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

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.