The Infamous Windsor-Knight Honeymoon Fiasco
Believe it or not, Carry On Abroad might actually be based on true events! Just after the filming of Carry On Spying in 1964 Kenneth, as well as his mother Louie and sister Pat joined newlyweds, Carry On star Barbara Windsor and her husband Ronnie Knight on their romantic honeymoon to Funchal, a city in Madeira Island, Portugal. But after a series of sleazy hotel rooms, terrible weather, and tantrums this quickly turned into a less than ideal honeymoon.
Here are some accounts of the holiday from the man himself, Mr Kenneth Williams from his diaries. Â Source: The Kenneth Williams Diaries
Car collecting me at Farley Court at 10.30, then pick up L. And P. Well of course we all arrived at London Airport much too early. Met Barbara [Windsor] & Ronald - got talking & v. nearly missed the plane! Left Lisbon at 5.30. Then a nightmare of a journey began. First a lighter took us out to this ship, and then we started on our voyage to Funchal.  It took us 3½ hours. On arriving at the Savoy Hotel, it was just unbelievable. The rooms were all appalling. Bare and nasty. Hard beds. No bathroom. I took loads of pills and went heavy hearted to bed, bitterly recalling Barbaraâs words âIâll bet we end up in the khazi.â
The âSavoy Hotelâ or as itâs called now, Royal Savoy Hotel.
A picture of a Savoy Hotel room likely, similar to the one Kenneth and co. stayed in. It even still looks like itâs from the 1960s haha.
Got us all moved to better rooms. V.g. lunch at 1:30 and things started to look much better.
Lousy day. Rain. In the evening we sat in the bar drinking till about 11.30. Bed. What an awful place this is. I feel like someone who is punch drunk. This is something I had never foreseen. The idea that Madeira could be as awful as this never occurred to me, and of course with bad weather, there is simply nothing to do. Everyone is defeated.
It developed into a drink session with Louie got v. tight and embarrassed a Portuguese waiter by asking him to dance and generally behaving v. badly. I left them and met a Portuguese boy who took me to the Flamingo which was awful. When I came back to the hotel L. & P. were shouting and bawling at each other. I told them to be quiet and go to sleep.
Morning cold and raining. In the morning Mike, Ronnie and me played Gin Rummy. Â The girls came back from Bingo & said it was dreary. Then Barbara got v. shirty and turned on Louie, carrying some sort of moral flag over my behaviour to some old boy who was watching us play cards. I am too old, too tired and too talented to care. No one can imagine the. misery of tat holidays. It has to be experienced. I could had done everything Iâve done here on Brighton front and thats a fact. You can shiver there with extra woolies.
In the evening we went down to the Golden Gate. We all came back to the hotel in good spirits only to make the mistake of having âone of the roadâ in the hotel bar; eventually the dreary decor, arum lilies & general funeral parlour atmosphere destroyed all we had created. For first time in years, I went to bed without pills.
Slept till about seven oâc. Not bad. Looked out of the window- black cloud all over the mountain! One falls  back on the bed filled with despair.
Saturday, 11 April. Lisbon
Barbara mad a dreadful scene in the restaurant. âcos she said the Steak Diane was ill made. Crying & all. It was the natural climax to an appalling holiday and I really couldnât blame her.
Babs, Kenny, and his mother Louie.Â
Hereâs the website for the âSavoy Hotelâ: https://www.madeiraroyalsavoy.com
