Kenneth Williams gets blue plaque - unveiled by 'Carry On' co-star Barbara Windsor

Windsor said: "Kenny was a one-off, a true original, and a great friend. I'm absolutely chuffed that English Heritage is celebrating him with a blue plaque." (PA)

Actress Barbara Windsor celebrated her old friend Kenneth Williams by unveiling a blue plaque in his memory to mark what would have been his 88th birthday.

Windsor became a close confidante of the comic after appearing together repeatedly during their years starring in classic Carry On movies.

The English Heritage plaque has been installed on the London apartment block in which Williams lived in the 1960s as he enjoyed national fame with his movie career and regular appearances in hit radio comedy series Round The Horne.

Windsor said: "Kenny was a one-off, a true original, and a great friend. I'm absolutely chuffed that English Heritage is celebrating him with a blue plaque."

Williams - famed for lines such as "ooh matron" and "infamy, infamy, they've all got it in for me" - lived in Flat 62 on the upper level of Farley Court, a 1929 apartment block which is close to Madame Tussauds from 1963 to 1970.

It was his base while filming hits such as Carry On Cleo, Carry On Up The Khyber and Carry On Camping over at Pinewood Studios.

The flat, close to Madame Tussauds, was Williams's base while filming hits such as Carry On Cleo, Carry On Up The Khyber and Carry On Camping at Pinewood Studios (GETTY)

Williams wrote that he was "elated" to be moving into the property in his diary, adding: "My bedroom looks out over Regent's Park. The trees are turning now and the sight is beautiful. I can see all the traffic twinkling down the Marylebone Rd - It's all so marvellous, I could cry."

On another, less joyful occasion, he wrote about how he was able to look down on "the nits crowding round outside the waxworks. How I loathe them and Madame Tussaud".

Williams, who died from a barbiturate overdose in 1988, also appeared in the stage production of Joe Orton play Loot while at Farley Street, and began to star as a regular on the Radio 4 series Just A Minute.

English Heritage's blue plaque historian Howard Spencer said: "Kenneth Williams was a unique comic talent, who as both an actor and a story-teller won the nation's affections."His legacy endures in recordings of his radio work and chat show appearances, his notoriously frank diaries, and the Carry On films. That legacy is now recognised by one of our blue plaques in London, the city in which he lived all his life."

PA