50 years of Carry On

18 August 2008

0Comments | Comment on this Article

In 1958 Kenneth Williams, Hattie Jacques and co banded together for the very first time for military farce Carry On Sergeant, the first in a long running series of British comedies, and in 2008 we celebrate fifty years of the Carry On film.

Over twenty years, 1958-1978, twenty nine movies were made which were a mixture of farce, double entendres and parody with all the films being directed by Gerald Thomas.

Many of the movies looked at key historical events or periods in time with Carry on Up the Khyber or poked fun at British institutions as seen in Carry on Nurse or Carry On Matron.

The films went on to laugh at Hollywood classics in Carry On Cleo, a parody of Cleopatra starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, and the Hammer Horror movies with Carry On Screaming.

The films were dependent upon a cast of fine British comedy actors that included Kenneth Williams (star of 26 films), Joan Sims (24), the wonderful Charles Hawtrey (23), Sid James (19), Kenneth Connor (17), Hattie Jacques (14) and Bernard Bresslaw (14).

The cast were household names and are now regarded as comic greats but were often joined by a sea of famous faces including Barbara Windsor, who appeared in ten films, and Frankie Howard who starred in two.

Despite regularly being criticised by the critics the films found constant success as Pinewood Studios pumped out a constant stream of movies, at least on e year throughout the sixties.

Although the films were still successful into the seventies there was unrest amongst the cast as many believed that the quality of their slapstick pictures was beginning to decline and in 1971 Carry On at Your Convenience was the first box office failure for the series.

After this hiccup the team returned to the well known setting of the hospital for Carry On Matron as the script carried on to poke fun at the NHS.

But as times changed so did the film's subject matter as the British public were enjoying more and more holidays the Carry On scripts began to use this as subject matter in Carry On Abroad, about a disastrous package holiday, and Carry on Girls.

By the mid seventies writer Talbot Rothwell, who had been with the franchise for over a decade, left his role and the established members of the cast were appearing in fewer and fewer of the films.

And then in 1976 Carry On regular Sid James passed away.

A revival was attempted in the early nineties as Carry On Columbus was released but it was panned by the critics.

And now, to celebrate fifty successful years of the series, Carry on London was announced in 2003 and the script was signed off earlier this year with rumours that Shane Richie and Vinnie Jones will star.

Despite the plans to resurrect the series it's the films that were released in the sixties that are held in the fondest memories and the Carry On pictures and it's main cast remain a major instrument in British filmmaking.

'Infamy, Infamy... they have all got it in for me'

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw

0Comments | Be the first to comment!