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

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 On s, 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.