Carry On (franchise)

Carry On Sergeant (1958) is about a group of recruits doing National Service; its title, a command commonly issued by army officers to their sergeants in the course of their routine duties, was in keeping with its setting. The film was sufficiently successful to inspire a similar venture, again focusing on an established and respected profession in Carry On Nurse. When that too was successful, further forays with Carry On Teacher and Carry On Constable established the series. This initial 'pattern' was broken with the fifth film in 1961, Carry On Regardless, but it still followed a similar plot to that of many of the early films—a small group of misfit newcomers to a job make comic mistakes, but come together to succeed in the end. The remainder of the series developed with increased use of the British comic traditions of music hall and bawdy seaside postcards. Many titles parodied more serious films, such as their tongue-in-cheek homages to James Bond (Spying), westerns (Cowboy), and Hammer horror films (Screaming!). The most impressive of these was Carry On Cleo (1964), in which the budget-conscious production team made full use of some impressive sets that had been created in 1960 for the Burton and Taylor epic Cleopatra (1963) but abandoned when production moved to Rome. Carry On Emmannuelle (1978), inspired by the soft-porn Emmanuelle, brought to an end the original Carry On run. The stock-in-trade of Carry On humour was innuendo and sending-up British institutions that the target audience would have experienced or be aware of, such as the National Health Service (Nurse, Doctor, Again Doctor, Matron), the British state (Henry, Up the Khyber), the forces (Sergeant, England, Jack, Constable), holidays (Girls, Camping, Abroad) amongst others. Although the films were very often panned by critics, they mostly proved very popular with audiences. In 2007, the pun "Infamy, infamy, they've all got it in for me", spoken by Kenneth Williams (playing Julius Caesar) in Carry on Cleo, was voted the funniest one-line joke in film history. However, this line had originally been written by Frank Muir and Denis Norden for Jimmy Edwards in the radio series Take It From Here some years previously. A film had appeared in 1957 under the title Carry On Admiral; although this was a comedy in similar vein (and even featured Joan Sims in the cast) it has no connection to the Carry On series itself. The much earlier 1937 film Carry On London is also unrelated (though it coincidentally starred future Carry On performer Eric Barker). The cast were poorly paid—around £5,000 per film for a principal male performer, female leads earnt less, between £2,000 to £3,000. In his diaries Kenneth Williams lamented this, and criticised several of the movies despite his declared fondness for the series as a whole. Peter Rogers, the series' producer, acknowledged: "Kenneth was worth taking care of, because while he cost very little [...] he made a very great deal of money for the franchise." Phil Silvers was cast in Follow That Camel, partly to raise the franchise profile in the US, and was paid £30,000, far in excess of any of the regular actors. == Cast ==

The Carry On series includes a broad cast across the films and other adaptations. The regular core ensemble cast was made up of Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, Joan Sims, Kenneth Connor, Peter Butterworth, Hattie Jacques, Bernard Bresslaw, Barbara Windsor, Jim Dale, Patsy Rowlands, Jack Douglas and Terry Scott. ==Filmography==

• Carry On Sergeant (1958) • Carry On Nurse (1959) • Carry On Teacher (1959) • Carry On Constable (1960) • Carry On Regardless (1961) • Carry On Cruising (1962) • Carry On Cabby (1963) • Carry On Jack (1964) • Carry On Spying (1964) • Carry On Cleo (1964) • Carry On Cowboy (1965) • Carry On Screaming! (1966) • ''Don't Lose Your Head'' (1967) • Follow That Camel (1967) • Carry On Doctor (1967) • Carry On Up the Khyber (1968) • Carry On Camping (1969) • Carry On Again Doctor (1969) • Carry On Up the Jungle (1970) • Carry On Loving (1970) • Carry On Henry (1971) • Carry On at Your Convenience (1971) • Carry On Matron (1972) • Carry On Abroad (1972) • Carry On Girls (1973) • Carry On Dick (1974) • Carry On Behind (1975) • Carry On England (1976) • ''That's Carry On!'' (1977) • Carry On Emmannuelle (1978) • Carry On Columbus (1992) Associated The 1965 comedy The Big Job shared several of the recurring cast, writing, and production team from the Carry On films, but the film was not officially part of the Carry On series, despite having a typical Carry On format. Planned films Several other films were planned, scripted (or partly scripted) or entered pre-production before being abandoned: • What a Carry On... (1961) • Carry On Smoking (1961), revolving around a fire station and various attempts to train a bungling group of new recruits. • Carry On Spaceman (1961), scripted by Norman Hudis and planned to be released shortly after Carry On Regardless. Satirising the Space Race, the cast was to consist of three would-be astronauts who constantly bungled on their training and their mission into outer space; most likely the trio would have been played by Kenneth Williams, Kenneth Connor, and Leslie Phillips that had been established in Carry On Constable. Attempts to revive Carry On Spaceman in 1962 under Denis Gifford, again by Hudis, failed, and the project was subsequently abandoned. • Carry On Flying (1962), about a group of RAF recruits. Norman Hudis penned a script and the film got as far as pre-production before being abandoned. Jim Dale was to have had a starring role. • Carry On Robin (1965), a spoof of Robin Hood starring "the Carry On regulars". Rogers outlined the film and registered it with the British Film Producers Association but never pursued it any further. • Carry On Escaping (1973), scripted by Talbot Rothwell, a spoof of World War II escape films. The complete script is included in the book The Complete A–Z of Everything Carry On. • Carry On Texas (1980), a spoof of popular American soap opera Dallas, was pursued in 1980. A script was written and casting offers made to Williams, Connor, Douglas, Sims, Windsor, Hawtrey and Dale. The production was abandoned when Dallas production company Lorimar Productions demanded a royalty fee of 20 times the total production budget. • Carry On Down Under (1981) was considered when, while on holiday in Australia, Gerald Thomas scouted locations and spoke to the Australian Film Commission about a potential film. The production was abandoned when finance fell through, and a complete script written by Vince Powell is included in the book Fifty Years of Carry On. Carry On Again Nurse An intended sub-sequel to the successful Carry On Nurse was renamed and made as Carry On Doctor in 1967. and Jonathan Lynn in 1977, but the attempt was cancelled due to the financial loss of Carry On Emmannuelle. The final attempt to create Carry On Again Nurse came in 1988, with a script written by Norman Hudis. It was to revolve around a hospital set for closure, and set to star original actors Barbara Windsor, Jack Douglas, Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, Kenneth Connor and Joan Sims, with Sims filling in the role of Matron that was previously held by Hattie Jacques. The end of the film was going to be a tribute to Jacques, with Sims turning around a photograph of the actress and asking "Well, did I do alright?" (the script is included in the book The Lost Carry Ons). Production was scheduled to begin in June 1988, but the death of Williams two months previously, followed by that of Hawtrey six months later – combined with a budget of £1.5 million, which was deemed too expensive – proved to be the end of the film and it was cancelled. Carry On London The final proposed Carry On, before Peter Rogers's death in 2009, was Carry On London. Announced in 2003 by Rogers and producer James Black, it remained in pre-production well into 2008. The script was signed off by the production company in late March 2008, and "centred on a limousine company ferrying celebrities to an awards show". The film had several false starts, with the producers and cast changing extensively over time. Only the little-known Welsh actress Jynine James remained a consistent name from 2003 to 2008. Danniella Westbrook, David Jason, Shaun Williamson and Burt Reynolds were also once attached to the project. It was announced in May 2006 that Vinnie Jones and Shane Richie were to star in the film, which was to be directed by Peter Richardson, though Ed Bye later replaced him as the named director. At the 50th anniversary party held at Pinewood Studios in March 2008, Rogers confirmed that he was planning a series of Carry On films after London, subject to the success of the first. In early 2009, Carry On London or Carry On Bananas was once again 'back on', with Charlie Higson attached as director, and a different, more modern, cast list involving Paul O'Grady (as the acidic Kenneth Williamsesque character), Jynine James, Lenny Henry, Justin Lee Collins, Jennifer Ellison (as the saucy Barbara Windsor type), Liza Tarbuck (paralleling Hattie Jacques), Meera Syal, James Dreyfus, and Frank Skinner (filling in the Sid James role). Despite new media interest and sets being constructed at Pinewood Studios, the film was once again put on hold, and the project was abandoned after the death of Peter Rogers in April 2009. Reboot In May 2016, producer Jonathan Sothcott of Hereford Films announced plans for a new series of Carry On films, beginning with Carry On Doctors and Carry On Campus. On 12 April 2017, Sothcott confirmed to the website The Hollywood News that he was no longer involved with the film series. As of September 2019, three Carry On films were set to be filmed back-to-back, after Brian Baker won the rights to the movies following a legal battle with ITV earlier that year. Production of the new films had been planned to take place in spring 2020. However, filming was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and little more was heard about the project until after the death of Barbara Windsor in December 2020, when Baker announced that he would be using old footage of the actress in the film, saying "Barbara will be making an appearance." Baker told the Daily Star Sunday that "we have got two new stories and we are looking to do one of the old ones again to bring it up to modern day quality – probably Carry On Sergeant. ==Spin-offs==

Television The characters and comedy style of the Carry On film series were adapted to a television series titled Carry On Laughing, and several Christmas specials. Stage shows Album In 1971, Music for Pleasure released a long-playing record, Oh! What a Carry On! (MFP MONO 1416), featuring songs performed by Kenneth Williams, Jim Dale, Kenneth Connor, Frankie Howerd, Bernard Bresslaw, Joan Sims, Barbara Windsor, and Dora Bryan. ==Legacy==

Documentaries A 50-minute television documentary, ''What's a Carry On?, was made in 1998 for the 40th anniversary of the first film. It included archive clips, out-takes and interviews with surviving cast members. It was included as an extra on the DVD release of Carry On Emmannuelle''. A two-hour radio documentary, Carry On Forever!, presented by Leslie Phillips, was broadcast in two parts on BBC Radio 2 on 19 and 20 July 2010. A three-part television retrospective with the same title, narrated by Martin Clunes, was shown on ITV3 in the UK over Easter 2015. Home media The Carry On film series has had numerous individual releases on VHS, and a number of VHSs were released in an eighteen VHS box-set on 1 September 2003. The film series was first released as a DVD box-set on 1 September 2008, by ITV Studios Home Entertainment. Five years later, on 7 October 2013, it was re-released with smaller packaging. All the movies contained in the collection are also available to buy individually. Since 2013, StudioCanal has released a number of the Carry On films on Blu-ray, beginning with Carry On Screaming! (21 October 2013), Carry On Cleo (5 May 2014), Carry On Cowboy (2 June 2014) and Carry On Jack (7 July 2014). Cultural influence The success of the Carry On series occasionally led to affectionate parodies of the series by other contemporary comedians: • Clips from several Carry On films are used in ''In The Movies It Doesn't Hurt'' (1975), a short film on laboratory safety for schools fronted by Bernard Bresslaw. • In The Goodies' book The Making of the Goodies Disaster Movie (1977), the trio visit the set of Carry On Christ in order to get advice from the Carry On team, while they are filming a scene relating to 'The Feeding of the Five Thousand', with some of the cast noted as Kenneth Williams playing 'Pontius Pilate', Charles Hawtrey as 'A Wise Virgin', Barbara Windsor as 'Not a Wise Virgin' and Hattie Jacques as 'The Five Thousand'. • A "flash frame" of the end shot of Carry On Cowboy is used in series two of The Young Ones. • In The Spitting Image Book, released in 1985, there is a reference to a fictitious made-for-TV film entitled Carry On Up the Rectum, satirising the transparency of the puns used for Carry On Up the Khyber and possibly Carry On Up the Jungle. • In the 1986 song Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others by The Smiths, one of the lines is "As Anthony said to Cleopatra, as he opened a crate of ale, oh, I say", making reference to Carry On Cleo. • Harry Enfield's mockumentary Norbert Smith: A Life (1989) includes a clip from an imagined film, Carry On Banging (a parody of the more risque approach of the later films, such as Carry On Dick and Carry On Emmannuelle). The setting is the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp of the 1980s, and featured Barbara Windsor, Jack Douglas and Kenneth Connor. • In the 2023 television series Funny Woman, the Carry On films are mentioned several times as character Sophie Straw (Gemma Arterton) receives an offer for a role in a proposed entry in the series. == References ==