The Complete A–Z of Everything Carry On
Richard Webber
The complete guide to everyone’s favourite films… saucy!This book presents a detailed journey through Britain's best-loved comedies. It contains information on each of the feature films, including moments to watch out for, little-known facts, dialogue gems (Infamy! Infamy! They've All Got It In For Me!), full cast lists, production details and an informed critique on each of the films.There will be over 250 colour and b/w stills integrated in the book, including rare behind-the-scenes shots. Unique items such as annotated film scripts, film storyboards, momentos and original movie posters will also be reproduced in the book.Full biographies of the major players, including the great Kenneth Williams, Sid James, Charles Hawtrey, Hattie Jacques, Kenneth Connor and Barbara Windsor will also feature and appendices will include an exhaustive bibliography and overview of the best Carry On websites around.
COPYRIGHT (#ulink_1f6334cb-69ef-5f22-abb9-343ad0a86b1f)
HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)
First published by HarperCollinsEntertainment 2005
Copyright © Richard Webber 2005
The Carry On films are protected under copyright
1959 to 1965 films are distributed by Canal Plus Images UK Ltd
1966 to 1978 films are distributed by Granada Ventures Ltd
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Richard Webber asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
HarperCollinsPublishers would like to thanks the following for providing photographs and for permission to reproduce copyright material:
Page 19, © Keith Turley; 155, © J.C. Eyer; 156, © Maidenhead Advertiser; 210–211, © Estate of Geoffrey and Nora Rodway.
All other Carry On film images are reproduced with the kind permission of ITV © Canal Plus (1959–1965 films) and © Granada Ventures (1966–1978 films).
Whilst every effort has been made to trace the owners of copyright material reproduced herein, the publisher would like to apologise for any omissions and will be pleased to incorporate missing acknowledgements in any future editions.
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HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication
Source ISBN: 9780007182237
Ebook Edition © MAY 2017 ISBN: 9780008188962
Version: 2017-06-01
DEDICATION (#ulink_e0627a02-588e-5c42-88aa-c220b446ee42)
To Ian, Andy and Anna, thanks for all your help.
CONTENTS
Cover (#uc2652b90-fab6-5a0b-ba76-f234aa8e2b1f)
Title Page (#u64a15ebe-0a82-5235-9a9d-ad54de30c255)
Copyright (#ulink_939ac4d5-5725-5333-8727-f729a0659531)
Dedication (#ulink_82855331-ac7a-5b6f-bfd5-5853daade242)
Carry On Chronology (#ulink_80c8e1ae-9ed9-545d-b2ae-46add9e306c8)
Introduction (#ulink_ab80ae67-3bbe-56d7-849b-387fc758945d)
About the Book (#ulink_4cfde9a6-0474-5c55-a3dc-eb883a497f65)
Step-by-Step History of the Carry On Films (#ulink_2f1cb60c-f347-5974-ba73-aa6d6bf98d81)
A-Z (#ulink_79aff877-3312-5427-870d-74a8e712e026)
A (#ulink_79aff877-3312-5427-870d-74a8e712e026)
B (#ulink_2d5f200f-64b3-5caa-8d66-fc399ca89685)
C (#ulink_e77aabc1-9ceb-5f0b-a381-73c659c3fc99)
D (#ulink_c7ae9c40-ba6b-50e2-9abe-380b1221cacd)
E (#litres_trial_promo)
F (#litres_trial_promo)
G (#litres_trial_promo)
H (#litres_trial_promo)
I (#litres_trial_promo)
J (#litres_trial_promo)
K (#litres_trial_promo)
L (#litres_trial_promo)
M (#litres_trial_promo)
N (#litres_trial_promo)
O (#litres_trial_promo)
P (#litres_trial_promo)
Q (#litres_trial_promo)
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S (#litres_trial_promo)
T (#litres_trial_promo)
U (#litres_trial_promo)
V (#litres_trial_promo)
W (#litres_trial_promo)
XYZ (#litres_trial_promo)
Carry On Revisited (#litres_trial_promo)
Books (#litres_trial_promo)
Merchandise (#litres_trial_promo)
DVD Releases (#litres_trial_promo)
Video Releases (#litres_trial_promo)
Selected Scripts (#litres_trial_promo)
Carry On Sergeant by John Antrobus
Carry On Escaping by Talbot Rothwell
Keep Reading (#litres_trial_promo)
Bibliography (#litres_trial_promo)
Acknowledgements (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)
Also By (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
THE CARRY ON CHRONOLOGY (#ulink_b0d53375-9229-55f7-9164-ec5898abca01)
INTRODUCTION (#ulink_48a8db5f-e89e-5eaa-ab1e-0b850d2ca8ba)
Values and attitudes are not immutable, particularly as the years slip by and society evolves, yet people’s views on the Carry On films remain seemingly constant through the generations. The unrestrainable Carry On franchise marches on, unaffected by changing fashions in an increasingly cynical world. Unashamed of its blatantly simplistic formula and unmoved in an atmosphere increasingly blinded by the political correctness brigade, the winning amalgam of sight gags, ludicrous plots, exaggerated characterisations and increasingly innuendo-laden scripts has entertained millions for nigh on fifty years. While other offerings from the comedy genre have become embarrassingly outdated, the antics of Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, Hattie Jacques, Joan Sims et al. remain fresh, accessible and have now attracted cult status.
The Carry Ons were a lean slice of British comedy: there was no fat, no unessential baggage in the scripts, performances or direction; they were never going to win an Oscar but, to be honest, no one intended them to. Each tightly packaged product didn’t need to aspire to such dramatic heights because they were worth their weight in gold for what they set out to be: simple, fun and sure to pack the auditoriums around the country. They are not to everyone’s liking, of course; there are those who regard the Carry Ons as smutty and sexist, but the vast majority of the viewing public looked forward to the next instalment in the film series. Medical romps were always popular, as were historical capers, but one of the essential ingredients in the success of the movies was their predictability: audiences loved knowing they’d see their favourite actor playing the same old role, such as Hattie Jacques as an imperious matron. The films evolved but retained their charm, although later entries – England, Emmannuelle and Columbus – were pallid versions of their predecessors, lacking many of the trademarks epitomising a true Carry On.
Original writer Norman Hudis was able to interweave hilarious situations with moments of pathos. Take the tearjerking final scenes in Sergeant, when the hard taskmaster, Sergeant Grimshaw, upon retiring from the army after seeing his final intake march away as a champion platoon, is presented with a cigarette lighter by the lads. Personally, I missed these moments of gravitas once Hudis headed to the States and was replaced by Mister Double Entendre himself, Talbot Rothwell, heralding a new era in the history of the Carry Ons and a difference in the approach. The comedy became more cheeky but was embraced with a warmth unrivalled by any series of comedy films produced. The saucy seaside-postcard humour appealed to the British masses and each production displayed an indefinable charm; nowadays, attempts to recreate the magic and atmosphere which surrounded the films would never succeed.
Despite the many other pictures Rogers and Thomas brought to the silver screen, it’s the Carry On films with which they’re most associated. When an unwanted script about the love of two ballet dancers, entitled The Bull Boys, landed on Rogers’ desk in the mid-1950s, the success story began. The basic premise of national service was adopted and Norman Hudis employed to write a screenplay entitled Carry On Sergeant. Costing £74,000 to produce, it became one of the top box-office successes of 1958, and was quickly followed by Nurse, the highest-earning film in Britain during 1959; it also gained plaudits in America, where it played at cinemas for over two years. The success story had well and truly begun.
Richard Webber
Minehead – September 2005
ABOUT THE BOOK (#ulink_736a6774-b8b0-5656-bd0f-c264899b3142)
Writing this book has been an exhausting, time-consuming, painstaking yet enjoyable task. The trouble is, when you set out to pen an A-Z of any series of television programmes or films, it’s difficult to know when to take your fingers off the keyboard, switch off at the mains and declare the manuscript complete. Inevitably there’s always more you could write, extra detail you could include, points that could be explored from a different angle; but before you know it, a manageable task – although, at times, it can appear completely unmanageable – quickly turns into an uncontrollable monster.
Compiling an A-Z is beset with headaches. As well as the aforementioned points, one always has that nagging thought in the back of one’s mind that such a book has to try and include references to every minute scrap of detail concerning the subject matter – in this case, the Carry Ons – but to be honest, it’s not feasible. Usually time constraints provide the final discipline, and if it’s not time you’re short of, it’s the overall word count allowed by the publisher which restricts you. So, as you can see, it’s not been easy deciding what qualifies for inclusion in this A-Z of Carry On.
One of the most challenging tasks has been tracking down some of the actors, actresses and crew members associated with the films, many of whom have long since left the profession or are now treading the boards of that great theatre in the sky. With agents, Equity or Spotlight holding no contact details, it’s been virtually impossible, in some cases, to unearth relevant information about some of the actors’ lives to enable me to pen a profile in the book. Occasionally I’ve resorted to telephone directories and cold-calling in the hope of tracing some of the profession’s more elusive people. I have, therefore, included as many profiles as possible, thereby helping fans know at least a little more about the people associated with the films. If I was working to an open-ended contract in terms of delivery date for the manuscript perhaps I could take the next ten years or so and, no doubt, locate more performers, but, alas, that’s not feasible.
Although I’ve included details of the various stage productions and television episodes over the years, I’ve decided to focus primarily on the films that had people guffawing – albeit to varying degrees – in cinemas around the British Isles upon their release. Although the small-screen offerings and highly successful stage shows were authorised projects and provided welcome entertainment for fans, it’s the films which I regard as the stars of the Carry On canon. In the main body of the text, I’ve concentrated on the first thirty films, from Sergeant to Emmannuelle, with Columbus and London featuring in the ‘Carry On Revisited’ chapter.
As mentioned earlier, I’ve tried to make this tome as comprehensive as I could, cramming in as much information as possible, but there are bound to be some details or areas that haven’t made their way into the book. Nonetheless, I hope you find what is included informative, entertaining and helpful in answering all those nagging questions you have about the Carry On films. As well as actor and crew profiles, there are character profiles too. Even those unseen characters mentioned in the scripts have been given their rightful place in this publication, together with details of who mentioned them, in what film and the context in which their names were used.
And then there are the ‘What Might Have Been’ scenes. The majority, if not all, Carry On fans won’t have seen the scenes included under this heading. Most were probably cut before the film hit the cinemas, while others could have been lost when the big-screen version was adapted either for the small screen or video format. Then there are situations when a minor character perhaps had a little more to say before the editor’s knife was sharpened, resulting in the said character’s utterance extending to little more than a couple of lines. Whatever the circumstances, these selections makes interesting reading, such as the anaesthetist’s scene involving John Horsley and Terence Longdon in Nurse.
Carry On reading – oh, and enjoy it too.
STEP-BY-STEP HISTORY OF THE CARRY ON FILMS (#ulink_09a75e51-327f-53b4-b0fd-f619d3fa73fc)
1955
In August, Sydney Box commissioned R.F. Delderfield to write a film outline with the working title, National Service Story. The treatment was delivered but the project was abandoned in September.
1956
The Rogers and Thomas film partnership, as producer and director respectively, began in earnest with the release of Circus Friends for the Children’s Film Foundation.
1957
The National Service story was revisited and, in January, Sydney Box again commissioned Delderfield to prepare a screenplay, later titled The Bull Boys. When Box was unable to interest a financial backer, Rogers took the basic premise of conscription and decided to develop a comedy.
He approached Associated London Scripts for a scriptwriter to pen the screenplay. Spike Milligan and Eric Sykes turned down the chance but, in September, fellow writer John Antrobus was commissioned to complete a script for £750. Unfortunately the script didn’t meet with Rogers’ approval and he asked Norman Hudis, a contract scriptwriter, to pen a comedy screenplay based on national service for a fee of £1000. Hudis delivered a script blending comedy with pathos, a rich example of the style that had become one of Hudis’ most coveted trademarks.
1958
Permission was granted by the War Office for the film to be shot at the Queen’s Barracks, Guildford. Filming started on 24 March, initially with interior shots at Pinewood, and continued until May. The final production cost of making the film was under £78,000. By this time, Norman Hudis was already working on the next script, Nurse, delivering the first draft in June. Filming began on 3 November and was scheduled until 12 December. But even before the film was released, Peter Rogers was thinking ahead to Teacher, Constable and Regardless; for the first time, it was clear the foundations for an on-going series were being put in place. The final cost of making Nurse was £82,500, but before the year was out, scriptwriter Norman Hudis had already delivered the first draft of his screenplay for Teacher.
1959
Nurse was released in March and, like Sergeant, became a box-office hit in the UK: it also sold well abroad, particularly America. By March, the next production, Teacher, was already under way. Joan Sims, Hattie Jacques, Kenneth Williams, Kenneth Connor, Charles Hawtrey and Leslie Phillips were back, and now the basis of a Rogers-and-Thomas’ repertory company was forming.
A welcome introduction to the cast was Ted Ray, playing Mr Wakefield, the stand-in head at Maudlin Street School. Sadly, it was to be his one and only Carry On, much to Peter Rogers’ disappointment. With the children, including Richard O’Sullivan, recruited from London’s Corona Academy, location shooting took place at the Drayton Secondary School, Drayton Gardens, West Ealing, and was completed by 10 April. Filming, however, had begun back on 9 March at Pinewood with internal shots in Wakefield’s study.
The film was released in August, just as Hudis put the finishing touches to the first draft of his Constable script, which was based on an idea by Brock Williams. Filming began on the streets of Ealing on 9 November.
While the film saw Leslie Phillips make his last appearance in a Carry On until, thirty-three years later, he reappeared in Columbus, Sid James made his debut. He became the anchor for many of the future films, a pivotal point around which storylines revolved. Filming at Pinewood was completed by mid-December.
1960/61
Constable was released in February and Hudis began work on Regardless, which he’d later class as his least favourite script. A seven-week filming schedule ran from 28 November until 17 January 1961, with the film’s release in March. Peter Rogers registered the title, Carry On Cruising, subsequently to become the sixth in the series, with the British Film Producers’ Association in March 1961, by which time he’d already received a story treatment, initially entitled Carry On At Sea, from Eric Barker. The treatment was delivered by the summer of 1961, but although Barker was to receive a credit on the closing titles when the film was eventually released, it was, again, Norman Hudis who put pen to paper and wrote the screenplay, which was delivered to Rogers in December.
1962
Cruising was the first in colour and the last to be written by Hudis, who, on the back of Nurse’s success, would be invited to America, where he’s become a prolific screen writer. Although he continued to write for the British screen, and later completed an unmade script for Spying, most of his subsequent work was in the States.
Filmed between 8 January and the middle of February, Cruising was released in April. Despite its title, no cruising on Mediterranean waters took place: instead, filming was contained within Pinewood, except for scenes of a liner leaving port which were filmed by a small camera unit. A new face to the Carry Ons, although he’d worked for
Rogers and Thomas previously, was Lance Percival. He’d originally been considered for a more minor role, but was offered the part of Wilfred Haines when Charles Hawtrey’s dispute over billing resulted in his declining a chance to appear in the film.
1963
Hawtrey was back for Cabby, which had a working title of Call Me A Cab. Talbot Rothwell delivered the final draft of his first Carry On screenplay in January, which was based on an original idea by S. C. Green and R. M. Hills, who’d go on to write for such shows as The Roy Castle Show, Frankie and Brucie, Those Two Fellers, According to Dora, The Frankie Show and, in Hills’s case, latterly, Carrott Confidential. Sidney Green and Richard Hills had originally been commissioned to write a screenplay entitled Call Me A Cab, back in the summer of 1961, but by November 1962 Rothwell, who’d already completed a script for Rogers which would eventually be adapted into Jack, was brought in to turn the idea into a Carry On film. The film was shot between 25 March and 8 May, and after post-production formalities were complete, Cabby was released in June.
For the next Carry On picture, Rogers and Thomas returned to the draft script Talbot Rothwell had submitted prior to penning Cabby. It began life as Poopdecker, R.N., before moving through other working titles, namely Up the Armada, Carry On Mate, Carry On Sailor and, finally, Carry On Jack.
Rogers explored the possibility of using library material from Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N. or The Crimson Pirate, both released during the 1950s; initially it appeared costs would be prohibitive but although a deal was arranged with Warner Brothers, no footage was ultimately used. The first of Rogers and Thomas’s period pieces, the cast for Jack included some new faces, such as film veterans Donald Houston, Cecil Parker and Juliet Mills, all making their one and only Carry On appearance.
Filmed between 2 September and 26 October, Jack was released in the UK before the end of the year, by which time Talbot Rothwell was concentrating on Come Spy With Me, the working title for Carry On Spying, the final entry filmed in black and white. Rothwell – in collaboration with his friend Sid Colin – prepared a screenplay that was a parody of the successful spy movies, most notably the Bond pictures, that were receiving rave reviews during the period; but if events had turned out differently, a Norman Hudis script would have been developed. Hudis completed a draft screenplay in February 1963, spotlighting a group of secret agents who penetrate an atomic plant disguised as CND supporters before taking part in a CND demonstration themselves. Rogers rejected the script, but it wouldn’t be the last time Hudis’s work was considered for future Carry Ons.
1964
Spying, which launched Barbara Windsor’s Carry On career, was made between 8 February and 13 March and released in June. Within a month of hitting the big screen, the cast were back in period costume, this time in the days of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra for Carry On Cleo, the tenth in the series and Rogers and Thomas’s twenty-first joint production. After completing the action between mid-July and the end of August, the film received its UK release in November. It was well received around the world, especially Australia, where its success was confirmed by various sources, including the managing director of Australia’s Greater Union Theatres, who stated that in most cinemas it had beaten pictures such as Lawrence of Arabia and El Cid, taken more money than any other Carry On and broken numerous box-office records throughout the country.
1965
The first draft of Rothwell’s screenplay for Cowboy was completed by March, but after script discussions with Rogers and Thomas, changes were made and a revised screenplay delivered by 11 May, two months before filming took place at Pinewood Studios and on location, with Surrey’s Chobham Common and Buckinghamshire’s Black Park replicating the Wild West. The final wrap was on 17 September, day thirty-nine in the schedule, with the film’s release in November, weeks after Talbot Rothwell typed the final word of his next screenplay, Carry On Screaming!
1966
For Screaming!, Fenella Fielding returned for her second and final appearance in a Carry On, playing the vampish Virula Watt; Harry H. Corbett, meanwhile, earned £2000 per week playing Sidney Bung; Rogers was delighted to have Corbett in the cast, an actor he’d wanted to work with for some time. With filming completed by the end of February, Screaming! was a summer release.
By early autumn, production was under way on Don’t Lose Your Head. It was originally released, as was the next production, Follow That Camel, without the Carry On moniker. When Peter Rogers left Anglo Amalgamated and teamed up with Rank, the new distributors were conscious of releasing future films from Rogers and Thomas under the brand of a competitor. It was only after takings for the two pictures were noticeably lower that the prefix was hastily reinstated.
Filming for Don’t Lose Your Head took place between 12 September and 1 November and the picture, concerning two aristocrats who rescue their French counterparts from the guillotine during the country’s revolution in the late eighteenth century, was released in time for Christmas.
1967
Although he’d become an integral part of seven Carry On films by 1967, the hard-working Sid James was unavailable, due to an earlier heart attack, when it came to casting Follow That Camel. Most of the big players, though, were free to step into period costume for the Foreign Legion adventure. After a run of successful parts, Jim Dale was once again in the thick of the action, this time playing Bo West, in a film based loosely on Percival Christopher Wren’s novel, Beau Geste.
Rank, the new distributor, wanted an American face in the film, believing it would boost sales across the pond and Phil Silvers, alias Sergeant Bilko, was drafted in. But no longer a huge draw in the States, his inclusion did little for the film’s success Stateside, while the actor’s style and vaudeville background wasn’t compatible with the traditional Carry On make-up.
Filming began on the 1 May, and in addition to utilising the back lot at Pinewood, the cast travelled, for the first time, beyond the environs of the studio – all the way to the Sussex coast, for location work at Rye and Camber Sands.
The film was released in September, just as the Carry On gang returned, after twelve films, to the hospital wards. Always a popular theme, Carry On Doctor (made between 11 September and 20 October) boasted the first of two film appearances for Frankie Howerd. With Rogers’ wife, film producer Betty Box, responsible for the successful Doctor films, Peter Rogers sought his spouse’s and John Davis’s (then the chief at Rank) permission to use the title.
When the film was released in December, Carry On fans were delighted to see the return of Sid James, albeit in a lesser capacity, as bed-bound patient Charlie Roper. After his enforced exclusion from the previous picture, James was recovering from his heart attack and accepted a less strenuous role, which he joked was the easiest he’d performed during his lengthy career.
1968
Long-distance location filming was rare in the Carry On world: outside of the immediate vicinity, the furthest the team had travelled was to the Sussex seaside for Follow That Camel. For the next film, Up The Khyber, they were on their travels again – this time to the mountains. But instead of the Himalayas, cold and wet Snowdonia was picked to represent the Khyber Pass. A favourite with both Rogers and Thomas, filming began on 8 April and was completed by the end of May. So realistic was the film’s setting, Rogers and Thomas received letters from war veterans convinced they recognised locations at which they’d served.
There was a September release for Up The Khyber and an autumn shooting schedule (7 October-22 November) for Carry On Camping, another favourite of Rogers and Thomas – and millions of fans, too. It’s become common knowledge that the adventures under canvas weren’t filmed in the holiday season but October and November in the grounds of Pinewood. While the cast shivered in their summer gear, the mud was sprayed green to represent grass. Despite such hardships, the team – which included Barbara Windsor and her famous flying bikini top – turned out one of their best overall performances.
The script, once again, was supplied by Tolly Rothwell, although he’d originally embarked on a Camping script back in 1966, before it was postponed in favour of Follow That Camel.
1969
Camping was released in February and followed quickly by Again Doctor, the last time we’d see Jim Dale in a Carry On before the critically slated Columbus, some twenty-three years later.
Rothwell’s draft script wasn’t entirely satisfactory so he rewrote it and delivered the amended version by the end of January. The screenplay raised a few questions from Rank’s legal adviser, Hugh J. Parton, who, realising Rothwell had written a rejected Doctor in Clover script for Betty Box, queried whether much of Frederick Carver’s dialogue was so reminiscent of Sir Lancelot Spratt (portrayed by James Robertson Justice in the Doctor films) that it was an intended parody. Concern was also expressed over the Medical Mission and slimming cure sequences, which Parton thought he’d read before, perhaps in Rothwell’s Clover script or in one of author Richard Gordon’s books. Worried about copyright infringement, he raised the points with Rogers in February.
Filming began on 17 March and continued until the beginning of May, shooting on F, C and G stages at Pinewood, with location work in Maidenhead. It was released in August, by which time Rothwell had nearly finished Up the Jungle, which carried a working title of Carry On Jungle Boy. When Dale declined the chance to play Jungle Boy, the part was offered to Terry Scott, while Jacki Piper became the first performer to be placed on contract by Rogers and Thomas. Making her debut as Joan Sims’s assistant, June, in the film, she’d appear in Loving and At Your Convenience before a cameo role in Matron. Howerd was back for his final Carry On, which was shot between 13 October and 24 November.
1970
Up the Jungle hit the big screen in March, and within weeks James, Hawtrey et al. were back at Pinewood filming Carry On Loving, which began life as Carry On Courting. Rothwell had started working on the script back in October 1969, but once he’d submitted the final draft, filming began on 6 April and was completed by mid-May.
Loving was released in September, while the cast were back in period costumes for Carry On film number twenty-one – Henry. With Sid James in commanding style as Henry VIII, and impressive sets and locations (including Windsor Great Park and the Long Walk) on view, this richly produced film was a welcome addition to the series. Rothwell had initially been working on Carry On Comrade (later changed to Carry On At Your Convenience, although it also carried the working title of Carry On Working) before the project was cancelled – albeit temporarily – and the scriptwriter was commissioned to pen this medieval romp, which was shot between 12 October and 27 November.
1971
After the release of the latest period piece in February, Talbot Rothwell returned to his lavatories and bidets for At Your Convenience, which reunited Richard O’Callaghan and Jacki Piper. In draft form, the script started out as Carry On Working, but by the time filming began on 22 March the title had changed. The cast travelled to Brighton Pier for some fun at the fair between Monday 3 and Wednesday 5 May and a good time was had by all, but when the film was released in December it met with a lukewarm response from audiences and took several years to recoup its original production costs, perhaps resulting from the way the film portrayed unions and shop stewards. But if audiences didn’t rush to watch At Your Convenience, normal service was resumed with the next offering from the Rogers/Thomas production line because it was back to the world of starched uniforms and stethoscopes with Carry On Matron.
The script was the work of Talbot Rothwell again, but could easily have been original writer Norman Hudis if a proposed contract, originated in November 1969, had been executed. By then, however, Hudis was based in the States and for Rogers to have employed the writer on Matron while he was resident in the US would have cost his budget an additional fee, payable to the Writers’ Guild to fund its pension and health benefits. Following correspondence between Rogers’ office and the Guild, the contract was cancelled and Rothwell hired instead. Talbot’s contract was issued in May and the script delivered in August. All the familiar faces were recruited for this enjoyable slice of traditional Carry On fare, filmed between 11 October and 26 November; the finished product hit the screens the following spring.
1972
By the time Matron was released in May, filming had begun on the twenty-fourth Carry On. With package holidays becoming increasingly popular in Britain, it was time for Rogers and Thomas to turn their attention to the sun-seeking adventures of a bunch of oddballs thrown together by circumstance. Filmed between 17 April and 26 May, Abroad became one of the genre’s strongest entries and Charles Hawtrey’s swan-song. It was the last time he’d appear in a Carry On. Meanwhile, location work, which June Whitfield, making her second appearance in the series, thought might take place in sunnier climes, ended up being in the grounds of Pinewood. The furthest the cast travelled was Slough to film scenes showing trippers climbing on to the coach taking them to the airport.
1973
It was off to Brighton again for location work on Carry On Girls (originally discussed as Carry On Beauty Queen) which went into production on 16 April. The first day’s filming involved scenes where Larry (a rather green photographer played by Robin Askwith) is asked to take some snaps of busty model Dawn Brakes (Margaret Nolan) on Fircombe beach. Filming was completed by 25 May and the picture released in November. The highly successful Carry On London! stage production, which kicked off in the autumn, put paid to thoughts regarding a second Carry On that year, which had become the norm.
1974
A return to period comedy for the only big screen production in 1974. Sadly, it would be Sid James’s last appearance, as well as Rothwell’s final script. When the writer became ill before completing the screenplay for Dick, producer Peter Rogers stepped in and completed the script himself. Meanwhile, Jack Douglas, as Sergeant Jock Strapp, played his biggest role to date. The idea was based on a full-length script submitted by Lawrie Wyman and George Evans, but it was regular scriptwriter Talbot Rothwell who, for £10,000, was commissioned to write the screenplay, brought to life by the cast between early March and mid-April. The film was released in July.
1975
While the Carry On Laughing television series was being screened on ITV, Carry On Behind brought together a group of regular faces and some occasionals. With Sid James touring Australia in a play, and Barbara Windsor performing her one-woman show in New Zealand, two of the most popular performers were missing. The cast, however, still boasted such names as Kenneth Connor, Kenneth Williams, Peter Butterworth, Joan Sims, Bernard Bresslaw and Patsy Rowlands, with new faces including Windsor Davies and German-born actress Elke Sommer, delivering a well-crafted performance as renowned archaeologist, Professor Anna Vooshka.
The screenplay, written by Dave Freeman, was equally innuendo-laden as his predecessor’s output; Freeman had originally submitted a script titled Love On Wheels back in 1973, which was later altered to Carry On Carrying On, before finally becoming Behind by the time Freeman delivered the screenplay in January 1975. The film was shot between mid-March and mid-April and released in December, and although many argue that the Carry On series had lost its way by this point, Behind was an amusing piece of work continuing in the same vein as those which had gone before.
1976
By the time the cast of Carry On England had fallen in during May, Sid James, the linchpin of so many films in the series, was dead. While performing in a production of Sam Cree’s The Mating Game in Sunderland, he collapsed and died – he was sixty-two. Such a loss would inevitably cast a shadow over the production when the cast arrived at Pinewood.
Filming began on 3 May until 4 June, and despite some familiar faces in the cast, including Kenneth Connor, Joan Sims, Jack Douglas and Peter Butterworth, a clutch of new faces were placed in prominent roles, such as Patrick Mower and Judy Geeson. This, combined with a script written by David Pursall and Jack Seddon, experienced in their field yet new to the Carry On series, resulted in a different style of film, unfamiliar to many fans of the genre. For me, it’s the most disappointing of all the Carry On pictures, and upon its release in October, England failed to satisfy the cinema-going public and was removed from the schedules by some cinemas days after receiving its initial viewing. It would be some time before the film clawed back its production costs.
1977
In That’s Carry On, Rogers and Thomas offered a nostalgic trip back in time celebrating those golden moments from their catalogue of films. The compilation, with an original screenplay by Tony Church, was introduced by Kenneth Williams and Barbara Windsor, and contained all the classic scenes you’d ever want to see. After Gerald Thomas and editor Jack Gardner spent nearly six weeks choosing the best sequences, they sat down in a theatre to check their selections, only to find the film ran for six hours. Eventually they streamlined the output and although it didn’t initially set the world on fire, the film has over the years become a welcome and valued addition to the Carry On library, reminding fans of the halcyon days when Norman Hudis and Talbot Rothwell’s scripts had audiences rolling in the aisles.
1978
That’s Carry On was released in February, and the thirtieth film, Emmannuelle, went into production in April. When the original script by New Zealand-born Lance Peters was far too blue, experienced television writer Vince Powell was hired to tone it down. With many of the true Carry Oners entertaining audiences in the sky, and some regarding the film too smutty to be classed as a Carry On, Kenneth Williams, Jack Douglas, Joan Sims and Peter Butterworth were the only regulars present. Playing alongside Williams as his wife, Emmannuelle Prevert, was newcomer Suzanne Danielle, a mere fledgling in the world of film. But her portrayal was expertly executed, a performance defying her lack of big-screen experience.
Filming between 10 April and 15 May was followed by a November release, but the film’s ‘AA’ certificate meant it was no longer classified as family viewing, thereby losing a sizeable proportion of the audience normally associated with Carry On films.
The absence of so many of the faces audiences had become accustomed to, and a script which, although offering innuendo and double entendres, lacked the flair of Hudis and Rothwell’s work, Emmannuelle failed to revive the magic one had come to expect from a Carry On. Some critics regarded the film as pornographic, which is far from the truth, but the sexual connotations were rather more obvious and blatant than anything before, and the film lacked the feel-good factor which had pervaded its predecessors, with the exception of England.
1992
Fourteen years after Emmannuelle, the thirty-first Carry On went into production. The nuts and bolts of this movie are covered in a later chapter, together with details of various aborted projects in the preceding years, but Columbus was a pallid attempt to rekindle Britain’s affections for the Carry On-style movie; sadly, it fell short of the markers set by the others and failed to capture the repertory-company atmosphere one came to expect, and want, from such films.
P. S.
Now, of course, yet another Carry On film is in the pipeline. At the time of writing, London is in production, but only time will tell whether it will prosper or sink without trace. Watch this space!
Illustration © Keith Turley
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ABERDEEN ANGUS
Captain Crowther’s favourite tipple in Cruising. He’s distraught when Angus, the head barman responsible for the concoction, leaves the SS Happy Wanderer and his replacement, Sam Turner, hasn’t a clue how to mix the drink.
ABLE, ALICE
Played by Marianne Stone
The wife of Bert Able, who’s a patient at Haven Hospital in Nurse. She’s seen visiting her hubby.
ABLE, BERT
Played by Cyril Chamberlain
A patient at Haven Hospital in Nurse, Bert lives in The Manor, a spacious house on the west side of the Common, with his wife and eleven kids. They rent the property from the local council for around twenty-two shillings a week.
ABLE PLATOON
Sergeant Grimshaw’s final platoon at Heathercrest National Service Depot. In Sergeant the platoon, part of the twenty-ninth intake, becomes – to everyone’s surprise – the champion platoon, breaking all records in the process.
Able Platoon come up trumps for Sergeant Grimshaw (Sergeant)
ABLE, SERGEANT LEN
Played by Patrick Mower
Leonard Able is a lazy, conniving troublemaker who tries to make his captain’s life hell in England. Together with the love of his life, Sergeant Tilly Willing, he tries anything to avoid having to work at the experimental 1313 anti-aircraft battery.
ABROAD, CARRY ON
See feature box here.
ABULBUL, SHEIKH ABDUL
Played by Bernard Bresslaw
Leader of the Arabs, the Sheikh has twelve wives and intends making Lady Jane Ponsonby, whom he’s kidnapped, number thirteen. Appears in various scenes during Follow That Camel, often attacking the garrison of his archenemies, the Foreign Legion.
ADAMS, GREGORY
Played by Kenneth Connor
This nervous, bumbling science teacher at Maudlin Street Secondary School is seen in Teacher. His hesitations and indecisiveness make for an ineffectual teacher, although there is no doubting his subject expertise. The arrival of Felicity Wheeler – a school inspector visiting Maudlin Street with Alistair Grigg, a child psychiatrist – becomes a major turning point in Adams’s life as he finds himself, almost reluctantly at first, falling in love with Wheeler.
ADAMS, JILL
Role: WPC Harrison in Constable
Blonde beauty Jill Adams, who was born in London in 1931, spent her early childhood in New Zealand before returning to England. After completing her education she held several jobs, including working as a shop assistant and secretary, before becoming a model.
Her good looks and shapely figure saw her heralded as Britain’s Marilyn Monroe, and it wasn’t long before offers of film work came her way. Appearing as an extra in Albert Broccoli’s The Black Knight in 1954, marked the beginning of many roles in, among others, Forbidden Cargo, One Way Out, Out of the Clouds, The Green Man and two Boulting Brothers’ films, Brothers in Law and Private’s Progress. Films in the Sixties include Doctor in Distress, The Comedy Man and Promise Her Anything. She’s also made occasional appearances on television.
ADAMS, MISS
Miss Adams, whose phone number is 663 404271, is mentioned by Sidney Bliss in Loving. When Terence Philpot’s first date with Jenny Grubb, which is arranged by Sid’s company, the Wedded Bliss Agency, is a disaster, he’s given Miss Adams’s phone number; an extremely irate Mr Philpot soon reports back, though, that date number two was equally unsuccessful, which isn’t surprising considering Miss Adams was already five months pregnant.
CARRY ON ABROAD
Alternative titles … What A Package, It’s All In, Swiss Hols In The Snow
A Peter Rogers production.
Distributed through Rank Organisation.
Released as an A certificate in 1972 in colour.
Running time: 88 mins.
CAST
PRODUCTION TEAM
Screenplay by Talbot Rothwell
Music composed and conducted by Eric Rogers
Production Manager: Jack Swinburne
Art Director: Lionel Couch
Editor: Alfred Roome
Director of Photography: Alan Hume BSC
Camera Operator: Jimmy Devis
Continuity: Joy Mercer
Assistant Director: David Bracknell
Sound Recordists: Taffy Haines and Ken Barker
Make-up: Geoffrey Rodway
Assistant Art Director: Bill Bennison
Set Dresser: Don Picton
Hairdresser: Stella Rivers
Costume Designer: Courtenay Elliott
Dubbing Editor: Peter Best
Assistant Editor: Jack Gardner
Titles: G.S.E. Ltd
Processed by Rank Film Laboratories
Producer: Peter Rogers
Director: Gerald Thomas
Vic Flange, a pub landlord, is going on holiday; he’s taking a short break to the Mediterranean resort of Elsbels without his missus, Cora, who hates flying. Not that Vic is worried because it gives him a chance to while away a few days with the flirtatious Sadie Tomkins. His plans are spoilt, though, when one of the regulars, Harry, spills the beans. Hearing that Vic’s off to Elsbels, he tells Cora that Sadie is going too, which makes Vic’s wife determined to overcome her aversion to flying to prevent Miss Tomkins getting her claws into her husband.
Vic, Cora and Sadie are joined by a rather disparate bunch, all taking advantage of Wundatours’ £17 break in the sun, consisting of Marge and Lily, two girls looking for a holiday romance; a group of missionaries searching for the tomb of St Cecilia; Stanley Blunt and his complaining wife, Evelyn; mummy’s boy Eustace Tuttle; the loudmouthed Scot, Bert Conway and a rather gay Robin Tweet and his friend, Nicholas. In charge of the party is the inefficient courier, Stuart Farquhar, and his assistant, Moira Plunkett.
On arriving at the Elsbels Palace Hotel it looks like a holiday from hell is on the cards: it resembles a building site more than a hotel; the switchboard is soon overloaded with complaints about bottomless drawers, taps that spew out sand and backless wardrobes looking straight through into the adjoining bedroom.
Stuart Farquhar (Kenneth Williams), the world’s worst courier
Under the spotlight at the Elsbels Palace Hotel
Despite the hotel only being half-built and builders causing a commotion from five in the morning, relationships blossom. While Brother Bernard, a missionary, forsakes the cloth upon taking a shine to Marge, Nicholas shakes off his camp boyfriend, Robin, to soak up the sun in the company of Lily.
When the holidaymakers head for the local village, with the exception of Evelyn Blunt who’s accidentally left behind at the hotel, Mr Tuttle causes trouble in Madame Fifi’s, a bawdyhouse, by asking the girls to play leapfrog; when he rushes back in brandishing a sword, others go in to help, resulting in a riot between the Brits and the police – even Brother Bernard gets involved when he spots a local bobby manhandling Marge.
As a result of the brawling, everyone spends the night in the police cells with attempts to negotiate their release with the Police Chief, who happens to be Madame Fifi’s brother, falling on deaf ears – that is until Moira uses her charm – and probably her body – to persuade the chief to give them back their freedom. By the time they return to the hotel, Evelyn Blunt is a changed woman, as Stanley soon finds out. Gone is the complaining and lack of interest in sex, replaced by a woman who, after whiling away the previous evening in the arms of Georgio, is making up for all those lost years – much to Stanley’s delight.
But at the evening’s farewell party the mood is far from conducive to having a laugh; that is until a secret love potion, bought at the local market, is poured into the punch. Before long, the party is swinging and even Pepe, the hotel manager, and Floella, the cook, are joining in the fun, despite the ramshackle hotel collapsing around them thanks to the evening’s torrential rain.
ADMIRAL
Played by Peter Butterworth
A randy old sailor in Girls who’s been a permanent resident at Fircombe’s Palace Hotel for years. He’s in his element when the hotel is overrun by beauty contestants, all hoping to be crowned Miss Fircombe, many of whom become victims of his bottom-pinching tendencies.
ADMIRAL OF THE FLEET
Played by Jack Lynn
Sir John is seen dining at the French Ambassador’s residence in Emmannuelle.
ADRIAN
Played by Julian Holloway
A highly-strung photographer who appears in Loving. He’s in turmoil because he’s looking for a big-chested lass for his next assignment and has offended his girlfriend, Gay, by suggesting she falls short of the requirements. His eyes nearly pop out of their sockets when the busty Jenny Grubb walks into the flat Gay shares with Sally Martin; he’s finally found what he’s been looking for and proceeds to launch Jenny’s modelling career advertising body stockings.
ADVANCED CRIMINOLOGY
This book, written by A.C. Ball, is read by PC Benson in Constable.
ADVERTISING FILM STUDIOS, THE
Based near Long Hampton Hospital, the film studios are mentioned in Again Doctor. While filming a commercial there, Goldie Locks slips on an enormous packet of baby food resulting in severe bruising. She’s taken to Long Hampton for examination, much to the delight of sex-mad Dr Nookey.
ADVERTISING MAN, THE
Played by Ian Wilson
Seen in the photographer’s studio in Regardless, the pint-sized advertising man hangs around to watch Francis Courtenay model his client’s beekeeping hat.
AGAIN DOCTOR, CARRY ON
See feature box here.
AGITATED WOMAN
Played by Hilda Fenemore
Seen in Constable, the agitated woman is desperate to spend a penny. When she realises she hasn’t got any change for the lavatory, she stops Constable Constable in the street and borrows it off him.
AGRIPPA
Played by Francis De Wolff
This bearded sailor in Cleo is in charge of the ship taking Caesar to Egypt.
AJIBADI, YEMI
Role: Witch Doctor in Up the Jungle
Born in Otta, Nigeria, in 1929, Ajibadi worked in clerical positions before moving to Sierra Leone and working in a department store. Although originally intending to emigrate to America, he ventured to England in 1953. He studied journalism and law at evening classes but changed direction when he began acting, making his professional debut at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith.
He made occasional television appearances in shows such as Armchair Theatre and Danger Man, and was seen in a handful of films, including three Hammer productions, and 1966’s Naked Evil.
Ajibadi, who returned to Nigeria in 1976 and spent four years helping establish a theatre company in Lagos, is also a playwright.
ALDERSHOT ROAD
A road mentioned in Cabby during the scene where Peggy and Sally are driving while held at gunpoint by crooks.
ALEXANDER, TERENCE
Role: Trevor Trelawney in Regardless
Despite countless film and television appearances during a long career, Terence Alexander, who was born in London in 1923, is probably best remembered for playing Jersey millionaire Charlie Hungerford in BBC’s detective series, Bergerac.
In repertory at sixteen, he forged a career for himself, mainly on the screen; usually cast in light roles, often with upper-class tones, his early film credits include The Woman of No Name, Death Is A Number, The Runaway Bus, Dangerous Cargo, Portrait of Alison, Danger Within and Breakout. He also appeared in the Norman Wisdom comedies, The Bulldog Breed and On the Beat.
His television roles include playing Bill Dodds in 1950’s Garry Halliday, Monty Dartie in 1960’s The Forsyte Saga, Malcolm in 1970’s Terry and June and Sir Greville McDonald in 1980’s The New Statesman.
ALEXANDER, WILLIAM
Assistant Art Director on Loving, Henry, At Your Convenience and Matron
As well as his involvement with the Carry On films, Alexander has worked on various big and small screen productions, including the television series Van der Valk, The Sweeney, Minder and Philip Marlowe – Private Eye. Other film credits include The Naked Runner and The Holcroft Covenant.
ALF
Played by Cyril Chamberlain
For Alf, the caretaker in Teacher, see ‘Hodgson, Alf’.
ALGERIAN GENT
Played by Derek Sydney
In Spying, when agents Simkins and Bind force their way into Hakim’s Fun House, they end up trying to kick a door down only to find they’ve picked the door of the toilet, which is occupied by a rather annoyed Algerian gent.
ALICE
An unseen telephonist working at F.H. Rowse, a department store in Constable. A shop assistant asks Alice to put her through to management because she wants to report potential shoplifters, who turn out to be rookie cops, Benson and Gorse, working undercover.
Alf Hodgson (Cyril Chamberlain, left) kept the corridors clean at Maudlin Street (Teacher)
ALLBRIGHT, MR
Played by Norman Chappell
Seen in Cabby, Mr Allbright is a driver employed by Speedee Taxis Limited. He’s also the firm’s shop steward. A pedantic individual who’s always consulting his union handbook to check his employer’s actions are legitimate.
ALLCOCK, MR
Played by Bill Maynard
Mr Allcock, the general secretary of the union in At Your Convenience, is called to W. C. Boggs and Son to try and help resolve the unofficial strike. But he’s a useless bureaucrat and does nothing to help the desperate Mr Boggs at a crucial time for the company’s future – or that’s how he would have been portrayed had he survived the final edit. (Note: the scene was cut.)
WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN
The workers at W.C. Boggs and Son are striking again and a meeting is arranged with the general secretary of the employees’ union to try and resolve the dispute.
EXT. THE WORKS – DAY
The wheels are at a standstill, the chimney’s dead, and there is no sign of life whatsoever.
EXT. THE WORKS YARD – DAY
A chauffeur-driven car purrs in. It comes to a stop in front of the works entrance. Vic, dressed fairly smartly and carrying papers, gets out and bows and scrapes to a large, stout, well-dressed, well-read, prosperous-looking gentleman getting out of the car. This is Mr Allcock, the general secretary of the union, who looks very sunburnt.
INT. BOGGS’ OFFICE – DAY
The Board Table has been set with paper and pencils, glasses and water jug for a meeting.
Boggs, Lewis and Sid are standing waiting tensely as the door opens and Withering looks in and whispers excitedly.
WITHERING: They’re here, Mr Boggs.
BOGGS: Show them in, please, Miss Withering.
(WITHERING disappears again and LEWIS turns to BOGGS.)
LEWIS: Now remember, Dad, be tough with them. We can’t afford to lose this contract.
BOGGS: Yes, yes, I know, Lewis.
(The door opens again and WITHERING ushers in ALLCOCK and VIC.)
VIC: Mr Boggs – this is our union general secretary, Mr All-cock.
BOGGS: How do you do, Mr Allcock. My son Lewis and Mr Plummer, our works foreman.
ALLCOCK: Pleased to meet you, gents. And sorry if I’m a bit late, but I had another stoppage this morning.
BOGGS: I’m sorry to hear that. You want to try Epsom salts. Marvellous stuff.
(ALLCOCK gives him a strange look.)
ALLCOCK: Work stoppage, I mean.
BOGGS: Oh, I beg your pardon.
ALLCOCK: Yes. Well, shall we get straight down to it then?
LEWIS: Good idea. We’ve already lost four days’ production over this.
ALLCOCK: Now, don’t let’s get off on the wrong foot, young feller. I’ve got a lot on my plate and I had to interrupt what little holiday I get to come ’ere today.
(As they sit …)
LEWIS: I’m sorry.
ALLCOCK: Not that I’m all that worried. Majorca’s a bit boring after the first three weeks or so.
(Confidentially to BOGGS.)
ALLCOCK: I got a deal going on for some building development there, you know.
BOGGS: How nice.
ALLCOCK: Yes. Do you fancy a piece?
BOGGS: (Shocked) I beg your pardon?
ALLCOCK: A plot of land!
BOGGS: Oh. No, I don’t think so, thank you. If we could just get down to business.
ALLCOCK: Yes, all right.
(He takes the open file from VIC and puts it in front of him.)
ALLCOCK: Well, I’ve had the basic facts from Spanner ’ere, and you know what your main trouble is, don’t you?
SID: Yeah. It’s the same old one about who does what job.
ALLCOCK: Ah yes, but the real basic trouble ’ere is – it’s an unofficial strike.
LEWIS: What does that mean, then?
ALLCOCK: It means my ’ands are tied. I can’t do a damn thing. Because it hasn’t got union approval, see?
BOGGS: Well, I’m delighted to hear that, Mr Allcock.
ALLCOCK: So your first step towards getting a settlement is to make it official!
BOGGS: Yes, but … how exactly can we make it an official strike if it hasn’t got union approval?
ALLCOCK: (Chuckles indulgently.) No, no, if you’ll forgive me for saying so, Mr Boggs, you’ve got it arse about face.
(BOGGS reacts coldly to this bit of crudity.)
BOGGS: If you’d care to translate that, Mr Allcock, I don’t understand these technical expressions.
ALLCOCK: What I mean is, the strike hasn’t got our approval simply because it is unofficial.
Make it official and we’ll damn soon approve it, don’t you worry!
LEWIS: All right then, just tell us how we go about making it official?
ALLCOCK: Very simple. We submit all the facts of the dispute to the Union Judiciary Committee. They’ll study them and pass on their recommendations to the Industrial Relations Committee. (Pause.) In due course of course.
LEWIS: How do you mean, in due course?
ALLCOCK: Well, the Union Judiciary Committee are over at a conference in Rio – and you know what that means, eh?
(He chuckles dirtily, nudges old BOGGS, and makes an expressive zig-zag gesture with his hand.)
BOGGS: Quite. Then how soon could we expect action to make it official?
ALLCOCK: Just as soon as the Industrial Relations Committee can study the recommendations and pass their findings on to the Direct Action Committee.
SID: Blimey, you seem to have more committees than the society for unmarried mothers!
ALLCOCK: Well, the Executive have got to have something to do, haven’t they?
LEWIS: (Getting angry.) All right, then what happens after all that, Mr Allcock?
ALLCOCK: I can tell you that all right. It’ll all be chucked right in my lap and I’ll have to hop on another plane back from Majorca, dammit.
BOGGS: Well, pending settlement, Mr Allcock, couldn’t you, as general secretary, recommend a full return to work?
ALLCOCK: Me? Listen, mate, if I was ever to make any clear-cut decision I’d be out on my ruddy arse!
SID: In other words, we can’t win.
BOGGS: Well, there wouldn’t be much point having unions if you could, would there?
(And he laughs jovially.)
BOGGS: This is madness, madness!
BOGGS: (Packing up.) You don’t ’ave to worry, Mr Boggs. Let matters take the normal procedure and I can promise you a quick settlement. With the usual bit of give and take from both sides, of course.
BOGGS: Yes … we give and you take!
ALLCOCK: (Getting up.) Ha ha, that’s very good, I like that. We give and you take. I’m glad you can see the funny side of all this, Mr Boggs. Well, I must be getting along now. Goodbye all, and I must say this meeting has been most useful. Most useful.
BOGGS: Goodbye, Mr Allcock.
(As ALLCOCK and VIC go out.)
SID: Well, all I can say is, whoever named him knew what he was doing!
CARRY ON AGAIN DOCTOR
Alternative titles … Where There’s A Pill There’s A Way, The Bowels Are Ringing, If You Say It’s Your Thermometer I’ll Have To Believe You, But It’s A Funny Place To Put It
A Peter Rogers production
Distributed through Rank Organisation Released as an A certificate in 1969 in colour
Running time: 89 mins
CAST
PRODUCTION TEAM
Screenplay by Talbot Rothwell
Music composed and conducted by Eric Rogers
Production Manager: Jack Swinburne
Art Director: John Blezard
Editor: Alfred Roome
Director of Photography: Ernest Steward BSC
Camera Operator: James Bawden
Assistant Editor: Jack Gardner
Continuity: Susanna Merry
Make-up: Geoffrey Rodway
Assistant Director: Ivor Powell
Sound Recordists: Bill Daniels and Ken Barker
Hairdresser: Stella Rivers
Costume Designer: Anna Duse
Dubbing Editor: Colin Miller
Producer: Peter Rogers
Director: Gerald Thomas
Applying the final touches to Ernest Stoppidge (Charles Hawtrey)
Down to the bare facts for Barbara Windsor
At the Long Hampton Hospital, Dr Nookey seems to attract trouble, beginning with an incident in the women’s washroom, which he’d mistakenly entered, frightening the highly-strung Miss Armitage out of her senses. Nookey’s carefree manner isn’t to everyone’s liking at the hospital, with Dr Stoppidge wanting Nookey sacked for the washroom incident; there isn’t any love lost between Nookey and Dr Carver either, but Carver ignores Stoppidge’s request for Nookey’s sacking.
Carver, meanwhile, has his sights set on his own private clinic where he can treat affluent private patients, like Ellen Moore, a lonely widow who’s longing for a little romance in her life again; in Carver she sees a man who might provide that, but all he’s interested in is finding a way not to her heart, but her purse; he wants her to turn his dream into reality by financing the Frederick Carver Foundation and tries to woo her, courtesy of a few chat-up lines borrowed from Dr Nookey, at the hospital’s grand buffet and dance. His plans fail dismally.
When she asks Carver to find a replacement for the doctor’s post in a medical mission she established on the far-off Beatific Islands, he thinks it’s impossible to find someone daft enough to work in such an outpost, but then his mind focuses on Dr Nookey. When the young doctor, who has his drinks spiked by Dr Stoppidge, causes more mayhem at the hospital, he faces the hospital’s disciplinary committee. Spotting an opportunity to fill Mrs Moore’s vacancy at her mission, Dr Carver appeases the committee’s concerns over Nookey by offering him a last chance to save his career. Within hours he’s flying off to the Beatific Islands, tiny specks of land battered by rain and hurricanes; he soon realises his life is in the doldrums, that is until he discovers something which will make his fortune in England. Courtesy of an unsuspecting Gladstone Screwer, a serum causing drastic weight loss within days makes Nookey a millionaire when he finally returns to home shores and forms his own private clinic in partnership with none other than Ellen Moore.
Carver, meanwhile, who’d travelled to the islands to check on Dr Nookey, is lucky to escape with his life when the schooner he was travelling in, the Bella Vista, founders off the coast in a terrible storm. He faces more bad luck when he eventually returns home to find his dreams of a private clinic shattered by Nookey. Desperate to find out the constituent parts of the magic weight-losing serum, he hatches a plan to send his colleague, Dr Stoppidge, into the clinic disguised as a woman, but his scheme backfires. Dr Nookey’s good luck is challenged, too, when Gladstone Screwer, realising Nookey is on to a winner exchanging the serum for 200 cigarettes, turns up for a slice of the profits.
A quick chat before the cameras roll
ALLCOCK, SARAH
Played by Joan Sims
Miss Allcock teaches PE at Maudlin Street Secondary Modern School. Seen in Teacher, this judo expert isn’t to be messed around, as Alistair Grigg, the child psychiatrist, discovers. Before the end of term, though, she ends up falling for Grigg.
ALLEN, ANDREA
Role: Minnie in Cowboy
Born in Glasgow in 1946, Andrea Allen made sporadic appearances on the screen during the late 1960s and ’70s, including brief roles in films such as The Wrong Box, For Men Only, She’ll Follow You Anywhere, Invasion: UFO, Vampira and Spanish Fly. On television, she was seen in, among others, Jason King.
Allen, who’s no longer in the profession, lives abroad.
ALLEN, PATRICK
Narrator on Don’t Lose Your Head, Doctor and Up The Khyber
Actor Patrick Allen, born in Malawi in 1927, has one of the most recognisable voices in the business, thanks to years spent narrating films, adverts and documentaries.
After moving to Britain as a child, Allen, who’s also a busy stage actor, was evacuated to Canada during World War Two, and after studying at Montreal’s McGill University worked as a local radio presenter and, subsequently, appeared on television. In 1947 he returned to the UK and was cast in The Survivors, a series of plays for the BBC.
His first film credit, Hitchcock’s Dial M for Murder, was the start of a busy big-screen career, which includes The Long Haul, Dunkirk, I Was Monty’s Double, Night of the Big Heat, Diamonds on Wheels, The Wild Geese, Who Dares Wins and, more recently, RPM. On television he’s appeared in numerous shows, including The Return of Sherlock Holmes, Bergerac, The Protectors, The Troubleshooters and The Champions, but his biggest role was playing Richard Crane in the 1960s series, Crane.
ALLISON, BART
Roles: Grandad in Doctor and Grandpa Grubb in Loving
Bart Allison, born in Birmingham in 1892, always wanted to act and spent his early career working in variety and the theatre. He also made occasional screen appearances from the late 1940s, with film credits including The End of the Affair; Smashing Time; Steptoe and Son; No Sex Please, We’re British and The Ritz.
His television work, meanwhile, included appearances in shows such as Dixon of Dock Green, Hadleigh, Angels and The Sweeney.
He died in 1978, aged eighty-six.
AMAZON GUARDS
Played by Audrey Wilson, Vicky Smith, Jane Lumb, Marian Collins, Sally Douglas, Christine Rodgers and Maya Koumani
Clad in black cat-suits, the guards work in S.T.E.N.C.H.’s headquarters and are seen charging around in Spying.
AMBULANCE DRIVER
Played by Brian Osborne
The Ambulance Driver is seen in Matron outside the Finisham Maternity Hospital. An emergency call has been received to go and pick up Jane Darling, a film actress, who’s likely to give birth any minute. A shortage of staff to hand finds Dr Prodd and Nurse Carter – who’s actually Cyril Carter – roped in to help with the job.
AMBULANCE DRIVERS (1st and 2nd)
Played by Anthony Sagar and Fred Griffiths
The ambulance drivers who ferry appendicitis-stricken journalist Ted York to the Haven Hospital in Nurse. As it transpires, their mad dash to the hospital is motivated more by wanting to catch the horse racing than delivering a sick man.
ANAESTHETIST
Played by John Horsley
When Ted York is wheeled in on a trolley ready for his operation in Nurse, the anaethetist is waiting with an enormous hypodermic. (Note: although Horsley’s name appeared in the credits, the scene was cut.)
WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN
When Ted York has his operation he drifts off into a dream world.
CLOSE SHOT TED
Flat on his back on moving trolley – but not quite flat out. He’s still resisting the complete surrender of himself. Trolley goes in doors to:
INT. ANAESTHETIC ROOM – DAY
Ted’s wheeled in beside the usual impressive equipment. He does his best to keep his eyes open. Anaesthetist is all ready. He approaches Ted.
ANAESTHETIST: (Friendly, grinning.) You look so wide awake …
(He injects TED, with the enormous hypo.)
ANAESTHETIST: … I doubt if this is going to work …
(TED grins back – an uncontrolled parody of a confident grin.)
TED’S EYELINE
(ANAESTHETIST blurs, spins and disappears.)
RIPPLE DISSOLVE
INT. TED’S MIND. ANAESTHESIA
Evidently Ted’s a good reporter who concentrates on essentials even in his subconscious – for the f.g. of this sequence is all-important and there’s no set worth speaking of, just a dark b.g. Equally evident, Ted is a regular reader of Esquire, for Georgie shimmies on to the screen in idealised, scant and diaphanous harem costume. Music is sinuous in accompaniment. After a self-appreciative wiggle or so on the part of Georgie, a millionaire, young, handsome and in full evening-dress, approaches her, beseechingly offering a diamond necklace, glittering in its velvet-lined case: she repulses him: sadly closing the case, he leaves. A turbaned Maharajah now approaches her, juggling with diamonds as big as potatoes: she scarcely notices the dazzlement thus created: repulses him: tearfully, he departs. A husky sunburnt prospector, magnificent in shorts and sunhat, hauls a small truck to her: it is chockful of diamonds: she hardly looks at the blinding-brilliant display, or at him: his jaw-muscles twitching in manly disappointment, he trudges off, hauling the truck behind him. Holding on to the back of the truck, like a kid scrounging a ride on a water-cart, is Ted, ludicrous in his operating-gown. He jumps off, and, apparently unaware of Georgie’s presence, flexes his muscles in modest self-appreciation. Georgie clasps her hands together in delight and her expression is that of a girl who has at last Mr Right-ed herself. She strolls past him, shedding a veil. Courteously, Ted retrieves it, offers it to her. As she takes it, he kisses her hand. Chews his way, with mounting passion, up her arm. Folds her in an embrace. She’s more than cooperative. Music cuts. A whip-crack O.S. Both turn. Sister’s there, dressed in jodhpurs and roll-neck sweater. She cracks the whip again: Georgie, immediately redressed as a nurse, disentangles herself from Ted. An injections-trolley rolls towards Georgie. She grabs it and trundles it away, super-efficiently. Whip-crack. A bed rolls towards Ted. He scampers into it. Sister nods grimly, folds the whip, goes off eagle-eyed to look for more criminals.
CLOSE SHOT TED (Within dream.)
In bed, lying on his side, one eye open. Whip-crack O.S. He snaps the eye shut.
DISSOLVE
INT. WARD. NIGHT
CLOSE SHOT TED, lying on his back, eyes closed. Real background: the dream is over: he’s about to emerge from the anaesthetic. His eyes flicker.
TED: (Faint) Beer …
(His eyes open.)
TED’S EYELINE
From his corner-bed, a night-view of the ward achieves focus after a shaky start. Six beds on the opposite side of the ward, each containing a slumbering patient. Snores are thunderous in a male ward: they can provide the background for the following.
INT. WARD. NIGHT
Ted resumed.
TED: (Louder) Lager…
He licks his lips.)
TED: (Normal tone) Iced lager … Hey, Ethel! How about some service…?
(He blinks, and licks his lips again.)
TED: (Good and loud) How long’ve I gotta wait for service? I’m a good customer Ethel! Hey – (Loudest) – ETHEL!…
(Frances James, young, slim and attractive night-nurse (qualified) appears at his bedside, a firm and confident ministering angel – to begin with. He turns his head to her. Though he can now talk, he doesn’t really know what he’s talking about yet – or, at least, the normal defences and compromises of ordinary conversation are not in operation. His voice is strident. His ideas are uninhibited and directly expressed throughout.)
TED: ’Bout time … Hey – you’re not Ethel …
FRANCES: Relax now, Mr York.
TED: (Truculent) Where’s Ethel?
FRANCES: Fast asleep I hope – same as you should be.
TED: You know Ethel?
FRANCES: I think I know the one you mean. Barmaid at the Greyhound.
TED: That’s right. Get her.
ANCIENT CARRIER
Played by Ian Wilson
Assists the Carrier in Jack by ferrying Midshipman Poop-Decker to his ship at Plymouth Docks.
ANCIENT GENERAL
Played by Eric Barker
Seen dining at the French Ambassador’s residence in Emmannuelle.
ANGEL, MR (THE BOSUN)
Played by Percy Herbert
The bosun, who’s been at sea fifteen years, works on the frigate Venus. He’s seen in Jack, initially as part of the press gang scouring the streets of Plymouth for two unfortunates to join the ship’s crew.
ANGELINETTA, OLGA
Hairdresser on Teacher and Jack
Olga Angelinetta, daughter of a restaurateur, was born in London in 1902. After achieving her City and Guilds in hairdressing and wig-making, she worked for leading names in the industry until being taken ill in 1943 and spending a year in hospital. Soon after recuperating, she secured a job at Pinewood Studios.
She eventually turned freelance and worked at all the top studios, including Denham and Twickenham. Her list of film credits included The Counterfeit Plan, Make Mine Mink, One Million Years B.C., Our Mother’s House and, her final picture, A Clockwork Orange in 1971.
She retired in the early 1970s and died in 1995, aged ninety-three.
ANGUS
An unseen character in Cruising, Angus was head barman on the Happy Wanderer until he tied the knot and was sworn off booze. Believing a life on the ocean wave wasn’t compatible with marriage, he jacked in his job. The trouble was, he was the only one capable of mixing an Aberdeen Angus, Captain Crowther’s favourite tipple. Eventually, though, he passes on the details to his replacement, Sam Turner, to the relief of the captain.
ANGUS ROBERTSON & COMPANY LIMITED
The estate agent in Cabby who markets the yard and garages Peggy Hawkins rents for her Glamcab taxi company. The office is based at 306 Park Street.
ANTHEA
Played by Amanda Barrie
A posh-speaking Glamcab driver in Cabby. When Ted Watson tries infiltrating the team by posing, disastrously, as a glamour girl, she embarrasses him by asking for help out of her clothes because the staff uniforms are required for washing.
ANTONY, MARK
Played by Sid James
The courageous soldier who claims to be Julius Caesar’s best friend in Cleo. Falls in love with Cleopatra and plots to murder Caesar but his plans are beset with unexpected difficulties.
ANTONY’S DUSKY MAIDEN
Played by Sally Douglas
A dark-haired beauty whom Mark Antony buys from a slave market in Cleo.
ANTROBUS, JOHN
Role: Citizen in Constable. Also credited for writing additional material for the screenplays of Sergeant and Columbus
Son of a sergeant-major in the army, John Antrobus was born in Woolwich Military Hospital in 1933. After leaving school he served two years in the Merchant Navy before, aged nineteen, following his father into the army. He attended Sandhurst Royal Military Academy and was progressing well until his increasing disenchantment at the thought of a military career saw him quit the Forces.
Wanting to be a writer, he was fortunate enough to meet Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, who’d established Associated London Scripts with Spike Milligan and Eric Sykes. They agreed to read some of his work, so by day he earned his living as a waiter, supply teacher and film extra (he was in a crowd scene in 1984 and a non-speaking lab assistant in The Man Who Never Was), while in the evening he completed a script and sent it to the writers.
Before long he was writing with Johnny Speight and supplying material for, among others, Frankie Howerd, Arthur Haynes, Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan. He’s also contributed to numerous television shows, including That Was The Week That Was, The Army Game, Bootsie and Snudge, The Dustbinmen and Milligan In …
Antrobus has written for all media, including the screenplays for 1959’s Idle On Parade, starring Anthony Newley, Lionel Jeffries and William Bendix, and, a decade later, The Bed-Sitting Room, with Rita Tushingham and Ralph Richardson. He’s also written extensively for the theatre, such as four plays for the Royal Court Theatre and the jewel in his crown, Crete and Sergeant Pepper.
In recent years, John has teamed up with scriptwriter Ray Galton to pen two series of Room at the Bottom for television and the sanatorium-based sitcom, Get Well Soon. They also wrote the farce, When Did You Last See Your Trousers, which played the Garrick Theatre for a year, and have recently written a stage version of Steptoe and Son which opens at the Theatre Royal, York, in the autumn of 2005.
APHRODISIA
The name of the valley beyond the mountains in Africa where the lubidubies live in Up the Jungle.
ARABIAN OFFICIAL
Played by Steve Plytas
Seen dining at the French Ambassador’s residence in Emmannuelle.
ARCHIMEDES
Played by Michael Ward
Seen in Cleo walking the corridors of Cleopatra’s abode. His official title is Chief Counsellor.
ARISTOCRATIC LADY
Played by Ambrosine Phillpotts
In Cabby, this snooty old girl is seen sitting in the back of a chauffeur-driven car. While waiting at a junction, Charlie Hawkins pulls up and cracks a joke, aimed at the straight-faced chauffeur, about whether he’s going to a funeral, before suggesting that his passenger has got out of the box.
ARMITAGE, MISS
Played by Ann Lancaster
Appears in Again Doctor. Miss Armitage is a patient at the Long Hampton Hospital who’s been admitted for observation. She observes more than she bargained for when Dr Nookey goes into the women’s washroom by mistake and takes a shower. When he later enters her room, believing he’ll find Goldie Locks in bed, it’s the last straw for the eccentric Miss Armitage, who’s liable to suffer the occasional fit.
CARRY ON AT YOUR CONVENIENCE
Alternative titles … Down The Spout, Ladies Please Be Seated, Up The Workers, Labour Relations Are The People Who Come To See You When You’re Having A Baby
A Peter Rogers production
Distributed through Rank Organisation Released as an A certificate in 1971 in colour
Running time: 90 mins
CAST
PRODUCTION TEAM
Screenplay by Talbot Rothwell
Music composed and conducted by Eric Rogers
Production Manager: Jack Swinburne
Art Director: Lionel Couch
Editor: Alfred Roome
Director of Photography: Ernest Steward BSC
Camera Operator: James Bawden
Make-up: Geoffrey Rodway
Continuity: Rita Davidson
Assistant Director: David Bracknell
Sound Recordists: Danny Daniel and Ken Barker
Hairdresser: Stella Rivers
Costume Designer: Courtenay Elliott
Set Dresser: Peter Howitt
Assistant Art Director: William Alexander
Dubbing Editor: Brian Holland
Titles: G.S.E. Ltd
Processed by Rank Film Laboratories
Toilets by Royal Doulton Sanitary Potteries
Assistant Editor: Jack Gardner
Producer: Peter Rogers
Director: Gerald Thomas
Vic Spanner (Kenneth Cope) gets an ear bashing from his mum (Renée Houston)
W.C. Boggs and Son have manufactured fine toilet ware since 1870, which is surprising considering the constant striking at the factory; Vic Spanner, the union representative, brings the workforce out at the slightest change in day-to-day procedures, such as the scrapping of drinking tea outside official breaks. When Vic broaches the subject with Lewis Boggs, the boss’s son, who’s still green when it comes to dealing with the union, he declines to discuss the matter, resulting in a meeting to consider yet another walk-out. No one, save Vic, is interested, though, until they’re reminded that the local football team are at home that afternoon.
Meanwhile, upstairs, chief designer Charles Coote, managing director William Boggs and others watch with interest as Miss Withering, Mr Boggs’s secretary, tests out a new toilet’s durability. Another topic on the agenda is the making of bidets: while Lewis wants the firm to start manufacturing them to keep up with the times, his father isn’t convinced.
Production at the factory grinds to a halt, though, when the latest strike takes effect. Sid Plummer returns home for the afternoon and is confronted with a pile of dirty dishes and a wife who spends all day chatting to her budgie, while Vic Spanner is berated by his loudmouthed mother, claiming he’s just like his late father; he ends up with a meagre lunch while Charles Coote, who lodges at the house, is dished up his favourite meal. Nothing seems to be going right for Vic when, en route to the football match, he spots Myrtle, the love of his life, getting into Lewis Boggs’s sports car, and in a rush to follow her ends up losing his trousers.
Back at Sid Plummer’s house, he discovers, to the benefit of his wallet, that the pet budgie, Joey, who hasn’t tweeted a word since they bought him, has the knack of picking winners at horse racing; before placing the biggest bet of his life, Sid tests the bird on yesterday’s race meetings and he comes up trumps every time. Sid soon pockets a fortune, much to his bookmaker’s disgust, enabling him to help out his employer, Mr Boggs, when it’s revealed the company is in financial straits, a gesture eventually repaid with the offer of a place on the board, which Sid is reluctant to accept because he regards himself as a shop-floor worker.
The next strike, over the fitting of a new style tap to the bidets Lewis eventually persuades his father to make, is called by Vic, but a surprise return to work the following day isn’t a sign of everyone’s eagerness to get back to the shop-floor, more because it’s the firm’s outing to Brighton. Everyone decides to enjoy the annual jolly, even Mr Boggs Senior who realises what he’s been missing is a good old booze-up. A jolly time is had by all, especially Lewis Boggs, who’s delighted when he eventually wins over Myrtle Plummer by producing a special marriage licence.
Lewis (Richard O’Callaghan) talks tough with Bernie (Bernard Bresslaw)
Back home, when Mr Coote, whose relationship with Agatha Spanner has blossomed, tells her they won’t be able to marry because the strikes have brought the company to its knees, action is called for; summoning the help of other frustrated wives, Agatha and the women march to the picket line and bring the strike to an abrupt end; everything now seems rosy until Bernie Hulke tells Vic there is no loo roll in the toilet, but even the militant Vic Spanner has turned over a new leaf and dips into his own pocket to buy a new packet.
ARMY OFFICER
Played by Cyril Raymond
Seen in Regardless struggling to squeeze by Sam Twist in the corridor of the Scotland-bound train. Twist, who’s en route to the Forth Bridge in a parody of The 39 Steps, asks if he’s got some special orders for him, annoying the officer in the process.
ARNALL, JULIA
Role: Trudy Trelawney in Regardless
Julia Arnall, born in Vienna, Austria, in 1931, moved to Britain in 1950 and began her career as a model before turning to acting.
During the 1950s and ’60s she appeared in several films, including Simon and Laura, House of Secrets, The Quiller Memorandum and, most notably, Lost. However, when her Rank contract was terminated in 1957, her screen appearances became infrequent.
Her television credits include Sword of Freedom, International Detective, Ghost Squad, The Saint and The Troubleshooters.
ARTHUR
Played by Derek Francis
Arthur works as a security guard in the lobby of Finisham Maternity Hospital in Matron. A miserable-looking guy whose demeanour is remarked upon by Sid Carter, who’s pretending to be an expectant father in an attempt to find out where the contraceptive pills are kept. He comments he’ll christen his baby ‘Happy’ after him.
ASKWITH, ROBIN
Role: Larry in Girls
Born in Southport, Lancashire, in 1950, Robin Askwith was educated at Merchant Taylors’ School, Rickmansworth. Unable to take up a place at Bristol University, where he intended reading English and drama, he happened upon a career in acting, beginning with a margarine commercial, followed by, in 1968, the part of Keating in Lindsay Anderson’s film, If.
He’s made over thirty films but is arguably best remembered for playing the lead in the Confessions sex comedies of the 1970s. Other film credits include Scramble; Hide and Seek; Bless This House; Stand Up, Virgin Soldiers; Brittania Hospital, again with Lindsay Anderson, and, in 2000, The Asylum. His television work over the years has seen him appear in, among others, The Borderers, Boon, Sunburn and Doctors.
In 1977 he formed The Comedy Company and toured the world with various shows. Today, he lives on the island of Gozo.
ASSISTANT MANAGER
Played by Robin Ray
The assistant manager of F.H. Rowse, a department store in Constable, isn’t informed by his manager of PC Benson and PC Gorse’s undercover work attempting to catch shoplifters in the store, which explains the confusion that ensues when they become suspects themselves.
AT YOUR CONVENIENCE, CARRY ON
See feature box here.
ATKINS, JOHN
Played by Paul Cole
In Teacher, Atkins is a leading culprit among the kids who set out to cause havoc when a school inspector and child psychiatrist visit Maudlin Street Secondary Modern School.
ATS GIRL
Played by Barbara Rosenblat
Based at the experimental 1313 anti-aircraft battery in England, she’s one of the shirkers who suffers a severe shock to the system when the tough-speaking Captain Melly is put in charge of the unit.
ATTRACTIVE NURSE
Played by Shane Cordell
One of the nurses employed at Haven Hospital in Nurse.
AU PAIR GIRL
Played by Zena Clifton
When the pregnant film star, Jane Darling, is rushed off in the back of an ambulance, Mr Darling can’t wait to wave his wife goodbye so he can return to the house and get his hands all over his au pair. Appears in Matron.
AUBREY, DIANE
Role: Honoria in Constable
Diane Aubrey, born in Nottingham in 1939, joined LAMDA straight from school. By the time she graduated she’d already made her acting debut, appearing in a 1957 episode of the series The Vise and the film Grip of the Strangler, a year later.
Although she worked in rep, most of her career was spent on the screen. As well as appearing in series like Moonstrike and Dixon of Dock Green, she played Sally Clarkson in Z Cars for several months during 1962, and Sandra in the 1963 series, Taxi!, with Sid James. On the big screen, her credits include Village of the Damned; Watch it, Sailor!; Petticoat Pirates;The Wild Affair and her last film, The Engagement in 1970.
She retired from acting at the age of twenty-nine after her children were born. Now based in London, she’s been teaching the Alexander Technique for twenty-four years.
AUNTIE
Played by Lucy Griffiths
Named as Aunt Acid in the Regardless script, she’s standing alongside Montgomery Infield-Hopping in the bachelor exhibit at the Ideal House Exhibition. She looks disapprovingly when Delia comes flying through the wall of the exhibit next-door, much to the delight of the raffish customer.
AVERY AVENUE
The road where Bide-a-Wee Rest Home stands in Screaming!
AXWELL, NURSE GEORGIE
Played by Susan Stephen
Georgie Axwell works on the ward at Haven Hospital in Nurse.
AZURE BAY
A region in the Beatific Islands where the Moore Medical Mission – which is nothing more than a decrepit wooden hut – stands. The bay is visited by Dr Carver and Dr Nookey in Again Doctor.
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BABS
Played by Barbara Windsor
Seen in Camping, Babs (real name Barbara) is one of the nubile young ladies from Chayste Place, a finishing school, camping at the Paradise Camp Site. Out to enjoy herself, the mischievous Babs flirts with Sid Boggle, much to his girlfriend’s chagrin, while under canvas, before heading off on the back of a lorry with other partygoers at an all-nite rave in the adjoining field. (Note: in an early draft of the script, a character called Rosemary was due to lose her bikini top.)
BADEN-SEMPER, NINA
Role: Girl Nosha in Up the Jungle
Born in the West Indies in 1945, Nina Baden-Semper first appeared on screen in the 1960s but is best known for playing Barbie Reynolds in five series of the controversial sitcom, Love Thy Neighbour, during the 1970s.
Other small screen credits include Rainbow City, Counterstrike, Callan, George and Mildred and Children’s Ward. She appeared most recently in the revival of Crossroads. Her occasional film credits include Kongi’s Harvest, The Love Ban and 1999’s Rage.
BAGLEY, LADY EVELYN
Played by Joan Sims
Seen in Up the Jungle on the expedition into the jungles of Africa. Soon after her baby boy, Cecil, was born, her husband whisked her off to the African jungle for a belated honeymoon. Tragedy struck when her hubby took their son for an early morning stroll along the banks of the Limpopo River and neither were seen again. When her husband’s fob watch was later discovered inside a crocodile’s stomach, and her son’s nappy abandoned on the riverbank, she feared the worst. Now she has returned to try and find the nappy pin, just something she can cling on to as a memory of her little boy.
When she unexpectedly meets Cecil, the Jungle Boy, and finds he has a big, silver safety pin holding his loincloth together, she suddenly realises her little baby – now a very big baby – is still alive. She’s desperate to find her son and is finally reunited by the time Lady Bagley and the other members of the party, who manage to escape the grip of the Lubidubies, a female tribe in the jungle, head home; by then, she also comes face-to-face with her long-lost husband, who’s been given the title of King Tonka by the Lubidubies, and she returns to England with him in tow, too.
BAGLEY, WALTER
Played by Charles Hawtrey
It was thought that Walter Bagley, alias King Tonka in Up the Jungle, had been eaten by a crocodile in the African jungle. Whilst honeymooning with his wife, Evelyn, and their little baby boy, Cecil, he decided to take his son for an early morning stroll through the jungle. Nothing was seen of him, or the little boy, again; when his watch was later found inside a dead crocodile’s stomach, it was assumed he’d been eaten alive.
Lady Bagley, therefore, is shocked when she’s reunited with her husband, who hadn’t been gobbled up at all; he’s been living the life of Riley with the Lubidubies, a tribe of females, who appointed him King Tonka with the sole duty of mating with as many girls as possible. All those years ago, his watch was eaten by a warrior from the Nosha tribe, who was then eaten by a crocodile. The Noshas had captured Walter and his life was in peril until rescued by the Lubidubies.
When Lady Bagley returns home she takes Walter with her, whom the Lubidubies lose interest in once his wife appears on the scene.
BAGPIPE SOLDIER
Played by Simon Cain
A soldier of the 3rd Foot and Mouth in Up The Khyber.
BAGSHAW, CAPTAIN
Played by Peter Gilmore
One of Lady Jane Ponsonby’s many suitors in Follow That Camel, Bagshaw tries his utmost to see another, Bertram West, written off by accusing him of cheating at cricket. When West is banned from ever stepping foot inside the Ponsonbys’ mansion again, Humphrey Bagshaw’s conscience gets the better of him: realising he’s acted despicably, he tries committing suicide.
BAILEY, ANTHONY
Role: Rider in Dick
Londoner Anthony Bailey was born in 1933 and trained at the City Literary Institute. Primarily a stage actor, he appeared on the screen from time to time. On television, he had a running part as Roddy Barrows in Crossroads and was also seen in, among others, Arthur of the Britons, Barlow at Large, The New Avengers, The Professionals, Grange Hill and The Bill. His film credits included The Main Chance, Thunderball, The Deadly Bees and Hussy.
Most recently, he was appearing at the National Theatre in London. He died in 2004, aged seventy-one.
BAILEY, JAMES
Played by Kenneth Williams
In Sergeant, James Bailey is a member of Sergeant Grimshaw’s Able Platoon. An educated snob, he ruffles Grimshaw’s feathers from day one with his supercilious manner. Eventually, though, he blends with the rest of the platoon and is instrumental in persuading them to give their utmost to become champion platoon. A graduate, his abilities are put to good use when he moves to the Education Corps after basic training.
BAIRD, ANTHONY
Role: Guard in Spying
Born in London in 1920, Anthony Baird has appeared in over a dozen films, including Passport to Treason, Operation Conspiracy, Echo of Diana, The Ipcress File, Cheetah and Braxton, but his most notable appearance was in Ealing’s 1945 compendium, Dead of Night.
His television credits range from The Count of Monte Cristo and The Avengers to Strangers and a running role, as Mr Pearson, in Crossroads.
BAKER PLATOON
Sergeant Mathews’ platoon at Heathercrest National Service Depot in Sergeant.
BAKSH, SHAKIRA
Role: Scrubba in Again Doctor
Crowned Miss Guyana in 1967, Shakira Baksh came third in that year’s Miss World contest.
Born in 1947, she worked as a librarian and fashion model in Guyana before coming to England for the Miss World contest. She continued modelling and made a handful of screen appearances during the 1970s, including a couple of episodes of UFO. She was also seen in the films Son of Dracula and The Man Who Would Be King, with Michael Caine, whom she had married in 1973. Caine had first noticed Baksh in a Maxwell House coffee advert.
BALD-HEADED DOWAGER
Played by Joan Ingram
Seen at Sir Rodney Ffing’s charity ball in Don’t Lose Your Head, the bald-headed Dowager’s wig is accidentally blown off her head.
BALFOUR, MICHAEL
Role: Matt in Constable
From Genevieve and Man From Tangier in the 1950s to Batman and The Holcroft Covenant in the 1980s, character actor Michael Balfour was regularly in demand.
Born in Kent in 1918, he appeared in films from the late 1940s, including an uncredited role in the 1948 picture, Sleeping Car to Trieste. Other notable credits included Venetian Bird, Johnny On the Run and The Sea Shall Not Have Them. On the small screen, he was seen in, among others, Hancock’s Half Hour, Dixon of Dock Green, Man from Interpol and Department S.
Away from the screen, he created his own clown character and toured Europe with Gerry Cottle’s Circus. He was also an accomplished sculptor and painter, opening a gallery in Spain.
He died in 1997, aged seventy-nine.
BALL, NURSE SUSAN
Played by Barbara Windsor
Employed at the Finisham Maternity Hospital in Matron, the even-tempered Nurse Ball shares her room – number sixteen at the nurses’ home – with Nurse Carter, aka Cyril Carter. She realises he’s a fella when he falls over steps and reveals his unmistakable underwear. Upon discovering the motives behind Cyril’s disguise, she agrees to keep mum and ends up falling in love with her roommate.
BALL, VINCENT
Roles: Jenkins in Cruising and Ship’s Officer in Follow That Camel
Vincent Ball, who was born in Wee Waa, New South Wales, Australia, in 1923, left school at fourteen and worked as a messenger boy until, aged eighteen, he joined the Australian Air Force. He trained in Canada and the Bahamas before completing his tour of operations in England and Scotland.
Ball returned to Australia in 1945 and decided upon a career in acting. To reach England, he secured a job on a Swedish cargo ship and spent seven months cleaning the decks en route to the UK.
He’d previously written to film studios enquiring about work and was lucky enough, upon reaching England, to complete underwater swimming scenes for non-swimmer Donald Houston in the 1949 film, The Blue Lagoon. After his first taste of the film industry, he trained at RADA between 1949–51 and moved into repertory theatre, beginning at Leatherhead.
His film career started in the late 1940s and encompassed a host of pictures, including The Interrupted Journey, Dangerous Voyage, The Black Rider and Where Eagles Dare. More recently he’s been seen in, among others, The Man Who Sued God and The Cherry Orchard. On television, his credits include International Detective, Man in a Suitcase, Shannon’s Mob, The Outsiders, Mission Impossible and running roles in A Country Practice and Crossroads.
Ball’s recent work has mainly been in Australian television and films, which is where he’s lived since 1973.
BALLET MONTPARNASSE, THE
Roles: The Dancing Girls in Cowboy
The ballet company was occupied in light entertainment, appearing on numerous Variety bills in the 1950s and ’60s for Moss Empires, Stoll Theatres and other venues around the British Isles.
BALLS BOOK OF ENGLISH LAW
The book Bettina consults in Henry to check whether her marriage to King Henry VIII, a service he conducted himself, is legal; as he climbs into her bed he tries convincing her it’s all above board but she later learns the truth, and it’s just as well she resisted his advances because she’s later whisked off across the channel by Francis, the King of France, to become the country’s Queen.
BALSWORTH YOUTH HOSTEL
The youth hostel where the girls from Chayste Place stay en route to the Paradise Camp Site in Devon. The building is seen in Camping.
BANDLEADER
Played by Eric Rogers
Appears on stage in Again Doctor at the Long Hampton Hospital’s grand buffet and dance. He’s the bandleader of Alec and the Officers. (Note: this is the Eric Rogers who composed and conducted the music for so many of the Carry On films.)
BAND OF THE COLDSTREAM GUARDS
Played the music for Sergeant.
BANGOR, MISS
Played by Angela Grant
A brunette in the Miss Fircombe beauty contest who’s seen in Girls.
BANGS THAT MADE HISTORY
A book two schoolgirls borrow from the library at Maudlin Street Secondary Modern School in Teacher. They wait until Mr Adams, the science teacher, is on duty before requesting the title because they want him to believe they’re constructing a bomb – all part of the master plan to stop the acting head from leaving at the end of term.
BANK MANAGER
Played by Michael Nightingale
The bank manager in Stodge City is seen in Cowboy exasperated when the Rumpo Kid shoots yet another of his bank clerks. He explains they’ve been dropping like flies since the Kid arrived in town.
BANKS, EVELYN
Played by Patsy Rowlands
Sir Bernard Cutting’s trustworthy secretary in Matron.
BANKS, PETER
Role: Gunner Thomas in England
Born in St Thomas, Canada, in 1943, Peter Banks studied political science at university in Ottawa, where his interest in acting escalated. His father, who worked for the Canadian government, was posted to the UK so when Banks graduated, he followed his parents in 1967, initially earning a living at a West End casino.
After a year’s training at a studio theatre in Brighton, he began working in children’s theatre before joining Darlington Rep. He’d gained significant stage experience by the time he made his screen debut, on television, in The Private Thoughts of Julius Caesar. Other small-screen credits include The Famous Five, Oppenheimer and Seven Wonders of the Industrial World. His film credits include Death Wish 3, Highlander, Going Home and Method.
BARKER, ERIC
Roles: Captain Potts in Sergeant, Inspector Mills in Constable, The Chief in Spying and Ancient General in Emmannuelle. Also Cruising was based on an idea of Barker’s
Eric Barker, who made his name on radio’s Merry-Go-Round during the Second World War, a programme in which he adopted the catchphrase, ‘Steady, Barker!’, was born in Thornton Heath, Surrey, in 1912.
He became one of radio’s favourite stars but also found time to clock up numerous screen credits, including Brothers in Law (for which he won a British Film Academy Award for the most promising newcomer), Happy Is The Bride, Bachelor of Hearts and Left, Right and Centre.
‘What’s this wiggly thing?’ asks Cleopatra (Amanda Barrie) (Cleo)
His working life began at his father’s wholesale paper business before he started writing short stories for magazines of the 1920s and ’30s; he also wrote plays and novels. In 1931 he joined the Birmingham Repertory Company and, two years on, began a long association with the Windmill Theatre, subsequently becoming the venue’s leading comedian. Also in this year, he made his radio debut in First Time Here.
During the Second World War he served in the Royal Navy after which he returned to radio to star in some of the great series between 1945–49. Although he made brief appearances on television, it was radio, film and stage work that occupied most of his career.
He died in 1990, aged seventy-eight.
BARKER, KEN
Sound Recordist on Cowboy, Screaming!, Don’t Lose Your Head, Follow That Camel, Doctor, Up The Khyber, Camping, Again Doctor, Up the Jungle, Loving, Henry, At Your Convenience, Matron, Abroad, Girls, Dick, Behind and That’s Carry On
During a busy career, the late Ken Barker worked on over fifty films. A sound recordist from the 1960s, his credits included The Long Duel, Countess Dracula, Twins of Evil, Kidnapped, Doomwatch, Educating Rita, Trail of the Pink Panther and four Bond movies: Live and Let Die, The Man With the Golden Gun, For Your Eyes Only and Octopussy. His television work included the sci-fi series UFO and Born to Run.
BARMAN
Played by Bill Pertwee
Works at the cocktail bar in the Parkway Hotel and is on duty when Bertie Muffet arrives to meet Esme Crowfoot in Loving. A case of mistaken identity sees Muffet walk out with Sally Martin, a model, who’s supposed to be waiting for a photographer.
BARMAN
Played by Simon Cain
Works at the Brighton hotel frequented by the staff of William Boggs and Son, a toilet ware manufacturer, whilst on their annual jolly. He’s seen in At Your Convenience.
BARMAN
Played by Kenneth Waller
Works behind the bar at the Riverside Caravan Site’s clubhouse during the cabaret evening in Behind.
BARNES, DAPHNE
Played by Joan Sims
Linda Upmore’s interfering mother is seen in Behind, making a nuisance of herself while accompanying her daughter and son-in-law on a caravan holiday to the Riverside Caravan Site. It’s hardly surprising she hasn’t seen her husband, Henry, for ten years, given her manner and constant complaining. She ran a pub until her hubby sold it, and claims she did all the work while he lazed around. She receives a big shock when she bumps into her former spouse at the caravan site, where he works as an odd-job man. Before the holiday is over, they’ve reignited the flame and plan on giving their marriage another try.
BARNES, HENRY
Played by Peter Butterworth
In Behind, Henry Barnes works as an odd-job man for Major Leep at the Riverside Caravan Site. Although he’s paid peanuts, he boasts around twenty grand in his bank account thanks to a win on the pools. He hasn’t seen his wife, Daphne, for ten years, ever since selling the pub they used to run, a decision which didn’t go down too well with his missus, who always claimed Henry was a lazy individual. He can’t believe his eyes when he bumps into his ex-wife at the caravan site, and before long they’re reliving old times and planning a future together.
BARRIE, AMANDA
Roles: Anthea in Cabby and Cleopatra in Cleo
Born in Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, in 1939, Amanda Barrie started dancing and singing in her grandfather’s theatre in Ashton at the age of three. A trained dancer, Barrie was only thirteen when she became a chorus girl in London, debuting in Babes in the Wood, and in 1956 became a regular at London’s Winston’s Club.
She broke into the film world playing small parts in, among others, 1959’s Operation Bullshine, A Pair of Briefs a year later and 1963’s Doctor in Distress before the first of two Carry On appearances.
She’s probably best known, however, for her television work. As well as appearances in shows such as The Seven Faces of Jim, Danger Man, Are You Being Served?, L for Lester and, in recent years, Doctors and Hell’s Kitchen, she’ll always be remembered for playing Alma in Coronation Street and Bev in Bad Girls.
MEMORIES
‘As a revue I was in, Six of One, stumbled to its close in the summer of 1963, I was to have a gap of three weeks before going into the already acclaimed musical She Loves Me, at the Lyric Theatre, taking over from Rita Moreno. I had also been hired to play Cleo in the film Carry On Cleo, which, of course, was to turn out to be a real landmark for me. But my agent had made a ghastly mistake. It transpired that the filming of Cleo actually started on the same day that I was to go into She Loves Me. By the time we found out it was already too late to drop out of one of them decently, even if I had wanted to. So lucky old me, not just eight shows a week, but two productions at the same time.
‘I remain extraordinarily grateful to the Carry Ons. At the time they were just another job, but they had such visual impact that the images from them remain in people’s minds. It always surprises me that I receive just as many letters about Cleo, which was just one film made almost forty years ago, as I do about the Street. In spite of other people’s kind opinions I have never thought I was any good in Cleo.’
‘I really was naked in that bath – apart from bits of plaster over my nipples which looked pretty silly. Although tastefully shot from the back, this was very unusual in the early sixties. It seemed perfectly normal to me of course. I was an old chorus girl, more used to being undressed most of the time than dressed.’
AMANDA BARRIE – from her autobiography, It’s Not A Rehearsal
BARRON, MR
Played by Charles Hawtrey
Seen in Doctor, Mr Barron spends much of his time asleep on Fosdick Ward. When his wife, Mildred, told him she was expecting, he went into deep shock and was admitted to Borough County Hospital suffering a phantom pregnancy. Deciding to play along with his nonsense, Dr Tinkle sends him to pre-natal classes, which he finds humiliating, but by the end of his spell in hospital his wife gives birth and he becomes the proud father of a little boy.
BARRON, MRS
Played by Gwendolyn Watts
Mildred Barron is the pregnant wife of Mr Barron. When she told her husband they were expecting, he went into shock and was admitted to Borough County Hospital suffering a phantom pregnancy. Seen in Doctor visiting her hubby.
BARRY, HILDA
Role: Grandma Grubb in Loving
Born in California in 1896, Hilda Barry spent her early career in the theatre before becoming a regular face on the screen from the mid-1950s.
On television she made several appearances in Dixon of Dock Green as well as The Flying Doctor, The Prisoner, Special Branch, Quatermass and, latterly, Angels. Her film credits included The Drayton Case, John of the Fair, Never Back Losers, Poor Cow, On the Buses, Steptoe and Son Ride Again and her last picture, The Confessional.
She died in 1977, aged eighty.
BARRY, MR & MRS
Unseen characters in Constable, the Barries live at 35 Nathaniel Road. While they’re away visiting their first grandchild in Canada, their neighbour, Miss Horton, reports an intruder entering their property, but it’s a false alarm because it’s only their daughter, Sally, returning early from a trip to Cornwall.
BARRY, SALLY
Played by Shirley Eaton
Befriended by PC Potter in Constable, Sally is an attractive blonde whom Potter encounters while investigating a possible break-in at 35 Nathaniel Road. Upset, Sally had been visiting her fiancé’s family in Cornwall when she rowed with her beloved Eric.
BARTLETT, RICHARD
Role: Gunner Drury in England
Richard Bartlett, who’s semi-retired from the industry, spent many years performing on stage, while appearing sporadically on television and in films during the 1970s.
On the small screen he was seen in Robin’s Nest and Minder, as well as playing Nigel in 1977’s Follow Me and General Vishishmou in The Tomorrow People. Other film credits include Loving Feeling and The Pink Panther Strikes Again.
BASIC JAPANESE
The book, written by R. Morrison, is read by Francis Courtenay during an idle moment in Regardless.
BATT, BERT
Assistant Director on Teacher and Matron
Born in Islington, London, in 1930, Bert Batt entered the film industry straight from elementary school. Taking the advice of his father, he wrote to Gainsborough Studios, two miles down the road from where he lived, and within weeks was hired as a gofer, earning twenty-five shillings a week.
In 1946 he became a third assistant but his career was interrupted two years later by National Service. Back in civvies in 1950, he joined Pinewood Studios and completed ten years’ service under contract before going freelance. His long career has encompassed over seventy films, including True As A Turtle, Rockets Galore!, Make Mine Mink, Zulu, The Dirty Dozen, The Spiral Staircase, The Man Who Would Be King, The Sea Wolves and, in 1998, Les Misérables.
Batt has also worked in television, including the 1990 Jeeves and Wooster comedy series.
BATTLEAXE
Played by Judith Furse
Seen in Cabby, this aggressive woman – who’s a widow – is picked up by Charlie Hawkins in his taxi. As Charlie piles her suitcases into the car, it looks like she’s taking everything but the kitchen sink.
BAWDEN, JAMES
Camera Operator on Doctor, Up The Khyber, Camping, Again Doctor, Up the Jungle, Loving, At Your Convenience and Matron
James Bawden, who was born in the Scottish town of Motherwell in 1920, began working as a camera operator in the early 1950s on films such as The Long Memory, Desperate Moment and The Million Pound Note.
Apart from a period working on the popular cult television series The Avengers, he’s worked primarily in films with other credits including The Square Peg, Doctor in Love, Crooks Anonymous, Quest for Love, The Eagle Has Landed, The Wild Geese and, in 1982, Witness for the Prosecution.
BAXTER, JOE
Played by Ian Lavender
Goes on holiday to the Riverside Caravan Site with his wife, Norma, and her huge pet dog, Ollie, which is the bane of his life. Seen in Behind.
BAXTER, NORMA
Played by Adrienne Posta
With her frizzy blonde hairdo, Norma is the wife of Joe Baxter. Seen in Behind holidaying at the Riverside Caravan Site with her spouse and their huge pet dog, Ollie, who seems more important to her than Joe.
MEMORIES
‘First and foremost for me was Peter Rogers and Gerry Thomas, two of the nicest men you could wish to meet. The shooting was tough, a rigid budget and a six-week shoot with no overtime. It was non-stop but a continual laugh and some of the days were hysterical.
‘The cast were great. Kenneth Williams never stopped talking, much of it deliciously outrageous. One day, on Matron, he slipped off a rostrum and fell to the floor. Gladys Goldsmith, the continuity girl, sat puce at her typewriter as he regaled her, loudly as ever, with the pain he was suffering from his sexual organs that had found contact with the rostrum on his descent and what the consequences might be. It was utter rubbish, of course.
‘There were so many funny moments that they all blur into each other and it’s difficult after all these years to remember them. One other I recall was on Teacher. Ken Connor had to walk down a corridor, enter the science class, take the stopper off a large glass jar, sniff it and make a face. It was a tracking shot with a low camera, awkward for the camera operator, Alan Hume. We put a stink bomb in the jar and on the first take Alan was shaking so much with anticipatory laughter in his hunched position that he fell off the dolly. I think all of us who saw that can still see Ken’s face as he sniffed the jar.
‘I worked on so many films that unless you keep a list, which I never did, some of them get forgotten, but the one thing you don’t forget is having worked on the Carry Ons with the crazy cast.’
BERT BATT
BAYNTUN, AMELIA
Roles: Mrs Fussey in Camping, Corset Lady in Loving, Mrs Spragg in At Your Convenience, Mrs Jenkins in Matron and Mrs Tuttle in Abroad
A busy stage actress, Amelia Bayntun, born in 1919, also occasionally appeared on the screen. On television, her credits included Dixon of Dock Green, Adamant Lives!, On the Buses and her biggest role, two series as Ada Bissel in Thames Television’s Dear Mother … Love Albert.
She died in 1988, aged sixty-eight.
BBC NEWSCASTER
Played by Tim Brinton
During Emmannuelle he’s seen on the box reporting on the numerous affairs of Emmannuelle, the French Ambassador’s sex-mad wife.
BEACH PHOTOGRAPHER
Played by Alec Bregonzi
On Brighton Pier in At Your Convenience, the Beach Photographer is earning a living taking photos of happy tourists. (Note: the scene was cut.)
WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN
EXT. PHOTOGRAPHIC BOOTH. DAY
It has several of those stands with cut-outs to put the face through. Start with a C.S. of Vic, with his eye to a small camera, Myrtle standing bored beside him.
VIC: Hold it!
(And now we see his shot. The stand has a garish painting of a Caveman and a Cavewoman, the latter with large bare breasts. Bernie has his face above the Cavewoman and Popsy has hers above the Caveman.)
VIC: (OVER.) Lovely!
(A click. Bernie and Popsy come out from behind the cut-out, giggling. Bernie points over.)
BERNIE: Here, get a load of them.
(They look that way. This time the painting is of a man and woman in profile, holding hands with their face-slots placed close together. The woman has ridiculously large pert breasts sticking straight out and straining her bikini top. She also has a very pert bottom in a pair of tight red shorts. The man is ridiculously skinny and dressed in a bright blue striped blazer with a pair of shorts down to his knees. A man and a woman have their faces through the holes, and are smiling at the photographer.)
PHOTOGRAPHER: Thank you.
(The man and the woman come out from behind the screens and the joke is that they are dressed like and have exactly the same figures as the cartoon painting. Bernie, Vic and Popsy roar with laughter and even Myrtle has to smile.)
BEALE, JACK
The script for Nurse was based on an idea supplied by Jack Beale and Patrick Cargill, stemming from their stage play, Ring for Catty.
BEAMISH, LEONARD
Played by Ian Curry
Mr Beamish phones Togetherness Marriage Agency in Regardless. He wants a wife in time for a tea party he’s giving his aunt in two weeks so asks the agency for help. But a mix-up finds Delia King arriving at his doorstep, believing she’s been hired to do some housekeeping.
BEAN, MICHAEL
Played by Charles Hawtrey
The French and music teacher at Maudlin Street Secondary Modern School, Mr Bean is seen in Teacher. His other duties include organising and conducting the school orchestra, as well as writing the mournful tunes heard at the school’s annual play.
BEAN, MR
Played by Donald Bisset
A patient at the Long Hampton Hospital, Mr Bean, who’s hospitalised with a kidney stone, is seen in Again Doctor, talking to Dr Carver about his condition.
BEAR CREEK
When Big Heap announces inside Rumpo’s Place that there has been a gold strike at Bear Creek, the hostelry clears within seconds, which is just what the Indian wanted because he aims to pinch some liquor without being shot. It’s not long, though, before the would-be gold diggers realise there isn’t such a place as Bear Creek and head back to the bar. The fictitious place is mentioned in Cowboy.
BEAR PASS
The pass is mentioned in Cowboy and is situated near Stodge City and Sam Houston’s ranch.
BEARDED MAN IN AUDIENCE
Played by Ron Tarr
Seen in Girls this uncredited character is spotted laughing uncontrollably while watching the beauty contest fiasco.
BEASLEY, MRS
Played by Patricia Hayes
In Again Doctor this chatty, loud-speaking woman sees Dr Nookey in the outpatients department about constant ringing in her ears. Mrs Beasley, who’s a hypochondriac, is a regular at the hospital.
BEATIFIC ISLANDS
Sounds like a tropical paradise but far from it, as Dr Nookey and Dr Carver find out in Again Doctor. These far-flung islands are battered by hurricanes for three months of the year and drenched by rain for the remaining nine. Locals call their islands, ‘All rain and wind’. The rich widow, Ellen Moore, established a medical mission there in memory of her husband, who was cared for by the islanders.
BEAUMONT, SUSAN
Role: Frances James in Nurse
Born in London in 1936, Susan Beaumont, daughter of musical comedy actress Roma Beaumont and theatre producer Alfred Black, enrolled at RADA but left after just one term. She soon found employment in pantomime before going on to dance in a Norman Wisdom show at the London Palladium and in a Limelight show on television.
Upon being offered a Rank contract, aged nineteen, she became a leading lady in the 1950s, appearing in a clutch of films, such as Man of the Moment, Simon and Laura, Jumping for Joy, On the Run, No Safety Ahead, Innocent Sinners and The Man Who Liked Funerals.
BECK, JAMES
Role: Mr Roxby in Loving (Note: the scene was cut.)
Born in Islington, London, in 1929, James Beck – who’ll forever be remembered for playing the spiv, Private Walker, in Dad’s Army – graduated from art school and worked as a commercial artist until being called up for National Service.
Upon leaving military life, he pursued a career in the theatre, beginning as a student actor on one pound a week with a small repertory company in Ramsgate. Stints at various reps followed before he moved to London to further his career.
Soon he was appearing on stage and screen, with television credits including Fabian of the Yard, Coronation Street, Romany Jones (playing the lead role), Z Cars, The Troubleshooters, Counterstrike, Beggar My Neighbour, The Motorway Men, Here’s Harry and Taxi.
He died in 1973, aged forty-four.
‘BED OF THE CENTURY’
In Regardless, Sam Twist demonstrates the ‘Bed of the Century’ at the Ideal House Exhibition. Unfortunately it has a few teething problems and Twist gets into a right mess.
BED OF NAILS NATIVE
Played by Hugh Futcher
Seen in Algiers during Spying, he chides Simkins for treading on his bed of nails.
BEDSOP, JAMES
Played by Charles Hawtrey
A private enquiry agent hired in Loving by Sophie Bliss to keep an eye on Sidney, whom she suspects of having affairs with many of the female clients registered with the Wedded Bliss Agency.
Mr Bedsop begins his surveillance in the cocktail bar of the Parkway Hotel where Sophie believes Sidney is planning to meet Esme Crowfoot; he’s hardly subtle in his methods of work, though, making it blatantly obvious later that he’s following Sidney up the road.
He eventually finds himself under arrest: after donning an artificial beard as disguise, he follows Bliss into a public lavatory and begins acting suspiciously by getting down on his hands and knees and peeping under the cubicle doors. Chased out by the attendant, he tells a waiting policeman that he’s looking for a man, which doesn’t go down too well with the bobby.
BEEVERS, DIANA
Role: Penny Lee in Teacher
Born in London in 1944, Diana Beevers joined the Corona Academy at the age of eleven and was soon appearing in the BBC children’s television serial, The Thompson Family, as Susan Thompson, in the late 1950s. She enjoyed other screen work while at the Academy, lastly in Venture, an Associated Rediffusion production.
Upon leaving the Corona at fifteen she went straight into The Visit in the West End; in addition to furthering her acting career, she began studying for O and A-levels and finally, in the 1980s, earning a degree with the Open University.
During the 1960s and ’70s, Beevers appeared in a handful of television and film productions, including Public Eye, Within These Walls and Rumpole of the Bailey. She also had a running part in the ’60s series, Compact, playing Michelle Donnelly. On the big screen, she was seen as a WRNS officer in 1968’s Submarine X-1 and Disney’s Escape to the Dark.
Her last theatre appearance was in the Noël Coward trilogy, Tonight at Eight, in 1971, after which she left the profession to raise her daughter, thereafter only making the occasional television appearance. She returned in the 1980s and directed in various London fringe theatres.
In recent years she ran her own mail order company, selling classical CDs, but has since closed the business and returned to directing professional, amateur and youth theatre groups on the Isle of Wight, where she now resides.
BEHIND, CARRY ON
see feature box here.
BELCHER, BROTHER
Played by Peter Butterworth
Seen in Up The Khyber, Brother Belcher, a missionary, arrives in India’s Himalayan region to preach, claiming, ‘Sinners welcome with open arms’. When a guide is needed for a military operation across the border in Afghanistan, Belcher is blackmailed into taking the job.
BELL, JACK
Played by Leslie Phillips
In Nurse the likeable Jack Bell is admitted to Haven Hospital for a bunion operation. His admission couldn’t have come at a worse time because he was hoping to sneak away for a few days with his girlfriend, Meg, staying at private hotels along the coast. After his operation is cancelled, Jack – while under the influence of champagne his girlfriend sneaked in – asks fellow patient Oliver Reckitt to perform the op, but soon changes his mind when Reckitt and other patients play along with his request and he nearly ends up being put under the knife by a student studying nuclear physics.
BELLA VISTA
The name of the schooner in Again Doctor which sank off the Beatific Islands during a terrible storm. As reported by the Long Hampton Advertiser, one of the schooner’s passengers was Dr Carver, who was returning from the islands at the time. He was a lucky survivor.
BELLE
Played by Joan Sims
Belle, whose intimate friends call her ‘Ding-Dong’, is the respectable owner of Belle’s Place in Stodge City. Seen in Cowboy, she loses her establishment to the ruthless Rumpo Kid when he swaggers into town.
BELLE’S PLACE
A saloon-cum-hotel in Stodge City that is run by Belle until the Rumpo Kid saunters into town and gains control, turning it from a respectable meeting place into a gambling den where the beer flows, fights break out and dancing girls entertain. Seen in Cowboy.
BELLE PARISIENNE
The magazine Professor Tinkle reads in his tent during Up the Jungle while his assistant, Claude Chumley, goes birdwatching.
BELTON, PETE
A corn dealer in Stodge City. He’s not seen in Cowboy but his establishment is.
BENHAM, JOAN
Role: Cynical Lady in Emmannuelle
Born in London in 1918, Joan Benham is probably best known for playing Lady Prudence in the period drama, Upstairs, Downstairs, despite experiencing all media during her long career.
Other television credits included The Troubleshooters, Doctor On the Go, Doctor in Charge, The Duchess of Duke Street, The Sun Trap and Terry and June. On the big screen she was seen in, among others, The Man Who Loved Redheads, It’s Great to be Young, Child in the House, The Bridal Path and Murder Ahoy.
She died in 1981, aged sixty-two.
BENNETT, PETER
Role: Thief in Constable
Born in London in 1917, Peter Bennett appeared in small roles in several films, including Quatermass and the Pit and Lady Chatterley’s Lover, as well as the occasional meatier part, such as the Master of the Otter Hounds in Tarka the Otter.
His television credits ranged from Man in a Suitcase and The Buccaneers to William Tell and several appearances in the 1950s series, The Adventures of Robin Hood. He died in 1989, aged seventy-two.
BENNISON, BILL
Assistant Art Director on Abroad
Other productions Bill Bennison has worked on in the capacity of assistant art director are the films Cromwell and Bless This House, both during the 1970s, as well as The Man in the Iron Mask, a production for the small screen. Promoted to art director, his credits include 1982’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
BENNY
Played by Davy Kaye
The diminutive, cigar-puffing bookmaker has to restrict Sid Plummer’s bets when – with the help of his little budgie, Joey – he nearly bankrupts the bookie. Appears in At Your Convenience.
BENSON, PC STANLEY
Played by Kenneth Williams
A snooty young policeman who’s just graduated from police college when sent to help out at a station where the workforce is severely affected by the ravages of flu. A former Boy Scout, he regards himself as intellectual and an expert in criminology. Believing he can spot a criminal a mile off, he’s embarrassed on more than one occasion, including being taken in by Herbert Hall, the confidence trickster, and accusing a detective-sergeant in the CID of attempting to steal a car.
BENTLEY, MRS
Played by Juliet Harmer
In Matron, Mrs Bentley is informed by Dr Prodd that she’s pregnant before she admits that her husband isn’t the father. (Note: the scene was cut.)
WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN
INT. EXAMINATION ROOM. DAY
The doors open and another YOUNG WOMAN comes in.
PRODD: Ah, Mrs Bentley, isn’t it?
WOMAN: That’s right.
PRODD: Well, Mrs Bentley. (He now has her card.) Our suspicions have been confirmed. You are definitely and there’s no doubt about it, you are definitely a teeny, weeny bit pregnant.
WOMAN: Oh, dear.
PRODD: Aren’t you pleased?
WOMAN: I don’t know.
PRODD: It’s nothing to worry about, you know. And you don’t need to feel alone. We’re all with you, you know. We’re all in the same boat in this place. Like peas in a pod. All in the same pod, as you might say.
WOMAN: It’s not that. You’re all very kind, I’m sure. But …
PRODD: Why, if it will make you feel better you can have the father with you during the birth.
WOMAN: Oh, I don’t think that would be very wise.
PRODD: Why not?
WOMAN: I don’t think my husband would like him to be there.
PRODD: What? Oh.
WOMAN: Well thank you, Doctor. When do you want to see me again?
PRODD: Some time next week suit you?
WOMAN: Yes, fine.
PRODD: See you then. And … good luck.
WOMAN: Thanks.
(She goes. PRODD again speaks to the intercom.)
PRODD: Next, please.
BERKELEY NURSING HOME
Mentioned in Again Doctor, the wealthy Mrs Moore, a private patient of Dr Carver’s, convalesces at the nursing home after having her appendix removed.
BERKELEY NURSING HOME MATRON
Played by Faith Kent
Seen briefly in Again Doctor, the Matron employed at the Berkeley Nursing Home ushers Dr Carver along to Ellen Moore’s private room.
BERNARD, BROTHER
Played by Bernard Bresslaw
In Abroad, Bernard has just joined an Order, which was founded by St Cecilia, when he heads off to the Mediterranean resort of Elsbels with Wundatours. The Order he belongs to comprises missionaries, travelling the world doing good deeds, but Bernard realises it’s not the life for him when he falls in love with Marge while on the trip.
BESPECTACLED BUSINESS MAN
Played by Norman Mitchell
Seen in Cabby preparing to jump into a Speedee Taxi until a Glamcab pulls up nearby and he opts for the leggy lovely driver instead, leaving a disgruntled Speedee driver without a fare.
BEST, GLORIA
Roles: Funhouse Girl in Spying, Hand Maiden in Cleo and Bridget in Cowboy.
BEST, PETER
Dubbing Editor on Matron, Dick and Emmannuelle
Other films that the late Peter Best worked on include Kidnapped, Diamonds on Wheels, Tomorrow Never Comes, Nate and Hayes and Second Best.
BETTINA
Played by Barbara Windsor
When Henry VIII first sets eyes on the blonde Bettina at a do he’s arranged, he’s soon drooling over her. He’s in the middle of arrangements to annul his wedding to Queen Marie of Normandy and has his sights set on making Bettina his next bride. When he can’t wait any longer, he performs the marriage ceremony himself and prepares for his wedding night, but while he’s out of the bedroom Bettina, who’s the daughter of Charles, the Earl of Bristol, consults Balls Book of English Law to check the legitimacy of their marriage; Henry tries convincing her it’s all above board as he climbs into bed but she later learns the truth; it’s just as well she resisted his advances because she ends up being whisked off across the channel by Francis, the King of France, to become the country’s Queen. Seen in Henry.
BETTY
Played by Jackie Poole
In Camping, Betty is one of the girls from Chayste Place Finishing School who head for a summer break at the Paradise Camp in Devon.
BEVIS, FRANK
Production Manager on Sergeant, Nurse, Teacher, Constable, Cabby, Jack, Spying, Cleo and Cowboy. Associate producer on Screaming!
Born in Gosport, Hampshire, in 1907, into a naval family, Bevis was educated on HMS Conway, the cadet-training ship, before serving two years in the Royal Navy. After returning to civvy street, he was soon back at sea, working as a navigating officer for Canadian Pacific Steamships. He left the ocean wave behind in his early twenties and found work with a tin-canning company as a trainee production manager until being made redundant when the company was taken over.
He followed friends involved in crowd work in films and gradually forged a new career in the industry. Eventually switching to behind the camera, he gained experience via a host of jobs, including production manager on, among others, The October Man, Odd Man Out and The Way To The Stars. He progressed to associate producer and worked on several films in this capacity, including Cromwell and Nicholas and Alexandra, before retiring in 1980. He died in 2003.
BIDDLE, KEN
Played by Bernard Bresslaw
A patient in Fosdick Ward at the Borough County Hospital, Mr Biddle is seen in Doctor. He was originally admitted to have his appendix removed but fell off the operating table and hurt his leg, prolonging his stay. Falls in love with Mavis Winkle, a patient in Caffin Ward, while he’s hospitalised.
BIDE-A-WEE REST HOME
The home of Dr Olando Watt and his sister, Virula, is seen in Screaming!. It’s situated on Avery Avenue, in the middle of Hocombe Woods.
BIDET
Played by Gertan Klauber
One of the soldiers who arrives in England with Francis, the King of France. Seen in Henry.
CARRY ON BEHIND
A Peter Rogers production
Distributed through Fox / Rank Distribution Ltd
Released as an A certificate in 1975 in colour
Running time: 90 mins
CAST
PRODUCTION TEAM
Screenplay by Dave Freeman
Music composed and conducted by Eric Rogers
Production Manager: Roy Goddard
Art Director: Lionel Couch
Editor: Alfred Roome
Director of Photography: Ernest Steward BSC
Camera Operator: Neil Binney
Assistant Director: David Bracknell
Make-up: Geoffrey Rodway
Continuity: Marjorie Lavelly
Sound Recordists: Danny Daniel and Ken Barker
Hairdresser: Stella Rivers
Costume Design: Courtenay Elliott
Set Dresser: Charles Bishop
Dubbing Editor: Pat Foster
Titles: G.S.E. Ltd
Processed by Rank Film Laboratories
Assistant Editor: Jack Gardner
Caravans supplied by C I Caravans Limited
Producer: Peter Rogers
Director: Gerald Thomas
Elke Sommer and Gerald Thomas chat before filming
Let the cameras roll
The esteemed archaeologist, Professor Crump, is off on an archaeological dig to Templeton where a Roman encampment has been unearthed next to a caravan site. Assisting him on his dig are a group of eager students from the University of Kidburn and Professor Vooshka, an attractive woman whose mispronunciations of the English language are in danger of landing her in all sorts of trouble, especially when she greets everyone with the phrase, ‘How are your doings?’
Other people heading to this quiet corner of England include Fred Ramsden and his mate, Ernie Bragg, two middle-aged men who tell their wives they’re off on a fishing trip, but it’s birds – and not the feathery kind – rather than fish that Fred’s hoping to catch. Arthur Upmore, meanwhile, is looking forward to a break with his wife, Linda, until he discovers his nagging mother-in-law is joining them. But it’s not the mother-in-law who’ll be causing problems in the Baxters’ caravan, but their enormous dog.
Two late arrivals at the Riverside Caravan Site, which is normally restricted to caravans, are Sandra and Carol, two leggy girls who are hoping to camp. Although Major Leep, the site owner, points out no tents are allowed, he’s quick to bend the rules when Sandra shows a bit of thigh, claims she’s got a bad leg and will need it massaged later. Their cunning gets them through the gates and they pitch their tent next to Fred and Ernie’s caravan, who are soon eyeing them up.
In the Lipmores’ van, Arthur is already fed up to the back teeth with the moaning Daphne Barnes, his mother-in-law; he’s soon getting the blame for the expletives pouring out of the beak of Daphne’s myna bird, and is somewhat relieved when it later escapes from its cage. But Daphne becomes a changed woman when she stumbles across her ex-husband, Henry, who’s working at the site as an odd-job man. Now with nearly £20,000 in the bank, thanks to a win on the Pools, they rekindle their love after ten years apart.
A lack of progress on the girl front sees Fred and Ernie head for a pint at the local where they learn from the landlord that the caravan site is riddled with holes caused by Roman mining; they take little notice but their ignorace comes back to haunt them later.
To liven up the site, Major Leep is planning a cabaret evening and contacts a theatrical agent for a singer. When he interrupts the conversation to talk to his caretaker about paint stripper, the agent gets the wrong end of the stick and thinks he’s after a stripper. Everyone is shocked when the dancer arrives and starts her erotic act, but while the men are lapping it up, the women aren’t so pleased. When some decide to leave they find they’re stuck to the recently painted chairs, tearing their trousers and skirts in the process.
Before the holiday is over, the old Roman mines reveal themselves, swallowing the caravans, just as it’s time to go home.
MEMORIES
‘Some times I would dress the sets and other times just be on the floor as a standby, ready to do whatever was needed. I remember working on Behind and in the scene where Kenneth Williams and Elke Sommer are in a caravan that is leaking, I controlled the drips with the use of intravenous drip feeds, like you have in hospitals. We made little holes in the ceiling of the caravan and had the drips coming through.
‘In another film, I remember having to drop ice-cream down one of the actress’s cleavage. While standing on a lamp stand, hanging over her breasts with a pair of tongs holding a dollop of ice-cream, I waited for Gerald [Thomas] to say: “Action with the cornet”, at which point I dropped it straight down into her breasts. Working on the Carry Ons was certainly great fun.’
WALLY HILL – Standby Chargehand
BIDET, CITIZEN
Played by Peter Butterworth
Seen in Don’t Lose Your Head, Citizen Bidet is the assistant of Citizen Camembert, chief of the secret police. His incompetence drives Camembert mad at times as they set out to stop the Black Fingernail, alias Sir Rodney Ffing, from rescuing the aristocracy from the guillotine.
BIG HEAP
Played by Charles Hawtrey
Chief of a tribe of Indians in Cowboy, Big Heap is an accommodating, well-spoken man who agrees to help Rumpo Kid prevent the new marshal arriving at Stodge City by attacking the stagecoach he’s travelling in. The attack fails, though, when sharpshooter Annie Oakley, who’s also travelling in the coach, puts up strong resistance, shooting several Indians in the process.
BIGGER, FRANCIS
Played by Frankie Howerd
A charlatan spiritualist, Francis Bigger is a firm believer in positive thinking and preaches his message around the country. With his motto, ‘Learn to think the Bigger way’, he tries teaching the power of thinking is the way to health and happiness. Accompanied by his lifeless assistant, Chloe Gibson, he’s telling everyone that nothing will happen to them if they think positive, then falls off a stage and ends up in the Borough County Hospital with a bruised coccyx. When he mishears Dr Tinkle talking to Miss Gibson he thinks he’s only got days to live and deciding to make his loyal assistant happy for the last few days of his life, marries her, only to discover later, to his horror, that his days aren’t numbered at all. Seen in Doctor.
BILIUS
Played by David Davenport
Seen in Cleo, Bilius stands alongside Julius Caesar, acting as his bodyguard. Champion gladiator of Rome, he’s soon ousted from his position by Hengist Pod who’s classed as a hero after inadvertently stumbling across Bilius’s attempts to dispose of the Roman leader.
BILKINGTON RESEARCH ESTABLISHMENT
The top secret base in Spying where Professor Stark was developing a secret formula before being blown up while carrying out his duty.
BIND, CHARLIE
Played by Charles Hawtrey
One of the rather green agents who are sent to recover the top secret formula stolen by Milchmann for the detestable Dr Crow in Spying. His codename is Yellow Peril and his agent’s number, 00 – 0.
BINDER, LADY
Played by Elspeth March
Seen in Don’t Lose Your Head, Lady Binder congratulates Sir Rodney Ffing on the charity ball he’s organised at his home, Ffing Hall.
BINN, DR ARTHUR
Played by Kenneth Connor
Binn is the new ship’s doctor on the Happy Wanderer. Seen in Cruising, he joined the vessel from Consolidated Marmalade where he worked as the factory’s medical officer. Falls in love with Flo Castle, one of the passengers, and although his early advances are spurned, finally ties the knot with the blonde, despite his timidity.
BINNEY, NEIL
Camera Operator for Khyber location work on Up The Khyber, and Behind
Born in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, in 1931, Neil Binney followed his parents into the film industry (his father was a projectionist at Pinewood, his mother a wardrobe mistress) by working as a clapperboy on the 1946 Sydney Box-produced The Years Between.
After completing National Service – he served two years as a photographer in the RAF – he joined the London Studios of Technicolor, as assistant cameraman, and stayed ten years. Among the many films he worked on were Hollywood classics such as The Man Who Knew Too Much; he also spent time working in Italy.
He left Technicolor in the 1960s and turned freelance, clocking up numerous credits as a camera operator, including Billy Liar, This Sporting Life, The Vampire Lovers, On the Buses, Conan the Destroyer, Shanghai Surprise and A Fish Called Wanda. On television he was behind the camera for, among others, Minder and Space Precinct.
Charlie Bind (Charles Hawtrey) dons his cycling gear (Spying)
His final job was on the 1997 picture, Fierce Creatures, after which he retired from the profession.
BINNING, TANYA
Role: Virginia in Cleo
Born in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, in 1946, Tanya Binning was a successful model and television personality by the time she arrived in the UK. Although her early ambition was to be a florist, she was chosen for a part in the controversial 1962 film, Mondo Cane, leading to her rapid rise to top cover-girl for Australian magazines. A handful of other films followed, all produced in New Zealand, including Runaway, Don’t Let It Get You and Funny Things Happen Down Under.
BIRD, HARRY
Played by Roy Hines
In Teacher, Bird is one of the main culprits among the school kids who set out to cause havoc when a school inspector and a child psychiatrist visit Maudlin Street Secondary Modern School. He’s also interviewed by Mr Wakefield when he’s found out of bounds in the school’s storeroom.
BIRD OWNER
Played by Molly Weir
Seen in Regardless, the woman calls Helping Hands when she wants someone to look after her collection of birds. However, a mix-up sees Mike Weston, who was expecting to be working as a bouncer at a strip club, turn up by mistake.
‘BIRDS OF PARADISE, THE’
Played by Laraine Humphrys, Linda Hooks, Penny Irving and Eva Reuber-Staier
The girls entertain the patrons of the Old Cock Inn in Dick. The group is run by Madame Desiree, a Cockney by birth who’s adopted a French accent over the years.
BISHOP
Played by Derek Francis
Shares a train compartment with Terence Philpot in Loving. He can’t believe his ears when Philpot tells his friend, with whom he’s been staying, that his wife makes love beautifully. When he broaches the subject with Philpot, he’s much relieved to hear that Philpot was only thinking of his friend’s best interests because to tell him the truth, that he didn’t enjoy bedding his wife, might offend.
BISHOP, BERNIE
Played by Kenneth Connor
In the fourth round of an eliminating contest, boxer Bernie Bishop breaks his hand. He’s admitted to Haven Hospital in Nurse and faces the prospect of never fighting again. It looks as if his son, Jeremy, will be following in his father’s footsteps, though, because he’s already practising on the family cat.
BISHOP, CHARLES
Set Dresser on Dick and Behind
Charles Bishop, who’s now an art director, has built up a lengthy list of film and television credits. His television work covers productions such as Interpol Calling, The Persuaders! and The Champions, while his film credits include Nearly A Nasty Accident, Mystery Submarine, The Eagle Has Landed, Moonraker, Superman II, Supergirl, Return to Oz and Empire of the Sun.
BISHOP, JANE
Played by Susan Shaw
Boxer Bernie Bishop’s attractive wife is seen in Nurse, visiting her husband at Haven Hospital.
BISHOP, JEREMY
Played by Jeremy Connor
Seen in Nurse, Jeremy is Bernie Bishop’s little boy. He arrives at Haven Hospital the day his father is discharged, greeting him with a slap across the face.
BISSET, DONALD
Role: Patient in Again Doctor
Donald Bisset, born in London in 1911, was a veteran of stage and screen. His television work included appearances in Crane, Doctor Who, Doctor in the House, The Professionals, Pollyanna, Love for Lydia and The Old Curiosity Shop during the 1960s and ’70s. By this time, he’d already cut his teeth in films, having been cast in productions such as Murder in the Cathedral, Little Red Monkey, The Brain Machine, Up the Creek and The Headless Ghost.
He remained busy in the profession until his death in 1995, with later assignments seeing him play Mr Morgan in 1993’s The Black Velvet Gown, a manservant in The Hound of the Baskervilles and Trafford Simcox in Paradise Postponed. He was also a published children’s writer.
BLACK FINGERNAIL, THE
For ‘The Black Fingernail’ in Don’t Lose Your Head, see ‘Ffing, Sir Rodney’.
BLACKLER, GEORGE
Make-up designer on Nurse, Teacher, Constable, Regardless and Cruising
George Blackler began working as a make-up artist in the 1940s with such classics as The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, A Canterbury Tale and A Matter of Life and Death. He remained busy throughout the ’50s and ’60s, notching up a host of credits, ranging from The Long Memory, Above Us the Waves and A Town Like Alice to Follow A Star, Raising the Wind and A Pair of Briefs. His television work, meanwhile, included various episodes of The Avengers and The Saint.
He was still working in the industry during the 1970s on such films as Lust for a Vampire, Twins of Evil, The Satanic Rites of Dracula and Stand Up, Virgin Soldiers.
BLACKSMITH
Played by Tom Clegg
When the incompetent Marshall P. Knutt locks himself in his own cell in Cowboy, the blacksmith uses a crowbar to break open the door.
BLAIN, JOSEPHINE
Role: Hospitality Girl in Up The Khyber.
BLAKE, DENIS
Role: Rubbatiti in Screaming!
The late Denis Blake worked on various film and television productions during his career, including Casino Royale.
BLASTED OAK, THE
A local landmark on the London Road in the parish of Upper Dencher, it’s where Harriett tells Captain Fancey and Sergeant Strapp, of the Bow Street Runners, to meet Dick Turpin. Seen in Dick.
BLEZARD, JOHN
Art Director on Again Doctor
Born in Kendal in 1927, John Blezard graduated from the Old Vic Theatre School and initially worked in television. During the 1960s he started in films as art director on such pictures as The City of the Dead, Mary Had A Little, Reach for Glory, That Riviera Touch, When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth and Hoffman.
As a production designer his films include Firepower, The Wicked Lady and Bullseye!. Among the television productions he worked on in this capacity are The Adventures of Black Beauty, Peter the Great, Heidi and The Whipping Boy.
Most recently, he was assistant producer on Michael Winner’s 1999 production, Parting Shots.
BLISS, SIDNEY
Played by Sidney James
Co-owns the Wedded Bliss Agency with Sophie Bliss. Seen in Loving, Sidney and Sophie claim they’ve been happily married ten years but it’s all a front; their lies are for the benefit of the company – how can they run a successful marriage agency having never tied the knot themselves? The trouble is, Sidney Bliss is one for the girls and continually dismisses talk of getting married when Sophie raises the subject. The love of his life is Esme Crowfoot but she drops out of circulation when she becomes engaged to Gripper Burke. It’s only when a frustrated Sophie plans to leave the Wedded Bliss Agency for good that Sidney comes to his senses and realises he can’t manage without his long-term partner.
BLISS, SOPHIE
Played by Hattie Jacques
One half of the Wedded Bliss Agency, a marriage bureau run with her partner of ten years, Sidney Bliss. Seen in Loving, Sophie – whose real name is Sophie Plummet – and Sidney claim they’ve been happily married for a decade but it’s all a lie for the benefit of the company. The neglected Sophie Bliss ends up doing most of the donkey work around the office whilst Sidney goes off vetting all the attractive females who happen to walk through the door of their fourth-floor office.
When she can’t take any more, Sophie tries her luck with Mr Snooper, a bachelor working as a marriage guidance counsellor who’s told by his boss to find a wife if he wants to save his job, but it doesn’t work out; fortunately for her, Sidney realises how much he actually needs her in his business and personal life and they tie the knot in front of all the happy – or not so happy in most cases – couples they’ve united over the years.
BLOGGS, MURIEL
Played by Barbara Windsor
For Muriel Bloggs in Girls, see ‘Springs, Hope’.
BLONDE IN PUB
Played by Claire Davenport
Known as the Closet Queen of Camden Town because she can only make love standing up inside a closet, the corpulent blonde is seen in Emmannuelle during Leyland’s flashback sequence. She takes the chauffeur back to her flat in Mayfair and it isn’t long before they’re undressed and heading for the closet; even the return of the blonde’s drunk husband doesn’t deter them.
BLOOMER, SERGEANT MAJOR ‘TIGER’
Played by Windsor Davies
The loud-mouthed sergeant major, christened Tiger by his admirer, Private Ffoukes-Sharpe, shouts his way through England in a vain attempt to inject some order and discipline into experimental 1313 anti-aircraft battery.
BLUNT, EVELYN
Played by June Whitfield
Evelyn, who’s seen in Abroad, is a member of the party which travels to the Mediterranean resort of Elsbels with Wundatours Limited. It’s certainly a holiday to remember because she goes through a complete transformation, thanks to Georgio, the hotel barman, who makes her realise what she’s been missing over the years in her sexless marriage. Her constant henpecking and whinging disappear, much to the delight of her sexually frustrated hubby, Stanley. The Blunts have one daughter, though we learn nothing about her other than that she has many of her mother’s traits.
BLUNT, STANLEY
Played by Kenneth Connor
A member of the party which travels to Elsbels with Wundatours Limited in Abroad, Mr Blunt is henpecked and denied the carnal pleasures he expects from his marriage by a wife who thinks even the word ‘sex’ is vulgar let alone the actual activity. While away, he sees in Cora Flange everything he’d like his wife to be, but by the time the holiday comes to an end, he finds his own wife, Evelyn, is a changed woman, thanks to a little help from Georgio, the hotel barman.
BLUTHAL, JOHN
Roles: The Headwaiter in Spying, Corporal Clotski in Follow That Camel and the Royal Tailor in Henry
John Bluthal, born in Galicja, southeast Poland, in 1929, emigrated to Australia with his family in 1938, where he later studied at Melbourne University. He came to England in the mid-1950s, worked initially in theatre before television and film offers came his way.
Since the 1960s he’s been a regular on the screen. His film credits include The Mouse on the Moon; Doctor in Distress; Father Came Too!; Help!; Casino Royale; Doctor in Trouble; Digby, the Biggest Dog in the World; The Return of the Pink Panther; Superman III and, most recently, Love’s Brother.
On television, Bluthal, who frequently works in Australia, has been seen in, among others, Sykes, The Saint, The Goodies, Bergerac, Inspector Morse, It’s A Square World, Q5, The Pathfinders and Vicar of Dibley, playing Frank Pickle.
BOA, BRUCE
Role: US Ambassador in Emmannuelle
Forever remembered as Mr Hamilton, the American guest in classic sitcom Fawlty Towers, Bruce Boa was born in England in 1930 but raised in Calgary, Canada, where he later played professional football.
After moving to England in the 1950s he was soon appearing on television and screen, with television credits including Out of this World, The Avengers, Special Branch, The Champions, Dempsey and Makepeace and Kavanagh QC. In 1969 he had a running part in The Troubleshooters, playing Bill Douglas.
He appeared in various films, such as Man in the Moon, The Cherry Picker, The Omen, Superman, The Empire Strikes Back, Octopussy, Riders of the Storm, Full Metal Jacket and Screamers.
He died in 2004, aged seventy-three.
BOB
Played by Brian Osborne
A student from the University of Kidburn’s archaeological department who helps Professor Crump at the dig in Behind. While staying at the Riverside Caravan Site, next-door to where they’re digging, Bob and his mate befriend two girls, Carol and Sandra, who are camping.
BODDEY, MARTIN
Roles: 6th Specialist in Sergeant and Perkins in Nurse
Born in the Scottish town of Stirling in 1907, Martin Boddey was a busy character actor in film, television and theatre. On the big screen, where he was often seen playing policemen, his lengthy list of credits included Cage of Gold, Seven Days to Noon, The Franchise Affair, Laughter in Paradise, The Magic Box, Chain of Events, Girl in the Headlines and Tales from the Crypt.
On television, he was seen in shows such as The Troubleshooters, Brett, The Cheaters, The Champions, Dr Who, Ivanhoe and The Naked Civil Servant, his final job.
He died in 1975, aged sixty-eight.
BODKIN
Played by Bill Maynard
The barman at the Old Cock Inn, which is regularly frequented by local criminals, is seen in Dick.
BOGGINS, MAUDE
Played by Barbara Windsor
Maude Boggins is the real name of Goldie Locks, alias Melody Madder, the actress-cum-model who sets Dr Nookey’s pulse racing in Again Doctor.
BOGGLE AND LUGG
A firm of plumbing and sanitation engineers, whose company van is a grey Vauxhall, registration FVB 352D. The vehicle and the partners, Sid Boggle and Bernie Lugg, are seen in Camping.
BOGGLE, SID
Played by Sidney James
Seen in Camping, Sid Boggle is one half of Boggle and Lugg, plumbing and sanitation engineers. As well as workmates, Sid and Bernie Lugg are best friends; they date Joan Fussey and Anthea Meeks respectively but are frustrated at the progress they’re making towards the bedroom, so Sid suggests they visit a nudist camp, featured in a film at the local cinema. Unfortunately for Sid and Bernie, they pick the wrong site and end up in a mudpit in Devon. Possessing an eye for the girls, Sid becomes interested in the nubile Babs, who’s camping with other girls from the Chayste Place Finishing School, before eventually realising that Joan is the one for him.
BOGGS, LEWIS
Played by Richard O’Callaghan
William Boggs’s son who works at the family firm, W.C. Boggs and Son, manufacturers of quality toilet ware since 1870. Lewis, who’s impatient at times, feels that the company’s business philosophy is stuck in the nineteenth century. He’s desperate to modernise not just the company’s product range, such as selling bidets like its competitors, but attitudes of those working for the company, including his father’s. His approach, however, occasionally leaves much to be desired; still inexperienced in the field of work relations, he antagonises the union representative, Vic Plummer, and is to blame for some of the industrial disputes that have blighted the company for years.
Away from work, the sports-car-driving young executive (car registration VOP 436J) is smitten with Myrtle Plummer, the canteen girl who happens to be daughter of the works foreman; his determination in the race to secure a place in Myrtle’s heart eventually pays off when he buys a special marriage licence and they tie the knot.
BOGGS, WILLIAM C.
Played by Kenneth Williams
The managing director of W.C. Boggs and Son, makers of fine toilet ware. The company has been in the family since it was established in 1870, and heading it nowadays is William, supported by his son, Lewis. Their views on how the company should operate differ considerably, causing friction from time to time. While the forward-thinking Lewis wants the firm to keep up with the times, William prefers the cautious approach, sticking with the tried and tested styles and designs that have served the company well for years. Lewis eventually gets his way, though, over the long-disputed issue of whether Boggs should sell bidets in its range; but even with customers queueing up to order, William takes some convincing that it’s right for the firm’s image.
While he’s ably assisted in the office by the devoted Miss Withering, he conducts his personal life without the support of his wife, whom he refers to while testing a newly designed loo. He tells others attending the meeting during At Your Convenience how she had a terrible experience of what happens when a toilet cracks because it can’t take the weight.
BOITA, PETER
Editor on Sergeant and Emmannuelle
Born in London in 1924, Peter Boita completed his education at the Westminster City School and worked in a factory before joining the RAF in 1942. During his five years’ service he was posted to Singapore and Hong Kong.
Back on civvy street, a friend of his father’s landed Boita a job at Islington Studios, assisting the dubbing editor. When the studio closed, he moved to Shepherd’s Bush Studio and assisted film editor, Jimmy Needs, on a host of pictures, such as Jassy and Snowbound. He later followed Needs to Pinewood and continued working as his assistant until eventually branching out and working for other editors, including Gerald Thomas, who was responsible for giving Boita his big break.
When commissioned to direct a film, Circus Friends, for the Children’s Film Foundation, Boita was offered the chance to edit the picture, the first of many in a long and distinguished career. His credits include The Horsemasters and Third Man On the Mountain for Disney, The Duke Wore Jeans, The Traitors, Jane Eyre, Doctor in Trouble and The Jewel of the Nile. For television, he edited such productions as The Far Pavilions and Lace.
He died in 1997.
BOLTON, PETER
Assistant Director on Cabby, Spying, Cleo, Cowboy and Screaming!
Born in Bradford in 1914, Peter Bolton spent the lion’s share of his career as an assistant director, working variously on comedies, documentaries and dramas, primarily for the big screen. His credits in this medium include Hungry Hill, Sleeping Car to Trieste, Tottie True, A Day to Remember, Saint Joan, Left Right and Centre, The Big Job, A Severed Head and, in 1972, Pope Joan.
BOOKS
See here.
BOON, ERIC
Roles: Shorty in Constable and Second in Regardless
Born in Chatteris, Cambridgeshire, in 1920, Eric Boon reigned as British lightweight boxing champion between 1938–44. Just eighteen when crowned champion, Boon served in the RAF during the war and went on to box in Canada, Australia and America before retiring from the ring.
He made a handful of television and film appearances, including playing Clinker in 1944’s Champagne Charlie. He died in 1981, aged sixty-one.
BOOSEY, BILL
Played by Sid James
Bill ‘Rattlesnake’ Boosey leads the expedition into the African jungle in Up the Jungle. Not the bravest of men: upon hearing the drums of the infamous Nosha tribe reverberating around the jungle, he wants to head back, but Lady Bagley’s and Professor Tinkle’s insistence leaves him little option but to continue. When he later finds himself in the hands of the all-female Lubidubies tribe, he’s soon glad he continued with the expedition.
BOROUGH COUNTY HOSPITAL
The setting for Doctor, where the likes of Doctor Tinkle and Doctor Kilmore are employed.
BOROUGH COUNTY TIMES
A newspaper in Again Doctor carrying news of the mayhem Dr Nookey causes at the Long Hampton Hospital.
BORTHWICK HECK
A firm of estate agents based in Chiswick, London, whose ‘For Sale’ board is seen in Constable outside a property in Church Road where the criminals involved in a wages snatch dump their car.
BOTTOMLEY, MRS
An unseen character in Constable, Mrs Bottomley, who’s referred to as living at number twenty-four, asks the police to call around because she’s concerned about suspicious activities in the rear of her premises. Mentioned by Sergeant Wilkins, who asks one of the policemen to investigate.
BOURNE AND JONES
A milliner’s shop in Screaming!.
BOWLER
Played by Edmund Pegge
Seen in the opening scenes of Follow That Camel bowling to Captain Bagshaw at the cricket match.
BOY
Played by Larry Dann
In Teacher the bespectacled, sallow-faced boy puts his hand up in class because he’s desperate to use the loo, just when Alistair Grigg and Felicity Wheeler, two important visitors at the school, have popped in to the class to observe. He’s later seen pounding away at the drum in the school play.
BOY LOVER
Played by Mike Grady
For the ‘Boy Lover’ in Loving, see ‘Girl Lover’.
BRACKNELL, DAVID
Assistant Director on Follow That Camel, Loving, Henry, At Your Convenience, Abroad and Dick
David Bracknell has been working as an assistant director since the early 1960s, with credits including The Boys, Serena, A Shot in the Dark, Funeral in Berlin, Lust for a Vampire, Bless This House, Swallows and Amazons, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Murrow.
BRADLEY, C.
The unseen Second Assistant Purser on the Happy Wanderer in Cruising. His name is seen on the crew list.
BRADLEY, JOSIE
Role: Pianist in Loving
Josie Bradley’s other work includes an appearance as Freda in the 1947 film, The Mysterious Mr Nicholson, and Mildred Knottage in a 1969 episode of the television series Detective.
BRAGG, ERNIE
Played by Bernard Bresslaw
One of Sid Carter’s gang in Matron, the gormless Ernie Bragg was born on top of the number seventy-three bus in the middle of Brixton High Street.
BRAGG, ERNIE
Played by Jack Douglas
An electrician who holidays with his friend, Fred Ramsden, in Behind. When their respective wives decide on a break in a health farm, Fred persuades the easily-led Ernie to accompany him to the Riverside Caravan Site under the guise of a fishing trip. What Fred hopes they will catch, though, is a couple of birds – and not the feathery kind! They’re out of luck, although not through lack of trying, which is just as well because their wives eventually turn up at the camp site. Although they’d sent a telegram to inform their husbands of their arrival, the message never reached Fred and Ernie.
BRAGG, VERA
Played by Patricia Franklin
When her husband, Ernie, heads off in a caravan to the Riverside Caravan Site with his close friend, Fred Ramsden, Vera opts for a health farm with Fred’s wife, Sylvia. They eventually surprise their husbands by turning up at the caravan site unannounced. They had sent a telegram informing their husbands of their impending arrival, but the message never reached Fred and Ernie.
BRAKES, DAWN
Played by Margaret Nolan
The former Miss Dairy Queen is one of the contestants in the Miss Fircombe beauty contest in Girls. First seen sharing the same train compartment as Peter Potter, who’s also travelling to Fircombe to organise publicity for the event; just before the train moves out of the station the carriage jolts forward and Peter accidentally rips Dawn’s skimpy top, revealing her ample bosom, much to his fiancée’s disgust. A model by profession, she poses for dirty mags, and asks Lawrence, the rather green local photographer, to take some snaps of her naked on the beach.
BRAMBELL, WILFRID
Role: Mr Pullen in Again Doctor
Wilfrid Brambell, born in Dublin in 1912, will forever be remembered for his fine portrayal of Albert Steptoe in fifty-nine episodes of BBC’s classic sitcom. Brambell’s father worked in a brewery while his mother was an opera singer. His first performance was as a two-year-old entertaining wounded troops during the Great War.
Upon leaving school he worked as a cub reporter for The Irish Times during the day and part-time actor at the Abbey Theatre in the evenings. He later took the plunge and turned professional after securing a job at Dublin’s Gate Theatre.
During the Second World War he toured with ENSA, and afterwards appeared in numerous reps including Bristol, Bromley and Chesterfield, before working in the West End and on Broadway.
His television work included Life with the Lyons, the 1950s sci-fi series, The Quatermass Experiment and No Fixed Abode, while his film credits include The 39 Steps, The Three Lives of Thomasina, A Hard Day’s Night, Where the Bullets Fly and Holiday on the Buses.
He died in 1985.
BRAY, HENRY
Played by Brian Oulton
Bray is rather ostentatious with his claims of grandeur. During his stay at the Haven Hospital in Nurse, he tells fellow patients a pack of lies, such as owning a house on the expensive west side of the Common. It’s only when his wife, Rhoda, visits that we learn the truth, although Henry is constantly trying to shut her up in case she’s overheard.
BRAY, KEN
Stills Cameraman on England and Emmannuelle
Ken Bray’s other credits as a stills cameraman include the 1978 film, The Playbirds.
BRAY, RHODA
Played by Hilda Fenemore
Seen in Nurse, Rhoda visits her husband, Henry, while he’s recuperating at Haven Hospital, but spends the entire visiting period embarrassing her beloved who’s trying to make out he’s something he isn’t.
BRAYSHAW, DEBORAH
Role: French Buxom Blonde in Emmannuelle
An occasional actress during the 1970s, she was seen playing a technician in an episode of Doctor Who, as well as an episode of Special Branch. On the big screen, she appeared as a go-cart girl in Confessions from a Holiday Camp.
BREGONZI, ALEC
Role: 1st Storeman in Sergeant. (Note: Also played a Beach Photographer in At Your Convenience but the scene was cut.)
London-born Alec Bregonzi’s professional acting career began, like many of his contemporaries’, in repertory theatre in the mid-1950s. In venues at Farnham, York, Bromley and Leatherhead he learnt the ropes of the profession before West End opportunities came his way, including parts in Camino Real and understudying Ronnie Barker.
While his theatre career progressed, offers to appear on television came his way, including parts in the small-screen version of Hancock’s Half Hour. During the 1970s and ’80s, he worked with a host of comedians, including Cannon and Ball, Kenny Everett and Little and Large. Other credits during this period range from The Two Ronnies, Filthy Rich and Catflap and London’s Burning to The Barchester Chronicles, Great Expectations and The Recruiting Officer. For four years he read viewers’ letters on BBC’s Points of View, presented by Barry Took, which spawned a radio series, Joke by Joke. More recently, he supplied many voices for the 1990s animated children’s series, The Treacle People.
Bregonzi has also appeared in a handful of films, such as Face of a Stranger, Ricochet, Downfall from the Edgar Wallace series, and Revenge of the Pink Panther. Sadly, one of his best parts was in a French film, L’Etincelle, which has never been screened in Britain. He’s also done a lot of theatre work, including several plays for the Royal Shakespeare Company.
BRENNAN, J.
The unseen Second Officer on the Happy Wanderer in Cruising. His name is seen on the crew list.
MEMORIES
‘Alas, my memories of Carry On Sergeant are few and not happy ones. I was one of the storemen who had a little scene with most of the principals. Mine was with Gerald Campion, with whom I’d worked in a stage version of Billy Bunter at the Victoria Palace.
‘We rehearsed the scene in Sergeant, which was a two-shot, and as the director walked away Gerry told me to change position slightly, which would have meant he would be favoured more by the camera and my ear and nose would be more prominent than my face. Gerald Thomas overheard this and said: “We’ll do it exactly as rehearsed!” So we did. The scene was cut, though, probably at the last minute because my billing in the credits is much too good for an – ultimately – non-speaking character. I was very disappointed, as you can imagine, especially after the good credit and then just a glorified walk-on part.
‘Later, I played a beach photographer, where people put their heads through funny cut-outs, at Brighton in At Your Convenience. This time all of me ended on the cutting-room floor. I asked Peter Rogers at a Carry On do once why I was always cut and he said Eleanor Summerfield had suffered the same fate, only more so!’
ALEC BREGONZI
BRESSLAW, BERNARD
Roles: Little Heap in Cowboy, Sockett in Screaming!, Sheikh Abdul Abulbul in Follow That Camel, Ken Biddle in Doctor, Bunghit Din in Up The Khyber, Bernie Lugg in Camping, Upsidasi in Up the Jungle, Gripper Burke in Loving, Bernie Hulke in At Your Convenience, Ernie Bragg in Matron, Brother Bernard in Abroad, Peter Potter in Girls, Sir Roger Daley in Dick and Arthur Upmore in Behind
TV: Christmas (69), Christmas (70), What a Carry On!, Christmas (73), Under the Round Table, Short Knight, Long Daze, And In My Lady’s Chamber, Who Needs Kitchener? and Lamp Posts of the Empire
STAGE: London! and Wot a Carry On in Blackpool
Bernard Bresslaw was born in London in 1934. His mother, who was fascinated by the theatre, was keen for her son to become a tap dancer and enrolled him at local dancing classes, which didn’t last long.
While at school – he attended Coopers School, Mile End – his English master recognised Bresslaw’s love and talent for English Literature and drama and coached him ready for his drama entrance exam. He studied at RADA after winning one of two annual London County Council Awards, and was awarded the respected Emile Littler Award for Most Promising Actor.
After graduating, one of his first jobs was appearing as an Irish wrestler in MacRoary Whirl, a production staged by Laurence Olivier. He later asked Bresslaw to replace him in Home and Beauty, when Olivier was in need of a break.
Bresslaw was gaining valuable experience at various repertory theatres and as part of a touring company playing RAF camps, Borstals and even mental institutions, and before long he received offers to appear on television and in films. Credits on the big screen included Men of Sherwood Forest, Up in the World, Blood of the Vampire, Too Many Crooks, It’s All Happening, Up Pompeii and Krull, while on television he was seen in, among others, The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Vise, Danger Man, Arthur of the Britons, The Goodies, Sykes and, what he’s best remembered for on television, The Army Game. National Service as a driver-clerk in the Royal Army Service Corps had provided an insight into life in the services and he used it to good effect in the long-running series.
Playing Private Popplewell in the highly successful comedy series, The Army Game, propelled him to national prominence but saw him typecast in goofy roles, which continued throughout his time with the Carry On series. But Bernard, who was proud of his classical training, possessed the talent to turn his hand to any job he was offered, and was particularly proud of his time in, among others, Shakespeare’s Two Gentlemen of Verona and Much Ado About Nothing. It was whilst appearing at Regent’s Park in Taming of the Shrew, in 1993, that he collapsed and died, aged fifty-nine, after suffering a heart attack.
Although people will always remember him for his screen work, Bernard’s preferred medium was the theatre, and he never declined the chance to return to the stage.
MEMORIES
‘Bernard was such a gentle giant of a man. Very sweet-natured, very calm and everybody that knew him loved him. I met him at the London Palladium, just after he’d left The Army Game. I was dancing in the Royal Variety Show at the Palladium with the George Sanders Dancers, while Bernard was appearing in a sketch.
‘Like most actors he had periods of unemployment but, thank God, not many. There would only be a couple of weeks between jobs and he enjoyed a nice, steady career.
‘It was while he was performing in Taming of the Shrew at the Open Air Theatre in Regent’s Park that he died. It had been quite a stormy day and Bernard was sitting in the dressing room, enjoying a cup of tea, awaiting the weather reports. He suddenly turned to one of the cast and asked for a couple of Aspirin because he had a terrible headache – that was unusual for him. When the person turned round to give him the tablets, Bernard suddenly fell forward, the cup of tea falling out of his hand. That was it. By the time he arrived at the hospital he was dead. Only three months before he’d been declared perfectly fit, having had a thorough examination.
‘His first Carry On was Cowboy and he had a joke played on him. Bernie was scared of heights. He’d always say: “Considering I’m so tall myself, it’s a ridiculous thing to admit, but I do hate heights.” In Cowboy he played an Indian and had to go up a tree. Apparently it took quite a time to coax him up the tree. He said to Gerald Thomas: “You’re not going to leave me up there long, are you?” Gerald reassured him that they’d get him down as quickly as possible. He eventually perched himself on a high branch at which point Gerald said: “OK everybody, break for lunch.”
‘He enjoyed the Carry Ons. The roles that he played were many and varied. For example, Follow That Camel gave him the opportunity to get his teeth into a good character part.
‘When he came home from the studios he’d give me a blow-by-blow account of what had gone on and we’d sit there giggling. Joan Sims was the greatest giggler of the lot. When they were actually filming the television series, they were heading out to a location and Bernie was sitting next to Joan on the coach. She was reading the paper and there was a photograph of Tony Greig, the cricketer. She said to Bernie: “I love Tony Greig, he’s such a hunk.” Bernie replied: “Really, people tell me I look like Tony Greig.” Joan nearly wet herself laughing because he was the exact opposite.
‘When he came home he told me about it and said: “Tomorrow morning, get the cricket gear out because I’m going to turn up as a cricketer.” And he did, wearing a boy’s school cap and whites and carrying a bat. He’d agreed with the others that he’d arrive late for maximum impact. Everyone was sitting there when Bernie walked in and went straight up to Joan, saying: “Now can you see the resemblance?” She nearly fell off her chair.’
LIZ BRESSLAW – Bernard’s widow
BRIDE
Played by Marian Collins
Celebrates her honeymoon with a cruise on the Happy Wanderer. Seen in Cruising, occupying room 309.
BRIDE
Played by Marian Collins
Seen in Cabby, Charlie Hawkins takes newlyweds to the airport; by the time he arrives, they’re hugging and kissing in the back seat.
BRIDEGROOM
Played by Evan David
In Cruising, he’s seen celebrating his honeymoon with a cruise on the Happy Wanderer. Occupies room 309.
BRIDEGROOM
Played by Peter Byrne
Seen in Cabby, Charlie Hawkins takes newlyweds to the airport; by the time he arrives, they’re hugging and kissing in the back seat.
BRIDGET
Played by Gloria Best
One of the saloon girls seen at Rumpo’s Place in Cowboy.
BRIGADIER
Played by Peter Jones
The wisecracking brigadier is seen in England. After assigning Captain Melly the task of trying to instil some discipline into the experimental 1313 anti-aircraft battery, he later heads down to the base to see how Melly is managing.
BRIGGS, JOHNNY
Roles: Sporran Soldier in Up The Khyber, Plasterer in Behind and Melly’s Driver in England
TV: The Case of the Coughing Parrot
Johnny Briggs, born in London in 1935, is best known as Mike Baldwin in Coronation Street, a role he’s been playing since 1976, but his career stretches back to 1947 when, as a boy soprano, he was engaged at the Cambridge Theatre.
Aged twelve, he won a scholarship to the Italia Conti Stage School and, four years later, began working in rep before completing National Service. Returning to civvy street, his career took off and he became a regular screen actor, whose films have included Quartet, Helter Skelter, The Bulldog Breed, A Stitch in Time, 633 Squadron, Au Pair Girls and The Office Party.
Other television roles include playing Detective Sergeant Russell for two years in the long-running series, No Hiding Place.
BRINTON, TIM
Role: BBC Newscaster in Emmannuelle
Tim Brinton, born in London in 1929, left school and completed National Service in the army before training for the stage at the Central School of Drama where he gained the London University Diploma of Dramatic Art. Before finishing his course he was offered a post at the BBC as a general trainee, starting as a radio news reader/announcer but, later, progressing to become a television director/producer.
In the late 1950s he was seconded by the BBC to Radio Hong Kong as head of English programmes, followed by a spell as one of the early BBC television newsreaders at Alexandra Palace in 1959. He later transferred to ITN as a senior newscaster/reporter and presented other ITV shows, including the sports programme Let’s Go and ITN’s Roving Report.
He’s presented many commercials and was also the voice of short cinema films, such as Pathé Pictorial and Look At Life. Other work saw him host BBC Radio 2’s Roundabout and he was, briefly, a DJ on Radio Luxembourg. He’s coached executives of business and industry for TV and radio, and during the 1970s was media consultant to Conservative Central Office.
In 1979 he was elected MP for Gravesend, Kent, and became a member of the House of Commons Select Committee for Education, Science and the Arts. He left Parliament in 1987 to return to presentation and media coaching for business executives.
During the 1960s and ’70s he played newsreaders and interviewers in several films and television programmes, including The Avengers, Doctor in Charge and Dixon of Dock Green for the small screen and Information Received, Bunny Lake Is Missing and Man At The Top in films.
He retired from full-time work in 1998.
MEMORIES
‘I was but a small-bit player in Carry On Emmannuelle, going to the studios for an hour or so to film a piece of about twenty seconds in the role of a TV newscaster, which in reality I’d been between 1959 and 1962. To save on the budget, the director, Gerald Thomas, filmed me looking through the frame of a TV screen. Nowadays they do it electronically – or should I write digitally?’
TIM BRINTON
BRISTOL’S BOUNCING BABY FOOD
The model Goldie Locks was filming a commercial for the baby food company when she slipped at the Advertising Film Studios and badly bruised herself. Mentioned in Again Doctor.
BRODY, RONNIE
Roles: Little Man in Don’t Lose Your Head and Henry in Loving. (Note: was also cast to play the pier photographer in At Your Convenience but released from his contract. Alec Bregonzi was his replacement but scene eventually cut.)
TV: The Prisoner of Spenda and Under the Round Table
Bristolian Ronnie Brody, born in 1918, was the son of music hall artistes Bourne and Lester. He joined the Merchant Navy at fifteen before serving with the RAF in North Africa during the Second World War.
After demob he spent several years in Variety and rep but by the 1950s, his career was dominated by both the big and small screen. Over the years he became one of the most instantly recognisable comedy character actors in the business.
During his career he worked with many top comedians in shows such as Dave Allen at Large, The Dick Emery Show, Rising Damp, Bless This House, Home James, The Lenny Henry Show and The 19th Hole. Among the films he appeared in were Help!, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Superman III. Although often cast in comedy roles, he did occasionally appear in television dramas.
He died of a heart attack in 1991.
BROMLEY, SYDNEY
Role: Sam Houston in Cowboy
The bearded Sydney Bromley was a character actor who ran the gamut of roles on stage and screen for decades without ever being the leading man. He played over one hundred Shakespearian roles for numerous companies, and performed in venues around the world, including Broadway.
Born in London in 1909, he was only twelve when he appeared in Quality Street. Three years later, he was part of the original production of St Joan, with Sybil Thorndike, the beginning of a fruitful stage career.
He was cast in many top television shows, usually one-off roles, including Z Cars, The Pallisers, No Hiding Place, Dixon of Dock Green, as well as films such as Brief Encounter, Dark Road, A Date With A Dream, Operation Third Form, Half a Sixpence and Crystalstone.
He died in 1987, aged seventy-eight.
BROOK, OLGA
Continuity on Cleo
Olga Brook began working in continuity from the mid-1930s and was assigned to some memorable films. During a career lasting more than three decades, her film credits included Sleeping Car to Trieste, Morning Departure, Private’s Progress, The Green Man, I’m All Right Jack and Smokescreen.
BROOKING, JOHN
Role: 3rd Sealord in Jack
Supporting artist John Brooking, born in London in 1911, began a steady film and television career in the 1950s, appearing in such pictures as Innocents in Paris, The Gift Horse, The Two-Headed Spy, An Honourable Murder and The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner.
He was seen in various television programmes, such as The Vise, The Cheaters and Danger Man, and had a running part, Dr Stephen Brooks, in Emergency – Ward 10.
He died in 1966.
BROOKS, RAY
Role: Georgio in Abroad
Born in Brighton in 1939, Ray Brooks became an assistant stage manager at the age of sixteen and went on to appear many times in the West End in such productions as Snap and Absent Friends.
The voice behind the classic children’s character Mr Benn, Brooks’s other television work includes Gideon’s Way, Danger Man, Doomwatch, Coronation Street, Big Deal, Cathy Come Home, Growing Pains and the recent BBC series, Two Thousand Acres of Sky.
He began working in films in 1961’s Girl on a Roof, with other credits including The Last Grenade, Tiffany Jones and House of Whipcord.
BROOKS, SUSAN
Played by Zena Clifton
One of the beauty contestants eager to win the Miss Fircombe crown in Girls. A Scottish lass who embarrassingly slips on the catwalk when the event’s saboteurs, members of the Fircombe Women’s Lib Movement who are against the contest, pour slippery liquid over the stage.
BROWNE, DEREK
Camera Operator on Henry
Born in Kenton, Middlesex, in 1927, Derek Browne left school at fourteen and began his career in the film industry at Denham Studios, working as a clapper boy on 1944’s On Approval with Googie Withers and Clive Brook. Before he was called up for National Service, serving with the RAF in Palestine, he worked on and made an uncredited appearance in the 1940s classic, A Canterbury Tale.
He returned to civvy street and joined Pinewood in 1947, initially as a focus puller, but left after a year to work freelance, which he continued doing until retiring in the late 1990s after five decades in the business.
Promoted to camera operator in 1960, his first film in this capacity was Michael Powell’s The Queen’s Guards. Other credits include The Bedford Incident, Zeppelin, For the Love of Ada, Omen II, Trail of the Pink Panther, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Memphis Belle.
BROWN, HERBERT
Played by Norman Rossington
A dimwit in Sergeant who’s become part of the furniture around Heathercrest National Service Depot after failing to graduate from three different intakes. Just when it seems as if he’ll never have the aptitude to pass out, he receives additional tuition from James Bailey and steps in to replace a sick member of Able Platoon for their final day of tests. It may be a shock to everyone’s system but Brown joins up as a regular.
BROWN, MRS
Not seen at the Finisham Maternity Hospital in Matron but her specimen is! It’s collected by Nurse Ball from Dr Prodd’s consulting room.
BROWNING
Played by Brian Osborne
One of the Bow Street Runners in Dick.
BRUTUS
Played by Brian Oulton
Julius Caesar’s political ally is seen in the senate during Cleo.
BRYAN, DORA
Role: Norah in Sergeant
Born in Parbold, Lancashire, in 1923, Dora Bryan made her name playing character parts in British movies during the 1940s and ’50s, and for her long-running stage portrayal of Dolly Levi in the hit musical Hello, Dolly!, clocking up over 800 appearances in two years at Drury Lane.
Daughter of a director in a local cotton bobbin mill, she began her acting career at Oldham Repertory Theatre and by the time war was declared in 1939, she was leading lady. During hostilities, she joined ENSA, and made her West End debut shortly after.
By the 1950s she was a recognisable face on the screen, regularly cast as maids, waitresses, shop assistants and cooks in a host of films, including Once Upon A Dream, Adam and Evelyne, The Interrupted Journey, Something in the City, No Highway and The Fake. Excepting the role as Rita Tushingham’s sluttish mother in A Taste of Honey, which Bryan regarded as her most important and won her a BAFTA for Best Actress, typecasting meant the scope of screen roles offered was limited.
She continued to act on the stage in countless productions and has made frequent excursions onto the television screen, including roles in Last of the Summer Wine, Dinnerladies and Heartbeat.(Note: Bryan used to own the Clarges Hotel in Brighton, used as the location for the hotels in At Your Convenience and at Fircombe in Girls.)
BUCK, JANE
Continuity on Dick
Jane Buck began her career in continuity during the 1950s. Among the films she worked on over the years are Shadow of a Man, The Angry Hills, The Break, Clash By Night, Porridge, Chariots of Fire, Quartet and latterly, in 1983, Heat and Dust.
BULL, CAPTAIN
Played by David Lodge
The captain was unsuccessful in trying to instil discipline into the experimental mixed-sex anti-aircraft battery 1313 in England. He was eventually driven to the bottle by the antics of the rabble he tried in vain to lead, relinquishing command, much to his delight, to Captain Melly, who arrives with hopes and aspirations, many of which are quashed within days.
BULLOCK
Played by David Lodge
One of the Bow Street Runners in Dick.
BULSTRODE, MISS
An unseen patient mentioned in Again Doctor. She’s staying at Dr Nookey’s private clinic for the weight-loss treatment which has secured him fame and fortune.
BULSTRODE, MR
Played by Philip Stone
The bank manager in Convenience whom Boggs goes to see about a loan to fulfil the large bidet order. (Note: the scene was cut from the film.)
WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN
INT. BANK MANAGER’S OFFICE. DAY
C.S. of door, as Boggs is shown in.
CASHIER: Mr Boggs, sir.
(As Boggs comes in, carrying a briefcase, the manager gets up and comes into shot to greet him and we now see that it is the man who was in the football ground stand with a hearing aid. His name is Bulstrode and (like most bank managers these days) he treats his caller very warily at first.)
BULSTRODE: My dear Mr Boggs, how good to see you again. Do sit down, sit down.
BOGGS: Thank you, Mr Bulstrode. And how have you been?
BULSTRODE: Oh, not too bad. But you know how trying this business is these days. Credit squeezes … bank rate … overdrafts … it’s all very worrying.
BOGGS: Yes, yes, of course. In the circumstances, it must be a relief to know that it’s other people’s money you’re gambling with?
BULSTRODE: (Not sure about this.) Yes … well, and what can I do for you?
BOGGS: (Producing it.) I thought you’d like to see this contract we’ve just taken on. (Hands it over.) For nineteen thousand odd, as you’ll see …
BULSTRODE: Very good, Mr Boggs. Congratulations. This should put you well in credit again.
BOGGS: Thank you, Mr Bulstrode.
BULSTRODE: Yes, indeed. (Producing box.) A cigarette?
BOGGS: Thank you.
BULSTRODE: Just help yourself.
(Leaves open box in front of BOGGS and picks up telephone.)
BULSTRODE: Coffees please for myself and Mr Boggs.
(Replaces telephone.)
BULSTRODE: Well, this is very good news. Very good indeed.
BOGGS: I thought you’d be pleased.
BULSTRODE: I’m delighted, Mr Boggs. I don’t mind telling you I’ve always had complete confidence in the ability of your firm.
BOGGS: You’re too kind. Naturally there are one or two difficulties to be overcome yet.
BULSTRODE: (Getting wary again.) Yes?
BOGGS: As this is to be a completely new line for us, we’ll have to invest in new moulds and various other things which I won’t bother you with.
BULSTRODE: I understand, yes …
BOGGS: But a short term loan of … oh, fifteen hundred should cover it.
(BULSTRODE starts fiddling with his hearing aid.)
BULSTRODE: I don’t seem to be hearing you, Mr Boggs.
BOGGS: (Louder.) I shall require a short term loan of fifteen hundred pounds!
BULSTRODE: That’s what I thought you said! That’s quite impossible, Mr Boggs. You’re already in debt to us for too much as it is!
(He grabs the cigarette box, snaps lid shut and puts it back in his drawer.)
BULSTRODE: I cannot authorise any more. I hate to appear mean, Mr Boggs, but I’m sorry.
(And he picks up telephone again.)
BULSTRODE: Cancel that coffee!
BUMBLE, MAYOR FREDERICK
Played by Kenneth Connor
The mayor of Fircombe is seen in Girls. An ineffectual man who’s regarded as a joke around the streets of this seaside town, he’s booed off the stage while preparing to say a few words at the Miss Fircombe beauty contest. Married to Mildred, a slovenly woman who does little for his status in the town.
BUMBLE, MILDRED
Played by Patsy Rowlands
The frumpish wife of Frederick Bumble does little to improve her husband’s standing as mayor of Fircombe, a seaside town in desperate need of a makeover. A heavy smoker, who spends much of her time in the lavatory or slouching around in her slippers and dressing-gown, much to Frederick’s disgust, who classes her as an ‘old compost heap’. When she can’t take her husband’s pomposity any more, she joins Augusta Prodworthy’s women’s lib movement. Seen in Girls.
BUNG, DETECTIVE SERGEANT SIDNEY
Played by Harry H. Corbett
In charge of investigations into the disappearance of Doris Mann, the sixth woman to vanish from Hocombe Woods within the year. Unhappily married to Emily, he accepts any chance to return to work, and ends up leaving his wife to be looked after by Virula Watt, whom he meets while sorting out the Mann case. He appears in Screaming!
BUNG, EMILY
Played by Joan Sims
The miserable, nagging wife of Detective Sergeant Sidney Bung who ends up being turned into a mannequin in Screaming! Just to prove there was not the slightest whiff of romance left in their relationship, Sidney decided to leave her as a dummy when he had the chance to return her to normality, preferring the charms of Virula Watt instead.
BUNGHIT DIN
Played by Bernard Bresslaw
The leader of the Burpas who’s based in the hill town of Jacksi in Afghanistan. Seen in Up The Khyber causing confusion and mayhem for the men of the 3rd Foot and Mouth company.
BUNGHIT’S SERVANT
Played by David Spenser
As the Khasi and Bunghit are lounging, whilst Jelhi plays and sings in Up The Khyber, the servant enters and announces that the chiefs have arrived, opening their eyes to the fact that the ones they’ve been entertaining are impostors.
BUNN WARD
A ward in Finisham Maternity Hospital. Seen in Matron.
BUNNY WAITRESS
Played by Shirley Stelfox
Works at the Whippit Inn in At Your Convenience. While serving Lewis Boggs and Myrtle Plummer, who are dining out at the inn, Lewis doesn’t know where to look when she leans over in her low-cut bunny outfit.
BUREAU OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS
Based in Washington, the Commissioner of the Bureau is seen in Cowboy, initially enjoying a bit of fun with a woman in his office until interrupted by Perkins, his assistant. A former janitor at the law school Judge Burke attended, he responds to Burke’s request for a peace marshal at Stodge City but can’t find anyone to fill the position until Marshall P. Knutt walks in looking for a job. Assuming he’s actually a marshal, he packs him off to Stodge City.
BURGER, COMMANDANT
Played by Kenneth Williams
In charge of the Foreign Legion unit in Follow That Camel, Maximillion Burger used to teach fencing at a Viennese finishing school before donning the legion’s uniform. While working in Vienna he met and fell in love with Lady Jane Ponsonby; when their relationship ended he found solace in escaping city life for the openness of the Sahara. Can’t believe his eyes, though, when his old girlfriend turns up in the middle of the desert.
BURKE, GRIPPER
Played by Bernard Bresslaw
A professional wrestler who’s been fighting in America for years before returning home to his previous girlfriend, Esme Crowfoot. Seen in Loving, this man-mountain acts like an animal and isn’t to be messed around with, which Sidney Bliss – who fancied his chances with Esme before Gripper appeared on the scene – finds out. After rekindling their relationship, Gripper and Esme get engaged.
BURKE, JUDGE
Played by Kenneth Williams
An attorney by profession, Judge Burke is also mayor of Stodge City; he has strict views regarding how the place should be run, preventing impropriety by demanding no shooting, fighting, boozing, gambling and ‘no nothing’. His influence vanishes, though, the moment Johnny Finger, alias the Rumpo Kid, rides into town.
The Burke family has been resident in the area ever since his great-grandfather sailed to America on the Mayflower, married into the Wright family and became a ‘Wright Burke’. Seen in Cowboy.
BURKE, SIR EDMUND
Played by Derek Francis
The irascible chairman of the Borough County Hospital’s committee, he presides over Dr Kilmore’s disciplinary hearing in Doctor. He says he’s prepared to listen to Kilmore’s case fairly despite the young doctor having bumped into his Jag, but doesn’t seem to live up to his word when he quickly asks Kilmore if he’s a sex maniac.
BURPA AT DOOR-GRID
Played by Larry Taylor
Seen in Up The Khyber guarding the door at Bunghit Din’s house in Jacksi.
BURPA GUARD
Played by Steven Scott
In Up The Khyber, the Burpa Guard gets knocked out by Lady Joan Ruff-Diamond. Tasked with guarding the jailed British soldiers who tried to recover the embarrassing photo of the Devils in Skirts wearing underpants.
BURPA IN CROWD
Played by Patrick Westwood
Seen in Up The Khyber, the Burpa shouts from a crowd which has gathered to hear the Khasi of Kalabar’s cries of help in his planned uprising against the British. The Burpa isn’t confident that they could topple the Brits.
BURPA ON ROOFTOP
Played by John Hallam
Just as the Burpas prepare to attack the British governor’s residency in Up The Khyber, Bunghit Din and the Khasi of Kalabar hear music drifting through the air. Bunghit asks the Burpa what he can see and reports back that the British have sat for dinner, despite shells and bullets flying around them.
BURT
Played by George Mossman
For Burt in Cowboy, see ‘Stage Coach Driver’.
BURTON, LOUISE
Roles: Private Evans in England and Girl at Zoo in Emmannuelle
Brighton-born Louise Burton began acting professionally at the age of thirteen, working on commercials and a special Jackanory series. After studying at Italia Conti upon leaving school, she appeared on stage and screen, including The Dick Emery Show and Mind Your Language for television.
She quit acting in 1988 when her first child was born, at which point she’d been a regular for seven years on an afternoon show, That’s My Dog.
BURTON, PETER
Role: Hotel Manager in At Your Convenience Peter Burton, born in Bromley, Kent, in 1921, had been working on stage for several years when he entered the film industry in 1950’s prisoner-of-war title, The Wooden Horse. Other early credits include What the Butler Saw, The Tall Headlines, They Who Dare, The Green Scarf, The Long Arm and Sink the Bismarck!.
Burton appeared as Major Boothroyd (the character was later known as Q) in the first Bond movie, Dr No, in 1962, but when he was unavailable for the second film, From Russia With Love, Desmond Llewelyn replaced him. Other big screen credits include A Clockwork Orange, The Bitch, The Jigsaw Man and, his last film, The Doctor and the Devils.
On television he’s appeared in programmes ranging from The Avengers and The Saint to The Professionals and UFO.
BUS CONDUCTOR
Played by Anthony Sagar
The bus conductor is seen in Regardless refusing permission for Francis Courtenay to bring Yoki, a pet monkey he’s been asked to exercise, on the bus.
BUS CONDUCTOR
Played by Kenny Lynch
The Bus Conductor is seen climbing the steps of the double-decker in Loving. He asks for fares from Bertie Muffet and the young lovers who can’t stop kissing each other.
BUSINESS MAN
Played by Michael Nightingale
In Cabby, the Business Man enters the cab drivers’ café and asks if someone will take him to the Station Hotel. He’s more than happy to accept a ride from Anthea, one of the glamour girls from Glamcabs, even though protocol among the taxi-driving fraternity means one of the men, who’d been waiting longer for a customer, should have had the job.
BUSTI
Played by Alexandra Dane
One of the Khasi of Kalabar’s wives seen in Up The Khyber, Busti becomes a volunteer when the Fakir entertains.
BUTCHER, MAJOR
Played by Julian Holloway
Based at the experimental 1313 anti-aircraft battery and seen in England. Ably assisted by his nurse, he examines the long line of slackers who report to sick bay when the new unit commander, Captain Melly, gets tough with the men and women in the battery. His answer to every ailment reported is to dish out a couple of Aspirin and send them on their way.
BUTTERWORTH, PETER
Roles: Doc in Cowboy, Detective Constable Slobotham in Screaming!, Citizen Bidet in Don’t Lose Your Head, Simpson in Follow That Camel, Mr Smith in Doctor, Brother Belcher in Up The Khyber, Josh Fiddler in Camping, Shuffling Patient in Again Doctor, Sinister Client in Loving, Charles, Earl of Bristol in Henry, Pepe in Abroad, Admiral in Girls, Tom in Dick, Henry Barnes in Behind, Major Carstairs in England and Richmond in Emmannuelle
TV: Christmas (69), Christmas (72), What a Carry On!, Christmas (73), The Prisoner of Spenda, The Baron Outlook, The Sobbing Cavalier, The Case of the Screaming Winkles, The Case of the Coughing Parrot, Under the Round Table, Short Knight, Long Daze, And in My Lady’s Chamber and Lamp Posts of the Empire
STAGE: London! and Laughing
Peter Butterworth didn’t join the Carry On outfit until Peter Rogers and Co. headed west in Cowboy, the eleventh in the series, but quickly became one of the mainstays. His characterisations often possessed a diffidence and dithering nature, highlighted by his portrayal of Detective Constable Slobotham in Screaming! Far from assisting his superior, his incompetency simply compounds the lack of progress being made on the case of the missing Doris Mann.
Born in Bramhall, Greater Manchester, in 1919, Butterworth was approaching thirty before he turned to acting professionally. It looked as if a military career beckoned and when war broke out, he joined the Fleet Air Arm, but his flying days were shortlived when his plane was shot down off the Dutch coast in 1941 and he was taken to a POW camp where he spent the remaining war years.
Peter Butterworth appeared in 16 Carry On films
While at the camp he met a fellow prisoner, none other than writer Talbot Rothwell, who would help change his life for ever. They struck up a friendship and Rothwell cajoled Butterworth into taking part in a camp concert, the primary objective being to prevent the German soldiers from hearing the noise of fellow prisoners desperately trying to escape.
When the war ended, Butterworth returned to England and pursued an acting career. Before long he was appearing in summer shows, revues and repertory theatre, before branching out into television, initially in children’s programmes. As his career developed, he started being offered more than just comedy roles in shows such as Emergency – Ward 10, Public Eye and a 1964 episode of Danger Man.
As well as small-screen success, he was kept busy on the stage and from the late 1940s onwards, in films too, including Murder at the Windmill, Night and the City, Blow Your Own Trumpet, Murder She Said, A Home of Your Own and The Day the Earth Caught Fire.
Married to comedienne and impressionist Janet Brown, Butterworth died of a heart attack in 1979, shortly before he was due to appear in a matinee performance of Aladdin at the Coventry Theatre.
MEMORIES
‘The thing about Peter is that he was one of the few people in this theatrical world who never talked about his work; he never spoke about himself outside to other actors. I never saw him studying scripts, including the Carry Ons, but I know he loved the camaraderie on the films.’
JANET BROWN –
Peter Butterworth’s widow
BUXOM LASS
Played by Margaret Nolan
The buxom beauty is chased like an animal across the fields by Henry VIII and his men in Henry. When she hides in a barn, Henry follows and tries forcing himself on her until the girl’s father, who hates royalty, arrives on the scene.
BYRNE, PETER
Role: Bridegroom in Cabby
Born in London in 1928, Peter Byrne left school and worked in a theatrical agent’s office for several months while waiting for a place at the Italia Conti Stage School. He joined the drama school in 1944 but was soon working professionally, beginning with a propaganda documentary for Lewis Gilbert titled Sailors Do Care.
In 1945 he joined the Will Hay act on radio and, later, performed in the Jack Hylton revue, Crying Out Loud, before, in 1946, being called up for National Service. After leaving the army two years later, Byrne worked in various repertory theatres, including Farnham, Margate and Worthing, where he appeared in the stage adaptation of The Blue Lamp. He remained with the show when it moved to Blackpool and the West End.
Later, in 1955, he joined the cast of Dixon of Dock Green as Andy Crawford and stayed twenty years, by which time his character was a detective inspector. Other television credits include The Pattern of Marriage (his small-screen debut), The Jazz Age, Blake’s 7 and, lastly, Derek in the successful sitcom, Bread.
In films he played small parts in first features as well as meatier roles in second features but bowed out of this side of the business to concentrate on television and theatre. He’s appeared in numerous West End roles in such shows as There’s A Girl In My Soup, September Tide and, most recently, The Mousetrap, which he now directs.
MEMORIES
‘I did lots of bits and pieces for Peter Rogers and Gerald Thomas, including brief roles in Watch Your Stern, Raising the Wind and The Iron Maiden. I had a similar small part in Cabby, just a few lines, yet I receive fan mail – can you believe that?
‘I remember I was running from one set to another and got lost while driving over to the location near Pinewood. Eventually I turned up and we got on with the scene. I’d never met the girl [Marion Collins] who played my bride but we were introduced, went into the clinch, said “goodbye” and that was the last I saw of her – that’s showbusiness. It was very pleasant, though.
‘When I was in Raising the Wind, I was in a sequence involving the orchestra. Although it wasn’t a Carry On film there were a lot of the same faces, including Ken Williams and Leslie Phillips, and one of the press officers came in with a group of Japanese journalists. I couldn’t get over it because they treated Ken and Leslie as if they were Robert Redford and Cary Grant! They went absolutely barmy when they saw the pair of them. It was the first indication, in my view, how big they’d become worldwide.’
PETER BYRNE
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CAB DRIVER
Played by Hugh Futcher
Pulls up in his taxi during Again Doctor. He drops Gladstone Screwer off at Dr Nookey’s posh clinic but doesn’t expect to be paid in cigarettes!
CABBY
Played by Norman Mitchell
Seen in Screaming! driving Emily Bung and Mrs Parker around in his taxi when Emily, suspecting her husband of having an affair, wants to keep her beady eye on him.
CABBY, CARRY ON
see feature box here.
CADMAN, TOM
Stills Cameraman on Dick
CAESAR, JULIUS
Played by Kenneth Williams
In Cleo, the leader of the Roman Empire, or that’s what he likes to believe, is a weak-kneed individual hanging on to power by the skin of his teeth.
CAFÉ EL ZIGZIG
Seen in Spying, the café in Algiers is situated in the Street of A Thousand Artisans and where the British agents spot the Fat Man sitting outside wearing a fez.
CAFÉ MOZART
The café in Vienna where the British agent, Carstairs, arranges to meet Simkins and his team of trainee agents in Spying.
CAFÉ ZIGAZIG
Owned by Zig-Zig, this busy café is seen in Follow That Camel.
CAFFIN WARD
In Doctor, this is a women’s ward at the Borough County Hospital.
CAFFIN, YVONNE
Costume Designer on Constable, Spying, Doctor and Camping
Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1904, Yvonne Caffin trained at RADA and then worked in research at the Academy before entering the film industry before the war, working for Gaumont-British and Mayflower. She later joined Islington Studios and Rank, where she spent the lion’s share of her career.
Films she worked on over the years include Miranda, The Astonished Heart, The Browning Version, To Paris With Love, Hell Drivers, Doctor in Clover, A Night to Remember, Tiara Tahiti, The Big Job and, finally, The Executioner.
She died in 1985, aged eighty-one.
CAIN, SIMON
Roles: Short in Cowboy, Riff at Abdul’s Tent in Follow That Camel, Tea Orderly in Doctor, Bagpipe Soldier in Up The Khyber, X-Ray Man in Again Doctor and Barman in At Your Convenience
Born in Orpington, Kent, Simon Cain, while attending Banstead Residential School, volunteered to go to Australia at the age of eleven. At Kingsley Fairbridge Farm School in Western Australia he was taught about life in the outback. At sixteen, he set off on a six-year trip around Australia, moving between jobs, including sheep shearer and motorbike mechanic.
While living in Perth in 1960, earning a living selling television sets, he became interested in amateur dramatics and, later, moved to Sydney where he began appearing in small parts on stage and in films, as well as making the occasional commercial. Other offers soon came his way and he appeared in several episodes of the Australian television Western, Whiplash, and films such as Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, The Sundowners and Coast Watchers. Additional credits during the early 1960s included television adaptations of The Merchant of Venice and the stage plays Show Boat and Once Upon a Mattress.
He returned to England in 1964 and while working for Schweppes secured a part in a play for the Little Theatre Club at London’s St Martin’s Theatre, paving the way for a string of television roles in shows such as Gideon’s Way.
Other television work has seen him in shows such as Doctor Who, Ryan International, Manhunt and Doomwatch, while his film credits include The Blood Beast Terror, School for Love, The Chairman and, in 1969, The Most Dangerous Man in the World.
CAKE, FRANCIS
Played by Mavise Fyson
One of the beauty contestants seen in Girls.
CALPURNIA
Played by Joan Sims
The cantankerous wife of Julius Caesar is seen in Cleo, tired of being left at home while her husband roams the world conquering nations.
CAMEMBERT, CITIZEN
Played by Kenneth Williams
The most feared man in France, although it’s hard to see why, Citizen Camembert is chief of the secret police and is seen in Don’t Lose Your Head. The finest pistol shot in France, Camembert is a key player in the French Revolution, taking great pleasure in sending the aristocracy to the guillotine. When the Black Fingernail, alias Sir Rodney Ffing, arrives from England and causes havoc by saving people from the chop, Camembert is instructed to stop him at all costs, leading him to England in his pursuit.
CAMPING, CARRY ON
see feature box here,
CAMPION, GERALD
Role: Andy Galloway in Sergeant
Born in London in 1921, at the age of fifteen Campion trained at RADA before working for BBC radio and acting on the stage in shows such as French Without Tears and Goodbye Mr Chips.
He was posted to Kenya during World War Two, serving as an RAF wireless operator, after which he returned to England and, due to lack of acting work, opened a club, The Buckstone.
In 1952 he was offered the title role in the BBC series Billy Bunter of Greyfriars School, which ran for ten years and brought him widespread recognition. He went on to appear in, among others, Doctor Who, Minder, Sherlock Holmes and The Kenny Everett Show and accrued a number of film credits including School for Scoundrels, Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Half A Sixpence.
CARRY ON CABBY
An Anglo Amalgamated film
A Peter Rogers production
Distributed by the Rank Organisation
Based on an original idea by S.C. Green and R.M. Hills
Released as a U certificate in 1963 in black & white
Running time: 91 mins
CAST
PRODUCTION TEAM
Screenplay by Talbot Rothwell
Music composed and conducted by Eric Rogers
Associate Producer: Frank Bevis
Art Director: Jack Stephens
Editor: Archie Ludski
Director of Photography: Alan Hume BSC
Camera Operator: Godfrey Godar
Unit Manager: Donald Toms
Assistant Director: Peter Bolton
Sound Editor: Arthur Ridout
Sound Recordists: Bill Daniels and Gordon K. McCallum
Hairdressing: Biddy Chrystal
Make-up Artists: Geoffrey Rodway and Jim Hydes
Continuity: Penny Daniels
Costume Designer: Joan Ellacott
The Producers acknowledged the assistance of The London General Cab Co. Ltd and The Ford Motor Company Limited in the making of the film.
Producer: Peter Rogers
Director: Gerald Thomas
Charlie Hawkins has his work cut out training his new drivers
Flo (Esma Cannon) is prevented from earning a few extra pennies by Allbright (Norman Chappell)
Charlie Hawkins is the proud owner of Speedee Taxis, dedicating so much time to his work that his relationship with his wife, Peggy, who feels neglected and unloved, suffers. The final straw comes when Charlie, who’d forgotten their wedding anniversary until reminded by his wife, fails to arrive home in time to take her out for a meal. A last-minute cabbing job had turned into a nightmare, ferrying an expectant woman and her husband back and forth to the hospital.
Feeling increasingly depressed, coupled with the knowledge that her dream of starting a family and settling into a quiet country-cottage lifestyle seems increasingly remote, Peggy decides it’s time for revenge. Speedee Taxis have been unhindered by competition in the district since the company was established, so she forms a rival taxi firm and gives her uncaring husband a run for his money. After buying a fleet of new Ford Cortinas and employing a team of leggy lovelies to drive them, Glamcabs opens for business, without Charlie knowing that the driving force behind his competitor is none other than his own wife. Before long, the company is the most popular taxi firm in town, hitting Charlie Hawkins where it hurts the most – in his pocket. Customers, particularly men, opt for Glamcabs every time: new motors and attractive drivers have much more pulling power than crusty old men driving antiquated wrecks.
Charlie reaches for the bottle as business hits rock bottom; attempts to sabotage his rival’s vehicles and to pinch their business by intercepting their radio messages fail. Unable to muster any more ideas to see off Glamcabs, Charlie realises there is no option but to reluctantly meet Mrs Glam and discuss a merger, but nothing prepares him for the shock when he discovers that Mrs Glam is none other than his wife.
It looks as if irreparable damage has been done to the Hawkins’s marriage, but when Peggy and her closest friend, Sally, run into trouble, it’s Charlie who comes to the rescue. While the girls are heading for the bank with their takings, two crooks jump in their Glamcab and force them at gunpoint to drive out of town; with their lives in peril, Charlie coordinates a bold rescue using his fleet of taxis. After eventually catching the criminals and freeing his beloved, Charlie receives further good news when he hears he’s going to be a father.
Flo (Esma Cannon) and Peggy (Hattie Jacques) consult (Cabby)
His screen work was also combined with a fruitful career as a hotelier, restaurateur and club owner. He retired eleven years before his death in 2002, aged eighty-one.
CAMPLING, DAVID
Dubbing Editor on Doctor
Working in films as a sound editor from the mid-1960s, David Campling’s credits include films such as The Magnificent Two, To Catch A Spy, The Terminator, Platoon!, A Tiger’s Tale, The Bounty Hunter, Thieves of Fortune, Flamingo Dreams and Wild Turkey.
His television work covers programmes such as Knot’s Landing: Back to the Cul-de-Sac, a mini-series revisiting the successful American show, and many films specially for the genre.
CANNON, ESMA
Roles: Deaf Old Lady in Constable; Miss Cooling in Regardless, Bridget Madderley in Cruising and Flo Sims in Cabby
Born in Sydney, Australia, in 1896, the diminutive Esma Cannon, who was adept at playing twitchy, nervous, forgetful spinsters and maids, travelled to England in the early 1930s to pursue an acting career.
Beginning in theatre, she entered films in the late 1930s with productions such as The £5 Man, The Last Adventurers and Ladies in Love. She took a seven-year break from acting, due to a shortage of suitable parts on offer, and worked in stage management.
In just under three decades she clocked up over sixty films, including Contraband, Quiet Wedding, Asking for Trouble, A Canterbury Tale, Jassy, Here Come the Huggetts, Out of the Clouds, Nurse On Wheels and her last film, in 1963, Hide and Seek. She appeared infrequently on the small screen, her most notable role being Lily in the 1960s comedy, The Rag Trade.
She died in 1972, aged seventy-six.
CAPTAIN HOOK
The cheeky parrot is owned by the Bird Owner in Regardless.
CAPTAIN OF SOLDIERS
Played by Richard Shaw
Seen in Don’t Lose Your Head, the Captain is instructed by Citizen Camembert to guard Jacqueline night and day.
CAR SALESMAN
Played by Peter Jesson
The salesman at Peacocks of Balham sells fifteen Ford Cortinas to Peggy Hawkins when she launches the Glamcab taxi business.
CARDEW, JANE
Role: Henry’s 2nd Wife in Henry(Note: scene was cut.)
Born in Redhill, Surrey, in 1944, Jane Cardew left school and headed for Paris to study French at college before returning to England in 1966 and starting a career in the theatre, initially as an acting assistant stage manager at Hornchurch Rep. She completed summer seasons and worked as stage manager at Chichester Festival Theatre and three years at the Greenwich Theatre. Later, she worked as stage manager for various opera companies.
During her twenties she accepted modelling assignments between acting jobs, and later in her career television and film roles came her way including episodes of Jason King and The Bill.
She retired from acting in 1983 to look after her children but now works as a freelance proof reader and copy editor.
CARGILL, PATRICK
Roles: Raffish Customer in Regardless and Spanish Governor in Jack. Also, the script for Nurse was based on an idea submitted by Cargill and Jack Beale
Born in London in 1918, Patrick Cargill trained at Sandhurst for a military career and went to India to work as an officer in the Indian Army before returning to England to pursue an acting career.
During World War Two he travelled again to India, this time as an entertainments officer after which, back in Britain, he acted in repertory theatre and wrote plays and scripts, staging comedies including Time On Their Hands and Ring for Catty in the mid-1950s.
In the 1960s, Patrick moved into roles in television and film, with parts in television programmes Top Secret, The Avengers, The Prisoner and The Georges Feydeau Farces and then his own comedy show Father, Dear Father which ran for six years and was followed by another successful show The Many Wives of Patrick.
His film credits included Around the World in Eighty Days, Up the Creek, the Beatles’ film Help, A Countess from Hong Kong, Up Pompeii and Barnet.
During the 1980s and ’90s, Cargill, who still acted occasionally in the West End alongside his screen work, returned to the stage wholeheartedly, performing in productions such as Key For Two, HMS Pinafore and Captain Beaky and writing and touring with the play Don’t Misunderstand Me.
He died in 1996, aged seventy-seven.
CARLIN, JOHN
Roles: Officer in England and French Parson in Emmannuelle
TV: The Baron Outlook, Orgy and Bess, One in the Eye for Harold, The Nine Old Cobblers, The Case of the Screaming Winkles and Lamp Posts of the Empire
John Carlin, now retired, worked in television and films from the 1950s, appearing in shows such as Dixon of Dock Green, The Troubleshooters, Hadleigh and Nanny. He had semi-regular roles as the barman in Man About the House, the House of Commons Speaker in The New Statesman and Reverend Spink in The Darling Buds of May. His film work includes the 1977 production, Holocaust 2000.
The Spanish Governor (Patrick Cargill) has his hands full (Jack)
CAROL
Played by Sherrie Hewson
In Behind she arrives at the Riverside Caravan Site by bike with her friend, Sandra. They hoped to camp at the site but are disappointed to find only caravans are allowed, that is until Sandra shows a bit of leg to the owner, Major Leep, and suggests she might need a massage later to aid her aching leg; the sight of flesh sees the Major bending the rules to accommodate the girls. Others who take a fancy to the girls include Fred and Ernie, two middle-aged men enjoying a short break away from their wives, but the girls are more interested in the students from the University of Kidburn who are helping Professor Crump with his archaeological dig.
CARON, SANDRA
Role: Fanny in Camping
Sister of popular British singer Alma Cogan, actress Sandra Caron has worked both sides of the Atlantic during a career which began on stage. She entered television in the 1950s and appeared in various programmes, including Dixon of Dock Green and Suspense. In the ’70s she was seen in America working on shows such as Charlie’s Angels and The Odd Couple, but her longest-running role saw her playing Mumsie/Auntie Sabrina for three years in Channel 4’s The Crystal Maze. One of her more recent jobs was playing a farmer’s wife in the 1992 TV movie, To Be the Best.
Her film career, which started in the late 1950s, includes credits such as Sea Wife; The Leather Boys; The Bliss of Mrs Blossom; Digby, the Biggest Dog in the World and The Dicktator.
CARRIER
Played by Jim Dale
In Jack, the Carrier takes Midshipman Poop-Decker to the docks in Plymouth; he also recommends visiting Dirty Dick’s if Poop-Decker is in need of entertainment.
CARROLL, EDWINA
Role: Nerda in Up the Jungle
Edwina Carroll entered films and television in the 1950s. Her TV work includes appearances in White Hunter, The Troubleshooters, Department S, Paul Temple and UFO. On the big screen, she’s been seen in films such as A Town Like Alice, Yesterday’s Enemy, Genghis Khan and 2001: A Space Odyssey.
CARRYOONS, THE
In production at the time of writing, the idea behind the Carryoons was conceived in 1999 when Ken Burns approached Peter Rogers with an idea to produce twenty-six half-hour cartoons based around the legendary characters in the films. With Rogers’ backing, Burns – who’d edited ITV’s documentary, What’s A Carry On?, celebrating forty years of the film canon – began working on a pilot episode. Although the idea wasn’t to remake the films, it was agreed to kick-off by basing the pilot around a familiar premise – Camping.
Once the pilot, titled Carryoon Camping, was complete, it was taken to the MIP COM 2001, Europe’s biggest TV market, in Cannes to try and attract interest from within the industry. Although, as yet, the pilot has yet to be transmitted, further episodes in the series are currently being made.
CARSON, MR
The unseen headmaster at Maudlin Street Secondary Modern School. While he’s absent from the school, his deputy, Mr Wakefield, steps into the breach. His name is mentioned in Teacher.
CARSTAIRS
Played by Jim Dale
In Spying, Carstairs is the Vienna-based agent who sends a coded message to the Director of Security Operations explaining that Milchmann, a wanted man since blowing up Professor Stark and stealing a secret formula, has arrived in the city. Carstairs later follows him to Algiers but attempts to retrieve the formula are foiled by the bumbling Simkins and his team.
CARRY ON CAMPING
Alternative title … Let Sleeping Bags Lie
A Peter Rogers production
Distributed through Rank Organisation
Released as an A certificate in 1969 in colour
Running time: 88 mins
CAST
PRODUCTION TEAM
Screenplay by Talbot Rothwell
Music composed and conducted by Eric Rogers
Production Manager: Jack Swinburne
Art Director: Lionel Couch
Editor: Alfred Roome
Director of Photography: Ernest Steward BSC
Assistant Editor: Jack Gardner
Camera Operator: James Bawden
Assistant Director: Jack Causey
Continuity: Doreen Dernley
Sound Recordists: Bill Daniels and Ken Barker
Make-up: Geoffrey Rodway
Hairdresser: Stella Rivers
Costume Designer: Yvonne Caffin
Dubbing Editor: Colin Miller
Title sketches by ‘Larry’
Producer: Peter Rogers
Director: Gerald Thomas
Charles Hawtrey on set with his mother
Sid Boggle and Bernie Lugg take their girlfriends, Joan and Anthea, to the cinema to watch a film about nudists at a holiday camp; the girls are not amused and find the film offensive but it doesn’t stop Sid and Bernie secretly planning to take them there on holiday.
They decide the best course of action is to remain tight-lipped about the destination chosen for the camping holiday, but by the time they arrive at the site in Devon, the girls have twigged where they’ve heard the name Paradise Camp and want to head home; but after driving for hours, Sid tells them they’re going in. He’s soon disappointed, though, when everyone is walking around fully-clothed and he realises he’s picked the wrong site.
Other campers at the site include the Potters, who arrive on their tandem for yet another stint in the muddy fields of Paradise, much to the reluctance of Peter, who’s not only fed up with camping but with his wife, too. Charlie Muggins, meanwhile, is an irritant who’s forever scrounging off fellow campers, while a coachload of girls from Chayste Place, a finishing school, bring smiles to the faces of Sid Boggins and Bernie Lugg, who feel they’re not making much progress with their girlfriends. They begin flirting with Babs and Fanny, but attempts to lure them into their tents are continually scuppered.
Meanwhile, Peter Potter becomes a changed man. After turning to the bottle through sheer frustration with life, a chance encounter sees him invited to the tent of the promiscuous Jane, one of the schoolgirls; the experience works wonders and he asserts himself on his domineering wife; after throwing Charlie Muggins out of the tent, which he’s been sharing since arriving at the camp site, he drags his wife inside for a bit of nooky.
Kenneth Williams was a crucial part of the Carry Ons
Sid (Sid James) and Jim (Julian Holloway) don hippy gear and wreak havoc with the electrics
Over in Sid and Bernie’s tent, they’re waiting for Babs and Fanny to arrive, but when loud music is heard in the adjoining field, they rush to investigate and find the girls enjoying themselves at an all-nite rave. Eventually the campers drive the hippies away, but the girls go, too. Sid and Bernie, however, realise they don’t need Babs and Fanny when they’ve got Joan and Anthea, but first they have to deal with the arrival of Mrs Fussey, who’s worried about her daughter’s well-being.
CARSTAIRS, MAJOR
Played by Peter Butterworth
Accompanies the Brigadier when he visits the experimental 1313 anti-aircraft battery to see how Captain Melly, who’s recently taken charge of the base in England, is surviving.
CARTER, CYRIL
Played by Kenneth Cope
Cyril, who’s seen in Matron, was only six when his mother, Gertie, died. He promised her he’d follow in his father’s footsteps by becoming a small-time crook, but later claims he hardly knew what he wanted from life at that stage because he was only a kid. When offered a job in insurance, he seriously considers accepting until his father makes him feel guilty about breaking the promise made to his mother.
When his father believes he can earn a packet selling the Pill abroad, Cyril reluctantly agrees to don a nurse’s outfit and pretend to be a student at the Finisham Maternity Hospital in order to find plans of the building. Whilst there, he rooms with Susan Ball, a nurse who eventually realises what he’s up to. When the plan fails, he decides to settle down with Susan and quit his life of crime.
CARTER, GERTIE
Gertie died when her son, Cyril, was just six. Her name is mentioned by Sid, her husband, in Matron when he’s trying to persuade Cyril to help with a job involving stealing pills from Finisham Maternity Hospital.
CARTER, PRIVATE
Played by Barbara Hampshire
Based at the experimental 1313 anti-aircraft battery featured in England, she’s one of the shirkers who suffers a severe shock to the system when the tough-speaking Captain Melly is placed in charge of the unit.
CARTER, SID
Played by Sidney James
Leader of a small group of criminals who decides to steal contraceptive pills from Finisham Maternity Hospital and sell them overseas. Sid, who’s seen in Matron, has been a widower since the death of his wife, Gertie. Their son, Cyril, is a reluctant member of Sid’s gang.
CARVER, DR FREDERICK
Played by Kenneth Williams
A top surgeon in Again Doctor who’s employed at the Long Hampton Hospital. Rather haughty, he longs for a private clinic of his own and dreams of one day running the Frederick Carver Foundation, where he can milk his rich private patients of all their money. He deviously turns his attention to Ellen Moore, a lonely widow who’s swimming in money, to finance his dream; the trouble is, she’s looking for more than just a business partnership. Inexperienced in matters of courtship, Carver turns to the sex-mad Dr Nookey for help with some chat-up lines ready for the hospital’s grand buffet and dance, but the evening is anything but a success for Carver in his pursuit of Moore’s purse.
To satisfy Mrs Moore, Carver finds an ideal candidate – Dr Nookey – to take up the post of doctor at her medical mission in the distant Beatific Islands, but when Gladstone Screwer, the mission orderly, later reports that Nookey is failing in his duty, Carver placates Ellen by agreeing to visit the islands and establish what’s going on; in doing so, he nearly loses his life when the schooner, Bella Vista, founders off the islands during a torrential storm. By the time he returns home, life has moved on and Mrs Moore is in partnership with none other than Dr Nookey, who’s rolling in dosh since returning from the Beatific Islands with a cure for obesity, earning him millions.
At first jealous, Carver dreams up an idea, utilising his colleague Dr Stoppidge in disguise as a woman, to unearth the actual ingredients of the serum used by Nookey at his clinic. His plans backfire big-time but it’s not long before he’s a partner in the Moore-Nookey-Gladstone-Carver Clinic offering not just a miracle cure for obesity but sex change treatment, too.
CASLEY, ALAN
Role: Kindly Seaman in Cruising
Alan Casley’s other screen credits saw him play a barman in a 1962 episode of The Avengers.
CASTLE, FLO
Played by Dilys Laye
A passenger on the Happy Wanderer in Cruising. She’s on the cruise with her friend, Glad Trimble, and is hoping, with her mate’s help, to net a husband. She hopes it will be the ship’s PT instructor, Mr Jenkins, but knows that is wishful thinking. Eventually she falls in love with the vessel’s doctor, Arthur Binn.
CASTLE, ROY
Role: Captain Keene in Up The Khyber
The multi-talented Roy Castle, son of an insurance agent, was born in Scholes, West Yorkshire, in 1932. He harboured dreams of playing cricket for Yorkshire, but gave them up for a career in entertainment, initially learning to dance and play instruments.
After completing national service in the RAF, he tried his luck as an entertainer, joining a musical troupe of clowns. He moved on to work with Jimmy Clitheroe and Jimmy James, both popular performers from the era, before going it alone and entertaining at music halls, primarily on the northern club circuit.
By the 1960s, Castle was regarded as one of the nation’s top all-round entertainers. He also did occasional acting, appearing on Broadway in Pickwick and, later, at the Palladium in Singing in the Rain. On the big screen he was seen in, among others, Dr Who and the Daleks and Dr Terror’s House of Horrors, while on television his credits included The Roy Castle Show and Record Breakers.
In 1992 he was diagnosed with lung cancer, despite never having smoked. He died in 1994, aged sixty-two.
CAUSEY, JACK
Assistant Director on Regardless, Cruising, Don’t Lose Your Head, Camping, Up the Jungle, Girls and England
Jack Causey began working as an assistant director in the 1950s on films such as Innocents in Paris, The Captain’s Paradise, Third Party Risk, Conflict of Wings, The Baby and the Battleship, The Silent Enemy, Sink the Bismarck!, Sands of the Kalahari, At the Earth’s Core and his final film, 1976’s The Slipper and the Rose. As a production manager he was assigned to, among others, The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins, For the Love of Ada and the big screen version of Doomwatch.
CAUSEY, J.
The unseen Third Officer on the Happy Wanderer in Cruising. His name is seen on the crew list and is obviously a reference to the film’s assistant director.
CAVEMAN
Played by Michael Nightingale
Seen in Cleo warning other cavemen, including Horsa and Hengist who are chatting outside their caves, that the Romans are coming.
CECIL, THE JUNGLE BOY
Played by Terry Scott
Seen in Up the Jungle, Cecil spends his formative years living in the jungle, just like Tarzan. Soon after he was born, his father took his wife on a belated honeymoon to the African jungle. Tragedy struck when Walter Bagley took Cecil for an early morning walk along the banks of the Limpopo River and neither were seen again. When her husband’s fob watch was discovered inside a crocodile’s stomach, and an abandoned nappy found on the riverbank, Mrs Bagley feared the worst.
Years later, desperate to find her baby’s missing nappy pin as something to remember him by, she returns to the jungle; what she doesn’t realise is that Cecil is alive, and although he can only grunt, he’s fit and healthy. When the Jungle Boy happens to enter her tent one night, Lady Bagley discovers he has a big, silver safety pin holding his loincloth together; suddenly realising it’s her long-lost boy, she’s desperate to bring him home, and after various ordeals manages to achieve her goal. The trouble is, he’s unable to rid himself of his jungle habits: although he’s a quick learner and soon holding down a respectable job in the City, he never wears shoes or socks and prefers living in a treehouse in London with his wife, June, formerly Lady Bagley’s maid, and their new-born child.
CHAMBERLAIN, CYRIL
Roles: Gun Sergeant in Sergeant, Bert Able in Nurse, Alf in Teacher, Thurston in Constable, Policeman in Regardless, Tom Tree in Cruising and Sarge in Cabby
A veteran of stage and screen, Cyril Chamberlain was born in London in 1909 and became a busy character actor for over four decades.
Often cast in small parts, he always made full use of his screen time, acting with a presence befitting much larger roles. Frequently seen playing policemen or middle-ranked soldiers, he entered films in the late 1930s, notching up over a hundred credits, including A Stolen Life, Poison Pen, My Brother’s Keeper, London Belongs to Me, Once a Jolly Swagman, Quartet, Stop Press Girl, Lady Godiva Rides Again, Above Us the Waves and Operation Bullshine. He also appeared in several Norman Wisdom and St Trinian’s films.
He occasionally worked on television in such productions as Stryker of the Yard, Ivanhoe, William Tell, The Saint and Danger Man.
He died in 1974, aged sixty-five.
Cyril Chamberlain (far left) was a reliable character actor of stage and screen (Constable)
CHAPLAIN
Played by Peter Jones
Seen in Doctor. Sporting a hearing aid, he conducts the wedding ceremony for Francis Bigger and the equally deaf Chloe Gibson, which makes for a frustrating affair.
CHAPPELL, NORMAN
Roles: Allbright in Cabby and 1st Plotter in Henry. (Note: also cast as Mr Thrush in Loving but scene cut.)
TV: Orgy and Bess; One in the Eye for Harold; The Case of the Screaming Winkles; The Case of the Coughing Parrot; Under the Round Table; Short Knight, Long Daze and Lamp Posts of the Empire
Norman Chappell, who was born in the Indian city of Lucknow, arrived in the UK aged four. Son of a professional soldier, he broke with tradition and pursued a theatrical career, but not before serving for a time with the RAF, and holding down various jobs, including cook in a police canteen.
His first taste of acting was during his RAF days; upon deciding it was the career for him, he enrolled at the Italia Conti Stage School. Circumstances, however, forced him to leave prematurely, but it never affected his progress in the profession, which saw him work in all media.
On television he was seen playing several characters in The Avengers, and appeared in Bless This House, Mr Aitch, Mr Digby Darling, Whoops Baghdad!, Sez Les, Danger UXB and Doctor’s Daughters, while on the big screen he popped up in several films during the 1960s and ’70s, such as Jigsaw, Crooks in Cloisters, How I Won the War, Up the Creek, Nearest and Dearest, Love Thy Neighbour, The Four Musketeers and Intimate Games.
He died of a heart attack in 1983.
CHARLES (EARL OF BRISTOL)
Played by Peter Butterworth
The Earl of Bristol has been ambassador at the Spanish court for some time before returning with his two attractive daughters, one of whom is blonde Bettina. He’s seen briefly in Henry arriving with his girls at Henry VIII’s do.
CHARLIE
Played by Percy Herbert
A barman at Belle’s Place, he remains in the job when Johnny Finger arrives in Stodge City and starts throwing his weight around, including taking over the hotel-cum-bar and renaming it Rumpo’s Place. He soon becomes Rumpo’s sidekick but ends up being shot accidentally by Annie Oakley. Seen in Cowboy.
CHARLIE PLATOON
Sergeant O’Brien’s platoon at Heathercrest National Service Depot in Sergeant.
CHAUFFEUR
Played by Frank Forsyth
This miserable-looking chauffeur is seen in Cabby waiting at a junction. Charlie Hawkins turns up in his cab, spots the sour-faced driver and asks him where the funeral is.
CHAYSTE PLACE
A finishing school, set in a sumptuous building, for young ladies. Seen in Camping, its principal is Dr Kenneth Soaper while the headmistress is Miss Haggerd.
CHEF
Played by Leon Greene
A monster of a man, the chef works at the Brighton hotel where the employees of W. C. Boggs and Son, out on their annual jolly, were intending to eat lunch. A strike, though, puts paid to their plans, infuriating, ironically, Vic Spanner, one of the most troublesome shop stewards around. He confronts the chef, who towers over him, and soon wishes he hadn’t.
CHERRILL, ROGER
Sound Editor on Nurse
Roger Cherrill entered films in the early 1940s, working as a production runner on 1943’s The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. He was working as an assistant editor a year later on A Canterbury Tale and, from the 1950s, as a sound editor on films such as A Day to Remember, Always a Bride, Doctor at Sea, Lost, Tiger in the Smoke and Rooney. As an editor his credits include Make Mine Mink, In the Doghouse, A Kind of Loving, Billy Liar, The Naked Prey and the television series, Interpol Calling.
CHIEF, THE
Played by Eric Barker
The Director of Security Operations seen in Spying is alarmed to hear that Professor Stark has been murdered and a secret formula stolen. He assembles a team of agents and sends them off to retrieve the formula at all costs; the trouble is the team is made up of a bunch of incompetents.
CHIEF CONSTABLE
(Voice only)
Heard in Constable, the Chief Constable phones to congratulate Inspector Mills on catching thieves who recently snatched some wages in the district.
CHILDS, GUNNER
Played by Billy J. Mitchell
Based at the experimental 1313 anti-aircraft battery featured in England, he’s one of the shirkers who suffers a severe shock to the system when the tough-speaking Captain Melly is put in charge of the unit.
CHINDI
Played by Michael Mellinger
Seen during the famous dinner-party scene in Up The Khyber, Chindi works for Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond, the British governor in the northwest province of India.
CHINESE LADY
Played by Madame Yang
In Regardless, the Chinese Lady hired an interpreter from Helping Hands but a mix-up finds Sam Twist calling instead of Francis Courtenay.
CHIPPING SODBURY LADIES’ GUILD
The Guild presented drainage, sanitation and garbage disposal engineer, Marshall Knutt, with a sink plunger in recognition of services rendered in Cowboy. He carries it with him when he visits the Bureau of Internal Affairs looking for a job, but probably wishes he hadn’t when it sticks so hard to a clerk’s desk that Knutt ends up tearing the tabletop off trying to release it.
CHIPPING SODBURY TECHNICAL COLLEGE
The college from which Marshall P. Knutt graduated as a drainage, sanitation and garbage disposal engineer. Mentioned in Cowboy.
CHRYSTAL, BIDDY
Hairdresser on Regardless, Cruising, Cabby, and Spying
Biddy Chrystal, head of Pinewood’s hairdressing department for many years, began her film career in the 1940s and proceeded to work on a multitude of films, including Blanche Fury, London Belongs to Me, Prelude to Fame, The Browning Version, Lost and The Early Bird.
She turned freelance and worked through until the 1970s, latterly on productions such as Young Winston, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and, in 1974, 11 Harrowhouse. Eventually moved to America and died in 1995.
CHUMLEY, CLAUDE
Played by Kenneth Connor
Professor Tinkle’s assistant in Up the Jungle, Chumley follows the highly respected ornithologist on his expeditions, including recent visits to the Virgin Isles and, now, the jungles of Africa. While on the trip, he has to fight his unbridled passion for Lady Bagley, another member of the jungle expedition.
CHURCH ROAD
The street in Constable where the criminals involved in the wages snatch abandoned their car, registration RGT 547.
CHURCH, TONY
Wrote the screenplay for That’s Carry On
C I CARAVANS
The company which supplied the caravans used in Behind.
CIGARETTE GIRL
Played by Jill Mai Meredith
Employed at the Café Mozart in Vienna, the Cigarette Girl is seen in Spying, taking a secret message concerning a rendezvous, which is concealed in a cigarette, from the Fat Man to Milchmann. But a mix-up sees Simkins take the cigarette instead.
CITIZENS
Played by Tom Gill, Frank Forsyth, Anthony Sagar, Eric Corrie and John Antrobus
The group of men is seen in Constable, complaining in the police station about various issues.
CITY GENT ON TUBE
Played by Michael Nightingale
You have to feel sorry for this guy, who’s seen in Girls standing reading his paper on his way to work. He’s just minding his own business when Paula Perkins, standing next to him, notices a photo of her fiancé, Peter Potter, on the front of the paper, showing her beloved apparently cavorting with some of the beauty contestants down in Fircombe, an event he’s been asked to promote. Paula makes a comment and the rest of the commuters turn to the City Gent in disgust, thinking he’s guilty of something improper towards Paula.
CLARK, CAPTAIN
Played by Hattie Jacques
Seen in Sergeant, the doctor is based at Heathercrest National Service Depot. Her patience is severely tested by the arrival of Horace Strong, the world’s worst hypochondriac. When she can take no more, she refers him to a team of specialists who examine every inch of his body, and in doing so help him realise that he’s actually in love.
CLARKE, NURSE
Played by Anita Harris
In Doctor, Nurse Clarke is a member of Borough County Hospital’s efficient nursing staff, and just one of the many admirers of Dr Kilmore.
CLARKE, RONALD
Role: 6th Storeman in Sergeant
Ronald Clarke’s other appearances include several roles over the years in Dixon of Dock Green, Gazette and The Gold Robbers. His film credits range from The Battle of the River Plate and Hell Drivers to Up the Junction and The Mackintosh Man.
CLEANER
Played by an uncredited actor
Seen briefly in Regardless, the cleaner at Helping Hands knocks the job allocation cards onto the floor causing chaos when the assignments are dished out the following day.
CLEGG, TERRY
Location Manager on Follow That Camel and Assistant Director on Doctor
Sheffield-born Terry Clegg worked as location manager on A Clockwork Orange and The Mackintosh Man, while as assistant director he’s worked on television series like The Saint and, among others, the films Lucky Lady and Circle of Friends. As a production manager and executive in charge of production his list of credits include A Bridge Too Far, The Elephant Man, Gandhi, Shadowlands and Yaadein. More recently he worked as producer on such films as Cry Freedom, Gorillas in the Mist and Breathtaking.
CLEGG, TOM
Roles: Massive Micky McGee in Regardless, Doorman in Spying, Sosages in Cleo, Blacksmith in Cowboy, Odbodd in Screaming! and Trainer in Loving
A stuntman and bit-part actor, Tom Clegg’s other credits include jobs in television shows Quatermass II and The Sweeney, as well as films like The Fake, The Extra Day and Raising the Wind. He was employed as a stuntman on numerous productions, including the films Ivanhoe and Thunderball.
CLEO, CARRY ON
see feature box here.
CLEOPATRA
Played by Amanda Barrie
Ruler of Egypt, the Queen of the Nile bathes in milk all day, making many men’s hearts flutter, especially Mark Antony’s in Cleo. She plots with Antony to topple Caesar but it takes several attempts before they finally see the back of Caesar and the blossoming of their relationship.
CLEOPATRA
The donkey who’s led into the lounge of the Palace Hotel in Fircombe. Seen in Girls, the animal is used to promote the beauty contest being held in the town; Peter Potter, a friend of Sidney Fiddler, who’s tasked with organising publicity for the event plans to photograph the girls with the donkey, using the promotional line, ‘Beauty and the Beast’. The donkey does little to ingratiate himself with hotel owner Connie Philpotts when it excretes all over the floor.
CLERK
Played by Ian Wilson
In Cabby the Clerk works at Stevens and Son, a printing firm. He speaks to Charlie Hawkins when he enters the office wanting some leaflets printed.
CLERK
Played by Lionel Murton
In Cowboy the Clerk works on the reception desk at Washington and briefly interviews the drainage, sanitation and garbage engineer Marshall P. Knutt when he arrives on the scene job-hunting. He soon wishes he hadn’t set eyes on the accident-prone Mr Knutt, though, when Knutt gets his plunger stuck on the clerk’s desk and ends up ripping the wooden top off.
CLIFF
Played by Jack Taylor
In Constable, Cliff is one of the robbers involved in the wages snatch.
CLIFTON, PHILIP
Role: Injured Footballer in Emmannuelle
Other television work saw Philip Clifton appearing in an episode of the Australian series, Delta, in 1970.
CLIFTON, ZENA
Roles: Au Pair Girl in Matron and Susan Clifton in Girls
As well as acting, Zena Clifton made a living as a dancer on many of Britain’s top television shows, such as Sez Les and The Benny Hill Show.
CLIFFORD, PEGGY ANN
Role: Willa Claudia in Cleo
Born in Bournemouth in 1919, Peggy Ann Clifford worked in rep before establishing herself as a supporting actress, normally cast as a jolly character on film and television. She was particularly busy during the 1950s, and appeared in many films, including Kind Hearts and Coronets, Man of the Moment, Brothers in Law, Doctor at Large and Under Milk Wood.
On television she was seen in, among others, Hancock’s Half Hour, Fawlty Towers, Man About the House, Bless This House, Dawson’s Weekly, George and Mildred, Are You Being Served? and Hi-de-Hi!.
She once sold a block of flats in Fulham in order to buy a grocery shop in Chelsea, which she ran for three years while not acting. She died in 1984, aged sixty-five.
CLIVE
Played by Larry Dann
A student from the University of Kidburn’s archaeological department who helps Professor Crump at the dig. While staying at the Riverside Caravan Site in Behind, next-door to where they are digging, Clive and his mate get friendly with two campers, Carol and Sandra.
CLIVE, JOHN
Roles: Robin Tweet in Abroad and Isaak the Tailor in Dick. (Note: also cast as the Dandy in Henry but scene cut.)
Born in 1938, Londoner John Clive began acting in rep as a child, appearing in plays like The Winslow Boy and Life with Father. His break arrived while working as a pageboy at a theatre. Hearing about auditions for a children’s show, he submitted his name and was accepted as a boy singer, as well as assisting the resident comic in sketches.
His face has since become familiar from more than a hundred film and television performances. On the big screen he’s appeared as a car manager in The Italian Job, as well as Clockwork Orange, Great Expectations and Revenge of the Pink Panther. On television his credits include The Sweeney, Wear A Very Big Hat, How Green Was My Valley, The Government Inspector, The Saint, Man in a Suitcase, Casualty, Perils of Pendragon, and the lead (Professor Sommerby) in the children’s series, Robert’s Robots. He’s also appeared with most of the great comedy performers including Dick Emery, Tommy Cooper, John Cleese and Peter Sellers.
Today, most of Clive’s time is dedicated to writing screenplays and novels – he’s written six to date – although he still acts if the right part comes along. Now divides his time between homes in England and Spain.
MEMORIES
‘You did the Carry On films and enjoyed them for what they were, never thinking, of course, that they’d become enormously successful cult movies. It’s quite remarkable.
‘My first role was playing Robin in Abroad. There was one thing that David, whom I knew prior to filming, and I couldn’t understand. Kenneth Williams and Charles Hawtrey were both camping it up madly and we didn’t know why they wanted us to come in and do the same sort of thing. You know what actors are with everybody worried about their own positions and I didn’t want Kenneth or Charles to think we were seeking to take over their roles in the film – that was the last thing in our minds.
‘I liked Kenneth Williams enormously and thought he was a fabulously funny guy, so I was a little bit careful with him and waited to see how we’d get on, whether he was sharp with me but I’m glad to say he wasn’t. In fact, after he’d seen the rushes he came over personally to congratulate me, patting me on the shoulder and saying: “That was terrific, you two boys are going to be great in this.” Another time I was in make-up and Sid James said virtually the same thing.
‘Trying to create the Mediterranean in the freezing cold of Pinewood was difficult but you just had to put up with it, but I have to say that we were blue with the cold in those bathing costumes because there was a chill wind round the place that day. We had to have body make-up plastered all over us because everybody was freezing. When we filmed the scene involving the rainstorm, everyone got soaked. Luckily I wasn’t caught in it but poor old David was. It was good fun filming Abroad. It was one-take and on to the next.
‘Carry On Dick was only a small part and, if I remember right, just one day’s filming. It was always good fun and easy comedy. I want to pay compliment to the regulars. The only reason anyone talks to anyone else about the Carry On films is because of the regulars, not the script, directing or the producing. They were superb comedy actors of their generations and knew exactly where to go, how far to go and when not to cross that line from pun and innuendo into crude comedy.’
JOHN CLIVE
CLOAKROOM ATTENDANT
Played by Elsie Winsor
In Girls the Cloakroom Attendant works at the Pier Theatre and reminds Sidney Fiddler that he’s in the ladies’ toilets when he’s caught kissing Hope Springs just before she takes part in the Miss Fircombe beauty contest.
CLOAKROOM GIRL
Played by Angela Ellison
The Cloakroom Girl takes Simkins’s hat, coat and false beard when he arrives at the Café Mozart in Spying.
CLOTSKI, CORPORAL
Played by John Bluthal
A corporal in the Foreign Legion, he reports to Sergeant Nocker in Follow That Camel.
CLUB RECEPTIONIST
Played by George Street
Works at the Philosophers’ Club and is seen in Regardless. Speaks to Sam Twist when he arrives to replace Old Lou, who’s ill. Doesn’t believe Twist will be up to the job and is proved right when he has to escort him off the premises because he can’t refrain from laughing at some of the geriatrics at the club.
CARRY ON CLEO
An Anglo Amalgamated film
A Peter Rogers production
Distributed through Warner-Pathe Distribution Ltd
Released as an A certificate in 1964 in colour
Running time: 92 mins
CAST
(Uncredited ‘Companions’: Stuart Monro, Forbes Douglas, Billy Cornelius, Peter Fraser, Frederick Beauman and Keith Buckley.)
PRODUCTION TEAM
Screenplay by Talbot Rothwell
Music composed and conducted by Eric Rogers
Associate Producer: Frank Bevis
Art Director: Bert Davey
Director of Photography: Alan Hume
Editor: Archie Ludski
Camera Operator: Godfrey Godar
Assistant Director: Peter Bolton
Unit Manager: Donald Toms
Continuity: Olga Brook
Make-up: Geoffrey Rodway
Sound Editor: Christopher Lancaster
Sound Recordists: Bill Daniels and Gordon K. McCallum
Hairdressing: Ann Fordyce
Costume Designer: Julie Harris
Producer: Peter Rogers
Director: Gerald Thomas
Caesar (Kenneth Williams) looks to the heavens for inspiration
Amanda Barrie in fine form as Cleo
Hengist Pod’s simple life as a wheelmaker specialising in making square wheels is forever changed when the Romans arrive and ransack his village. While his new neighbour, Horsa, stays with the rest of the villagers to try and fight off the Romans, Hengist jumps on his square-wheeled contraption and heads off to seek help. He hasn’t gone far before his fragile vehicle collapses and he ends up thumbing a lift; when he gratefully accepts a ride in a wagon, he jumps in the back only to find he’s in the company of his fellow cavemen, including Horsa, who’ve been taken prisoner by the Romans.
As they head for Rome, Julius Caesar is anxious to leave the damp British climate behind for sunnier skies back home; when a message arrives warning that Brutus might be planning to take over the throne in his absence, he rushes back to be met by a less than rapturous welcome.
Caesar has become so unpopular that even his father-in-law, Seneca, is having premonitions about his impending doom. Caesar consults the Vestal Virgins but as he enters the Temple of Vesta, Bilius, his personal bodyguard, takes out his sword with the intention of slaying his leader. Unbeknown to Caesar, Horsa and Hengist Pod have escaped from the slave market and are hiding with the Vestal Virgins, and a mix-up leaves numerous Roman soldiers dead and Hengist hailed as the hero by Caesar who, believing he saved his life, makes him a centurion and personal bodyguard.
Treachery is rife. When Mark Antony is sent by Caesar to see Cleopatra, the Queen of the Nile, he succumbs to her charm and beauty; when Cleopatra mentions how good they could be together if Mark Anthony was emperor of Rome, he plans to topple Caesar. Upon returning to Rome, he tells the Roman leader that Cleopatra wants to meet him, although the plan is for Caesar to be killed en route. The Roman soldiers on the ship who intend murdering Caesar are all killed by the galley slaves who manage to escape; Caesar, however, doesn’t know this and, thinking the soldiers are out to get him, pushes Hengist out to deal with the rebels. A quivering wreck, Hengist soon perks up when he finds the soldiers already dead, so pretends to have killed them himself, thereby gaining even more respect from his new boss.
When Mark Antony’s plans to kill Caesar at sea are thwarted, he hatches another one with Cleopatra inviting him to her bedchamber. But when he’s told of a premonition depicting his death, Caesar decides against going and sends Hengist Pod instead. When he climbs on the bed with Cleopatra it collapses on top of Mark Antony, who was waiting underneath to kill Caesar. Before long, Horsa and the other galley slaves, who’ve entered the palace in search of food, come to Hengist’s rescue again.
Despite surviving all the failed murder attempts, it isn’t long before Caesar bites the dust, leaving Mark Antony free to team up with Cleopatra, Horsa to marry his long-lost love, Gloria, and Hengist to become a new man and father plenty of kids.
CLULOW, JENNIFER
Role: 1st Lady in Don’t Lose Your Head
Born in Grimsby, Humberside, in 1942, Jennifer Clulow trained at the Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama before beginning her career on a world tour of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s King Lear and Comedy of Errors. Further West End work followed including a leading role in the musical 4000 Brass Halfpennies, as well as repertory work.
She began appearing on screen from the mid-1960s. She presented the children’s series, Disney Wonderland, a cookery series for ATV and read the news for Westward Television. When TVS opened its doors, Clulow – who played Catherine in the famous Cointreau adverts – worked as an announcer.
Other television credits include The Baron, The Avengers, Department S, Lovejoy, Bergerac and, in 1993, Keeping Up Appearances. For two years she played Claire Clarkson in The Troubleshooters and Jessica Dalton in Granada’s series, Mr Rose.
COACH AND HORSES, THE
A pub mentioned by WPC Passworthy in Constable. It’s where she arrested the infamous Mrs May for smashing a bottle over a barman’s head just because he asked her to leave.
COACH DRIVER
Played by Barrie Gosney
Seen sitting on top of a stagecoach in Jack, this cheeky chappie tells Albert Poop-Decker to hurry up when he’s alighting from the coach at Plymouth.
COBLEY
Played by Richard Wattis
This bespectacled official reports to the Director of Security Operations in Spying.
COBURN, BRIAN
Roles: Trapper in Cowboy and Highwayman in Dick
Born in Scotland in 1936, Brian Coburn’s hefty frame meant he was instantly recognisable on stage and screen. He worked throughout the world during his career and clocked up over 200 television appearances, his favourite show being BBC’s God’s Wonderful Railway, in which he played the lead.
A steady supply of theatrical and film work came his way: among his credits on the big screen were Octopussy, Trenchcoat, Trial by Combat, Love and Death and Fiddler On the Roof.
Coburn was returning to the Royal Shakespeare Company when illness caused him to cancel the engagement. He died in 1989, aged fifty-three, from a diabetic-related illness.
COCCIUM-IN-CORNOVII
Hengist’s and Horsa’s home town in Cleo.
COCKBURN, PETER
Role: Commentator in Camping
He was also seen as a commentator in 1971 episodes of Paul Temple and On the Buses, while his voice was heard on Marillion’s 1983 album, Script for a Jester’s Tear.
Marian Collins played a bride in two Carry Ons (Cabby)
COCK INN
The inn is mentioned by James Bedsop, the ineffective private investigator hired by Sophie Bliss to spy on Sidney, who, she feels, is seeing women behind her back. In Loving, Sidney was spotted in the establishment’s saloon bar by Bedsop who then followed him back to his office.
CODE CLERK
Played by Gertan Klauber
Seen in Spying the Code Clerk brings a message to the Director of Security Operations (alias The Chief). It’s from Carstairs, the Vienna-based agent, reporting the arrival of Milchmann, a wanted criminal. The Chief questions the validity of appointing foreign subjects in the decoding department.
COE, CAPTAIN
This captain’s epic journey is mentioned by Captain Fearless in Jack. In an open boat, six sailors set out and were at sea for seventy-three days. Only three reached home shores, having survived by eating the three comrades that didn’t make it. Fearless refers to the event when, together with some of his crew, he’s hopelessly lost in a rowing boat, miles from anywhere. The captain isn’t seen in the film.
COLE, PAUL
Role: Atkins in Teacher
As a child actor, Paul Cole appeared in a handful of productions between 1959 and ’63, including, on television, The Four Just Men and The Pursuers, as well as the films Dracula, Next To No Time, Please Turn Over and The Mouse on the Moon.
COLETTE
Played by Suzanna East
Seen in Richmond’s flashback sequence in Emmannuelle in which he describes his most amorous experience. Colette is the niece of the French parson who takes pity on Richmond and provides him with shelter when a German soldier chases him. Colette, though, is the reason Richmond didn’t return to England until eight years after the war ended.
COLIN, SID
Co-wrote the screenplay for Spying
TV: Co-wrote Christmas (70)
Born in London in 1915, screenwriter Sid Colin specialised in comedy for screen and radio, but upon leaving school pursued a musical career. He taught himself the banjo and joined a touring group, playing and singing around the country.
During the war, he served six years in The Squadronnaires, the RAF’s dance orchestra, playing guitar and writing shows, during which time he met Denis Norden and Frank Muir with whom he’d later work on numerous occasions.
After the war, he quit touring and began concentrating on his writing career, but not before he tried making a living as an artist. Colin painted, drew and sculpted all his life and eventually found work designing covers for sheet music. But his future lay in scriptwriting and he soon began writing for radio, film and, later, television.
Among his writing credits for radio are Life With the Lyons, while on television his output includes the series How Do You View?, Before Your Very Eyes, The Army Game and Love Thy Neighbour. His film work included One Good Turn, I Only Arsked!, and the Frankie Howerd films Up the Chastity Belt, Up Pompeii and Up the Front. One of his last screenplays was 1982’s The Boys in Blue. Also a lyricist, he penned songs for films such as Up the Front and Bottoms Up.
He died in 1989, aged seventy-four.
COLLEANO, GARRY
Role: Slim in Cowboy
Other screen credits include a 1960 episode of International Detective and the 1961 film Follow That Man.
COLLINGS, JEANNIE
Role: Private Edwards in England
Born in 1952, Liverpudlian Jeannie Collings started her career as a model for the Moroccan government. After gaining success in this field, she turned her attention to acting. Among her television credits are appearances on The Benny Hill Show, The Generation Game, The Golden Shot, Dixon of Dock Green and Armchair Theatre. In films she’s been seen in Emily, Confessions of a Window Cleaner, Percy’s Progress, I’m Not Feeling Myself Tonight and Cruel Passion.
COLLINS, LAURA
Role: Nurse in Matron
COLLINS, MARIAN
Roles: Bride in Cruising, Bride in Cabby, Girl at Dirty Dick’s in Jack and Amazon Guard in Spying
On screen from the 1950s, Marian Collins was also seen in the television shows Dixon of Dock Green and Frankie Howerd, as well as films such as Behind the Headlines, The Desperate Man, Jungle Street and an uncredited role as Goldfinger’s girlfriend in the Bond movie, Goldfinger.
COLONEL, THE
Played by Wilfrid Hyde-White
From his own private room at the Haven Hospital, the Colonel drives the nurses mad in Nurse with his incessant demands. His good nature, though, is reciprocated and everyone bends over backwards to help, especially Mick, the ward orderly, who’s forever placing bets on the horses for the Colonel. The staff get their own back in the end, courtesy of a strategically placed daffodil!
COMMENTATOR
Played by Peter Cockburn
In Camping he commentates on the film, Nudist Paradise, which is shown at the Picture Playhouse.
COMMISSIONER
Played by Alan Gifford
Based in Washington, the Commissioner works in the Bureau of Internal Affairs. In Cowboy he’s first seen having a little fun with a woman in his office until interrupted by Perkins, his assistant. A former janitor at the law school Judge Burke, of Stodge City, attended, he responds to Burke’s request for a peace marshal but can’t find anyone to fill the position until Marshall P. Knutt walks in looking for a job. Assuming he’s actually a marshal when he’s actually a drainage, sanitation and garbage disposal engineer, he packs him off to Stodge City.
COMPANION
Played by Peter Jesson
One of seven companions originally seen in Cleo.
CONCORDE STEWARD
Played by James Fagan
Gets more than he bargained for when he attends to Emmannuelle ‘Straying Hands’ Prevert, the French Ambassador’s wife, during a London-bound flight on Concorde. Seen in Emmannuelle.
CONNOISSEURS DE LONDRES
The organisation holds a wine-tasting session at the Ruby Room in Regardless.
CONNOISSEUR
Played by David Lodge
Seen in Regardless, the Connoisseur attends the wine-tasting session at the Ruby Room organised for the Connoisseurs de Londres. He helps a drunk Lily Duveen, who was hired from Helping Hands to collect invitations, to her feet when she collapses on the floor, only to be accused of having straying hands.
CONNOR, JEREMY
Roles: Jeremy Bishop in Nurse, Willy in Constable, Footpad in Dick, Student with Ice-cream in Behind and Gunner Hiscocks in England
Son of Kenneth, Jeremy Connor was born in 1955 and made occasional screen appearances as an actor. He now lives in New Zealand.
CONNOR, KENNETH
Roles: Horace Strong in Sergeant, Bernie Bishop in Nurse, Gregory Adams in Teacher, Constable Charlie Constable in Constable, Sam Twist in Regardless, Dr Arthur Binn in Cruising, Ted Watson in Cabby, Hengist Pod in Cleo, Claude Chumley in Up the Jungle, Lord Hampton of Wick in Henry, Mr Tidey in Matron, Stanley Blunt in Abroad, Mayor Frederick Bumble in Girls, Constable in Dick, Major Leep in Behind, Captain S. Melly in England and Leyland in Emmannuelle
TV: Christmas (’70); Christmas (’72); What a Carry On!; Christmas (’73); The Prisoner of Spenda; The Baron Outlook; Orgy and Bess; One in the Eye for Harold; The Nine Old Cobblers; The Case of the Screaming Winkles; The Case of the Coughing Parrot; Under the Round Table; Short Knight, Long Daze; And in My Lady’s Chamber; Who Needs Kitchener? and Lamp Posts of the Empire
STAGE: London! and Laughing
A sublime piece of casting saw Kenneth Connor play Horace Strong, the hypochondriac who’s horrified to be passed fit for national service in Sergeant and set the tone for the diminutive actor’s Carry On career. If ever someone was required to play a dithering, nervous, angst-ridden little man, chances are Connor would be top of the list. He portrayed such characters with aplomb and quickly became an essential part of the gang.
Born in London in 1918, Kenneth Connor made his stage debut at the age of two and by the time he was eleven was performing various acts with his brother in revue shows. Deciding that he wanted to concentrate on becoming a ‘serious’ actor, he attended the Central School of Drama. Upon graduating his first professional job was as Boy David at His Majesty’s Theatre, London, in 1936.
He went on to act in numerous repertory theatres, later becoming a member of the Bristol Old Vic Company; although the outbreak of war in 1939, during which he served with the army’s Middlesex Regiment as a gunner, put a temporary halt to his career, he was for part of the time attached to George Black’s company, Stars in Battledress, touring the Mediterranean.
After demob he returned to acting in a West End play at the Strand Theatre and, before long, a role in the television soap, The Huggetts; but he made his name for the array of character voices he created on radio shows such as Just William and Ray’s A Laugh with Ted Ray, the start of a long and lasting association with the comedian. His success in Ray’s A Laugh saw Ted Ray engage him as his top supporting player in the television series, The Ted Ray Show.
He went on to feature in the 1955 comedy, The Ladykillers, before appearing in the first of many Carry On roles. Other film credits include Poison Pen, The Black Rider, Davy, Make Mine a Million, Watch Your Stern, Nearly A Nasty Accident, Dentist on the Job, What a Carve Up and Rhubarb.
CARRY ON CONSTABLE
An Anglo Amalgamated release
A Peter Rogers production
Based on an idea by Brock Williams
Released as a U certificate in 1960 in black & white Running time: 86 mins
CAST
PRODUCTION TEAM
Screenplay by Norman Hudis
Music composed and directed by Bruce Montgomery
Art Director: Carmen Dillon
Director of Photography: Ted Scaife
Editor: John Shirley
Production Manager: Frank Bevis
Camera Operator: Alan Hume
Assistant Director: Peter Manley
Sound Editor: Leslie Wiggins
Sound Recordists: Robert T. MacPhee and Bill Daniels
Continuity: Joan Davis
Make-up: George Blackler
Hairdressing: Stella Rivers
Dress Designer: Yvonne Caffin
Set Dressing: Vernon Dixon
Casting Director: Betty White
Producer: Peter Rogers
Director: Gerald Thomas
Sgt. Moon (Hattie Jacques) and Sgt. Wilkins (Sid James) make the perfect partnership
Benson (Kenneth Williams) and Potter (Leslie Phillips) patrol their beat
A flu epidemic sweeps Britain, affecting every industry, including the police force. With constables dropping like flies, raw recruits just out of training school are thrown into the thick of the action, as well as the incorrigible Timothy Gorse, a special constable whose services are only called upon as a last resort.
Before long, the new faces, except for the efficient WPC Passworthy, are causing chaos wherever they tread. After coming to the assistance of a distraught mother who thinks she’s lost her little boy, Gorse decides to play around on the boy’s scooter, only to find himself bumping into PC Benson, who’s out walking Lady, a police dog. As they crash down some steps, the dog runs off.
Benson regards himself as an expert in the physiology of the criminal mind, claiming he can spot a crook a mile off. When a man bumps into him in the street, Benson doesn’t regard the man as anything but a law-abiding member of the public, that is until his trousers fall to the ground because the passer-by has stolen his braces. Another example of his ineptness sees him trying to persuade a supposed car thief from committing a crime, only to discover that embarrassingly he’s accusing a detective sergeant from the CID.
With the threat of suspension hanging over their heads, the new recruits pound their beats in pairs. Potter and Benson spot the getaway car involved in a recent robbery, and identifying a way of redeeming themselves for the earlier fiascos, try and find the robbers themselves. Eventually assisted by Gorse, they manage to catch the crooks in an abandoned house but it’s the lazy, inefficient Inspector Mills who takes all the credit and is transferred to an area college where, ironically, he’ll be in charge of morale and discipline, with Sergeant Wilkins taking over the running of the station after his long-overdue promotion to inspector.
On television, he appeared in, among others, A Show Called Fred, Blackadder the Third, You Rang, M’Lord?, Rentaghost and provided the voices for the popular children’s show, Torchy the Battery Boy. But he’s probably best remembered in this medium for his performances as Monsieur Alfonse, the undertaker, in the sitcom ’Allo, ’Allo! and as Uncle Sammy Morris in the holiday camp sitcom, Hi-de-Hi!.
Awarded an MBE in 1991 for services to showbusiness, Connor was entertaining on BBC’s Noel’s House Party just two days before he died in 1993, aged seventy-five.
CONSTABLE
Played by Billy Cornelius
The police constable appears in Girls alongside the police inspector at the Palace Hotel investigating reports that Patricia Potter, who’s suspected of being a man, is back at the hotel.
CONSTABLE
Played by Kenneth Connor
The Parish Constable in Dick attempts to catch the elusive criminal, Dick Turpin. He’s way past his best-before date, though, and is rather hopeless when it comes to capturing the legendary highwayman.
CONSTABLE, CARRY ON
see feature box here.
CONSTABLE, CONSTABLE CHARLIE
Played by Kenneth Connor
One of the newly-graduated police constables who arrives on the scene in Constable. A nervous, highly superstitious man who can’t even attempt to develop a relationship with WPC Passworthy until he knows whether her birthday lands under the correct planetary sign, such is his reliance on astrology.
CONTE FILLIPO DI PISA
Played by Alan Curtis
Arrives in Henry to talk to Cardinal Wolsey about King Henry’s application for an annulment of his wedding to Queen Marie of Normandy. He’s employed by the Pope and travels as the emissary of the Vatican to explain that the Pope is both outraged and morally shocked but will overlook his concerns in return for 5000 pieces of gold.
CONWAY, BERT
Played by Jimmy Logan
A loud-mouthed Scot who joins the Wundatours party travelling to the Mediterranean resort of Elsbels in Abroad. He jokes to Stuart Farquhar, the courier, about heading off for a dirty weekend, but it’s clear that is what he hopes the trip turns out like, especially when he eyes up Sadie Tomkins from the moment she climbs into the coach, even though he’s competing with Vic Flange for her affections. Makes his living as a bookmaker.
Bert Conway (Jimmy Logan, right) chats up Sadie Tomkins (Barbara Windsor) in the Med (Abroad)
COOK
Played by Anthony Sagar
In Cruising, the Cook is concerned when he realises his boss, Wilfred Haines, is suffering seasickness despite only just leaving port. When Haines makes a hasty dash for the toilets, he pushes into the Cook squashing a creamy dessert all over his face. Seen again, later, being accused by the chef of taking too long cracking open a pile of eggs.
COOK
Played by Mario Fabrizi
A Cook on the Happy Wanderer, he’s seen in Cruising confirming to Wilfred Haines that the ship is actually sailing.
COOK, CORPORAL
Played by Patricia Franklin
In England seen dishing out the so-called food in the NAAFI at the experimental 1313 anti-aircraft battery.
COOKING FAT
In Loving, Jenny Grubb thinks the porter’s unseen black cat is called Cooking Fat in the flats where she lives.
COOKSON
For Cookson, the constable in Girls, see ‘Constable’.
COOLING, MISS
Played by Esma Cannon
The dithering, nervous old lady with a heart of gold tries her best as Bert Handy’s secretary in Regardless. Not the most reliable person in the world, she gets messages confused, which explains why Sam Twist, one of the employees, has a wasted journey to the Forth Bridge, instead of providing a fourth at a game of bridge.
COOMBS, PAT
Roles: Patient in Doctor and New Matron in Again Doctor
Born in London in 1926, Pat Coombs started her working life as a nursery school assistant, trained at LAMDA and began working on stage before establishing herself as a familiar face on television, primarily playing comedy parts or working as a foil for well-known comedians.
Her early credits included Lana Butt in the pilot of Beggar My Neighbour and the three subsequent series transmitted in 1967–68. She also appeared as Violet Robinson in Lollipop Loves Mr Mole in 1971 and the series, Lollipop, the following year. Other series in which she was cast included two runs of Don’t Drink the Water!, four series of You’re Only Young Twice, In Sickness and in Health, Birds of a Feather and EastEnders.
Coombs, who died at Denville Hall, the retirement home for actors, in 2002, made a handful of film appearances in productions such as Adolf Hitler – My Part In His Downfall and Ooh! You Are Awful. In the mid-1990s she was diagnosed with the bone disease osteoporosis but continued working until her final days, recording an episode of the radio series, Like They’ve Never Been Gone, with June Whitfield and Roy Hudd, just months before her death.
COOPER, JUNE
Roles: Girl in Don’t Lose Your Head and Hospitality Girl in Up The Khyber
Other screen credits include playing a stewardess in an episode of 1970’s Mister Jerico.
COOTE, CHARLES
Played by Charles Hawtrey
Chief designer at W.C. Boggs, manufacturers of quality toilet ware, the foppish Charles Coote is seen in At Your Convenience. He lodges with Agatha Spanner, with whom he strikes up a relationship and intends to marry. Agatha’s devotion to Charles rankles with her son, Vic, who happens to be the union representative at the toilet ware company.
COPE, KENNETH
Roles: Vic Spanner in At Your Convenience and Cyril Carter in Matron
Born in Liverpool in 1934, Kenneth Cope is probably best known for his television appearances in shows such as That Was The Week That Was, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), Coronation Street and, more recently, Brookside, in which he played Ray Hilton.
Son of an engineer, he trained at Bristol’s Old Vic Theatre School after giving up his job in the drawing office at the Automatic Telephone Company. While at Bristol, he made his screen debut when a production of The Duenna in which he was appearing was recorded.
After graduating, he worked in repertory theatre, initially at Cromer, before moving to London, earning money as a part-time garage attendant in-between acting jobs; eventually television work came his way with early credits being episodes of The Adventures of Robin Hood, Ivanhoe and Dixon of Dock Green.
His big break came with the role of Jed Stone in Coronation Street, which led to appearances on That Was The Week That Was. But for many people, he’ll always be remembered as Marty Hopkirk, the helpful ghost in the detective series, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased).
He’s also chalked up a lot of film credits, including X the Unknown, The Yangtse Incident, Dunkirk, Naked Fury, Father Came Too, A Twist of Sand and Juggernaut.
MEMORIES
‘One scene in At Your Convenience involved a motorbike sequence with my character and Bernard Bresslaw’s. That was very memorable because Bernard couldn’t ride and was terrified. I think he’d told the production team that he could.
‘On the set at Pinewood, he had to come round this corner to my front door, switch off the engine, park it, leave it on its stand and come up the steps to my character’s house. Well, we could hear the bike revving up around the corner and then the bike would stall. He didn’t appear for about six or seven takes. Eventually he managed to get it around the corner but then drove too far past the mark, so that was no good. This went on for what seemed like all day. What made it even more funnier was that poor old Bernie’s visor was misted up and he couldn’t see anything either. In the end, a couple of fellas pushed the bike into the shot.
‘Matron was a lot of fun, too. Playing Cyril Carter was a lovely part. I had some say in the costume and went for suspenders because I thought they’d be funnier than tights. At lunchtime, you couldn’t get changed else you’d lose about fifteen minutes off your break, so I kept my costume on and walked over to get some lunch, wearing my full make-up, wig, the lot. I used to love going down the corridors in Pinewood because the high heels would make a hell of a noise on the floor. One day I passed three guys in the corridor, dressed like a nurse, and went straight into the gents. That didn’t half make them look!’
KENNETH COPE
COPPING, CORPORAL BILL
Played by Bill Owen
Sergeant Grimshaw’s trusty old corporal. Seen in Sergeant, he helps turn Able Platoon from a bunch of no-hopers into the champion platoon during their ten-week training course.
CORBETT, HARRY H.
Role: Detective Sergeant Sidney Bung in Screaming!
Born in Burma in 1925, the son of an army officer, Harry H. Corbett moved to Manchester as a child and served as a Royal Marine during World War Two, before training as a radiographer.
He was then drawn to the stage, first working as an understudy for the Chorlton Repertory Company and, from 1951, acting with the Theatre Workshop at the Theatre Royal, Stratford. He went on to roles at the Royal Court Theatre and the West End in productions such as Hamlet, The Power and the Glory and The Way of the World.
In 1955 Corbett began his big screen career, acting in films such as Nowhere To Go before going on to play Harold Steptoe in the television comedy series Steptoe and Son in 1962, a role which was the catalyst to his becoming a household name.
He continued acting in films, adding Sammy Going South, The Bargee, Rattle of a Simple Man, and The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins to his lengthening list of credits, as well as appearing in other television series, including Grundy and Potter, while on the stage he was seen playing the lead in Macbeth at the Globe Theatre in 1973.
He was made OBE in 1976, before his death in 1982, aged fifty-seven.
CORDELL, SHANE
Role: Attractive Nurse in Nurse
Shane Cordell was seen in a 1957 episode of Dixon of Dock Green, as well as a handful of films during the ’50s, including Three Men in a Boat, The Good Companions, Fiend Without A Face and Girls At Sea.
CORKTIP
Played by Anita Harris
A belly dancer-cum-fortune teller in Follow That Camel who’s first seen entertaining customers at the Café ZigaZig. Sergeant Nocker takes a shine to her and although she initially works with Sheikh Abdul Abulbul to entrap Nocker and Bertram West, she ends up being employed as Nocker’s batman when he’s eventually promoted to commandant.
CORNELIUS, BILLY
Roles: Odbodd Junior in Screaming!, Soldier in Don’t Lose Your Head, Patient in Plaster in Again Doctor, Guard in Henry, Constable in Girls, Tough Man in Dick, Man with Salad in Behind. Also uncredited roles in Cleo (Companion/escaped slave) and Cowboy (cowboy shot in opening scenes). He doubled for Terry Scott in Up the Jungle
TV: Christmas (’72), One in the Eye for Harold, Under the Round Table and Short Knight, Long Daze
Billy Cornelius, born in London in 1934, entered the printing trade upon leaving school. Always a keen amateur boxer, he turned professional in the mid-1950s and fought competitively for five years.
When he quit the ring, he followed a friend’s suggestion and began doing extra work and stunt work in film and television, which he combined with running pubs around the London area. His screen credits include The Avengers, Doctor Who, Callan, Ace of Wands and three episodes of Carry On Laughing for television, as well as When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, Bless This House, The Mind of Mr Soames and, his last film, The Long Good Friday.
CARRY ON COWBOY
An Anglo Amalgamated film
A Peter Rogers production
Distributed through Warner-Pathe Distribution Ltd
Songs: ‘Carry On Cowboy’ and ‘This is the Night for Love’ – music by Eric Rogers Lyrics by Alan Rogers
Sung by Anon
Released as an A certificate in 1965 in colour
Running time: 95 mins
CAST
PRODUCTION TEAM
Screenplay by Talbot Rothwell
Music composed and conducted by Eric Rogers
Associate Producer: Frank Bevis
Art Director: Bert Davey
Editor: Rod Keys
Director of Photography: Alan Hume
Camera Operator: Godfrey Godar
Assistant Director: Peter Bolton
Unit Manager: Ron Jackson
Make-up: Geoffrey Rodway
Sound Editor: Jim Groom
Sound Recordists: Robert T. MacPhee and Ken Barker
Hairdressing: Stella Rivers
Costume Designer: Cynthia Tingey
Assistant Editor: Jack Gardner
Master of Horse: Jeremy Taylor
Continuity: Gladys Goldsmith
Producer: Peter Rogers
Director: Gerald Thomas
Judge Burke (Kenneth Williams) lives up to his name
Stodge City is a sleepy Western town where people live in peace and harmony, that is until Johnny Finger, alias the Rumpo Kid, arrives on the scene and starts throwing his weight, and his bullets, around. He cuts a frightening figure and is soon running the place; even Belle’s Place, an inn which only served soft drinks, is renamed Rumpo’s Place and becomes a rowdy, alcohol-swilling gambling house, with dancing girls, fights and goodness knows what as part of the scene. It’s a far cry from the days when Judge Burke tried banishing impropriety by declaring shooting, fighting, boozing and gambling were banned from Stodge, or as he put it so bluntly, ‘no nothing’.
No one has the strength or guts to stand up to the Rumpo Kid and his growing band of followers; the last person to try, Albert Earp, the sheriff, ended up with a chestful of bullets. His dying words were for his folks to be told what happened in the hope they might try and even the score; his wish was heard and heading for Stodge is Earp’s daughter, Annie Oakley, a fine shot who’s determined to track down the man who killed her father. Sharing the stagecoach with her is Marshall Knutt, a drainage, sanitation and garbage disposal engineer, who’s been involved in a terrible mix-up; desperate to recruit a peace marshal to sort things out in Stodge City, the local government take Marshall’s Christian name as meaning he’s a qualified marshal and send him to clean up Stodge City; Knutt, meanwhile, thinks he’s been appointed to clear out the town’s drains.
En route to Stodge, Annie has the chance to show off her prowess with the gun. Worried about the arrival of a new marshal, the Rumpo Kid, not wanting to be implicated himself, seeks the help of a local Indian tribe to try and prevent Knutt reaching Stodge. When they attack the travelling stagecoach carrying Knutt and Oakley, they didn’t expect to be facing a crack shot. Surviving the attack, Knutt thinks he was the one who successfully saw off the Indian threat.
Still desperate to find a way of ridding the town of Marshall P. Knutt, Johnny Finger hatches a plot whereby the marshal is tipped off about cattle-rustling taking place that night. The judge tells Marshall to take a posse out with him but he has trouble recruiting anyone, so Johnny gives him two of his own men. Arriving at the ranch, he’s accused of horse-rustling and finds himself with a hangman’s noose over his head. It looks like it’s curtains for Marshall Knutt until Annie Oakley comes to the rescue.
Back in Stodge City, Annie entices Johnny Finger up to her bedroom and finds a way of getting him to admit to killing her father; she invites him back later and in preparation for his visit rigs up her gun to shoot him when he opens the door. Fortunately for Johnny Finger, his sidekick, Charlie, enters her room first and is killed.
Later, when the judge lets on to the Rumpo Kid that the marshal isn’t actually a marshal, but an engineer sent to the town by mistake, he vows to kill him. Annie Oakley tries to persuade Marshall to leave town, revealing that she was the one who shot the Indians. Marshall isn’t going to run, though, and has a plan he’s confident will work if she can help him become a crack shot in the two hours remaining before the Rumpo Kid’s arrival in town.
He may not know his way around a gun, but Marshall P. Knutt is an expert when it comes to drains and sets about nailing the Rumpo Kid once and for all.
The Rumpo Kid (Sid James) meets his match in the unlikely shape of Marshall Knutt (Jim Dale)
Nowadays, he can be found helping his son run fruit stalls at Putney and Clapham Junction.
CORNELIUS, JOE
Role: Second in Loving
Born in London in 1928, Joe Cornelius started his working life, aged fourteen, in the printing trade. A keen amateur wrestler, by the time he was twenty-two he’d decided to turn pro and travelled to Berlin for his first bout. During a career spanning two decades, he fought around the world, including China and Japan, and was crowned Southern Area heavyweight champion and runner-up in the nationals.
He made occasional television and film appearances, including Adam Adamant Lives! and The Befrienders for the small screen and The File of the Golden Goose, Trog and The Dirty Dozen for the big screen.
After quitting wrestling in 1973, he managed various pubs in London before retiring to Lanzarote, where he remained for six years. Now lives in Spain.
CORRIE, ERIC
Role: Citizen in Constable
On screen since the 1950s, his television work included The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Adventures of Sir Lancelot and Doomwatch, while his film credits ranged from The Colditz Story and A Hill in Korea to The Quatermass Xperiment and The Iron Maiden.
CORSET LADY
Played by Amelia Bayntun
Seen in Loving, the woman is desperately being squeezed into a corset by Esme Crowfoot when Sidney Bliss calls to set up a date for Bertie Muffet.
COUCH, LIONEL
Art Director on Teacher, Regardless, Don’t Lose Your Head, Camping, Loving, Henry, At Your Convenience, Matron, Abroad, Dick, Behind and England
Educated at Dulwich College, Lionel Couch trained at Camberwell Art School and was intending to become an architect before the outbreak of war saw him serve in the army.
After demob he quickly found employment as an assistant art director at Gainsborough Studios before transferring to Pinewood. His CV boasts such pictures as Nurse On Wheels, Night Must Fall, Casino Royale, Anne of the Thousand Days (for which he received an Academy Award nomination), Assault, Bless This House, The Satanic Rites of Dracula and, his last picture as art director, The Awakening.
COULTER, PHIL
Co-wrote the song, ‘Don’t Lose Your Head’, heard in the film of the same name
Born in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, in 1942, composer, pianist and arranger Phil Coulter graduated from Belfast’s Queen’s University and went on to write music for films such as A Man Called Sledge and The Water Babies as well as television series, including 1980’s Metal Mickey.
He’s also made the occasional appearance as an actor, such as in the 1999 film Black Eyed Dog and the television series, You’re A Star, hosted his own show, Coulter and Company for RTE in Ireland, and released many albums.
COUNSELL, JENNY
Role: Night Nurse in Again Doctor
COURTAULDS
The company which supplied all the nurses’ uniforms for Nurse.
COURTENAY, FRANCIS
Played by Kenneth Williams
Seen in Regardless, Francis is an intellectual who’s fluent in sixteen languages, including gobbledygook, which helps when the landlord comes calling. Fancies himself as a model and is delighted when a modelling assignment is given to him – that is until discovering he’s been hired to model hats for beekeepers.
COURTING GIRL
Played by Drina Pavlovic
The Courting Girl, who’s sneaked into the bushes with a boy, is disturbed when Henry Barnes throws a stick into the shrubs during Behind.
COURTS
The shop in Camping which Sid Boggle and Bernie Lugg visit hoping to find a leaflet on the nudist camp they plan visiting with their girlfriends. Unfortunately they pick up the wrong one and end up in a mudpit in Devon. The shop is also visited by Charlie Muggins who causes a commotion before buying some camping gear.
COWBOY, CARRY ON
see feature box here.
COWHAND
Played by Hal Galili
In Cowboy the Cowhand is sitting beside a camp fire with his colleague, Joe, keeping an eye on his herd when he’s attacked by Rumpo’s men.
COWLING, BRENDA
Roles: Matron in Girls and Wife in Behind
London-born Brenda Cowling wanted to be a film star as early as her childhood, but after leaving school trained as a shorthand typist before eventually changing direction and joining RADA. While studying at the Academy she made a brief appearance as a drama student in Hitchcock’s Stage Fright.
Plenty of rep work followed before Cowling made her television debut. Early small screen appearances include several series of an afternoon keep-fit show and The Forsyte Saga. Her career has focused mainly on television but she has occasionally appeared on stage and in films, such as The Railway Children, International Velvet and a small part in the Bond movie, Octopussy.
Television credits include Dad’s Army; It Ain’t Half Hot; Mum, Hi-de-Hi!; Fawlty Towers; The Pallisers; Only When I Laugh; three series of Potter; four series of You Rang, M’Lord?; The Last Detective; Casualty; Murder in Suburbia; Doctors and Nurses and Holby City.
COX, IAN
Technical Advisor on Jack
Lieutenant Commander Ian Cox supplied his naval expertise for other films, such as 1970’s Hell Boats.
COX, JENNY
Role: Veronica in Behind
Born in Abervale, South Wales, Jenny Cox completed her education at Watford Grammar School and joined the local rep, making her debut as a prostitute in The Hostage. She moved on to begin her acting career in earnest at the Oxford Playhouse.
Her stage career has included a host of productions, including The Dirtiest Show in Town and Pyjama Tops, while her occasional small-screen appearances during the 1970s and ’80s include, among others, Steptoe and Son, Rings On Their Fingers, Shoestring, The Chinese Detective and Thames Television’s Spasms in 1977. She also played Dr Livingstone in the 1974 film, Can You Keep It Up for a Week?.
C. R. & J. BRAY
The establishment, which is next-door to D.L. Randall’s, is a tobacconist and newsagent. The front of the property is seen in Behind.
CRIBBINS, BERNARD
Roles: Midshipman Albert Poop-Decker in Jack, Harold Crump in Spying and Mordecai Mendoza in Columbus
Born in Oldham, Lancashire, in 1928, Bernard Cribbins began acting at the age of fourteen upon joining his local repertory company as an assistant stage manager. By the 1950s, he was playing leading roles on the West End stage and featuring in his own revue.
He began appearing on the screen in the late-1950s, with one-off roles in series like TheVise and small parts in films such as The Yangtse Incident and Davy, but it was the 1960s in which he attained national recognition. As well as releasing three novelty records, including Hole in the Ground, which climbed to number nine in 1962, he appeared in a string of films and television shows. His big-screen credits include Two Way Stretch, The Wrong Arm of the Law, Crooks in Cloisters, The Sandwich Man, The Railway Children and Dangerous Davies – The Last Detective. On television, he’s appeared in programmes such as The Troubleshooters, Fawlty Towers, Tales of the Unexpected, Barbara, High and Dry and, most recently, Coronation Street, as Wally Bannister. He’s also remembered for providing the voices to the Wombles on television.
CRIMINAL TYPE
Played by Victor Maddern
When PC Benson steps in and stops someone who he thinks is about to steal a car, he doesn’t realise he’s just stopped Detective Sergeant Liddell from CID.
CROMWELL, THOMAS
Played by Kenneth Williams
Henry VIII’s chancellor is seen in Henry rushing around trying to satisfy his employer’s every need. When money needs to be raised to pay for the King’s annulment, Cromwell comes up with the bright idea for taxing sex, called Sex Enjoyment Tax.
CROOK
Played by Freddie Mills
Seen in Constable, the crook and his accomplices have just robbed a jewellery shop when PC Potter, a callow new police constable, taps him on the shoulder as he climbs into the getaway car and asks for directions to the police station, totally oblivious to the fact that he’s just committed a crime.
CROSS, LARRY
Role: Perkins in Cowboy
Larry Cross, who died in 1976, appeared on television from the 1950s, and among his credits were roles in Sailor of Fortune, International Detective, The Saint, Man of the World, Man in a Suitcase, Callan, The Troubleshooters, Thriller and Hadleigh. In films he was seen in, among others, Time Lock, The Mouse on the Moon, Battle Beneath the Earth and his last film, 1975’s The Wind and the Lion.
CROW, DR
Played by Judith Furse
In charge of the subversive organisation STENCH, Dr Crow is seen in Spying. A threat to all mankind, Crow is responsible for the murder of Professor Stark and the stealing of a top-secret formula.
CROWFOOT, ESME
Played by Joan Sims
A client of the Wedded Bliss Agency who’s personally vetted – on a regular basis to the disgust of Sophie – by Sidney Bliss, who fancies her rotten. The thirty-five-year-old corset specialist lives in a flat at 32 Rogerham Mansions, Dunham Road, London W23, and used to date a man-mountain of a wrestler, Gripper Burke, until he went to fight in America. When he returns, they rekindle their relationship and end up getting engaged.
Bernard Cribbins (right) makes the first of three Carry On appearances (Jack)
CARRY ON CRUISING
An Anglo Amalgamated film
A Peter Rogers production
Distributed through Warner-Pathe Distribution Ltd
From a story by Eric Barker
Released as a U certificate in 1962 in colour
Running time: 89 mins
CAST
(Note: the song sung by Dr Binn while attempting to serenade Flo was recorded by Roberto Cardinali, for a fee of £75.)
PRODUCTION TEAM
Screenplay by Norman Hudis
Music composed and conducted by Bruce Montgomery and Douglas Gamley
Director of Photography: Alan Hume
Art Director: Carmen Dillon
Editor: John Shirley
Production Manager: Bill Hill
Camera Operator: Dudley Lovell
Assistant Director: Jack Causey
Sound Editors: Arthur Ridout and Archie Ludski
Sound Recordists: Robert T. MacPhee and Bill Daniels
Continuity: Penny Daniels
Make-up: George Blackler and Geoffrey Rodway
Hairdressing: Biddy Chrystal
Costume Designer: Joan Ellacott
Casting Director: Betty White
Beachwear for Miss Fraser and Miss Laye by ‘Silhouette’
The producers acknowledged the assistance of P&O – ORIENT LINES in the making of the film.
Producer: Peter Rogers
Director: Gerald Thomas
Capt. Crowther (Sid James) presides over a host of new faces
Doctor Binn (Kenneth Connor) is smitten with Flo (Dilys Laye, left)
Ready for another cruise, this time an April run around the sunny Mediterranean, Captain Crowther, who’s at the helm of the S.S. Happy Wanderer, is horrified to see new faces among his crew. Changes in personnel make him nervous because he believes they could spell disaster, thereby killing off any hope he has of taking over the captaincy of the company’s new trans-Atlantic liner.
Among the passengers embarking on the journey is an eccentric old lady, a drunk who spends his entire time propping up the bar and two girls, Flo and Glad. Flo hopes that during the cruise, with her friend’s help, she’ll find herself a husband. Dr Binn, the ship’s doctor, is attracted to her but it’s clear that feelings aren’t mutual, particularly as she’s already got her eye on Mr Jenkins, the PT instructor.
Meanwhile, Leonard Marjoribanks, the new first officer, happens to pop into the captain’s cabin when he’s mixing up various drinks. Unbeknown to Marjoribanks, Captain Crowther is trying to find the right combination for an Aberdeen Angus, his favourite tipple. The only person who knew how to mix the drink was Angus, the head barman, who resigned from his job without passing details on to his replacement. Marjoribanks believes the captain is drunk and convenes a meeting with the rest of the crew to inform them that he’s taking over the ship; everyone is, therefore, understandably shocked when a completely sober Captain Crowther strides into the room.
Flo Castle’s search for a husband, meanwhile, continues. Suddenly realising she needs a mature man, she only has eyes for the captain, but attempts to woo him fail. To help her friend, Glad Trimble secures the help of the first officer to bring Dr Binn and Flo together, and it’s not long before the ship’s doctor overcomes his timidity and proposes to Miss Castle.
As the cruise comes to an end, a party is thrown to celebrate ten years since the captain took charge of the Happy Wanderer; the captain is soon the recipient of good news when a cable arrives informing him he’s got the new job, but he declines the offer in order to stay with his beloved Happy Wanderer.
CROWTHER, CAPTAIN WELLINGTON
Played by Sid James
Captain Crowther has been at the helm of the Happy Wanderer for ten years. He served in the navy during the war, sailing Arctic waters, but has spent the last few decades ferrying passengers around the Mediterranean. Has hopes of being offered the captaincy of the company’s spanking new trans-Atlantic liner but realises it’s not a foregone conclusion, especially with several board members disliking him. Such an inferiority complex explains why he becomes incredibly nervous and worried when new faces join the crew of the Happy Wanderer, splitting up the loyal, reliable team he’s established over the years.
Despite problems endured during the April cruise to the Med in Cruising, the trip turns out successful and Crowther is offered his dream job, only to turn it down in order to stay with the Happy Wanderer.
Away from the wheelhouse, he’s green-fingered; his garden is the envy of everyone associated with the various horticultural societies to which he belongs.
CRUISING, CARRY ON
see feature box here.
CRUMP, HAROLD
Played by Bernard Cribbins
Agent 04733, whose codename is Blue Bottle, is one of the callow agents reporting to Simkins in Spying. A Southern Counties champion in ludo for four years, he’s recruited to the team whose job is to retrieve a stolen formula. While doing so, he falls in love with fellow agent, Daphne Honeybutt.
CRUMP, PROFESSOR ROLAND
Played by Kenneth Williams
The distinguished archaeologist, who lectures at the University of Kidburn, heads to Templeton where a Roman encampment has been unearthed next to a caravan site. He’s joined on his dig by a bunch of enthusiastic students and an expert in Roman remains, Professor Vooshka, who, surprisingly, takes quite a fancy to the professor, although his inexperience with the opposite sex is plain to see.
CUMMINGS, BILL
Role: Thug in Spying
As a stuntman, Bill Cummings worked on such films as Willow and ten James Bond movies, ranging from Dr No and From Russia with Love to The Spy Who Loved Me and For Your Eyes Only. On television he carried out stunts on Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) and The Prisoner.
Cummings appeared in small parts in The Champions and The Avengers on television, as well as Heavenly Bodies! and The Pink Panther Strikes Again on the big screen.
CURLY
Played by Peter Gilmore
One of the Rumpo Kid’s men who run Stodge City to their own game plan. Seen in Cowboy.
CURRY, IAN
Roles: Eric in Constable and Leonard Beamish in Regardless
Born in Rhodesia in 1930, Ian Curry was seen only occasionally on screen during the early 1960s. His television credits include Richard the Lionheart, The Avengers and Zero One, while he appeared in a few films, such as Underground and The Dock Brief.
CURTIS, ALAN
Roles: Conte di Pisa in Henry and Police Chief in Abroad
Born in Coulsdon, Surrey, in 1930, Alan Curtis left school and immediately entered the business at the Croydon Grand, appearing as a village boy in Great Day. Apart from a brief spell working for Anglo-American Oil, he’s remained in the industry ever since. In 1947, he secured his first break with a repertory company in Gloucester, helping construct the sets, followed by a six-month spell with a small film company in Reigate, making short, animated religious films.
In 1948 he mixed acting with work behind the scenes, including a stint at Colwyn Bay, and by the mid-1950s was appearing on the screen. His film credits include Die Screaming, Marianne, Four Dimensions of Greta, The Flesh and Blood Show, Tiffany Jones and The Vision, while on television he’s been seen in, among others, The Saint, Paul Temple, Whoops Baghdad!, Last of the Summer Wine, The Corridor People, Crossroads and Duty Free. His busy stage career, meanwhile, has seen him make just under a thousand appearances at the London Palladium.
In 1995 he suffered a stroke which restricted work opportunities for a while but has since returned to acting and, in 2003, was seen in the popular drama, Footballers’ Wives.
CUSTOMS OFFICER
Played by David Hart
Searches Emmannuelle Prevert’s baggage in Emmannuelle when she first arrives in the UK, paying particular attention to her underwear. (Note: the scene was cut from the film.)
WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN
When Emmannuelle first arrives in the UK she gets more than she bargained for at the Customs desk, and in an earlier draft of the script, a female customs officer was involved, too.
INT. CUSTOMS BAGGAGE AREA, AIRPORT – DAY
Emmannuelle is standing at a Customs bench watching a large, brutish, sarcastic Customs officer go through the contents of her two big suitcases. He pulls out some of her frilly underthings and feels them suggestively, grinning at her, daring her to complain.
EMMANNUELLE: You won’t find anything in there.
CUSTOMS OFFICER: Pity. (Laughs like a hyena at his own cleverness.)
(The CUSTOMS OFFICER, still rifling through the suitcase, focuses his gaze on the front of EMMANNUELLE’s wrap-around dress.)
EMMANNUELLE: (With a challenge.) Nor in there.
(Theodore, wheeling his luggage by on a trolley, unhampered by a customs inspection, stops behind Emmannuelle. He clears his throat to attract her attention. Emmannuelle turns, gives Theodore just a cursory glance, then turns back to the Customs officer.)
(Theodore looks hurt, hesitates, then wheels his trolley towards the exit.)
CUSTOMS OFFICER: Ever been caught smugglin’ have you, darlin’?
EMMANNUELLE: I have nothing to declare and nothing to hide!
CUSTOMS OFFICER: (Still gaping at her.) That so?
(The Customs officer turns and gives a silent signal to a woman Customs official, who starts to walk towards them.)
INT. CUSTOMS INSPECTION ROOM, AIRPORT – DAY
(The uniformed woman Customs official is alone with Emmannuelle. The room is very small and as bare as a betting shop.)
CUSTOMS OFFICER: I have to ask you to remove all your clothing, if you don’t mind.
EMMANNUELLE: What for?
CUSTOMS OFFICER: We have reason to suspect you may be secreting something on your person.
EMMANNUELLE: What – something?
CUSTOMS OFFICER: That’s what we’re going to find out!
EMMANNUELLE: (Indignantly.) I am not a smooggler!
CUSTOMS OFFICER: Then you have nothing to worry about, do you?
(Emmannuelle’s mood switches from indignation to cunning. She stares at the Custom official’s body.)
EMMANNUELLE: I will, if you will.
CUSTOMS OFFICER: What?
EMMANNUELLE: I said – I will, if you will.
CUSTOMS OFFICER: (Trying to take her eyes off EMMANNUELLE’s body.) That’s not in the regulations.
EMMANNUELLE: Who cares about regulations?
INT. OUTSIDE CUSTOMS INSPECTION ROOM, AIRPORT – DAY
(The large brutish Customs officer is covertly peeping through the knothole in the wall. His expression is incredulous.)
INT. CUSTOMS INSPECTION ROOM, AIRPORT – DAY
(From Customs officer’s P.O.V. through knothole: Emmannuelle is undressed for inspection. So is the woman Customs official.)
CUTTING, SIR BERNARD
Played by Kenneth Williams
A top surgeon at Finisham Maternity Hospital in Matron, Sir Bernard spends most of his time worrying about his own ailments. A hypochondriac who one minute thinks he’s got Asian flu, the next believes he’s changing sex. Respected by many of his peers as well as those reporting to him, including Matron, whose feelings for Cutting go far beyond the line of duty. She’s smitten with Cutting but the feeling isn’t reciprocated, that is until Dr Goode convinces him that his worries regarding changing sex are due to an urgent desire to prove his masculinity. From that moment, Cutting tries to develop a relationship with Matron, ending in the sound of wedding bells.
CYNICAL LADY
Played by Joan Benham
Seen in Emmannuelle sitting at Emile Prevert’s dining-table, the Cynical Lady is a guest of the French Ambassador.
CYRIL
The cameraman who arrives at the Palace Hotel with Cecil Gaybody and the rest of the team working on the television programme, Women’s Things. Seen but not heard in Girls.
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DALE, JIM
Roles: Expectant Father in Cabby, Carrier in Jack, Carstairs in Spying, Horsa in Cleo, Marshall P. Knutt in Cowboy, Albert Potter in Screaming!, Lord Darcy de Pue in Don’t Lose Your Head, Bertram Oliphant ‘Bo’ West in Follow That Camel, Dr Jim Kilmore in Doctor, Dr James Nookey in Again Doctor and Columbus in Columbus
Jim Dale, who was born in Rothwell, Northants, in 1935, imbued his characterisations with a vulnerability and naïvety, with no finer example than his beautifully portrayed Marshall P. Knutt in Cowboy. But he was equally adept at adopting a cheeky grin and have-a-laugh manner, which he used to great effect when crafting a medical persona for Doctor and Again Doctor.
A man of many talents, from singer and songwriter to comic and actor, Dale began to show an inclination towards a future life on the stage when, aged nine, he began studying dance and started performing in local amateur shows.
After leaving school he worked in a shoe factory but began developing a comedy act which he later toured around Variety music halls before having to interrupt his career to complete National Service in the RAF.
Moving into his twenties, he diversified and enjoyed success as a pop singer; four of his singles charted with his biggest hit,‘Be My Girl’, climbing to number two in October 1957. As well as appearing on the popular music show, Six·Five Special, he later hosted the show, by which time his face was instantly recognisable to the viewing public. His popularity also led to a spell spinning discs on a BBC radio show for a year.
His stage career started in earnest when he was offered the chance to play Autolycus in Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, followed by the part of Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. By the beginning of the 1970s, when he’d made ten of his eleven Carry On appearances, he joined the National Theatre and proceeded to clock up numerous West End credits, including such productions as The Merchant of Venice, The Good Natured Man, The Burglar and The Card. It was his stage success that led to him settling in America. His impressive performances playing the lead in an adaptation of Molière’s Scapino in San Francisco and Broadway earned him several awards and plenty of job offers.
His screen career has mainly been in films, with credits including Raising the Wind, The Iron Maiden, Nurse on Wheels, The Big Job, The Plank, Lock Up Your Daughters!, Pete’s Dragon and Scandalous. His television roles, meanwhile, include appearances in The Equaliser and Cosby.
More recently, he’s recorded the Harry Potter audiobooks and picked up many awards for his efforts.
Albert Potter (Jim Dale) thinks he’s lost the love of his life (Screaming!)
DALE ROAD
A road mentioned in Cabby during the scene where Peggy and Sally are held at gunpoint by crooks while driving one of the Glamcabs.
DALE, SHEILA
Played by Carol White
In Teacher, Dale is one of the ringleaders among the schoolkids who wreak havoc when a school inspector and child psychiatrist visit Maudlin Street Secondary Modern School.
DALEY, LADY
Played by Margaret Nolan
The busty wife of Sir Roger Daley appears in Dick.
DALEY, SIR ROGER
Played by Bernard Bresslaw
Sir Roger is a member of the landed gentry who’s tasked with running the Bow Street Runners, a special police unit formed to stop the upsurge in crime. Seen in Dick, his main objective is to catch the master villain himself: highwayman Dick Turpin, who happens to rob Sir Roger of all his possessions, including clothes, on two occasions. Although Sir Roger is married to the delectable Lady Daley, he still likes a little fun on the side.
DANCING GIRLS
Played by The Ballet Montparnesse
When the Rumpo Kid takes over Belle’s Place in Cowboy, he transforms Stodge City’s hostelry into a rowdy, smoky establishment full of debauched customers, with entertainment provided by the dancing girls performing the cancan.
DANCY
Played by Peter Gilmore
One of the crooks in Cabby who hold Peggy and Sally at gunpoint.
DANDY
Played by Guy Ward
In Emmannuelle the effeminate dandy wanders by a sentry, makes a comment and receives a wink in return.
DANDY
Played by John Clive
In Henry a crowd at Speakers’ Corner gather to debate the new Sex Enjoyment Tax being imposed by the King. The Dandy, however, turns to his friend and remarks that it won’t affect them! (Note: the scene was cut.)
WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN
The Heckler, Young Man and a Dandy are standing at Speakers’ Corner, listening to debate about the newly proposed Sex Enjoyment Tax (S.E.T.).
EXT. ‘SPEAKERS’ CORNER’ OF THE TIME – DAY
Hampton is addressing an at-the-moment rather apathetic little crowd of men.
HAMPTON: I tell you, citizens, we’ve had some cruel taxes thrust upon us but this is one of the most infamous of them all! Are we going to take it lying down? No, let’s stand up to it!
HECKLER: Don’t matter which way you have it, you’ll still have to pay!
(This gets a laugh from the crowd.)
HAMPTON: You might find it amusing at the moment, friend, but will you still feel like going home and taking your wife in your arms regularly?
HECKLER: Yes.
HAMPTON: And afford it?
HECKLER: Yes. I’m knocking it off her housekeeping!
(This gets another laugh.)
HAMPTON: All right, all right. That may be all right for you friend, but what of you unmarried younger men? You, lad!
(He points to a YOUNG MAN in the crowd.)
HAMPTON: Are you married?
YOUNG MAN: No, fear.
HAMPTON: Ah! Well, do you ever take a young maid into the fields for a bit of dalliance?
YOUNG MAN: I’m going tonight.
HAMPTON: Knowing that with S.E.T. you’ve got to pay up for every little kiss and cuddle? No! Let’s have it off, I say!
YOUNG MAN: I intend to!
(Another laugh.)
HAMPTON: Then you’re a fool! Friends, I appeal to you! If the basic simple pleasures of life are to be taxed where’s it going to end? Soon we’ll be paying just to have a good scratch! We’ve got to put a stop to S.E.T. now!
HECKLER: How?
HAMPTON: Simple! Keep away from the women! Go on strike! Down tools!
(There are some ‘Hear hears’ and murmurs of approval from the crowd now.)
(C.S. of two dandies, looking on dispassionately. One looks to the other petulantly.)
DANDY: Oh come on, Cedric. It doesn’t affect us.
DANDY DESMOND
A fictitious name Captain Fancey adopts while travelling incognito trying to track down Dick Turpin in Dick.
DANE, ALEXANDRA
Roles: Female Instructor in Doctor, Busti in Up The Khyber, Stout Woman in Again Doctor, Emily in Loving and Lady in Low-cut Dress in Behind. (Note: Also had uncredited role in At Your Convenience but scene cut.)
Born in Bethlehem, South Africa, in 1946, Alexandra Dane always wanted to be a ballerina but her mother steered her towards an acting career. After graduating from Cape Town University with a degree and diploma in drama, she headed for England in the mid-1960s to begin her acting career.
Her first post was assistant stage manager at Bognor Regis, before progressing to juvenile lead and moving on to other reps. Theatre has dominated Dane’s career and during the 1960s she formed her own company, the Cambridge Shakespeare Group, and toured South Africa, affording her the chance to direct.
Her screen career has seen her appear in films such as Corruption, Confessions of a Handyman and, in 1977, Jabberwocky, while her small-screen credits include The Saint, Hazell and The Tripods, as well as semi-regular characters in Not On Your Nellie, Alas Smith and Jones and The Doctors.
In 1981, she formed her own puppet company, Pom Pom Puppets, and performed around the world, including Tenerife and India. After recently buying a farm in Spain, Dane, who’s retired from acting, is considering relaunching her puppet shows in the country.
MEMORIES
‘My first role was playing an instructor in Doctor, running antenatal classes. I was told to improvise but didn’t know anything about pre-natal in those days so I got them lifting their legs up and down. I’ve had children since then and know it’s one of the last things you’d do at antenatal class; any medical person would have been going mad!
‘One of the nice things about the Carry On films is that when they’d used you once, if they liked you it could lead to other parts, which is what happened to me. Along came Up the Khyber and I was offered the part of Busti.
‘I’ll always remember Nora Rodway, who was helping her husband, Geoff, with the make-up. I had to use a lot of body make-up but in those days you didn’t have these quick-tan methods, so Nora had to put it on with a sponge and water, and she had to do it every morning because I had so much of my body showing in Up the Khyber. I’ll always remember her saying: “This is like distempering a small room!” She pleaded with me not to bath each evening because I’d keep washing this water-based liquid off and she’d have to go through the job each morning.
‘In Again Doctor I had a nasty accident and suffered back problems for some time after. I was leaning back on a machine made to look like it was out of control and it came out of the floor resulting in me going to hospital.
‘Working on the Carry Ons was the happiest, happiest experience. Even when thinking about all the other bits and pieces I did in movies and on tele, I can’t remember being happier because everyone was so sweet to you. I adored them all, it was like being part of a big family. It’s extraordinary that after appearing in Shakespeare and rep, which I was doing when I appeared in the Carry Ons, I’m remembered for small parts in those films; I’d never have believed it. They were lovely films to work on.’
ALEXANDRA DANE
DANGLE, MRS
Played by Joan Sims
Emile Prevert’s housekeeper-cum-cook in Emmannuelle. A widow since the death of her husband, Henry, Mrs Dangle takes care of the French Ambassador’s culinary needs.
DANIEL, DANNY
Sound Recordist on Henry, At Your Convenience, Matron, Dick, Behind, England, That’s Carry On and Emmannuelle
Working as a sound recordist from the late 1960s, his various screen credits include Kidnapped, Nothing But the Night, Diamonds On Wheels and, in 1985, Murder Elite.
DANIEL, J. W. N.
Sound Recordist on Loving
Working as a boom operator on the 1957 film, Miracle in Soho, J. W. N. Daniel was credited as a sound recordist from the 1970s on films such as The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes and Revenge.
DANIELLE, SUZANNE
Role: Emmannuelle Prevert in Emmannuelle
Born in London in 1955, Suzanne Danielle grew up in Romford, Essex, where she attended the famous Bush Davies School between the age of seven and sixteen; it was here that she nurtured not only her love of acting but dancing, too. She gained experience of the stage at Hornchurch Rep before joining the cast of Billy, starring Michael Crawford. After four weeks in Manchester, the play moved into the West End.
Soon after appearing in Billy, Danielle was seen on the big screen in The Prince and the Pauper, while other credits include The Wild Geese, Golden Lady, Long Shot, The Stud, Flash Gordon, Arabian Adventure (as a dancer) and, one of her last films, The Boys in Blue, in 1987.
On the small screen, meanwhile, she enjoyed a busy period between the late 1970s and late ’80s when she was seen in several television series, such as The Professionals, The Generation Game, Doctor Who, Hammer House of Horror, Tales of the Unexpected, Strangers and the Morecambe and Wise Show.
In the late 1980s she married golfer Sam Torrance and quit showbusiness.
DANIELS, BILL
Sound recordist on Nurse, Constable, Cruising, Cabby, Jack, Spying, Cleo, Camping and Again Doctor
Bill Daniels began working as a sound recordist from the mid-1950s, with early films including The Secret Place, Hell Drivers, Rockets Galore!, A Tale of Two Cities and Too Many Crooks. He worked regularly until the mid-70s, with later credits such as the big-screen version of hit sitcom Bless This House and in 1976, his last film, The Slipper and the Rose.
DANIELS, DANNY
Role: Nosha Chief in Up the Jungle
Other screen credits for Danny Daniels include the television shows White Hunter, The Saint and Man in a Suitcase as well as films such as Passionate Summer, Murder Club, Prehistoric Women and The Oblong Box.
DANIELS, PENNY
Continuity on Nurse, Cruising, Cabby, Jack, Spying and Screaming!
Working in continuity from the 1950s, Penny Daniels’ long list of film credits include Tiger in the Smoke, A Night to Remember, The Captain’s Table, The League of Gentlemen, Whistle Down the Wind, Séance on a Wet Afternoon, Where Eagles Dare, The Medusa Touch and two Bond movies, Octopussy and A View to a Kill.
DANN, DAN
Played by Charles Hawtrey
Works as a lavatory attendant at the public conveniences outside the entrance to Hocombe Park. Formerly employed at the Bide-a-Wee Rest Home, near Hocombe Woods, as a gardener before securing the job which comes with free accommodation! He sadly meets an unfortunate end when he’s drowned in one of his own toilets. Olando and Virula Watt, the residents of Bide-a-Wee Rest Home, become concerned that he’ll spill the beans to the police about the goings-on at their eerie house, so they despatch Odbodd to do their dirty deeds. (Note: in an early version of the script, Dan was to be Doris Mann’s father.)
DANN, LARRY
Roles: Boy in Teacher, Clive in Behind, Gunner Shaw in England and Theodore Valentine in Emmannuelle
Born in London in 1941, Larry Dann joined the Corona Stage School from the age of eleven. Just like his opening performance in the Carry Ons, his screen debut, back in 1949, saw him cast as a schoolboy in Rank’s movie, Adam and Evelyn, with Stewart Granger and Jean Simmons. While studying at stage school he appeared as an extra in several pictures, including The Million Pound Note, Trouble in Store and The Bulldog Breed.
He left Corona aged twenty-one and joined Joan Littlewood’s Theatre Workshop in London’s Stratford East, appearing in the original production of Oh What A Lovely War, marking the beginning of a fruitful stage career. Over the years he’s performed with numerous repertory companies and in plenty of West End productions, while his small screen work includes playing Elsie Tanner’s son, Dennis, in Florizel Street, the pilot episode of Coronation Street and Sergeant Alec Peters in The Bill for eight years.
MEMORIES
‘I made my debut as a schoolkid in Teacher. Most of the kids were from the Corona Academy School, including myself, and I remember having a great time. It was terribly sad, though, because a scene I was in ended up being cut. For me, it was one of the best moments on the studio set because I got a huge round of applause after finishing it. It was during the orchestra scene. The orchestra went into a jazz number and it all became chaotic. I was on the drums, playing a stupid, dumb boy, and went bananas. Suddenly it was cut out of the film and I assume lost on the cutting-room floor. But I had a great time with all my mates.
‘I hadn’t appeared in a Carry On for what seemed like 150 years when I was offered a role in Behind. I got into that one purely because in those days I used to do a lot of commercials and a few months before Behind started, I went to film a commercial and Gerald Thomas was directing it. I walked into the room and he said: “Hello, Larry, long time no see.” He then went on to say: “You’re not right for this commercial, but I want you for the next Carry On.” I thought to myself, “Oh yes, I’ll believe that when it happens.” But a week later I was in it!’
LARRY DANN
DARCY DE PUE, LORD
Played by Jim Dale
A friend of Sir Rodney Ffing, he is saddened to hear of the plight of so many French men and women; since the revolution across the channel, the aristocracy are losing their heads to the guillotine at an alarming rate and the brave Darcy, accompanied by Ffing, sets out to snatch the victims from the brink of death via a series of audacious ruses and artful disguises. Seen in Don’t Lose Your Head.
DARCY, MAUREEN
Played by Carol Wyler
One of the beauty contestants rushed on stage during the itching powder fiasco in Girls.
DARK, GREGORY
Assistant Director on Emmannuelle
DARLING, JANE
Played by Valerie Leon
The film star gives birth to triplets in the back of the ambulance during Matron. Even more remarkable, though, is that Cyril Carter, dressed up as a nurse, administered the delivery because Dr Prodd, who should have been doing the job, was knocked out after having an injection accidentally pushed into his backside.
DARLING, MR
Played by Robin Hunter
Jane Darling’s husband who waves his wife goodbye during Matron before heading back inside his house for a bit of fun with the shapely au pair.
DARVEY, DIANA
Role: Maureen in Behind
Born in Richmond, Surrey, in 1945, Diana Darvey followed her mother – who topped the bill at the Windmill Theatre during the war years – into showbusiness. Originally starting out as a singer and dancer, her early career was spent working with Miss Joan Baron’s Ballet in Madrid; spotted by former musical revue artist Celia Gomez, who groomed her to become England’s first female star in Spanish light entertainment. She later won more plaudits as leading lady to Spanish revue artistes Luis Cuenca and Pedro Pena in Barcelona. Three years later, she returned to Madrid’s Teatro Alcazar as the star attraction.
In the 1970s she was working on British television, making occasional appearances in shows such as sitcom And Mother Makes Five, starring Wendy Craig. She also played various character roles in several series of The Benny Hill Show. For many years continued to lead a successful career in cabaret at the Savoy and other top venues.
She died in 2000, aged fifty-four.
DAVENPORT, CLAIRE
Role: Blonde in Pub in Emmannuelle
Born in Sale, Cheshire, in 1933, Claire Davenport was the archetypal character actress, often seen playing a host of battleaxes, from fearsome traffic wardens to overbearing wives.
After grammar school she trained as a teacher at Liverpool’s St Catherine’s College and subsequently taught at a school in Salford. Always a keen amateur actress, she spent her evenings performing with various local companies before, in 1960, deciding to swap careers.
She studied at RADA for two years before making her professional debut in the stage version of television sitcom, The Rag Trade; the following year, she played Myrtle in the final series of the TV show.
Hers quickly became a regular face on television, mostly in comedies such as George and the Dragon, Love Thy Neighbour, Fawlty Towers, Robin’s Nest, George and Mildred and On the Buses. On the big screen she played a masseuse in The Return of the Pink Panther, a fat lady in The Elephant Man and a six-breasted dancer in Return of the Jedi. She subsequently popped up in various low-budget sex comedies, including The Bawdy Adventures of Tom Jones and Rosie Dixon – Night Nurse.
A series of strokes in the 1990s stopped her working. She died in 2002, aged sixty-eight.
DAVENPORT, DAVID
Roles: Bilius in Cleo, Sergeant in Don’t Lose Your Head and Major-domo in Henry
Born in Hertfordshire in 1921, David Davenport moved to London at the age of thirteen to attend the Cone Ripman ballet school, before joining the Lydia Kyasht Russian ballet at seventeen. Four years later, he was invited to join the Royal Ballet.
His career as a dancer was suspended for four years whilst he worked as an RAF wireless operator during World War Two, but he continued after the war with parts in Sleeping Beauty at the Royal Opera House in 1946 and Annie Get Your Gun in 1948. During the 1950s, he moved into musical stage work, playing in many productions including The King and I and Oklahoma! He also began choreographing ballets for the Joanna Denise Classical Dance Group and made the transition into acting, in films and television.
His small-screen credits include playing the nationally hated Malcolm Ryder in Crossroads and frequently appearing in All Creatures Great and Small. He also acted in numerous films including King’s Rhapsody and 84, Charing Cross Road.
He died in 1994, aged seventy-three.
DAVEY, BERT
Art Director on Cleo, Cowboy and Screaming! Began as an art director in the 1950s and went on to spend the next three decades working on such films as Time Is My Enemy, On the Beat, A Stitch in Time, Battle of Britain, At the Earth’s Core, The People That Time Forgot, Eye of the Needle and, in 1986, his last film, Aliens.
DAVID, EVAN
Role: Bridegroom in Cruising
Windsor Davis struck gold by playing Sgt. Major Williams in the sitcom It Ain’t Half Hot Mum as well as appearing in two Carry Ons.
DAVIES, WINDSOR
Roles: Fred Ramsden in Behind and Sergeant Major ‘Tiger’ Bloomer in England
Born in London in 1930, Windsor Davies is probably best known for playing loud-mouthed Sergeant Major Williams in Perry and Croft’s 70’s sitcom, It Ain’t Half Hot, Mum.
He worked as a teacher and miner before completing a drama course at Richmond College in 1961 and turning his attention to acting. His screen career had begun by the mid-60s with early credits including television shows Dixon of Dock Green, Redcap, The Corridor People and Probation Officer, playing Bill Morgan. His film work covers the likes of Murder Most Foul, The Alphabet Murders, Drop Dead Darling and Endless Night.
More recent credits include small-screen productions 2point4Children, Sunburn, Casualty, Vanity Fair, My Family and Cor Blimey!
DAVIS, JOAN
Continuity on Sergeant and Constable
Her other credits in continuity, dating back to the 1940s, include Candles at Night, Turn the Key Softly, A Town Like Alice, The Iron Petticoat, The Spanish Gardener, Campbell’s Kingdom, The 39 Steps, Victim and two Bond movies, Thunderball and On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
DAVISON, RITA
Continuity on Don’t Lose Your Head, Henry and At Your Convenience
Rita Davison began working in continuity in the 1950s and proceeded to clock up a host of film credits. She joined the production team of films such as Innocents in Paris, The Vicious Circle, Tunes of Glory, Tom Jones, Help!, Petulia and her last film, 1981’s Dragonslayer. She also worked on the ITC drama series, The Saint.
DAWE, CEDRIC
Art Director on Doctor
Born in London in 1906, Cedric Dawe was designing for the US stage for several years before entering the British film industry. Other than the war years, during which he served in the army, he was regularly in employment.
His film credits included Black Limelight, Traveller’s Joy, Freedom of the Seas, Easy Money, So Long at the Fair, Street Corner, Star of India, Up in the World, A Hill in Korea and his penultimate film, The Day of the Triffids. He also worked on the 50s television series, Colonel March of Scotland Yard.
He died in 1996.
DAWES ROAD
Mentioned in Cabby during the scene where Peggy and Sally are driving along while being held at gunpoint by crooks.
DAWSON, NURSE STELLA
Played by Joan Sims
The accident-prone student nurse is seen in Nurse, working at the Haven Hospital. She’s so green she even thinks suppositories should be adminstered orally. Thankfully for poor old Ted York, the patient, she discovers her mistake before it’s too late.
DAY, TILLY
Continuity on Teacher
From the 1930s, when she worked on films such as The Mystery of the Marie Celeste, Tilly Day’s lengthy list of credits include The Rocking Horse Winner, The Malta Story, Lost, Too Many Crooks, Futtock’s End, Up the Front and, in 1974, Diamonds On Wheels.
Nurse Dawson (Joan Sims) is a liability at Haven Hospital (Nurse)
DE WOLFF, FRANCIS
Role: Agrippa in Cleo
Born in Southminster, Essex, in 1913, Francis De Wolff graduated from RADA and made a living playing character parts on stage and screen. His television work saw him in shows such as Disneyland, Interpol Calling, The Cheaters and running roles as Leopold of Austria in Richard the Lionheart and Jedikiah in 1970’s sci-fi series, The Tomorrow People.
He was working in films from the 1930s, and among his credits are Flame in the Heather, Adam and Evelyne, Tom Brown’s Schooldays, The Diamond, The Smallest Show on Earth and The Three Musketeers.
He died in 1984, aged seventy-one.
DEAF OLD LADY
Played by Esma Cannon
Seen in Constable, the old lady has just diced with death and managed to cross a busy main road when along comes interfering PC Benson who shepherds her back across, much to her annoyance.
DEAN
Played by Donald Hewlett
The Dean of the University of Kidburn is seen in Behind. He informs Professor Crump that he’ll be assisted on the archaeological dig by Professor Vooshka.
DEARLOVE MODEL LAUNDRY (DRY CLEANING)
One of their vans is seen chugging into Heathercrest National Service Depot in Sergeant carrying an extra piece of cargo in the shape of Mary Sage, the newlywed who wants to be near her hubby, who was called up on their wedding day.
DEBRA
Played by Sally Geeson
With her enormous specs, Debra is Cecil Gaybody’s assistant on the television programme, Women’s Things. Seen in Girls when the TV crew arrive at the Palace Hotel in Fircombe to film the beauty contest.
DEIRDRE
Played by Valerie Leon
Deirdre Philkington-Battermore is employed as Dr Nookey’s secretary in Again Doctor. With her short, low-cut dresses she’s obviously willing to satisfy her boss in every conceivable way.
DELLING, HELEN
Played by Carol Shelley
Mr Delling’s wife is seen in Regardless. She returns to the family house unexpectedly, just as her husband has arranged for Delia King, from Helping Hands, to model some new clothes, including underwear, he wanted to buy his wife as a surprise anniversary present. Helen has quite a shock when she hangs her coat up in the bedroom cupboard only to find Delia, disguised as a workman, clambering out.
DELLING, MR
Played by Jimmy Thompson
Appears in Regardless. A smart, dark-haired man who hires Delia King to model a set of outfits he’s bought his wife as a surprise anniversary present. When his beloved, Helen, arrives home early, Mr Delling panics and pushes Delia into the cupboard.
DEMPSEY, MISS
Played by Patsy Rowlands
For years, the dowdy Miss Dempsey has been Mr Snooper’s housekeeper, taking care of his every need, so she’s understandably jealous when Sophie Bliss appears on the scene, albeit temporarily. Seen in Loving, she makes sure Sophie doesn’t get her claws into Mr Snooper by dressing seductively – or as seductive as Miss Dempsey can be – and coming out with plenty of outrageous comments about her relationship with her boss.
DEMPSTER, JEREMY
Role: Recruit in Sergeant
DENBY, EILEEN
Played by Laraine Humphrys
One of the beauty contestants eager to win the Miss Fircombe crown in Girls.
DENE, CARMEN
Roles: Mexican Girl in Cowboy and Hospitality Girl in Up The Khyber
Between the mid-1960s and early 70s, Carmen Dene was offered small parts in a handful of films, such as Genghis Khan, Cuckoo Patrol and Subterfuge, as well as television shows including The Avengers and The Benny Hill Show.
DENTON, NURSE DOROTHY
Played by Shirley Eaton
A staff nurse at the Haven Hospital who’s infatuated with Dr Stephens. Seen in Nurse, she carries out her job efficiently and effectively, but when she realises her chances of romance with Stephens, who seems to like every young and pretty nurse in the entire hospital, are slim, she considers applying for a job in America. Her plans change, however, when she falls for journalist Ted York.
DERNLEY, DOREEN
Continuity on Camping
She began working in films in the 1950s and established a list of credits which included such pictures as Shadow of a Man, Dracula, Cairo, Up the Junction, Get Carter, On the Buses and one of the sequels, Mutiny on the Buses.
DESIREE, MADAME
Played by Joan Sims
In Dick, Madame Desiree tours the country with a group of girls entertaining at pubs, like the Old Cock Inn, as Madame Desiree et ses Oiseaux des Paradis, or Birds of Paradise. A cockney by birth, she’s adopted a French accent over the years to go with her act.
DESK SERGEANT
Played by Frank Forsyth
Seen in Screaming! telling Detective Sergeant Sidney Bung that he’s wanted when Albert Potter causes mayhem at a milliner’s.
DESMONDE, JERRY
Role: Martin Paul in Regardless
Born in Middlesbrough in 1908, Jerry Desmonde was always cast as the straight man, including a long-standing relationship alongside Sid Field and, later, Norman Wisdom in his films of the 1950s.
Adroit at playing haughty roles, such as Major Willoughby in Wisdom’s Up in the World, Desmonde’s other film credits included The Perfect Woman, The Malta Story, Ramsbottom Rides Again, A Kind of Loving and Gonks Go Beat. On television he was a regular panellist on What’s My Line.
He died in 1967, aged fifty-eight, after committing suicide.
DEVEREAUX, ED
Roles: Sergeant Russell in Sergeant, Alec Lawrence in Nurse, Mr Panting in Regardless, Young Officer in Cruising and Hook in Jack
Born in Sydney, Australia, in 1925, Ed Devereaux’s greatest screen success was playing Matt Hammond, a park ranger in the television series, Skippy, about a pet kangaroo, which sold around the world.
Prior to this success, he was a regular face in British films during the 1950s and ’60s, appearing in such pictures as The Captain’s Table, Watch Your Stern, Man in the Moon, Very Important Person, The Bargee and Money Movers. He was also regularly seen on television.
After leaving school he undertook a succession of jobs, including taxi-driving, before breaking into radio and films in Australia. He moved to England in the early 1950s and began appearing on the stage. An accomplished singer, he had starring roles in musicals such as Guys and Dolls, West Side Story, Damn Yankees, Pyjama Game as well as Variety and cabaret acts.
He returned Down Under in 1964 but contined appearing on British screens, including an appearance in an episode of Absolutely Fabulous.
He died in 2003, aged seventy-eight.
DEVIS, JIMMY
Camera Operator on Don’t Lose Your Head, Abroad, Girls and Dick
Jimmy Devis, born in London in 1931, followed his brother into the film industry in 1946, joining Gaumont-British, based at Lime Grove, as a mail boy. He spent a short spell in the cutting room and, later, joined the camera department.
After the studios closed, Devis completed his National Service in the RAF, before returning home and, in 1952, working as a freelance clapper-loader. It wasn’t long until he was offered a contract at Pinewood, where he worked between 1952–60, before returning to a freelance status.
He retired in 2001, by which time he was working as a director of photography for second units and directing action units. His long list of credits include Return to Oz, Wild Geese II, Labyrinth, Christopher Columbus: The Discovery, Avalanche, Superman, For Your Eyes Only, Empire of the Sun and Daylight.
MEMORIES
‘The Carry Ons were some of my favourite films to work on because they were humorous, there was no tension and they were organised. And what a wonderful crew and cast.
‘I was given my first chance as a camera operator on Don’t Lose Your Head and, fortunately, Alan Hume and Gerry Thomas were very patient. They liked to shoot within one or two takes and on my first shot, which was very difficult, I took about seven goes. There was a big crowd, and it turned out to be one of the most difficult I had to do for them. It was a scene set in Paris where people are queuing up at the guillotine while others arrive by cart. We had to pan them, then track back and look up at the guillotine. In the background there were other sets, which were very tall, that were going to be used for another film. Trying to keep them out of the picture, together with everything else, made it very difficult. I was really sweating but fortunately everything turned out well in the end.’
JIMMY DEVIS
DIAMOND, ARNOLD
Role: 5th Specialist in Sergeant
Born in London in 1915, Arnold Diamond started his working life as a librarian, acting as an amateur during the evenings, until he was called up for the Second World War. During hostilities he was wounded and transported to an Italian hospital for POWs, where upon recovering he wrote and directed plays for fellow prisoners.
CARRY ON DICK
A Peter Rogers production
Distributed through Fox / Rank Distribution Ltd
Released as an A certificate in 1974 in colour
Running time: 91 mins
CAST
PRODUCTION TEAM
Screenplay by Talbot Rothwell
Based on a treatment by Lawrie Wyman and George Evans
Music composed and conducted by Eric Rogers
Production Manager: Roy Goddard
Art Director: Lionel Couch
Editor: Alfred Roome
Director of Photography: Ernest Steward
Camera Operator: Jimmy Devis
Continuity: Jane Buck
Assistant Director: David Bracknell
Sound Recordists: Danny Daniel and Ken Barker
Make-up: Geoffrey Rodway
Hairdresser: Stella Rivers
Costume Design: Courtenay Elliott
Set Dresser: Charles Bishop
Dubbing Editor: Peter Best
Master of Horse: Gerry Wain
Assistant Editor: Jack Gardner
Casting Director: John Owen
Stills Cameraman: Tom Cadman
Wardrobe Mistresses: Vi Murray and Maggie Lewin
Coach and Horses supplied by George Mossman
Titles: G.S.E. Ltd
Processed by Rank Film Laboratories
Producer: Peter Rogers
Director: Gerald Thomas
Sgt. Strapp (Jack Douglas) took a peep once too often
It’s 1750 and England is rife with crime. Highwaymen are a constant threat on the roads, and none more so than Richard Turpin, better known as Big Dick due to the extraordinary size of his weapon. To help wipe out the tidal wave of crime, a special police force, the Bow Street Runners, is set up by King George and run by Sir Roger Daley, who himself becomes a victim of the elusive Dick Turpin, leaving him and his wife, Lady Daley, naked and embarrassed.
Just when the Bow Street Runners believe they’re closing in on the criminal, he slips out of their hands into the darkness. Unbeknown to the police, by day Dick Turpin dons a cassock and dog collar and becomes the Reverend Flasher. When the attacks continue, Captain Fancey and Sergeant Jock Strapp of the Bow Street Runners take personal responsibility for tracking down the dastardly villain.
They head for the Old Cock Inn, a well-known watering hole amongst the criminal fraternity, pretending to be crooks in search of some clues to help capture Turpin; when an old woman, Maggie, the local midwife, tells them that Turpin has a birthmark on his ‘diddler’, Jock Strapp is given the unenviable task of following every man into the toilet to check for the birthmark, but it’s a pointless task and results in Strapp almost being attacked for being a Peeping Tom.
Fancey makes out he’s a criminal wanting to bring Turpin in on a job he’s planning, so a meeting is arranged between them, but Turpin, who’s no fool, tips off the local parish policeman about the meeting and enjoys the last laugh when Fancey and Strapp are arrested and thrown in the stocks suspected of being highwaymen. A relieved Sir Roger is informed of the supposed arrest of Turpin and travels to see the legendary highwayman behind bars, but when history repeats itself and his coach is robbed en route, he knows the dastardly villain is still at large.
But Turpin’s game is soon up, or so everyone thinks, when one of his sidekicks, Harriett, is captured and held as bait. Fancey, Strapp and the parish constable await Turpin’s arrival, knowing that he’ll try rescuing his loyal friend and would-be lover, but yet again they’re fooled by the highwayman as he enters the local jail with his colleague, Tom, disguised as women; they end up freeing Harriett and tying up Fancey and Strapp.
Next day, Fancey realises he recognised Turpin’s face while disguised as a woman, and when it transpires that the Reverend Flasher was the only person who knew of his plans to lure Turpin, it’s clear that the clergyman is the wanted highwayman. They burst in on his sermon but out of respect decide to wait until the service is over before making their arrest, but before long Turpin is on the run again, crossing the border into Bonnie Scotland.
Capt. Fancey (Kenneth Williams) is entertained by the ‘Birds of Paradise’
After demob he decided to try his luck professionally, studying at RADA, before working in various reps around the country, including Bolton and Southwold. He later worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford.
Many years in rep followed before television work began to dominate. He appeared in, among others, The Borgias, Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased), Citizen Smith, Dad’s Army, Crossroads and Master Spy. His final appearance in a series was In Sickness and In Health. Among his sixty-plus films are favourites such as The Constant Husband, Zeppelin, The Frightened City and The Italian Job.
Although most of his roles were small, his services were in demand in every aspect of the entertainment business, including theatre and radio, particularly playing suave official types. He died in 1992 after being hit by a car, aged seventy-seven.
DICK
A photographer in Matron who accompanies the reporter to the Finisham Maternity Hospital to cover the story of film actress Jane Darling giving birth.
DICK, CARRY ON
see feature box here.
DICKENSON, TERRY
Role: Recruit in Sergeant
DIETRICH, MONICA
Role: Girl in Don’t Lose Your Head and Katherine Howard in Henry
For a short period around the time of her Carry On appearances, Monica Dietrich made a few screen appearances, in television shows such as Department S and Jason King, and films like A Dandy in Aspic and For Men Only.
DIGNAM, BASIL
Role: 3rd Specialist in Sergeant
Once a lumberjack in Canada, Basil Dignam, who was born in Sheffield in 1905, came to the screen in the 1950s and established himself as a reliable, adaptable character actor. Regularly in demand, his long list of credits included the films The Lady With A Lamp, His Excellency, Reach for the Sky, Carlton-Browne of the F.O., Gorgo, Life for Ruth, The Jokers and Young Winston.
Equally busy on television, he was seen in, among others, Sword of Freedom, Top Secret, Crane, The Adventurer, The Sweeney, War and Peace, The Pallisers and the 1975 mini-series, Edward the King.
He died in 1979, aged seventy-three.
DILLON
Unseen in Cowboy, his name is mentioned by the Commissioner at the Bureau of Internal Affairs when a peace marshal is required in Stodge City. When Judge Burke, the mayor of Stodge, requests a marshal, the commissioner wonders whether a man called Dillon would be suitable, before his assistant, Perkins, reminds him that he’s serving six months.
DILLON, CARMEN
Art Director on Constable and Cruising
Born in London in 1908, Carmen Dillon qualified as an architect and worked within the profession briefly, before being offered the chance to assist a colleague designing film sets. His subsequent illness saw Dillon take command as art director on The Five Pound Man
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