My Best Film: Carry On!

[Surf Digby]

I watched Carry On Girls last night, as it has probably the most Nolan content (although her best moment is probably discussing her lodger with Dr Prod in Carry On Matron), and for the first time noticed something odd.

It's not as noticeable in this YouTube version, but at around 25 minutes when Babs arrives and starts talking to Sid and Bernard, for a few shots the image quality dips massively, as if they've inserted footage from a telecine copy of a ropey 8mm home cinema version. It's glaringly obvious on the DVD version and I can't understand how I've not picked up on it before. I rewound and changed it to the commentary track to see if there was mention, but ...Girls has a fucking terrible commentary track that mostly consists of June Whitfield going, "Mmmm, ah, yes, oh there's Jimmy, he was a lovely man".
 

 

[The Masked Poster]

I’ve bumped this after watching the recent Carry On marathon on ITV3. 
I’m intrigued by the behind the scenes story’s of the cast - how many of them had tragic lives and died relatively young.

Also how the films were miscast with regards to age - in camping Sid & Bernard are acting like 20 somethings - Babs even jokes how Joan Simms looks like Sid’s aunt - wtf?  

[Surf Digby]

Possibly contentious thought:

Carry On At Your Convenience benefits from Barbara Windsor not being in it.

[Just Some Guy]

I'm not disagreeing but why that particular one over the approx 20 others she isn't in?

[gmoney]

Carry On At Your Convenience is shite. 

[Surf Digby]

2 hours ago, Just Some Guy said:

I'm not disagreeing but why that particular one over the approx 20 others she isn't in?

Because she would have been paired off with Sid, essentially taking Joan Sims role. Hattie would likely have stayed as Sid's wife, relegating Joan to either a lesser factory worker or Mr Bogg's assistant, because her and Patsy can both do dowdy/grumpy characters, and Barbara can't. 

Firstly, I like Patsy and this would probably mean another film where she doesn't get to do much. I think she always had better chemistry with Kenneth than Barbara did too.

Secondly, there's a scene with just Sid and Joan near the end when they return from the works day out, having to go back to separate houses that's a hidden gem. It's well written, well shot, and performed wonderfully, with both of them awkwardly not saying what they want to say, but knowing what each other means. I don't believe that Barbara could have pulled that scene off anywhere near as well.
 

Quote

Carry On At Your Convenience is shite.

Edited July 7, 2023 by Nostalgia Nonce

[Just Some Guy]

I know the scene you mean and agree it is one of the finest in the series.

[Butch2000]

It’s a Tory carry on.

[Surf Digby]

I watched Carry On Don't Lose Your Head today, as I'd recently learned that Jacqueline "Servalan" Pearce makes a small appearance in it. The lack of short black hair (and bodies at her feet) were probably why she'd gone unrecognised before now.

I don't know why, but this isn't one I've watched very many times before, maybe only once or twice, and really I should because it's Ffing marvellous (two Fs).

It looks lovely, like a proper film that had a proper budget. There's big sets, location shooting, and a lot of extras in period dress. I suspect a lot of it was borrowed/leftover from another production, similar to how they made Carry On Cleo.

There's quite a few of the core cast missing. There's no Hattie, no Kenneth Connor, no Bernard Bresslaw, no Babs, and none of the semi-regulars (Terry Scott, Patsy Rowlands, Bernard Cribbins etc.), but those that are there are in fine form. Jim Dale in particular is great in not having the manic clumsiness of his Doctor roles.

Edited February 26, 2024 by Surf Digby
Edit? No I 'aven't 'ed it. Are you offering?

[theironshake]

Just reading this thread. The crazy think is with Carry on Camping. Bernard Breslaw is only 35. So acting like a 20 something isn't that bad really. 

[Devon Malcolm]

Still one of the greatest gags of all time.

 

[Surf Digby]

Has anyone read any of the official "sequels"?



I would simply say "Don't!", in much the same way as "Take two bottles into the shower? Don't!"

I picked up Carry On Abroad and took it with me to read on holiday, and Christ, what an experience.

Firstly, it's not really a sequel, in that it doesn't follow on from the film. Instead, it's an alternate version of the film, with all the characters meeting for the first time, but for no real reason, many of the characters have been changed.
Sid and Cora Flange are now called Sidney and Ethel Roper, and they run a bookies, not a pub. Bert Conway is now Bertie MacConway, purely so that they can shoehorn in references to his nickname being Big Mac on account of his massive nob at every opportunity, and Bernard Bresslaw is no longer Brother Bernard, but Bernie Biddle (Biddle being his character's name from Carry On Doctor).
Also putting in an appearance from Carry On Doctor is The Reverend Francis Bigger (Frankie Howerd), and even having him uttering the line, "Verily, verily and thrice verily". 

The hotel is still run by Pepe and Floella, but Floella now talks with her words all out of order, like Yoda after he's had a stroke.

Charles Hawtrey is now a private detective, who is a master of disguise. This pretty much means that every so often, with no rhyme or reason "all of a sudden, Max Bygraves walked in and started singing" or "everyone was surprised to see Zorro turn up and start swinging from balcony to balcony". 

Overall though, it's just not funny. Considering it's in book form, there's no real attempts at funny wordplay or innuendo. It's a lot more crass than even the final few films, and there's a fair amount of swearing in it (not that I'm a prude, it's just that such crudeness seems out of place). A lot of the "content" (it's not really humour, or story, it's just there) is references to Geoff Hurst and the 1966 Cup Final, with constant outdated stereotypes about Germans, and referring to them as "Krauts".

The humour involving the women comes across as very mean spirited. June Whitfield as the nagging wife turned up to eleven, Joan Sims as the nagging wife turned up to eleven, Patsy Rowlands as psychopathic twins (one of which bites off a German's nob while giving him a blowjob), and Barbara Windsor as a massive slag, who single handedly defeats the Mafia by either shagging them into exhaustion or laughing at their nobs until they run away.
"Where's the ladies?" asked Sadie, "I left in such an 'urry I forgot to put me knickers on. The old welcome mat is frozen". 
Grim

Sorry, should have really marked this for spoilers, however are you still using that old washing powder? Don't! Considering giving this book a try? Don't!

Overall, I'm not sure what's the most bizarre out of a) that this is an official sequel, b) it's so bad, it actually makes me want to read the others, or c) that it wasn't written until 1996! The attempts at humour would have been out of place in 1986, and probably struggled in 1976 as well.

I can't imagine that anyone at Rank or the publishers at all read these before sending them to the printers.

Edited November 21, 2025 by Surf Digby
Typos. Get over it. You're not my mum.

[Surf Digby]

And while I'm at it, I don't understand the cover for this book. Not one single photo used that's actually connected to a Carry On film.

[TibBo]

Maybe the actors/their estates actually get some of the money this way, rather than it going to the estates of Rogers/Thomas like most of the film profits did?