Keep calm and Carry On
As the cheeky film franchise hits 60, MARION McMULLEN looks back at decades of Carry On laughter
WHAT a carry on!
IT all began in 1958 with a gentle British comedy about a motley crew of wet-behind-the-ears National Service army recruits and a sergeant determined to knock them into shape before his retirement.
Carry On Sergeant starred a pre-Doctor Who William Hartnell as Sergeant Grimshawe, comedian Bob Monkhouse as reluctant soldier Charlie Sage and the first appearance of future Carry On regulars Kenneth Williams, Hattie Jacques, Charles Hawtrey, Kenneth Connor and Terry Scott.
Hattie Jacques played a medical officer named Captain Clark with Kenneth Connor trying her patience as accident-prone hypochondriac Horace Strong.
Kenneth Williams appeared as snooty university graduate James Bailey, Charles Hawtrey was scatterbrained Peter Golightly while Terry Scott appeared in just one scene as Sergeant O’Brien.
William Hartnell was paid £2,000 for his role and Kenneth Williams, who was also appearing during filming in London’s West End in Share My Lettuce at the Garrick Theatre, received around £800.
Charles Hawtrey, who was paid £1,000, later said: “We worked for bread money.”
He remembered: “I was in the first one, Carry On Sergeant. It was an idea of Peter Rogers’, who is quite a clever fella. He didn’t write it, but he had the idea. So he hawked it around and nobody would take it. He eventually went to two gentlemen at Anglo Amalgamated, and what happened? They made a fortune.”
Regional screenings of the black and white movie comedy were held at the end of August, 1958, ahead of a London cinema release on September 19.
The movie was made with a modest budget of around £73,000 and took £500,000 at the UK box office with the publicity declaring: “Such carryings-on in this man’s Army!”
Carry On Sergeant had been planned as a one-off movie, but was so successful that producer Peter Rogers and director Gerald Thomas immediately started looking at the idea of doing another Carry On movie.
Peter Rogers later said: “We didn’t know it was going to be a big success.
“It broke the ice in Pinewood which was regarded to be a very expensive studio, proving that you could make a very modest budget in Pinewood.”
Carry On Nurse followed a year later and proved an even bigger success and paved the way for the whole Carry On series, full of British humour that was as saucy as seaside postcards.
Kenneth Williams, who went on to appear in 25 Carry On films, used to quip: “I can’t stand innuendo. If I see one in a script I whip it out immediately.”
The Carry On family expanded over the years to include Barbara Windsor, Joan Sims, Jim Dale, Peter Butterworth, Bernard Bresslaw, Jack Douglas and Sid James.
Sid was nicknamed “One take James” because he nearly always did it right first time. He also cheekily became an expert at sneaking product placement advertising into scenes. Carry On Up The Jungle saw the whisky-loving actor open a cupboard to reveal it filled with Johnnie Walker Red Label Scotch Whisky.
The cast were paid a one-off fee for the Carry On movies with no money from TV or video sales and Peter Rogers used to say: “I’ll do anything for my actors... except pay them.”
He later said: “When I first met Frankie Howerd I had hurt my leg. He suggested that I had fallen over my wallet!”
Lines such as “Infamy! Infamy! They’ve all got it in for me,” from Carry On Cleo in 1964 and “Frying tonight,” from 1966 comedy Carry On Screaming have become part of British culture.
The movies have also produced characters like Johnny Finger, the Rumpo Kid, from Carry On Cowboy in 1965 and W C Boggs from Carry On At Your Convenience in 1971.
Carry On Emmanuelle, which came out in 1979, was the last film in the original series to be made, until the franchise was briefly revived in 1992 with Carry On Columbus which saw comedy performers such as Rik Mayall, Julian Clary and One Foot In The Grave’s Richard Wilson appearing along past Carry On veterans Jim Dale, Bernard Cribbins and Jack Douglas. Cameraman Alan Hume who worked on the film also worked with director Gerald Thomas on the first Carry On Sergeant, 30 films before.
Dame Barbara Windsor has become known as the Queen of Carry On and her famous appearance in Carry On Camping in 1969 led to it becoming the highest grossing film in the UK that year. The film’s title was translated abroad as Control Yourself, Hiker in Spain; Holidays, Let’s Go in Poland and even I Want a Nudist Girlfriend in South America.
Barbara once said: “We didn’t get a lot of money and we did always seem to be doing outside shots in winter but it paid the mortgage and I loved it.”