Oh, hello!
They are the most famous comedy gang in British big screen history.
Stop messing about.
Their antics have put smiles on our faces for nearly sixty years.
I seem to have got a little plastered.
They brought us sauciness, slapstick, and dollops of double entendres.
Oh, what a lovely looking pair.
You took the words right out of my mouth.
But how did these classic Carry On moments come about?
When you see this "ad lib",
that was two weeks of practice.
It looked wonderful. Oh, shut up!
Ha, ha, ha!
This is the story of a brand that became a British institution.
Everybody wanted to do one,
because everybody knew how much fun it was going to be.
Good evening. I should give it a minute.
With unseen clips of the Carry On stars at play.
Marvellous. I never let her kiss me.
Extraordinary on-set photos.
Oh, my goodness! What's this?
And trips back in time for those who were there.
You just loved everybody. You were at home and comfortable.
Too much in the sun? When I was asked to do Carry On Abroad,
I thought, "I wonder where we will go?"
But, of course, we went to the car park at Pinewood.
They are great!
We were very, very fortunate to have a real ace unit
of lovely, lovely people.
Ding Dong, carry on!
SID JAMES: Ha, ha, ha!
Welcome to the world-famous Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire.
This is where the Carry On magic was created.
Today, Shirley Eaton, the glamorous star of the very first Carry On,
is returning to where this remarkable story began.
Oh, I love Pinewood.
I love Pinewood, because it's my second home.
And I am really looking forward to it.
Here we go.
There it is.
Oh, gosh, what memories.
Are you the manageress? No, I'm Nora.
My name is Mary.
Here we are.
Like the old days.
We are going under the arches.
Ha, ha, it's lovely!
Evidence of our favourite Carry On capers is everywhere at Pinewood,
with the mention of the men who made it all happen.
KENNETH WILLIAMS: Infamy! They've all got it in for me!
JOAN SIMS: He didn't half crack that one, did he not?
It's a lovely plaque of Peter Rogers,
celebrating him producing films since 1951.
Because those films, my goodness,
people have loved them over the years, haven't they?
KENNETH WILLIAMS: No, stop messing about.
(SID JAMES LAUGHS) BARBARA WINDSOR: Saucy!
Of course, Peter couldn't have made such funny old films
without Gerald Thomas, the director.
Peter Rogers and Gerald Thomas made their first film together in 1956.
Two years later, at Pinewood,
they would form a partnership that must have been created in comedy heaven.
Well, Peter Rogers really was a writer, first and foremost.
He always saw himself as a writer throughout his career and life.
He just became a producer by default, really.
He would buy up scripts of other people's
and eventually make them into films.
Gerald Thomas was an editor.
He'd worked on The Third Man and great films in the '40s, '50s.
Doctor in the House at Pinewood. So they were a perfect team,
because they knew their business and they knew what they wanted to do.
Rogers and Thomas would perfect the art of churning out films speedily
and always on budget.
But they also kept a keen eye on what was going on in the world outside the studio walls.
This was the black and white Britain of the late 1950s.
Memories of the Second World War may still have been strong,
but a new generation looked forward to a brighter future
where we'd never had it so good.
Rationing and wartime hardship were finally over
and National Service was coming to an end.
A new, more open Britain was ready for a laugh.
It was time to put its privates on parade.
All right, you horrible lot. Get ready.
After seeing that a comedy called The Army Game had brought in millions of viewers to ITV...
Right flush! Eyes front!
..Peter Rogers recalled an idea for a film about a bunch of raw recruits
thrown into National Service.
Script writer, Norman Hudis, was brought into work it up.
We carried the characters forward
into my conception of a typically British situation,
where a bunch of incompetents,
resentful of being in the army at all...
I mean, where is the war? Everybody has gone home.
Halt!
HALT!
So sorry. I was miles away.
The title of the film would spring from a throwaway line.
Carry on, Sergeant. By happy accident, a brand had been born.
Rogers and Thomas looked to the stars of the small screen for their cast,
with a lead role an Opportunity Knocking for TV personality
and future game show host, Bob Monkhouse.
Did you see? Did you hear? What? Where?
She called to me from a laundry van.
Bob's love interest would be the first pin-up girl of the Carry Ons,
21-year-old Shirley Eaton.
I can't help being sexy.
(LAUGHS)
I think it's funny when people call me a sex symbol.
I was the girl next door in those films, really.
If I happen to appear sexy, that's not my fault. (LAUGHS)
I am Sergeant Grimshaw and this is Corporal Copping. Right?
Straight from a remarkably similar role in The Army Game,
was future Dr Who, William Hartnell.
I am a quiet, reasonable, humane man.
I know, my mother told me.
NORMAN HUDIS: Peter was good at casting.
He had a lot of luck.
That luck included the first Carry On outings for Charles Hawtrey...
The Sergeant doesn't seem to like us. I wonder why.
..Kenneth Williams... Look at this, man.
You've nothing to complain of. Look at the suit they gave me.
..and Hattie Jacques. And at the heart of the action,
a 40-year-old fledgling star,
who would also become a Carry On stalwart.
Oooooh, Nora!
The quiet man of comedy,
Kenneth Connor was classically trained
at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London.
He became a regular on BBC Radio,
before starring on the big screen in the Ealing classic, The Ladykillers.
Get it out of here! Driver,
I insist that you do something to stop this vicious brute.
This is no business of mine. Keep out of this, I'm warning you!
Connor's gift for comic voices also made him a favourite on the Goons.
This is the BBC Light Programme.
Oh, my leg!
It's gone below the waist!
What's happened? Why aren't you on the stage?
I've broken my right leg. Only one? Get back on the stage, you idiot!
Ken Connor was so clever.
I'd worked with Ken on radio, where he did dozens of voices.
They only had to hire one person,
because he would play every voice that you have ever heard.
He was quite brilliant.
Thanks to Kenneth and the gang, Sergeant was a surprise hit.
It made its money back in the first weekend
and became the third most successful film at the British box office in 1958.
The groundwork was being laid
for a comedy campaign that was destined to carry on and on.
After the success of Carry On Sergeant,
producer, Peter Rogers, and director, Gerald Thomas,
quickly realised that they were onto something good.
If they could keep their eye on the pennies, surely the pounds would look after themselves.
Well, if you are looking at Peter Rogers as a producer...
..you would have to say,
"cautious" would be the first word that one would summon up.
He didn't splash money about at all.
He was conscientious.
Profit was king, and Rogers would take a royal pride
in the Carry On films' low budgets and short schedules,
aided by a sharp director who had started out in the cutting room.
Gerry Thomas? Clinical.
He had edited the show before it was even shot, I am quite sure.
There was one instance where I go into a door.
I said to him, "When I get to the door, can I just turn round?"
And he said, "No, as soon as you touch the door handle,
I've cut, I'm outside, and you are coming out."
He had already cut that shot before he'd filmed it.
That was the way they were made.
That was it. So I shut up after that.
After the success of Sergeant,
Rogers and Thomas decided on a uniform approach for the follow-up.
Supposing I had been on it?
In one of his shrewder moments, the adorable Mr Rogers said,
"Well, they are all screaming for another movie.
Your wife is a nurse, isn't she?"
He said, "So it's Carry On Nurse, it's obvious."
Hudis quickly turned to wife, Rita, for inspiration.
Over here, Mr York.
I did that script in ten days.
You've given one of these before?
Oh, good gracious, hundreds! Get it down now.
Other end, nurse.
Plenty of material from Rita, and exaggerated invention by me.
Hurry up, nurse. There are other things for you to do, you know.
Yes, sister.
The Carry On creators were quick to work out
that the public loved humour from everyday life,
sweeping up with a dose of comedy intended for all.
What's going on? Matron's round.
I don't care if she's triangular.
To this day, everyone's got experience of being in hospital.
So you base the comedy around familiarity,
so you don't have to waste any time explaining what is going on.
You can go straight into the bed pan comedy
and you start getting the laughs. Ha, ha, ha!
After his debut in Sergeant,
Nurse saw Charles Hawtrey tucked up in bed.
(PIANO MUSIC)
The 44-year-old was already an old pro,
his first film appearance being at the age of seven in a silent movie.
Hawtrey took his stage name from a Knight of the Realm,
Sir Charles Hawtrey,
and encouraged the suggestion that he was his son,
distancing himself from his working class roots.
He grew up on the stage,
before venturing into the world of Ealing Comedies.
(BAGPIPE MUSIC) He is up here, all right!
Sounds like it.
No matter what I wrote, he would quietly put it aside,
and say, "Thank you, Norman" and then ad lib about half an hour.
Charles Hawtrey would make 23 Carry On appearances.
Just one less than an actress who would become known as the first lady of Carry On.
Although a RADA graduate, Joan Sims found life as a jobbing actor tough,
and spent years in repertory theatre before finally breaking into TV.
She joined the Carry On gang for the first time on the set of Nurse.
Yes, sister? I thought I told you to ring the bell.
I did, sister. Then why are the visitors still here?
I don't know. I...
(AMBULANCE BELL GETS LOUDER)
Oh, crikey.
Joan Sims was a fascinating woman.
She was gentle, actually,
a very gentle personality and genuinely funny off screen.
And raising more temperatures in her second Carry On, Shirley Eaton.
You know, nursing training is right out of date.
What do you mean? They should have taught you
that there isn't always a medical reason for a fast pulse.
Carry On Nurse, for me, was my favourite role
and my favourite film out of all the Carry Ons.
See that Mr York doesn't fall over in the bath.
In Carry On Nurse, I discovered I was two months pregnant with my first son.
Which was terribly exciting, and all the cast were lovely with me.
That's when the community feeling started between us all,
because, in Carry On Nurse, nobody was the star.
Everybody was the star.
It was really very shared.
It was a big cast, wasn't it?
And joining that gang was the suave, sophisticated Leslie Phillips,
whose character, Jack Bell, would deliver the very first Carry On catchphrase.
Hello, chaps. Mr Bell?
Ding Dong, you are not wrong. This way, please.
NORMAN HUDIS: I wrote it in for him.
He said, "Ding dong!" And it stuck.
Mr Bell. Ding dong. Carry on.
With a combination of returning cast, catchphrases and surgical slapstick,
the Carry Ons were starting to take shape.
Not you, you idiot. Him.
I don't think I will have gas after all.
The laughing gas scene is beautifully acted.
Kenneth Williams walks in, who has just learned how to be a surgeon,
supposedly from a book. (LAUGHS)
Better give him some more gas. We can't have him giggling all through.
Most distracting. I agree.
(LAUGHS)
What's the matter with you? Nothing.
Let's get the knives. (GIGGLES)
(SNIGGERS)
(LAUGHS)
And you get a real sense they are enjoying themselves in that scene.
Just blokes running amok, really.
(LAUGHTER) What happens if anything goes wrong?
(LAUGHS) We will have to amputate your leg.
(HYSTERICAL LAUGHTER)
But writer, Norman Hudis, had saved the biggest laugh till last.
We have to carry out just one final test.
It will only take a few minutes. That's all right.
A now famous punch line was a late addition to the script,
thanks to a real-life story told by Hudis's mother in law.
She told me this joke.
We screamed with laughter.
And I tucked it away.
(KNOCK) Come in.
Colonel, whatever is going on?
Come, come, matron, surely you have seen a temperature taken like this before?
Oh... (LAUGHS) Yes, Colonel, many times.
But never with a daffodil.
Comedy, often...
..it's a question of remembering a joke rather than inventing it.
Carry On Nurse hit the funny bone, with British cinema goers buying over ten million tickets.
Rogers and Thomas swiftly signed a five-year contract
to deliver more of the same.
The decade had been dominated by Ealing comedies like The Ladykillers.
But by 1958, the fun-packed Carry On films had replaced them
in the public's hearts.
Ealing had had its last laugh.
The way was clear for the new kid on the block...
(MUFFLED WHISTLE) ..and a third Carry On.
They've taken the pea.
Like all the scripts that Norman Hudis wrote, there was a social consciousness.
And Carry On Teacher's main aim
was about the punishment in schools and the caning.
There is only one thing to do to save yourself. Whack.
Extraordinary theory. You bend a child double in order to give it an upright character.
That's actually a really clever line
in a film which is considered to be a bit of a knockabout comedy.
(GIGGLING)
After a bit part in Nurse,
actress Rosalind Knight was promoted to head girl
with a leading role in a new Carry On classroom comedy.
They offered me this glorious part of Felicity Wheeler,
this very humourless, intense OFSTED education inspector.
Would you care to leave now, Miss Wheeler? Mr Grigg can join us later.
No, thank you.
On the very first day of shooting,
they came up and they said,
"We are ahead of schedule, so we are going to film the scene
with you and Kenneth in the physics laboratory this afternoon,
where you see him and fall in love with him."
I said, "But I've never met him before! We've never rehearsed!"
They said "Never mind, that's what we are going to do."
Please don't stop, Mr Adams. Thank you, sir.
I was aghast, and went away and had to learn the words, you see.
They hadn't thought of that, that one hadn't prepared it,
because it wasn't on the schedule. As I told you...
The camera was on Kenneth first. And I watched him.
I hope to arrange an outing to a suitable...
And I thought, "Oh, look, his hair is rather nice and curly.
He's got actually very nice big brown eyes."
Gulp!
"And his nose. Look at his nose, it's a wonderful shape."
(HIGH-PITCHED) Settle down now, please.
And I think that's when I learned to act, properly.
To hell with this posh drama school I'd been to.
Hmm, yes, my latest.
But it wasn't just Rosalind Knight keeping a close eye on proceedings.
In innocent times, the British Film Board had the script under strict supervision.
I don't believe in repressing natural instincts. Very unhealthy.
Even the very first one, Carry On Sergeant,
there were issues with the censors.
The main problem with Teacher
was the pronunciation of Joan Sims's character, Miss Allcock.
My theory on music teaching is... Allcock.
The censors were not happy, but they
Miss Allcock.
Ding dong.
The interior sets for Carry On Teacher were created at Pinewood Studios.
But the outside shots were filmed at Drayton Green Primary in Ealing.
55 years later, Rosalind Knight is going back to school.
Well, it feels extraordinary to be back here.
This is where the beginning of Carry On Teacher was filmed.
(SCHOOL BELL)
I do remember striding forward in an officious way with Leslie Phillips,
sniffing out the building as an inspector of education.
How do you do? Welcome, Mr Grigg.
None of us had the remotest idea
that it would be watched for years.
It's absolutely amazing. Amazing.
But here it still is. Even that it's still here is amazing.
Yes. Let alone that I am still here!
As Britain said goodbye to the 1950s,
fans were entranced by this new comedy kid in town.
With another film already set to go into production,
Carry On was ready to swing into an exciting new decade.
By 1960, Britain was entering a colourful new era of hope and change.
After three box office hits, the Carry Ons had become comedy favourites.
But a new member of the gang was about to take their appeal
to a new level.
For many, the man born Solomon Joel Cohen
would be the nation's favourite Carry On star.
Although he would become known as the archetypal cheeky cockney in film and on TV,
Sid James was born in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1913.
A hairdresser in his homeland,
he arrived in England on Christmas Day 1946,
determined to make his mark as an actor.
After years in the theatre and revue,
Sid James' on-screen talents
finally came to the fore in The Lavender Hill Mob.
Who are you? Take those things away. I am not hungry.
Name of Lackery Wood, otherwise known as Sawdust Steve, the Wandsworth boy.
James had become known to millions in television's Hancock's Half Hour.
But it was his casting in Carry On Constable
that would earn him his comedy stripes.
Welcome. Welcome!
What a lovely sight, eh, Thurston? Not half, Sergeant.
Looking at that performance, it's very atypical Sid.
It's quite an authority figure, it's quite stern and it's quite grounded.
He's a professional man. It's just a routine police patrol.
Yes, Sergeant.
Just stay here, you lot, and remember you are still on parade.
Flu epidemic at peak!
Searching for inspiration for the plot,
writer, Norman Hudis, drew on the flu pandemic of 1958,
with Leslie Phillips and Kenneths Williams and Connor
drafted in as emergency special constables.
At ease.
I am Benson, Sergeant. This is Constable Potter and this is Constable Constable.
Who? Charlie Constable.
Oh, I get it. That's your name.
Yeah. And I am fed up with it. Everybody keeps taking the mickey.
Nobody will do that here, Constable Constable.
I am very pleased to hear it, Sergeant Sergeant.
Yes.
The film saw a welcome return for Charles Hawtrey,
whose comic delivery was beginning to register with director, Gerald Thomas.
Charles Hawtrey, from the very first film, Carry On Sergeant,
when he's missing from the barrack room and runs in,
having been locked in a toilet somewhere.
I am so sorry. Hello.
Gerry Thomas was very quick to notice
that was a really good moment.
By 1960, Carry On Constable,
they really began to milk that "Oh, hello!" moment.
(SHOUTING AND ARGUING)
Hello. Hello, Gorse.
Sorry I'm late, Sergeant. But I just couldn't leave home
without bringing something bright and gay for the poor constables.
Sid James joined his Constable colleagues on set
for the first time on 11th November, 1959,
filming outside the Carnegie Public Library in West Ealing.
Potter, you have got to try and pull yourself together. Yes, sergeant.
Every thing you have done has been a mess. Yes, sergeant.
One actress who would form a close relationship with Sid
was his co-star from TV series, Bless This House.
A similar age to Sid's own daughter,
Sally Geeson would also appear alongside him in later Carry On films.
It feels very special to be here today.
To think this is where Sid started his career in the Carry On films.
Carry On Constable.
You are late, Constable. Yes, Sergeant.
Why? We had a bit of trouble with the shower.
Looks like I'LL have a bit of trouble with the shower.
Oh, priceless innuendo. How witty. Quiet, Gorse!
Do you know that originally they wanted Ted Wray
for this part of the sergeant?
Ted Wray wasn't available.
So, luckily, Sid was, and Sid did it.
And that was the start of everything.
I think the public, the audience,
liked Sid right from the start,
because he had this natural way about him.
There was nothing pretentious about him.
I think every bloke in the street would say, "Good old Sid".
They could identify with him. And women would say,
"He's just like my husband."
I said, "Right, I am off duty now.
Anybody cares to come outside, I will take you on, one at a time."
What happened, Sergeant? They knocked my head off.
(LAUGHS) (CHUCKLES NERVOUSLY)
Sid was a fantastic actor.
And he had this wonderful gift
of being able to look as if he was just strolling through it.
And, of course, he wasn't, really.
He came onto that set, and it just looked like a doddle to him. But it wasn't.
I have been in the force a long time.
I still remember the bloomers I made when I was green as grass.
What's that got to do with it? It's got everything to do with it.
Sir.
I think Sid's performance in Carry On Constable was so great.
He just fitted in like a glove.
Straight away, Gerry Thomas and Peter Rogers said,
"He's the man that we need, definitely."
With four hits in three years,
Carry On had become a firm favourite at the pictures.
Soon, fans were writing in with their own ideas.
From Carry On Pig Farming to Carry On Stamp Collecting.
But, keen to push his own envelope,
writer, Norman Hudis, would find the inspiration for the fifth film himself.
Hello, hello. Isn't it a lovely morning?
Anything on the cards? Nothing!
There was an organisation completely like the Carry On Regardless office.
It was called Universal Aunts.
If you wanted something done
that was inconvenient for you to do, but not illegal or anything,
you went to this organisation... Helping Hands Limited.
Helping Hands employment agency had a variety of jobs
to keep the cast of Carry On Regardless busy.
So we all had our own scenes, which was lovely, where we were disparate.
Each one had something.
(IMPERSONATES FLY) Buzzzzz!
(LAUGHTER)
Over the years, the Carry Ons would bring us many a bubbly blonde.
But Liz Fraser was the first to take on the role.
Well, she didn't have much on at the time.
It feels so good.
I was very slim then.
Yes, doesn't look bad, either.
That was a very funny one.
I hid myself in a wardrobe or something, and his wife came in.
Precisely. Can we just explain?
Helen, what on earth are you doing here?
Regardless had all the riotous high jinks of the earlier films...
I can explain... My braces!
..but was also the first to have what was to become a Carry On staple,
a slapstick ending.
I loved the end, where we all hosed each other down,
and it didn't matter whether your hair was all right or your make-up.
That was the last scene. So we had a ball with that.
They just said, "Go on, fall over, hose each other."
So we were quite vicious with the hoses.
We would do it right in the face of one person, and then another.
We all were slipping over. That's my favourite scene.
By the early '60s, Carry On capers had become big draws
and all on small budgets.
Regardless had been made for just £100,000.
But for the next film,
the producers really pushed the boat out...
..for the launch of a Carry On in colour.
We're moving. Oh, Glad!
Oh, Flo! We're moving!
Following in the wake of a trend for cruise liner holidays,
Carry On Cruising set sail with some familiar faces on board.
Well, gentlemen, here we are just about to set sail on another cruise.
It's a lovely, colourful in-more-ways-than-one film.
Who are you? Your first officer, sir.
Kenneth Connor, Kenneth Williams and Sid James are your three principles.
(LAUGHS) What are you laughing at?
Nothing. (SNIGGERS)
But one member of the gang had been left at home.
Charles Hawtrey had demanded top billing
and a star on his dressing room door.
So he was promptly dropped by producer, Peter Rogers,
who replaced him by throwing into the mix
comedian, Lance Percival, at a fraction of the cost.
(SNIFFS) Hmm! Blimey.
Smells like a Babylonian boozer's bedroom.
The film might have lacked Hawtrey's hellos,
but Sid James was still at the helm and in command.
Couch.
Couch, not crouch, you fool! Get over there.
Like every Norman Hudis script, there is a figure of authority.
And it's Sid James again, playing quite a serious role, really,
with the goons around him.
To me, you look like disaster on six legs.
Prove I am wrong. That's all I ask. Clear?
As day. As an X-Ray.
As soup.
Playing first officer, Leonard March Banks, was Kenneth Williams.
The son of an East End barber,
Williams discovered a love of music and poetry at an early age.
Demobbed after serving in Singapore during the Second World War,
he joined a touring theatre company before winning bit parts in films.
I suppose I shouldn't have gone on holiday. (LAUGHS) No...
Acting alongside Laurence Olivier in The Beggars' Opera in 1953.
Yes, Captain.
Williams' comedy potential first popped up
when he joined the cast of Hancock's Half Hour.
Good evening.
The series would give him his life-long catchphrase.
They will think I've got another woman up here or something.
No, stop messing about.
Carry On Cruising would be the sixth
of his 26 Carry On appearances.
But filming, like many a part of Williams' life,
would prove a disappointment.
Williams' believed the film would be shot on location in the Mediterranean.
Instead, producer, Peter Rogers, with his hand firmly on the purse strings,
had a life-size model of the SS Happy Wanderer
built on the back lot of a not-so-sunny Pinewood.
Filming here would prove a challenge for leading lady, Liz Fraser.
That was quite funny, because I can't swim.
When we were supposed to be swimming in the pool,
I said to Gerald, "I can't swim."
And he said, "Well, you've got to do something in the pool."
So I did some sort of back stroke.
I could never do that. Oh, it's easy. Watch.
52 years have passed
since things went less than swimmingly
for Carry On's bathing belle.
Oh, this brings back a few memories.
G Block. That's where we did most of our filming.
All the dressing rooms were down there.
I tried always not to be next to Kenneth Williams,
because he liked it too quiet.
I loved this studio.
I always had to be here very punctual.
So you could get here as early as six to have all your make-up done.
I'll see you later, OK?
Now, this is one of the stages where we used to put all the sets.
Carry On Cruising was done here.
You always leave that lying around. It's worse than a pair of gloves.
Why don't you leave it in the cabin?
So the ship was here and we were leaning over.
Whilst we were saying, "Look, there is Gibraltar,"
it would have been over that side.
Who are we waving to? I don't know.
Oh!
Good evening, Miss Trimble. Enjoying yourself?
Very much, thank you.
'That's life, and that's love.
Woman fall for the most unlikely creatures.'
Quite an energetic game, what?
But it's great being back at Pinewood
and to hear the noise - fantastic.
But when filming finished on Cruising,
the journey was far from over.
With a new lead script writer at the helm, the Carry On cast and crew
were about to make an even bigger splash,
and exciting new territories lay ahead.
By 1963, a new Britain was on a roll -
Rock and roll, to be exact -
as an emerging generation let down its hair
and went in search of a good time.
Meanwhile, over at Pinewood, the Carry Ons were busy carrying on.
Gentlemen, really!
The first six films had been written by Norman Hudis.
But his era of community-based comedy was coming to an end
as producer, Peter Rogers, seeing a new road ahead,
roped in writer, Talbot Rothwell.
Tal Rothwell was well-known for writing comedy scripts
for people like Arthur Askey, the Crazy Gang, those sort of people.
So Tal Rothwell and Carry On fit like a tailor-made suit.
They were perfect.
(TYRES SCREECH)
What's the matter with you? Can't you give a hand signal?
Oh, veteran driver.
Leaving the colourful antics of Cruising behind,
Carry On Cabby went back to black and white,
echoing the popular working-class dramas of the early '60s.
We'll raid their yard and put the whole lot out of action. What?
With sexual equality now on the cards, Sid and Hattie locked horns.
Do you call it fair to have a lot of starry-eyed bints driving cabs?
Pinching our fares by showing their legs
and sticking out their big ends? Will you just shut up!
Whose side are you on? Theirs.
Carry Ons - if you talked to the person in the street,
they would say, "It's tits and bums comedy, and it's knockabout and slapstick."
It is that, of course, but Carry On Cabby is a feminist film, really.
Kitchen sink Carry On, if you like.
But this was feminism with its face firmly on.
The first appearance for a future Carry On leading lady -
27-year-old Amanda Barrie.
Well, actually, darling, do you think we really stand a chance?
There are far more men drivers, actually.
I know, but the men haven't got your advantages, dear.
Just flash your head lamps at them.
I am ashamed to think of it now when I see those pictures of me.
Because we had these costumes, which really suited some of the girls
who were sort of well-endowed.
I don't know what I had down the front of my costume.
I really don't, because I've never been that shape ever in my life.
Into your cabs, girls!
One thing I failed to tell everybody
until the actual shot when they said, "You drive off,"
and I went, "I can't drive, I don't drive."
They were sort of... that look of "Oh...her".
Then various people said, "Tow her out of shot."
So I am afraid the crew had to tie a great big piece of rope
onto the front of my cab, and I went...
And pick up a gentleman, all right? Of course, darling.
I've been picking up gentlemen since I was 17.
What's that bloke playing at? What's he trying to do, kill himself?
Are you a taxi? No.
Stopping the traffic in the first of his eleven Carry Ons,
a young singer called Jim.
No, no, you must help me. It's my wife.
She's going to have a baby.
# My baby, I need you #
At 22, Jim Dale was the first pop recording artist
to be taken on by legendary Beatles producer, George Martin.
Aren't we anywhere near it yet? It's not far now.
You have been saying that for the last ten miles. Jeremy!
It's all right. I'm here, dear. We're all here, dear.
I had a great admiration for Sid James.
And I had great admiration for all the other regulars.
And it was Sid and I who had a few words together on screen.
It wasn't a very big role. It was just fun to be part of that.
Are you absolutely certain she is going to have a baby? Oh, yes.
This isn't really very surprising because it isn't due till next week.
The British public hailed Cabby a success.
And a year later, Carry On saw a return to colour production
and another change of direction.
Watch your course, damn your eyes! You're all over the cursed sea!
With cinema goers lapping up period swashbucklers
like Mutiny on the Bounty and HMS Defiant,
1964 saw cast and crew drop anchor
for the first of their hysterical historicals.
My name is Poop-Decker, sir. I have a hyphen.
According to this report, you have more than that.
It was the first costume drama, as such, and in colour.
I think they spent another £12 on that one, at least.
Absolute daylight robbery.
I enjoyed it, I must say. Being my first one,
I didn't know quite what was going to happen.
Keep your eyes tightly closed, Albert.
I'm sorry, Albert.
Keen to give their period piece some gravitas,
director Gerald Thomas recruited classical actors,
Bernard Cribbins and Juliet Mills, for the leading roles.
I was very honoured to be asked to be in a Carry On, I can tell you.
Shoot him down! Everybody wanted to do one,
because everybody knew how much fun it was going to be.
I remember getting the script
and then getting to the midshipman outfit.
And I thought, "Oh, my goodness, this is going to be hilarious,
with me dressed up as a boy."
Who is that up there, then?
Is it Nelson? No, he's got too many arms. (LAUGHS)
The uniform, it was very authentic.
Tight white britches, which got tighter as the film progressed,
because I was actually three months pregnant when I started the film.
I didn't tell anybody in case it frightened them
and they fired me or something.
I am terribly sorry about all this.
It's all right. It's not your fault.
Fortunately, Juliet Mills would escape the film's most testing stunts.
But Cribbins wasn't quite so lucky.
Up the mast, it was like thirty or forty feet up. It was ridiculous.
"Where's the stunt man?" "You are. Get up."
Aaaargh!
I enjoyed swinging about on the webs and all that,
because I was quite physical in those days.
I enjoyed an awful lot of it, actually.
As usual, sets were created at Pinewood Studios.
But Carry On's new co-stars also found a friendship developing out on location,
with Frensham Ponds in Surrey standing in for the Atlantic Ocean.
I can't just lie here and watch you die.
Juliet was lovely. I hadn't met her before,
and we just got on very well.
We had a giggle and all that silly stuff we had to do.
You would do it for me after all I've done to you?
Bernie is a sweet, darling man.
And he was just very easy to work with
and very easy to be in love with him.
It's just my luck the tide's out. And he's a marvellous actor.
So it was a very happy experience working with him, yes.
Keen to publicise their now thriving brand,
the studios sent photographers to capture life on set.
These pictures, for the press, have become known as "the blue books".
Laying in a vault and unseen for decades,
they now form a remarkable archive of life behind the scenes
on the Carry Ons.
Today, Bernard Cribbins and Juliet Mills
will meet for the first time in five decades
and get their very first look at photographs
taken during Carry On Jack.
Well, here we are,
this is Bernard Cribbins reporting from Frensham Ponds
on a fine, blustery day.
We did a scene here on Carry On Jack fifty years ago.
I think that was the beach where we landed.
Land! We're saved! It's land over there! Land?
Land! Come on, it's land!
There was Kenneth Williams, Charlie Hawtrey,
Juliet Mills and myself, of course.
We landed there after the shipwreck or whatever it was
and shot off up the beach here.
Come on, let's find some water. Water? We've had enough of that.
I am so excited. I haven't seen Bernie for fifty years.
Now I am going to see him. He's right over there. I can't wait.
Once the film had finished,
I went onto something else and she probably did exactly the same.
And that was it. End of story.
Yeah, amazing.
I don't believe it. I don't believe it.
Take your clothes off. I love you.
How are you? I am good, darling.
How lovely to see you. It is 50 years.
Isn't it shocking? No, it's not. It's lovely.
We are both still standing up and taking notice.
I know we are. Come on. We'll go over here.
It's so good to see you. I am really thrilled to see you.
Oh, Albert, do I have to hit you over the head again? No.
I love you.
You love me?
Oh, that's wonderful, because I love me, too.
I mean, I love you, too.
It's a sort of a record of the films that were made...
The Carry Ons at Pinewood.
Oh, my God! Look at that. Bernie, you were so physical.
Look at that. My pistol's falling out.
That's how excited I was. (LAUGHS)
I might steal this. I think it's got some lovely pictures. It has.
I never knew they made records of all the movies.
There were a lot of sailors.
Yeah, well, you would know that better than me, dear.
Yes, I would. (LAUGHS)
Oh, God...
I am amazed to see what long hair I had. I never knew...
Kill them! Kill them all! Attack! Attack!
Next time...
Oh, dear. (LAUGHS)
I seem to have got a little plastered.
How the Carry Ons left them screaming with laughter...
This film is always with me,
because there are always people who are seeing it for the first time,
and it's become a very big part of my life because of that.
..as the gang burst forward towards a golden era of comedy.
At the count of three, it was whipped off, and they were out.
Infamy! Infamy!
They've all got it in for me!
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