Kenneth Widmerpool

Kenneth Widmerpool is a fictional character in Anthony Powell's novel sequence A Dance to the Music of Time, an expansive account of upper-class British life between 1920 and 1970. He is the antithesis of the sequence's narrator-hero Nicholas Jenkins; initially presented as a comic, even pathetic figure, Widmerpool rises to become increasingly successful and powerful as the novels progress—except in terms of his female relationships which fail consistently. He succeeds in business, the army and in politics, and becomes Lord Widmerpool through the award of a life peerage. The sequence ends with his downfall and death, in bizarre circumstances arising from his involvement with a sinister New Age-type cult.

Literary analysts have noted Widmerpool's main defining characteristics: his lack of culture, his small-mindedness, his capacity for intrigue, his embodiment of many of the worst aspects of the British character. At the same time they observe his capacity to rise above the many insults and humiliations that beset him, to achieve his positions of dominance and through sheer industry and self-belief. In this respect he is thought to epitomise the meritocratic middle class's challenge against the hegemony of a declining "establishment", which is revealed to have few defenses against so determined an assault.

Attempts have been made to identify real-life models for Widmerpool. Among the more prominent names suggested have been Edward Heath, the UK prime minister 1970–74, and Reginald Manningham-Buller who served as Churchill's attorney-general in the 1950s. Some of Powell's distinguished contemporaries have put themselves forward as the character's source. Powell has given little encouragement to such theorising. Widmerpool has been portrayed by Brian Hewlett in a BBC radio serial of the novel sequence, broadcast between 1979 and 1982, and by Simon Russell Beale in Channel 4's television film series broadcast in 1997.