perfect, and I am very happy about it. So is my daughter. My wife? Maybe not.

{ 14 comments }

1

dsquared 09.02.13 at 6:17 pm

cavilcaviljoeortontangiersextourismnotreallysoharmless

2

Phil 09.02.13 at 6:27 pm

Bit of a tangential cavil there.

3

dr ngo 09.02.13 at 7:33 pm

I’d like to sing this, but am not sure I can fake an accent in which “poor” rhymes with “law.”

4

dsquared 09.02.13 at 8:13 pm

Not entirely a tangential cavil – Kenneth Williams IMO has been very lucky in reputational terms to have died when he did and to have (with his Diaries) filled up the space where a more critical biography might have been. The sex tourism in North Africa really wasn’t all that different from what Gary Glitter did in Southeast Asia, and there’s not much nostalgia there (apparently, someone at a production company did indeed get the job of having to edit together a “Glam Rock At The BBC” show, with the brief that obviously no mention of either Glitter or Savile could be made).

5

John Quiggin 09.02.13 at 9:22 pm

@Dr ngo I didn’t know there was any other kind!

6

peter 09.02.13 at 9:29 pm

dr ngo @ # 4:

“I’d like to sing this, but am not sure I can fake an accent in which “poor” rhymes with “law.” “

Just pronounce “law” as “low-er”, and it should rhyme OK.

7

herr doktor bimler 09.03.13 at 8:34 am

I really have no excuse for posting this.

Surely the death of David Frost counts; Frost was one of the last living recipients of “Round the Horne” satire.

8

herr doktor bimler 09.03.13 at 8:55 am

Back from checking the scripts. “Round the Horne”, 3rd series, program 20 — Kenneth Williams plays the role of David Paradine Nameless in “The Head of the BBC Who Came in from the Cold”.

9

harry b 09.03.13 at 11:35 am

I didn’t know about Frost when I posted it. David Jacobs is gone to, on the long journey into space… I thought about posting about David Jacobs, but decided I had too much to say.
Reading Frost’s obituary, that comment that he “rose without trace” suddenly really makes sense to me.

10

Andrew Burday 09.03.13 at 2:42 pm

Don’t know how CT handles these things, but the comment from “Victor Wooten” (presently #3 above) is link spam — it’s obvious if you follow the link.Deleted – thanks

11

Sasha Clarkson 09.03.13 at 10:44 pm

This should be contrasted with Tom Lehrer’s version! Brilliant in a completely different way :)

12

Laban 09.04.13 at 6:09 pm

I think it’s “Chiswick Flo” – Flo being Florence.

13

herr doktor bimler 09.04.13 at 8:46 pm

I think it’s “Chiswick Flo”
Thus it is written in the scripts.

14

Harry 09.04.13 at 10:24 pm

I know!! Chiswick flow is a china pattern — that’s how I heard him (the boy) at first, and wondered how he knew about it (and then wondered how I knew about it).

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