Carry On films

The series began with Carry On Sergeant in 1958, about a bunch of recruits on National Service and was sufficiently successful that others followed. There was a core group of regulars in the films; Barbara Windsor, Sid James, Joan Sims, Hattie Jacques, Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtry[?], with appearances in a couple of other films by Bernard Bresslaw, Kenneth Connor[?], Fenella Fielding[?], Jim Dale, Bernard Cribbins and others. The plots and dialogue, written by Talbot Rothwell[?] showed considerable music hall influences, seaside postcard vulgarity and dreadful puns: occasionally they rose to inspired heights, as in their take on Anthony and Cleopatra (Carry On Cleo), where the stabbed Julius Caesar (Kenneth Williams) staggered back, crying "Infamy! Infamy! They've all got it infamy!"

The period in which the films were made co-incided with the so-called sexual revolution and the later films were considerably more relaxed towards sexual jokes and situations than the earlier ones. Many parodied examples of more serious popular films. One of their less successful films was the 1966 film Carry On Follow that Camel, which was an attempt to break into the American film market. This was a Beau Geste/Foreign Legion parody, starring the American comedian Phil Silvers[?], but did not achieve commercial success either in America or Britain.

The series eventually petered out by the late seventies, as its style looked ever more dated[?]. In 1992 an attempt was made to revive the series with Carry on Columbus. The producers managed to persuade a number of "alternative commedians" (e.g. Rik Mayall[?], Alexei Sayle[?], Peter Richardson[?] and Julian Clary[?]) to appear in the film, but it had a poor script and did not achieve any great commercial success.

• Carry On Sergeant (1958)
• Carry On Nurse (1958)
• Carry On Teacher (1959)
• Carry On Constable (1960)
• Carry On Regardless (1961)
• Carry On Cruising (1962)
• Carry on Cabbie (1963)
• Carry On Jack (1963)
• Carry On Spying (1964)
• Carry On Cowboy (1965)
• Carry On Cleo (1965)
• Carry On.Follow That Camel (1966)
• Carry On Screaming (1966)
• Don't Lose Your Head (1966)
• Carry On Doctor (1967)
• Carry On Up the Khyber (1968)
• Carry On Camping (1969)
• Carry On Again, Doctor (1969)
• Carry On Loving (1970)
• Carry On Henry (1971)
• Carry On at Your Convenience (1971)
• Carry On Matron (1972)
• Carry On Abroad (1973)
• Carry On Dick (1974)
• Carry On Behind (1975)
• Carry On England (1976)
• Carry On Emmanuelle (1978)
• Carry On Columbus (1992)

The Carry on Website: http://www.carryonline.com

Some more recent films such as Nuns on the Run, Fierce Creatures, Rat Race[?] and The Parole Officer[?] are very much in the same tradition as the Carry On films, which are available on videotape and frequently repeated on daytime television.