What's the best Carry On film?

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

I've always been a bit partial to 'Matron' myself.  Which one would be good to show to a 12yr old as an example of Carry On that isn't going to bore the shit out of them?  Camping?

If your 12 year old happens to be a boy, he certainly won't be bored by the at that point Wendy James Of Transvision Vamp - resembling Barbara Windsor dressed as a schoolgirl and having a catfight in the opening scene , or that iconic scene where she gets 'em out later on, of course. However, while there are plenty of commendable things to recommend this film ( Charles Hawtrey's  fourth wall breaking look of disapproval to the camera after that girl says " oh no, it's got to be the cow", the groovy tunes of The Flowerbuds, the actors trembling in the wan November sunlight whilst pretending it's the middle of Summer), there's quite a bit of dodgy stuff that 12 year old eyes shouldn't be seeing ( Sid James and Bernard Bresslaw trying to screw schoolgirls, Terry Scott somewhat implausibly being screwed by a schoolgirl, giving him succour to go and screw his wife into submission, with her subsequently knowing her place and not taking him on a camping holiday again, Joan Sims unleashing a goat onto her mum, and laughing- laughing ! -about It. Not quite on the same level as the guards laughing at the hapless naked servant girl being sodomized by another one of the guards in that scene in " Salo" ( which I assume you won't be showing to your 12year old), but still a bit much).

Show them " Carry On Screaming" instead.

[Alternative Carpark]

Yeah they were constant TV filler in the 90s,along with those TV compilations of best moments. I became extremely familiar with some of them.

I watched that bit of camping so much I noticed my first continuity error - wide shots of the exercising girls both include and exclude Babs, at random before and after her spectacular popping out.

There is also another continuity error in that sequence, where Hattie Jacques is bare-headed for the first few shots, but then for the reaction shots she's suddenly got a hat or headscarf on.

A lot of the films were/are shown on more or less constant rotation on ITV3 at Christmas even just a few years ago, and may still be.

[Jockice]

Girls or At Your Convenience I reckon.

I think I've mentioned before about being confused about my sexuality as a boy because Babs Windsor was set up as this incredibly sexy women (ie the Camping scene) and I just didn't fancy her at all. I really thought there was something wrong with me.

Hawtrey and Williams though, phooaaar!

[Custard]

I love the way that Sid James just plays the same character in every single one

pa-hahahhahaherrrhaha!!!

I've decided not to buy the full box set, but instead follow everyone's recommendations and just get the really good ones. I can't be watching all 26. Second hand, you can get most for cheap as chips, so I'll make my own box set of 10 or 12 or so

Is there a scene where someone uses Babs' chest as a money box and pops a coin in? I have a vague memory of being mesmerized by that as a very tiny kid, and thinking "ooh, she's nice", but not really understanding why

[the science eel]

At Your Convenience is on at 11.10 this morning on ITV3

[Gulftastic]

Convenience loses out due to the weasley little shit in the Jim Dale role.

Everyone remembers the obvious Carry On... big hitters, and quite rightly, but Dale was a superb romantic lead, grounding the films somewhat. They lost a lot when he went to Murcca.

[Blumf]

I love the way that Sid James just plays the same character in every single one

Not really; Constable, Regardless, Cruising, and Cabby all have him playing it pretty upright, rather than his lecherous archetype.

Going to put a shout out for Patsy Rowlands, who always play it great as a put upon drip. Just watching her now in Convenience, modelling a new toilet.

[Custard]

Heh, yeah she's great. Was good as Spudgun's mum in Bottom too

Joan Sims is again excellent in Convenience. And very attractive. Enjoying this a lot so far

[Jockice]

I love the way that Sid James just plays the same character in every single one

And of course Charles Hawtrey has the same opening line in all those he appears in too.

[Custard]

Oh really? That's brilliant!

[Jockice]

Oh hello!

[Custard]

This article on Hawtrey is pretty bleak and disappointing, mind

https://www.express.co.uk/expressyourself/169058/Charles-Hawtrey-The-Carry-On-clown-who-hated-everyone

I guess if you'd set out to be a serious leading man, even if that possibility exists solely in your own mind, it's not quite the same as being part of an ensemble in a comedy film series. It's sad, because he was so good in these films. Absolutely brilliant, even

[Glebe]

Oh dear, saddened to hear he wasn't the nicest bloke in actuality.

Here's that appearance on a show called Movie Memories hosted by Roy Hudd, where he's absolutely pissed as a fart:

Charles Hawtrey interviewed.

Heh, yeah she's great. Was good as Spudgun's mum in Bottom too

Oh yeah! Joan Sims played Aunt Reenie in OFAH's 'The Frog''s Legacy' of course.

And of course Charles Hawtrey has the same opening line in all those he appears in too.

Haha, didn't know that!

[Blumf]

And of course Charles Hawtrey has the same opening line in all those he appears in too.

"I'll be back"

[Gulftastic]

Camping is a strange one for me. As a kid, I hated the Terry Scott subplot with his overbearing missus, but seeing it a couple of years ago for the first time in probably a couple of decades, I found her hilarious. Everytime it went to the campsite for more Sid sex-pestery I was just wanted it to go back to her.

[Glebe]

Watched An Audience with Kenneth Williams on YouTube a little while ago, remember it being on as a kid. Joan Sims and Bernard Bresslaw in the audience there. Apparently Bresslaw trained at RADA and came to the attention of Laurence Olivier. He was always excellent, I actually think he could have made a great 'serious' actor.

Oh yeah, this is worth bringing up again!:

As an aside, here's the late David Cavangh's Terry Scott anecdote.

It is a very hot, sweltering summer's day in 1989.

Waterloo Station. I'm trying to get a train to Portsmouth to see R.E.M. at The Guildhall that night. It's Friday, 5pm-ish, and one train has already been cancelled. Now another is cancelled. The heat is ferocious.

So three lots of commuters are running for the train to Portsmouth, and my mate and I get to a carriage near the front, plonk ourselves down in opposite seats and feel pretty good that we're finally going to get moving, and may even reach Portsmouth in time.

After the train has been moving for about 10 minutes, I hear a voice complain loudly: "Innit marvellous! There he is, with a sign behind him saying 'Please give up your seat if somebody needs it', and what does he do? Nothing. Absolutely nothing."

I look round. It's a crowded carriage. Terry Scott is glaring at me. He is standing up, wearing a light blue short-sleeved shirt, with a huge belly, and he's holding on to an overhead strap with one hand, while clutching a huge bunch of flowers with the other. He is sweating profusely -- I mean waterfalls of perspiration just pouring down his face.

I look behind me. Sure enough, there is a sign -- I hadn't noticed it when I sat down -- asking me to give up my seat to someone who needs it more than I do.

I look at Terry Scott. "Er, would you like my seat?" I ask.

"Well, if it wouldn't be too much trouble," he replies, "YES I WOULD."

So we swap places. I hold on to the overhead strap while he takes my seat (with a resounding "Ooooomph!!" as he sits down).

People are slightly embarrassed. Me and Terry Scott have made the cardinal error of talking out loud on a busy train. Fuck it, I think, in for a penny, in for a pound.

"Can I ask you something?" I say. "Do you ever watch those Carry On compilations that they have on telly?"

(This was 1989. These compilations were relatively new at the time.)

"Me, son? Nah, nah, nah...."

I decide to push the issue:

"They're very good. I don't suppose you earn any money from them?"

Suddenly he's off. Telling me what a huge rip-off the Carry On franchise was. How he got paid a derisory one-off fee and has had to watch, appalled, as a load of no-talents make money out of his work. The crowded carriage is now hanging on his every word. I have Terry Scott in the palm of my hand. He is clutching on to his flowers and a lifetime's bitterness is coming to the surface.

My questions take a fatalistic turn:

"Such a shame, though, that Sid James and Kenneth Williams are dead now..."

"All dead, son, all dead," he says. "There's only me left now."

"Well... you and Jim Dale," I point out.

"No, he was never in them, son."

"Yes he was."

"No he wasn't, son."

"He was in Khyber. And one of the Doctors."

"No, son, he wasn't. No no no. He was never one of us. No no."

I clear my throat.

"Look... sorry... Jim Dale was DEFINITELY in some of the Carry On films."

"No, son. No no no. He was never one of us. There was Sid, me, Charlie, Ken, Babs, Joanie, Bernie, Jack and Liz. That's all. No one else, son. There was no one else."

He got off two stops down the line, after explaining that the flowers were for his mother who was very ill in hospital. He thanked me for the seat -- there were people between us, so it wasn't possible to shake his hand -- and he sweated his way off the train.

"He'll be dead within a year," said my mate as I sat down opposite him again.

He was two years out.

Scott is a legend, but the Denying of Dale is simply madness!

[Andy147]

Scott is a legend, but the Denying of Dale is simply madness!

Also, he starts by saying they're "all dead", then refers to "Babs, Joanie, Bernie, Jack and Liz", all of whom outlived him.

[imitationleather]

And furthermore, as I noted when the anecdote was originally posted, he was in four fewer Carry On films than Jim Dale!

[Cold Meat Platter]

And no Butterworth?

[Tony Tony Tony]

On the subject of how bitter the carry on stars were about how much money was being made off their toils Kenneth Williams In His Own Words was on C5 the other night. It might have been a repeat and it certainly featured clips that have been seen upteen times but I certainly enjoyed our particular piece of KW invective. It was with Kenny with Babs Winsdor and they were discussing Camping. Babs was regaling us with how her top was removed in the iconic scene by a man out of shot with a fishing line and rod hooked into her bra. She complained that it took lots of takes as her top wouldn't come off and she kept getting pulled over into the mud.

Kenneth chirped up with the complaint that as well as getting a paltry few hundred quid the work he had to suffer the perceived indignity of eating on the same clapped out bus as the supporting artistes. Then when the producer turned up he (Rogers presumably) barely stepped out of his Rolls Royce to tell them all how well they were doing and promptly buggered off. Kenny was most put out at how badly he felt a star of his magnitude was being treated, it was only when I read his diaries I saw how much he hated the whole franchise.

I always thought he did seem a bit ungrateful as it was Carry On that had propelled him into 'stardom' despite being something of a one note act with variations on the character he referred to as 'Snide' though I did also enjoy him doing his polari bit in Julian and Sandy.

[Catalogue Trousers]

I really thought there was something wrong with me.

Not at all. As someone with taste once said, Babs is the least sexy girl by far in Carry On Girls. In Camping, she's far from the bustiest one, so it's a mystery as to why it's got to be her - and not, say, Anna Karen (yes, in later years she was Olive in On The Buses, but in her younger days a very successful Rubenesque glamour model) - who's supposedly so bra-busting, I never could tell...Put her in a film alongside, say, Margaret Nolan, Valerie Leon, or Madeline Smith, and no one's gonna spare her so much as a 'phwoar' and a steamed-up monocle.

Best of the films? Either Spying or Screaming, for me. Neither of which feature Sid, and only one of which features Babs - her debut for the series, in fact, when she was at least endearingly energetic and chirpy.

[Brundle-Fly]

You buggers! I really want to buy the boxset now. Absolutely loved them as a nipper. You can understand why men of a certain generation had a pretty pathetic attitude regarding women. We were breastfed this stuff from an early age. I said, breast fed.

I still hear this music in my head when I secretly leer at an attractive woman who walks past me. Pathetic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rrey1g-Qogg

[Jittlebags]

Anna Karen (yes, in later years she was Olive in On The Buses

Olive still gives me a lazy lob.

[Phoenix Lazarus]

The early ones had an innocent charm; with the later ones there was a grim fascination in seeing how sleazy they would often descend to being.

[Blumf]

Not at all. As someone with taste once said, Babs is the least sexy girl by far in Carry On Girls.

Thing is, she's got the perfect character, all fun and saucy. And she wasn't anywhere near bad looking either, don't know why people complain about that. An all rounder.

I think the closest competition to Babs, would have been Imogen Hassall, who certainly had the looks, but also did a great comedy job in Loving, swapping from the uptight family to swinging bachelorette pad. Wish she did more Carry On (and yet another depressing life story)

[jobotic]

God, poor woman.

[A Hat Like That]

The first lot, up to Carry on Jack or maybe Carry on Cleo are all simpler, typically B & W and more innocent. All worth a watch on a slow Sunday, I think.

The middle lot, certainly from Carry on Cleo through to Carry on Camping are all where the films, broadly, take on a recent hit or genre, are all pretty good.

So, Cleo, Screaming, Up the Khyber, Follow that Camel and, imho most of all, Don't Lose Your Head all stand up as classic comedies, with or without the Carry on label. Jack's quite good as well.

Then, from Camping, it feels like the budget properly goes and they all aim for a sleazy, end of the pier, approach. Some hit - At Your Convenience - but its a long, slow death to Behind, England and then Emmanuelle.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

Carry On Jack's an odd one, isn't it? Hardly any of the regular Carry On cast are in it, and its also got proper actors like Juliet Mills and Donald Houston in the cast. Not really very funny, either ( but a different kind of unfunniness than that exhibited in England and Emmannuelle ).

[Jockice]

You buggers! I really want to buy the boxset now. Absolutely loved them as a nipper. You can understand why men of a certain generation had a pretty pathetic attitude regarding women. We were breastfed this stuff from an early age. I said, breast fed.

I still hear this music in my head when I secretly leer at an attractive woman who walks past me. Pathetic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rrey1g-Qogg

I have in this very room and within eyesight if I turn round, a Carry On VHS cassette which was either a birthday or Christmas present from my mum in the 90s. I'd have to climb over things to retrieve it but if my memory serves me right it contains Carry On Cabby and Carry On Nurse.

I haven't owned a video player for probably approaching a decade though, but you can't win em all.

In the same position as you I always have the start of Get Over You by The Undertones in my head. I couldn't do a wolf whistle to save mt life though.

And yes, Babs does look very cute in that clip. I may have to do some reassessment here.

[Cuntbeaks]

Carry On Abroad is great and I had watched it a few weeks before going on honeymoon to Lanzarote, which was also the first time I'd ever been abroad.

Disembarking the plane in Lanzarote and getting on the wee transfer bus right beside me was none other than Jimmy Logan himself. A wonderfully surreal moment.