What a Carry On: Carry On Regardless (1961)/ Carry On Cruising (1962)/ Carry On Cabby (1963)/ Carry On Jack (1963) ~ Reviews

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A week ago this blog took a step forward or (judging on your view) a step back by kicking-off its celebration of the UK’s greatest ever comedy movie series, a possibly ill-advised marathon viewing, reviewing, rating and ranking of every one of the films contained therein – a Carry On-athon, if you will. And this post, like it or not, sees its continuation.

Yes, with the four flicks under the microscope here, we’ve entered the ’60s, folks, and not only does it see the Carry Ons entering the age of colour, but there’s something of a nautical theme too, with two of the four films set at sea. But will the movies ride the rough waves of film criticism (or at least that of George’s Journal)? Well, you’ll just have to read on and find out, won’t you…?

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How it works:

1. The ‘Carry On-athon’ takes in all 29 cinematically released Carry On films, chronologically from Carry On Sergeant (1958) right through to Carry On Emmannuelle (1978), excluding the compilation-clip-comprising That’s Carry On! (1977) and Carry On Columbus (1992), whose inclusion in the original series might be said to be a bit tenuous
2. The reviews consist of 10 categories or movie facets, the inclusion of which tend to define a Carry On film as a Carry On film (‘the regulars’; ‘the crumpet’; ‘the setting’; ‘the plot’; ‘sauciness’; ‘cross-dressing’; ‘catchphrases’; ‘character names’; ‘music’ and ‘overall amusement’), each of which are rated out of 10, thus giving the film in question a rating out of 100, which ensures all 29 films can be properly ranked – the ratings are made up of ‘Boggles’, after Sid Boggle, Sid James’s utterly iconic character from Carry On Camping (1969)
3. There’s also an ‘Adjuster’ for each film’s rating (up to plus or minus 10 ‘Boggles’) to give as fair as possible a score according to its overall quality as a film.

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“Do you provide substitutes?”/
“No, this is a respectable firm!”

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Directed by: Gerald Thomas; Screenplay by: Norman Hudis; Composer: Bruce Montgomery;
Country: UK; Certificate: PG; Running time: 87 minutes; Released: March 1961; Black & White

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The regulars

Sid James; Kenneth Williams; Charles Hawtrey; Hattie Jacques; Joan Sims; Kenneth Connor/
semi-regulars: Liz Fraser (first film); Esma Cannon; Bill Owen;
Terence Longdon (final film); Joan Hickson

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The crumpet

Liz Fraser; Fenella Fielding

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The setting

Contemporary (early ’60s) London

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The plot

A bunch of jobseekers – Williams, Hawtrey, Sims, Fraser, Owen and Longdon – meet at the Employment Exchange (read: Job Centre) and, catching wind that new business ‘Helping Hands’ is hiring, race off to fill out its staff; the opportunity’s so enticing even the Exchange’s fed up jobsworth Connor joins them. Run by James, the mantra behind the ‘Helping Hands’ agency is to provide what’s required, however unusual the job – trying on underwear bought for an absent wife, acting as seconds for a boxer, giving a pet chimpanzee a walk, and so on. All seems to progress more or less all right, until the secretary’s (Cannon) filing system is disturbed and each staff member’s sent to the wrong job…

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Would you like sauce with that?

Regardless undoubtedly, er, keeps up the tradition of the bawdiness becoming more overt in each new Carry On. We’re hardly in the freewheeling ’60s here, but with Fraser making her debut the filmmakers take advantage of her looks, assets and comic talent – the first job anyone undertakes is her trying on expensive lingerie in a married man’s bedroom. And later Williams manages to fall into a bath at an ‘Ideal Home’ exhibition in which Sims is taking a dip, while James – and we – get to ogle a gaggle of under-dressed girls. I wonder whether that’ll ever happen again…?

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Cross-dressing to impress?

Fraser, by way of disguise, dons a heavy men’s overcoat and chapeau to exit the aforementioned married man’s wardrobe, in which she’d hidden when his wife unexpectedly returns home (yes, that old chestnut). She also puts on a blokey voice. To be fair, it’s more sexy than funny.

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Catchphrase count

‘Yak-yak-yak!’ (James): 3; ‘Corrr!’ (Connor): 1

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Marvellous monikers

Bert Handy (James); Francis Courtenay (Williams); Gabriel Dimple (Hawtrey); Lily Duveen (Sims);
Sam Twist (Connor); Delia King (Fraser); Montgomery Infeld-Hopping (Longdon);
Miss Cooling (Cannon); Penny Panting (Fielding)

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Plum notes or bum notes?

A rather unremarkable offering from Montgomery this time really, although the lack of an overarching theme to the film doesn’t aid his score in terms of identity. He clearly has fun with the cues during the train sequence, though, providing a very mock-film noir vibe.

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Do carry on or titter ye not?

This one has its moments – among them the home exhibition sequence, Sims getting plastered at a wine tasting do, Connor going all Bogart-cum-spy on a train and the finale when the gang titivate/ destroy an old house – but not really enough of them. Other sequences including a boxing bout, Connor caught in a honey trap with a horny Fielding and Williams at a chimps’ tea party (which, while memorable, nowadays feels a bit wrong) just keep things ticking along.

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Adjuster: 0

The weakest of the series’ early entries, Regardless suffers from its more-sketch-than-plot narrative – the sum of its parts definitely being less than its parts. The story’s far from incoherent or too absurd, yet you can’t help but wonder how ‘Helping Hands’ remains in business when the majority of its jobs are foul-ups. However, the addition of Liz Fraser to the Carry On company is an inspired move and Kenneth Connor’s dominance among the ensemble this time out is well deserved – he’s employee of the month.

Total Boggles:

55/ 100

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The best bit

Sid’s standing-in for an eminent doctor at a hospital, a sequence that concludes with the former inspecting the, er, health of a line of nurses in their underwear – note: just one film on from his debut and the lascivious side of Sid has reared its walnut-like head

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The best line

Cannon: “Don’t go – think of brain-washing!”/ Connor: “How can they wash what isn’t there?”

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Trivia

Regardless’s lack of a solid theme – in contrast with predecessors Sergeant (army), Nurse (hospital), Teacher (school) and Constable (police) – and a creditable plot is indeed down to the fact Hudis threw together sketches he’d previously written to form a script

Jacques only appears in a cameo as a hospital sister because illness prevented her taking a larger role

The film’s title memorably appears as a repetitive line in The Beautiful South song Good As Gold (Stupid As Mud) (1994) – itself, no doubt, a forerunner for the title of the band’s hugely popular best-of-album Carry On Up The Charts (1994).

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 “Shut your port-hole”/ “Begging your pardon, sir,
one must have fresh…”/ “… and your cake-hole!”

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Directed by: Gerald Thomas; Screenplay by: Norman Hudis; Composer: Bruce Montgomery;
Country: UK; Certificate: PG; Running time: 85 minutes; Released: April 1962

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The regulars

Sid James; Kenneth Williams; Kenneth Connor/
semi-regulars: Liz Fraser; Dilys Laye (first film); Esma Cannon; Cyril Chamberlain

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The crumpet

Liz Fraser; Dilys Laye

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The setting

Contemporary times (the early ’60s) aboard a ship in the Mediterranean Sea; sending up holiday cruises

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The plot

The S. S. Happy Wanderer is setting sail on its latest cruise around the Mediterranean, but it looks to be a unhappy wander for the captain (James), concerned by the new faces in his crew – a gauche first officer (Williams), a blundering doctor (Connor) and an eccentric cook who’s never sailed before and is immediately struck with seasickness (Lance Percival). In addition to his ongoing quest with his colleagues to prove they’re not inept, Connor’s troubles are compounded by falling in love with a single-girl passenger (Laye), whom has been talked into the cruise by her similarly attractive best friend (Fraser), but seems to be looking for a man everywhere on the ship apart from in the doctor’s surgery.

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Would you like sauce with that?

You’d think a Carry On on a cruise ship (with all those rooms and cubbyholes in which goings-on might, well, go on) would be just the setting to send the sauce-o-meter up several notches compared to its predecessors, but that doesn’t really happen. There are moments of sauciness, sure, and they are more overt and knowing than those of the earliest in the series (such as Laye coming on to James, Fraser pretending to do so with Connor and the latter hopelessly trying to bring Laye round from a faint only to land on top of her on the floor), but the most suggestive stuff tends to be found in the wit of the script (to, er, wit: “You’re overwrought”/ “I’m underprivileged”).

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Cross dressing to impress?

Following its strong establishment in Carry On Constable (1960) and featuring again in immediately preceding movie Carry On Regardless (see above), it’s a little disappointing nobody dresses as the opposite sex here. That’s not to say there isn’t a good deal of costuming going on, though – after all, we are on a cruise ship. Indeed, Connor decks himself out as a matador to deliver a choice gag (see ‘the best line below’) to Williams, who’s a little curiously dressed as Zorro, while alone in his cabin with a hookah pipe, Percival goes full Lawrence Of Arabia (1962) in cream robes and a headscarf.

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Catchphrase count

‘Yak-yak-yak!’ (James): 5

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Marvellous monikers

Captain Wellington Crowther (James); First Officer Leonard Marjoribanks (Williams);
Dr Arthur Binn (Connor); Glad Trimble (Fraser); Flo Castle (Laye);
Bridget Madderley (Cannon); Tom Tree (Chamberlain)

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Plum notes or bum notes?

Montgomery’s final score for the series isn’t exactly his most memorable. It does the job perfectly admirably, but aside from flamenco-flavoured and oriental-tinged touches at choice moments, when the ship drops anchor at its various Mediterranean stop-offs, nothing really lingers in the bonce. The song with which Connor attempts to serenade Laye (Bella Marie, actually performed by Roberto Carinali) raises a few chuckles, mind you.

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Do carry on or titter ye not?

Despite its drawbacks, Cruising is arguably the series’ funniest effort thus far. It’s big on the belly laughs – Laye and Cannon’s drunken encounter in the bar, the impromptu injections in Percival’s posterior and that memorable slapstick-tastic table tennis toss-up between Cannon and Williams. Not to be outdone, though, Hudis’s script is particularly witty too (“That’s why I drink, to forget her”/ “Forget who?”/ “Blessed if I can remember”; “Gentlemen, have I your agreement for a policy of unremitting quasi-teutonic organisational protectionism?”; “Flo! Ebb a bit”). Plus, Percival’s casting is inspired; it’s a shame his unique brand of unpredictable comedy would grace the series only this once – his blowing instead of sucking on a hookah pipe while dressed as a sheik is randomly marvellous.

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Adjuster: +5

Leagues of ocean away from being all at sea, Cruising nonetheless treads water. Mostly because the oft-seen-before narrative of a band of misfits (as ever, including Williams and Connor) messing up in the face of a superior only to put things right come the final reel is starting to feel a little tired. All the same, (more or less) newcomers Percival, Fraser, Laye and Cannon are all on top form and this flick marks an evolution point in the series – Williams’ persona is shifting here from an intellectual to a camp (somewhat) bureaucratic buffoon and, yes, colour has to come to Carry On. And it looks glorious.

Total Boggles:

60/ 100

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The best bit

 Laye and Cannon’s bonding by getting spontaneously sozzled in the ship’s bar – much to Fraser’s chagrin, the barman’s dismay and the habitual drunk’s awe

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The best line

Connor: “Well, my father, he breeds the famous fighting bulls, you know. Every year, 50,000 bulls he sends off by ship to South America”/ Williams: “50,000 bulls?”/
Connor: “Si, si. Also every year, 20,000 more he ships off to France”/ Williams: “That’s 70,000 bulls”/
Connor: “Si, si. One of the biggest bullshippers in the business”

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Trivia

Cruising’s script was based on an idea by early Carry On acting regular Eric Barker

Charles Hawtrey was dropped from the cast for apparently demanding top billing and a star on his dressing room door (he would have played Percival’s role); Joan Sims was also nixed, and wouldn’t reappear until Carry On Cleo (1964), owing to a dalliance with a Pinewood Studios carpenter (yes, really), which allowed Dilys Laye to make her debut in the series – the latter joining the shoot after just four days’ notice

This was Hudis’s last Carry On, after which he left the UK to take up job offers Stateside following the US success of Carry On Nurse (1959); his subsequent work included writing for TV shows The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (1964-68), The Wild Wild West (1965-69) and Hawaii Five-0 (1968-80)

At one point in the film, Percival’s chef character Haynes tasks a subordinate with breaking eggs, but when the underling complains it’ll take too long, Haynes demonstrates that he can place all the eggs in a large container, drop it on the ground and strain out the egg shells – this scene inspired a methodology (the ‘Haynes Technique’) used in modern-day data processing and systems design that describes any simple low-tech solution or method which would normally be overlooked because it appears to be counter-intuitive.

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“The men haven’t got your advantages, dear –
just flash your headlamps at them”

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Directed by: Gerald Thomas; Screenplay by: Talbot Rothwell; Composer: Eric Rogers;
Country: UK; Certificate: PG; Running time: 85 minutes; Released: June 1963; Black & White

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The regulars

Sid James; Charles Hawtrey; Hattie Jacques; Kenneth Connor; Jim Dale (first film)/
semi-regulars: Liz Fraser; Esma Cannon (final film); Amanda Barrie (first film);
Bill Owen (final film); Cyril Chamberlain (final film); Judith Furse (first film);
Renée Houston (first film); Valerie Van Ost (first film); Peter Gilmore (first film)

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The crumpet

Liz Fraser; Amanda Barrie; Carole Shelley; Valerie Van Ost; Marian Horton

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The setting

Contemporary (early ’60s) Britain; sending up the taxicab industry and ‘the war of the sexes’

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The plot

Charlie (James) runs the only taxicab company in town. Things are going so well that he and his manager Ted (Connor) have to recruit new drivers, including the enthusiastic but inept Hawtrey. Yet, all’s not well in paradise, as Ted’s at loggerheads with his on-off girlfriend, the cabbies’ café girl Sally (Fraser), and, worse, Charlie’s wife Peggy (Jacques) feels neglected. The final straw comes when Charlie misses their anniversary because he’s carting a man (Dale) and his expectant wife to and from hospital, so with her friend Flo (Cannon), Peggy secretly sets up a rival taxicab company to make him notice her and strike a blow for womankind. Soon ‘Glamcabs’ – featuring a bevy of leggy beauties in a fleet of Ford Cortinas – is not only stealing Charlie’s custom, but threatening to put him out of business.

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Would you like sauce with that?

With the first half of the film’s emphasis on marital strife, the opportunity for bawdiness properly comes in the second half when things shift to chauvinism and proto-women’s lib in the workplace – and, even then, the titillation amounts to shots of the ‘Glamcabs’ girls’ legs, close-ups of a clothed breast or two, the girls briefly stripping to their underwear and (mostly) Amanda Barrie’s coy sexual suggestion (on picking up a ‘fare’: “I know what to do – I’ve been picking up men since I was 17”). But, like with other strong early Carry Ons, it would be to Cabby’s definite detriment were the sauce stronger.

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Cross-dressing to impress?

Poor old Kenneth Connor, for it’s his turn to get the transvestite treatment this time, but you’ve got to hand it to him, he does his duty with bells on. Forced by his boss to impersonate a ‘Glamcab’ cabby to infiltrate their garage so his cronies can sabotage their vehicles, he goes the whole hog of not just donning the uniform, a wig and lipstick, but also the lingerie underneath. And, even better, he does make for a truly ugly woman. Of course, he gets his comeuppance – being faced with having to undress in front of all the other girls and, in his escape, ending up in what appears to be a drum full of oil.

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Catchphrase count

‘Yak-yak-yak!’ (James): 7; ‘Corrr!’ (Connor): 1

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Marvellous monikers

Charlie Hawkins (James); Terry ‘Pintpot’ Tankard (Hawtrey); Peggy Hawkins (Jacques);
Flo Sims (Cannon); Smiley Sims (Bill Owen); Punchy (Darryl Kavann); Tubby (Don McCorkindale)

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Plum notes or bum notes?

Promoted from producer Peter Rogers’ wife’s/ director Gerald Thomas’s brother’s Doctor movie series to the Carry Ons, composer Eric Rogers makes a masterful debut. His main theme is irresistible – a breezy but smooth melody with a harmonica solo (in fact, the film’s original title Call Me A Cab can be easily sung to its tune). Elsewhere, all the hallmarks of his scores to come can also be delightfully heard: a full-out brassy theme that oozes glamour for the ‘Glamcabs’ girls and the humorous wheezing touches used to wonderfully underscore, nay highlight, bawdy moments for eager punters everywhere.

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Do carry on or titter ye not?

Arguably one of the series’ most consistently funny flicks, Cabby is a thorough success when it comes to amusement. The first third’s ‘kitchen sink’ set-up pays dividends with Sid and Hattie (so used to such stuff from years of sitcom work) relishing all the brilliant domestic (non)bliss of Rothwell’s cracking script – see video clip below. And the move then to cab firm versus cab firm/ gender war of the movie’s second third is marvellous farce, while the cabby chase of the last third (orchestrated by Sid like a general marshalling ex-squaddies, which his drivers are all supposed to be, of course) is equally terrific.

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Adjuster: +10

A cast-iron Carry On classic, thanks not least to new scribe Rothwell’s pacy, social comment-rich script, Cabby’s a delight from its first fare to its closing kiss-off line. Cruising may have brought colour to the series, but the real sea-change occurred here – look at all the ‘regulars’ either debuting or departing (see above), while Rothwell’s writing points to his future plots’ similar flexiblility, daring and bawdiness. No question, everyone’s at the top of their game here, especially Sid and Hattie. Come the closing credits, who wouldn’t want to see a sitcom featuring the further adventures of Charlie and Peggy and co.?

Total Boggles:

85/ 100

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The best bit

There’s so many brilliant bits in this one, but for me it may just be the opening scene (incorporating, over the titles, Rogers’ terrifically buoyant theme), in which we see the birth of Sid’s cheeky Cockney Carry On persona (‘yak-yak-yakking’ in his cab and enjoying himself immensely as he insults a chauffeur) – it ebulliently announces the arrival of the Rothwell/ Rogers-era… and how

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The best line

Sid: “In no time at all, you find that you’re about as popular as a wickerwork seat in a nudist camp –
and you know what sort of impression that makes on people”

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Trivia

The first Carry On to be written by Talbot ‘Tolly’ Rothwell (whom would go on write every subsequent one except the last three), Cabby was actually based on a play by early Morecambe and Wise scribes Dick Hills and Sid Green named, as noted above, Call Me A Cab – indeed, the film went by that title until halfway through production, at which point the decision was made to include it in the Carry On series

Initially, Charles Hawtrey couldn’t drive so had to learn within a week (having three one-hour lessons a day), passing his test the day before shooting commenced

This was the first film in the series that Kenneth Williams missed; out of all 29, he would only miss a further three – the first of which came all of seven years later in the shape of Carry On Up The Jungle

The filming of this specific Carry On is recreated in the TV movie biopic Hattie (2011), in which Ruth Jones plays Jacques; apparently, her role in this movie was Jacques’ favourite of all her Carry Ons

As Cabby was released in cinemas, Sid James was appearing on the small screen in a BBC comedy drama called Taxi! (1963-64) – in which his character, yes, ran a taxicab firm.

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“What’s all this jigging in the rigging?”

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Directed by: Gerald Thomas; Screenplay by: Talbot Rothwell; Composer: Eric Rogers;
Country: UK; Certificate: PG; Running time: 87 minutes; Released: November 1963

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The regulars

Kenneth Williams; Charles Hawtrey; Jim Dale/ semi-regulars: Bernard Cribbins (first film);
Percy Herbert (first film); Peter Gilmore; Sally Douglas (first film)

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The crumpet

Juliet Mills; Vivian Ventura

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The setting

Early 19th Century England and at sea; sending up seafaring Napoleonic War adventures

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The plot

Following the death of Admiral Nelson, the British Navy realises it needs more men pronto. This urges the promotion of the incompetent Albert Poop-Decker (Cribbins) to a midshipman. Assigned to the ship HMS Venus, Albert – advised by a porter (Dale) – visits an inn to sow his wild oats before setting sail. There, however, serving wench Sally (Mills) steals his clothes and stowaways aboard the Venus with the aim of finding her seafaring childhood sweetheart who’s presumed lost in Spain. Press-ganged into the crew along with the similarly useless Walter (Hawtrey), Albert struggles to convince Williams’ captain – named Fearless, yet who’s anything but – and the officers (Herbert and Donald Houston) of his true identity and that the ‘lad’ (Sally) claiming to be Midshipman Poop-Decker is an impostor.

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Would you like sauce with that?

Taking a back-step here, if you want to look at it that way, compared to the immediately preceding entry, Jack is, well, a little coy in its treatment of the sexy stuff. The most risqué section of the movie – the scenes in the inn – sees the characters sheepishly refer to intercourse as ‘what’ (rather than with a nudge-nudge-wink-wink code-word that’s actually funny). At least later on, Williams’ utter shock at witnessing Cribbins and Mills (the latter still dressed as a young lad) snogging is amusing, given he’s so surprised he doesn’t even have the capacity to be appalled. But, frankly, it’s all pretty innocuous.

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Cross-dressing to impress?

Although the only man-dressed-as-woman action we get is Cribbins wearing an inn wench’s frilly dress (admittedly for an extended period), Jack scores particularly well in this category because – extremely rarely in this series – we get some woman-dressed-as-man action. It’s a doozy as well, given it’s Mills impersonating poor Cribbins’ personage for the majority of the movie (and mighty fetching she looks in a naval uniform too). Unusually for a Carry On, there’s something almost Shakespearean about the cross-dressing here – bringing to mind Twelfth Night. Or maybe more accurately ‘Bob’ from Blackadder II.

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Catchphrase count

Perhaps due to the lack of so many regular cast members or because this was the first historical effort in the series, Jack features no Carry On catchphrases at all.

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Marvellous monikers

Captain Fearless (Williams); Walter Sweetley (Hawtrey); Midshipman Albert Poop-Decker (Cribbins); Mr Angel (Percy Herbert); Captain Roger/ Patch (Peter Gilmore); Hook (Ed Devereaux)

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Plum notes or bum notes?

In his second effort for the series, Eric Rogers certainly does an admirable job in aping the self-satisfied, grandiose feel of so many adventure yarn scores, but it must be said there isn’t an abundance of his terrific trademark flaring flourishes (often the musical equivalent of a wink at the audience), but then that may be a reflection of the relatively low bawdiness on offer – see above. Indeed, the onscreen less-is-more approach doesn’t exactly get the most out of Rogers’ scoring, let’s be honest.

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Do carry on or titter ye not?

With more than an eye on its historical setting (and so a little over-faithfully following the beats of the Napoleonic-era naval romp?), Jack may be be a tad underwhelming when it comes to humour – it ought to be noted, though, that this was also Rothwell’s ‘first’ script of the series (see ‘Trivia’ below) so he was yet to hit his groove. All the same, the leads are all very good value, the plot’s turnarounds always comedic and Williams’ captain’s insistence on a cow being aboard to provide the men with milk instead of rum (which ends up sharing an ‘escape boat’ with the leads) is classic Carry On absurdity.

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Adjuster: +8

Truth be told, before this viewing, I wasn’t overly familiar with Jack, but it pleasantly surprised me. Taking a risk by going historical, the Carry On team nail their colours to the main-brace and go for the new direction whole heartedly. Although it could do with a few more zingers and too often the bits with the strait-laced Houston and Herbert lag, once we hit the second half and the plot twists and turns about mimicking a good old pirate story, there’s certainly fun to be had. Meanwhile, Cribbins is a winning comic hero, Williams relishes his authority idiot and Juliet Mills makes for a lovely leading lady.

Total Boggles:

61/ 100

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The best bit

The sight of at least a dozen Spanish guards filing, one after the other, into the Cadiz prison cell holding the captured Venus crew, followed by the sounds of a skirmish, then, straight after, the sight of the British crew filing out, one after the other, dressed in the guards’ uniforms

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The best line

Jimmy Thompson (as Nelson): “Kiss me, Hardy”/ Anton Rodgers (as Hardy): “I beg your pardon, sir?”/ Thompson: “Kiss me, Hardy”/ Rodgers: “Are you mad? What will they say at The Admiralty, sir?”/ Thompson: “They’ll only be jealous”

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Trivia

Jack’s was the first of Talbot Rothwell’s screenplays to be read by producer Peter Rogers and gain his approval, even though the script that would turn out to be Carry On Cabby (see above) was filmed first

Before becoming Carry On Jack, the first historical entry in the series went through several titles, including Carry On Sailor!, Carry On Mate and the decidedly non-Carry On alternatives Admiral Poop-Decker R.N. (possibly the title of Rothwell’s original script) and Up The Armada – which, rumour has it, may have fallen foul of the British censors

Juliet Mills had previously appeared in Rogers and Thomas’s comedies Twice Round The Daffodils (1962) and Nurse On Wheels (1963), both of which are similar in style to the early Carry Ons and the former of which is based on the same play (Ring For Catty) as was Carry On Nurse (1959)

Extensive use was made of a period-ship set built for the British adventure movie H.M.S. Defiant (1962)

Apparently, the reason why established regulars Sid James, Hattie Jacques and Joan Sims didn’t appear in Jack is because there simply weren’t suitable roles for them, while, at the urging of her agent, Liz Fraser had decided to move on from the series and Kenneth Connor’s absence was due to him appearing alongside future Carry On-er Frankie Howerd in the original West End run of musical A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum.

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Carry On Ranking

(All out of 100; new entries in blue)

1. Carry On Cabby (1963) ~ 85

2. Carry On Nurse (1959) ~ 65

3. Carry On Constable (1960) ~ 63

4. Carry On Jack (1963) ~ 61

5. Carry On Cruising (1962) ~ 60

6. Carry On Sergeant (1958) ~ 58

7. Carry On Teacher (1959) ~ 56

8. Carry On Regardless (1961) ~ 55

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Keep calm,
the Carry On reviews
will, yes, carry on…

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