Richard Webber - The Complete A–Z of Everything Carry On

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.