Carry on

[Navvet]

Here in America, no one to whom I speak knows anything about the Carry On movies. I'm really not too surprised. They're almost never shown on American TV. However, I've loved them since I saw my first one (Carry On Cruising) in 1976. My favorites are "Carry On, Nurse," and "Carry On, Cleo." I love the antics of Kenneth Connor, Charles Hawtrey, Kenneth Williams, Joan Sims, and the rest. I own the DVD boxed set, and I never tire of watching the films.

[stardust2003]

Im surprised Navvet, thought they d be quite well known in
America if only on the cult movie circuit.
Maybe the folks in New York and those with cable TV get
more of a chance to see them ?

[petecrick85]

Originally Posted by Greenman

If I remember correctly Kenneth Connor was a ghost in Rentaghost in later series. Joan Sims was Lady Fox-Custard(pronounced Coostard) in a children's comedy series and Bernard Bresslaw did a voice in cartoon series called Game Over or at least that is what he uttered each week-possibly a chimp?? Barbara Windsor eventually took on the role of Peggy Butcher in Eastenders and Kenneth Williams cropped up as the voiceover and characters for Willo the Wisp cartoon series.

Bernard Bresslaw was in the Giddy Game Show, which also featured the voice of Bill "The Army Game"/"Bootsie & Snudge" Fraser. I remember it well...

[Navvet]

Originally Posted by stardust2003

Im surprised Navvet, thought they d be quite well known in
America if only on the cult movie circuit.
Maybe the folks in New York and those with cable TV get
more of a chance to see them ?

Not really. I live in NY, and I love watching old movies, primarily on cable. Therefore, I'm always checking the listings to see if any interesting flicks are coming my way. TCM (Turner Classic Movies) ran Carry On Cruising several months ago. Before then, and since then, the Carry On movies have been scarce on American TV. It's unfortunate, because it's a great series of funny films.

[USBPepsi]

Originally Posted by navvet

Not really. I live in NY, and I love watching old movies, primarily on cable. Therefore, I'm always checking the listings to see if any interesting flicks are coming my way. TCM (Turner Classic Movies) ran Carry On Cruising several months ago. Before then, and since then, the Carry On movies have been scarce on American TV. It's unfortunate, because it's a great series of funny films.

Yeah, they just don't run them in the U.S. I first learned about the Carry On series in a newsgroup, then did a little online research to get the whole background. Since then, any Carry On film I've seen is one I've downloaded from the internet.

Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever seen any mention of Sid James, in any capacity, on American TV.

[haroldeye]

Americans - insist that 'Carry on up the Khyber' be played on tv at every available opportunity. The true story of the British Empire!

[Greenman]

Now this is most interesting. I was doing a search for Sandra Caron earlier and I came across the fact that she was in 'Carry On Camping'-(fig.1) now this name might not mean much to you but those of us in this country that watched 'The Crystal Maze' will know her more as the actress that played Richard O'Brien's 'mother' in the game show-aka 'Mumsy' (see fig.2) and then later 'Auntie Sabrina' I had no idea that she was in that film though.

Figure.1
Figure.2

[aerodeon]

She was easily the prettiest lady in that film too.

[bennie001]

Originally Posted by bennie001

I grew up with the carry on films and they should be left well alone, as none of the suggested casting could hold a light to the original carry on team of James, William, Hawtrey and Sims, for at one time or another that had done other films together out with the carry on films so knew each other quite well, where most of the comedians today don’t like each other, and find it quite hard playing themselves let alone doing a character, but the carry on humour was of the seaside postcard type, which is frowned upon by the PC brigade as being sexist, but that’s because they never got the humour in the first place, and the ones that did never owned up to it, for they would have been slagged of by the people they were trying to impress.

While reading this thread again I remembered a gag that was so go they used it twice in two different Carry doctor movies, both times it used Jim Dale and Peter Butterworth, but with a different third person, it starts with Jim Dale and the other actor who are playing doctors and are playing a game call instant diagnosis, and they see Peter Butterworth walking very slowly and very rigidly through the 60’s version of A&E, the other doctor say Piles and Jim Dale says no a slipped disc, stopping Peter Butterworth they give him there diagnosis, to which he says there both wrong, and then with great dead pan humour and timing states He thought that he had wind and he was wrong.

[danton]

Looking for links online for Margaret Nolan (above) I came upon an interview Nolan gave a U.K. fanzine. It mostly dealt with the 'Carry On' films and the aftermath. According to Nolan the producers and director have kept the (by now amazing) royalties on all the Carry On's to themselves. She claimed there is not a time in the day when one or other is not on a television channel somewhere in the world. Videotape and D.V.D. sales were strong.

Nolan said that a campaign to have some additional payments made for hard up former stars such as Charles Hawtry, dying in poverty, were brushed aside and an Equity (U.K. professional actors guild) approach was also rebuffed along with pleas from Barbara Windsor and the late Bernard Bresslaw. By the end of the Nolan interview I gained the impression that while she was a fleeting member of the team, she despised the whole genre for that reason. Kenneth Williams "Dairies" are a good read on his approach to 'Carry On' assignments. Nolan worked with many other British comics and has many television show credits.