Oh, hello!
They're the most famous comedy gang in British film history.
It's all cock and no pea. That's exactly how I like it.
They've made us laugh for 60 years with an outrageous blend of
eyebrow-raising sauciness and slapstick.
(BALLOON POPS) (THEY LAUGH RAUCOUSLY)
Very obvious. And rude, as well.
Harmless at the same time.
It was like nudge-nudge, wink-wink.
Which one of you is looking for Big Dick? He is. He is.
In this series we're revealing all about what was carrying on
behind the scenes.
Look! Earmuffs!
There'll be unseen clips of life on set.
Do you think that this is the type of part you like acting?
Oh, I always do. It's got a touch of the sadism in it,
and I'm very good at all that, being a bit nasty.
There's more extraordinary photos
that have laid in the archives for decades.
Oh, my goodness! What's this?
And emotional returns to where the magic happened.
This film is always with me,
because there are always people who are seeing it for the first time.
It's become a very big part of my life because of that.
Carry on!
(SID JAMES CHUCKLES)
In 1964, the Carry On films were just six years old,
but the country had come of age.
Beatlemania swept through Britain,
and the nation's youth embraced a sexual revolution
and an increasingly liberal attitude.
By now, Pinewood had become a popular base
for big-budget blockbusters featuring Britain's biggest stars.
But it was a different story for the Carry Ons,
whose production purse strings were held tightly
by producer Peter Rogers and director Gerald Thomas,
the famously thrifty team behind the films.
I think that we all felt that we were not quite up to that level,
you know. But we were a band of happy brothers,
and so when we walked into that dining room at lunchtime,
you would get people come over to join us.
And that's when I realised everybody there knew the Carry Ons
and all made a point of coming over and being part of the Carry On team.
Just across from the canteen Bond was in production,
with Sean Connery starring in Goldfinger.
Rogers and Thomas didn't have to look far
for their 9th Carry On adventure.
Not that everyone would be pleased about it.
Red Admiral calling Blue Bottle. Red Admiral calling Blue Bottle.
Blue Bottle, come in. Blue Bottle.
It's a clear parody of the Bond films.
And the Bond producers weren't very happy
that Peter Rogers was gonna rip off their franchise,
on their doorstep as well, at Pinewood Studios,
in probably the next studio.
Hello. Hello.
Agent Bind. James?
No, Charlie.
Number? OO-oh.
It's more of a homage to film noir and The Third Man,
which was a classic British film noir.
The Associate Editor on that film was Gerald Thomas,
so that's why it was shot in black and white.
Ssh, I think I've made contact.
Hello, Red Admiral calling BOSH. Come in, BOSH.
Making his third Carry On appearance was pop star turned actor Jim Dale,
who suddenly found himself a man of many parts.
I had no idea who I was from one day to the next.
I had seven different characters to play.
The journey from London to Vienna by diesel locomotive
is uncomfortably long.
There was a bearded match seller, a prostitute -
a favourite character would have been a bearded prostitute. That could have been fun.
Cafe Mozart, 10 o'clock. 'Ere, wait a minute,
where's Carstairs? I am Carstairs.
They knew I could do physical comedy,
and that was going to be most important.
I went down a drain. (EXHALES) You know, that's dangerous!
Oh! Look out!
There's a stepladder inside. You're gonna miss it.
Your legs are gonna go on either side of the stepladder,
as they did, and I came out a soprano for a few days.
Spying also saw the first appearance of a young actress
who was set to shake up the whole of the Carry On outfit.
Come over 'ere, I want to see you.
The only child of a bus conductor and a dressmaker,
Barbara Ann Deeks was born in Shoreditch in 1937
and started performing at the age of 13.
As Barbara Windsor, her big career break would come nine years later
in a stage production of Fings Ain't Wot They Used To Be.
She soon earned a BAFTA nomination
in the 1962 movie Sparrows Can't Sing
before Peter Rogers spotted her many, and very considerable, talents.
I remember her bouncing into the studio on that first day,
coming over to me and saying, "Hello, Jim, I'm Barbara."
Will you help me on with mine, please? Of course, yes.
She was great. In comes this little cockney fireball, you know. Yeah.
No, she was great. Didn't take any prisoners.
Barbara was a breath of fresh air. And that's what the Carry Ons needed and that's what the Carry Ons got.
You'd better just put it in your handbag, Daphne.
Once they wrapped on Carry On Spying,
Barbara Windsor was put into a black wig and they said,
"You're playing Cleopatra next." She'd go, "OK, fine, no problem."
But it didn't work out. She always says that she upset Gerald Thomas,
but whether that was true I don't know.
Gerald would probably forgive Barbara anything.
Instead, the title role of the next film
went to 28-year-old Amanda Barrie, in her second Carry On adventure.
'This is Cleopatra, the fabulous Queen of the Nile.
Whose only resemblance to an iceberg
is that no more than one tenth of her is visible.
While nine tenths, the better part of her,
is beneath the surface.'
I don't remember ever being asked about an audition,
or an interview, or anything at all.
I was told by my agent, "You're doing a Carry On."
And I went, "Yes, and what am I doing?" "Cleo." And I went...
"Me?! I can't do Cleo!
What are they thinking of?!", you know.
Yes?
Is there something I can do for you?
(GRUNTS)
Sid, as far as I'm concerned, was just a joy to work with.
It was always easy to make him laugh.
Now look, I'm very sorry, miss, but I've got my orders.
Madam, I...
(CHUCKLES)
Oh, don't apologise, please.
I could forgive such a handsome visitor anything.
I used to put all his bets on for him,
cos he knew I like racing and horses,
so all the time it would be...
I'd be backwards and forwards to the phone
cos there weren't bookies you could do it with then, you couldn't ring Ladbrokes.
And I was so looking forward to cementing our alliance.
Yes. Well, there'll be plenty of time to think about that later.
Right now, we have to think what to do about Caesar.
In what had become a Carry On tradition,
Cleo, like Spying, was a direct send-up of a big-budget production
also being filmed at Pinewood.
They were making a film of Cleopatra -
the very famous, very expensive
Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton film, based at Pinewood Studios,
and because the weather was so bad in England,
they decamped and went to Italy to finish it,
just leaving a load of sets behind.
And Peter Rogers thought, "Well, we could use those."
And it looks beautiful
because that was 20th Century Fox money, basically,
not Peter Rogers money.
So, um, they used those sets for a lot of the exterior shots,
and even the same costumes.
Puer, O puer, O puer.
I was wearing Elizabeth Taylor's shoes,
a couple of their headdresses, certainly one of the neck things.
I didn't take them.
My God, darling, I'd put them on eBay, if I'd bothered to get them.
I say!
Ooh!
Amanda Barrie may have been presented with a star wardrobe
but she spent a large part of Cleo in just her birthday suit.
I didn't wear very much at all under the milk.
Sometimes, I used to put bits of sticky stuff on me
and it used to float off.
I think they put powdered milk in.
But it did used to go a bit niffy.
Are we there? Yes, sir.
Good. Come in with me and stay close, I don't feel safe tonight.
You're not.
I think the reason people love Carry On Cleo
was probably because of the Kenneth Williams
most brilliant line that was ever written for a Carry On film.
Infamy! Infamy!
They've all got it in for me!
That's gone down in history as one of the great one-liners of all time.
Not a Carry On original - this is a line from a radio show,
which Denis Norden and Frank Muir wrote,
and the scriptwriter, Talbot Rothwell,
just had this line that didn't quite work in the script
and thought, "What about that line from that radio show 10 years ago?"
Phoned Frank Muir, "Can I use it, please?"
"Of course, no problem." And that line went on forever,
so Frank Muir went to his grave bemoaning the fact
"I gave away my best line!"
And it's always credited to Tolly and not to him.
But that's showbiz for you.
With its cheeky wink to Burton and Taylor,
Cleo was a box-office smash at Christmas, 1964.
Full of Eastern promise, the Carry Ons were on a roll.
But soon they would head out west for a film
that would give Sid James a new co-star
that might just have been his favourite yet.
Marvellous. I never let her kiss ME.
But I don't mind kissing HER.
Though British farce through and through,
by the mid '60s the Carry Ons
were also drawing in the crowds far from home.
Breaking box-office records, Carry On Cleo was still packing them in
when Carry On Cowboy went into production in 1965.
Producer Peter Rogers had heard that The Fab Four
were set to make a cowboy film.
Could the Carry Ons really beat The Beatles?
The back lot of Pinewood had never looked more Western
than it did with that set. It was absolutely brilliant.
So it really looks as if it was an American film.
Appearing in his sixth Carry On caper was Sid James,
cast in the lead role as The Rumpo Kid.
(HORSE WHINNIES)
I wonder what they wanted.
I think in this film Sid James felt more at home than all of us,
especially in the saddle.
He worked in the Outback of Australia.
He was used to being on a horse.
He LOVED it.
Little footage has survived of the Carry On team at work,
but on Carry On Cowboy a news crew filmed Sid James
as he relaxed backstage in between takes.
Much of the footage shot that day has never been seen on television,
until now.
He's been showing me what to do with these.
Can I have my finger? Thanks. Alright? Have that one.
Hang on.
See those? Somebody's favourite breakfast.
Want to meet her? Come on.
She goes mad for these.
This is my girlfriend, Katie.
Show 'em your sharp end. Turn around, lovely.
There we are.
Isn't she pretty?
She's dead clever, you know. She's had a lot of experience.
I think she's done more pictures than I have.
But Sid wasn't the only one enjoying his Wild West adventures.
The part I played in Carry On Cowboy meant I was allowed to do things
that I had never done before.
Annie Oakley was trying to teach me how to fire a gun.
And Gerry said, "Well, you know, just play about."
And I said, "It would be nice if we could do some
really tricky, rehearsed stuff in this."
(GUNSHOT)
So I spent two weeks watching myself
pull a gun out, letting go of it,
the gun would spin in the air, and I would reach for it,
hoping I was going to catch the barrel.
I would be rehearsing for hours a day,
and so when you see this ad-lib of me pulling the gun,
it spins twice, I grab it, and the barrel's pointing at me...
Argh!
..that was two weeks of practice,
but it was worth it just for the two seconds it took of screen time.
Cos it looked... It looked wonderful.
Carry On Cowboy also saw the first credited appearance
of a member of the gang who would become known as its gentle giant.
The youngest son of a tailor's cutter and a seamstress,
6'7" Bernard Bresslaw
first came to prominence as Private Popeye Popplewell
in ITV's The Army Game.
Look at that pretty girl over there. (LAUGHTER)
Pardon me, miss...
..but may I have this dance?
For a comedy actor, he took it very seriously.
He looked on every role as a challenge, I think,
and wanted to try and find something different he could bring to it.
We went to visit him on location...
We here. Oh, good.
..which was great fun, as you can imagine.
As a young lad, being taken out onto a set -
it was terribly glamorous.
You wait.
Big Chief in little lodge.
(TOILET FLUSHES)
He was a very learned man, he was very well read.
His great passion was reading.
The roles don't do him justice, in that sense.
No can stick in keyhole-um.
Key in keyhole-um.
Well take the key out! Ah.
(BLAST)
Cowboy was the start of Bernard's
10-year relationship with the Carry On team.
What's the matter?
But it was also a film that marked the debut of a new
and nervous leading lady.
(GRUNTS)
# The night is young
# And we're not too old...
I got the telephone call and they said,
"Look, we'd really like you to play Annie Oakley."
So I thought, "Oh, is that Annie Get Your Gun?"
(LAUGHS) You know, "Is that a musical? Am I up for this?"
Anyway, it turned out to be a film called Carry On Cowboy,
in which I play Annie Oakley, and "Yes, please, I'd love to."
# When I am yours
# To have and to hold...
Well, the singing scene was a very nerve-racking experience.
# I am willing
# And awfully weak
# And just...
I said to Joan Sims, "I'm terrified." My knees were knocking.
So she gave me a double brandy... She gave me a double brandy
and she pushed me up those stairs and she pushed me on.
# And say those words
# I'm longing to hear...
And I think you can see in the very last shot I'm embarrassed.
I'm embarrassed at the end, when I get to Sid
and I'm so relieved it's all over.
# It's the night for love #
These previously unseen books are full of pictures
that recorded life on set of the Carry Ons.
This is the first time that Angela Douglas has seen the photos
that the Pinewood publicity team captured on the set of Cowboy.
Oh, I love that!
That would make a great Christmas card, wouldn't it?
I used to think I was fat. Look at it.
That's very sweet.
There's Jim.
Take 2, it says here. Take 2. Now that was a luxury.
I mean, that's an exceptional shot in itself.
We hardly ever did two takes.
Bless his heart. Oh, my goodness!
What's this?
Oh, looking so confident. I mean, there's an actress!
Looking so confident on the horse.
I'm really quite frightened of horses and I can't ride.
Oh, it's such a pretty, happy picture.
It's a fabulous life - if you're lucky.
I wouldn't be here talking to you, would I,
if it hadn't been for the Carry Ons, so I'm grateful to them for that.
Maybe without them, um,
it would be Angela who?
Following her performance in Cowboy,
Angela Douglas would soon be back on set with her new pals
on the next Carry On adventure,
paired up again with on-screen love interest Jim Dale.
It's not a peep show, you know.
It was lovely. The two of us got on like bread and butter. It was great.
The only thing I don't like about that lady...is her scream.
(SCREAMS)
We had three takes, and she had to scream.
And every time she did it, she got nearer to my ear.
I am still a bit Mutt 'n' Jeff.
(SCREAMS)
What now? There IS something in those bushes.
This would be another Carry On inspired by
what was already big at the box office.
The result would be a spine-tingling pastiche
of the equally British Hammer Horrors.
(MUTED SCREAM)
The lead role of investigating officer Sergeant Bung
was written for Sid James.
But Sid had already had the call to star in Christmas panto.
(TELEPHONE RINGS)
Slobotham here, sergeant.
Sorry if I'm disturbing you and Mrs Bung.
That's alright, Slobotham. We weren't doing anything.
This would be the only Carry On role
for the star of Steptoe and Son, Harry H Corbett.
And he'd find it by no means an easy ride.
Why are we stopping here, sarge? There's a house.
I think Harry felt a little bit out of it.
We all had the confidence of having worked with each other
over the years, that we didn't really have to, um,
involve ourself in too much rehearsal.
We knew what was coming.
Harry perhaps felt a little bit on the outside.
Sergeant!
But the arms of the company were around him every day,
and finally he did relax and become part of it,
and really did enjoy making that film, he told me afterwards.
(KNOCK ON DOOR)
But for many, the best character in Screaming
was the seductive Valeria Watt.
Come.
After a minor part in Carry On Regardless,
this would be the role that would seal Fenella Fielding's place
in British movie history.
Fenella Fielding is the Carry On vamp.
Nobody from the established Carry On team could have played that part.
It's not a Barbara Windsor part, or a Liz Fraser part,
or a Joan Sims part, it's uniquely Fenella.
Just a minute.
Bide-a-Wee Rest Home.
Come on, let's go inside.
Most of Carry On Screaming was shot at Pinewood Studios.
I would like to see...
..the master of the house.
I'm afraid my brother is resting.
But the exterior of the Bide-a-Wee Rest Home
was found in neighbouring Fulmer Grange.
Today the building is still in use as a language school.
That I remember much taller.
I can't believe it. I mean, it looks life-size.
Love it.
I have very fond memories of Carry On Screaming
because all actors like working with other actors that they admire.
And there were so many good actors in this particular film,
that you...wherever you turned, you saw someone you admired.
It was, I think, as near perfect as you can get.
What time is it?
Just past December.
I told you not to call me till the beginning of March!
Seeing pictures of oneself in costume,
it always depends on how good you look.
And on this one,
I look as if I've had rather a good lunch...quite often.
Everyone wants to know about the dress.
(CHUCKLES)
I couldn't really sit down in it.
In fact, the only time I did sit down
was in my scene with Harry H.
Do you smoke? Not on duty, miss.
Well, do you mind if I smoke? Of course not, miss.
Thank you so much.
I did have a leaning board,
which is rather remarkable, isn't it? It's very Hollywood.
A slanting board, you lean on it
between shots so that you don't wear yourself out.
Which is a very good idea.
Frying tonight! Aah!
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.
It's amazing. It's incredible.
Carry On Screaming was a roaring success,
and soon plans were afoot to make a big noise across the Atlantic.
Could one of TV's loudest character actors be the man to help them?
Get dressed and be out there in five seconds!
(SHOUTS INCOHERENTLY)
Carry On Screaming had made all the right noises at the box office.
(RUMBLE OF THUNDER)
But the brand was to undergo a major transformation.
All of the 12 previous Carry Ons
had been released through Anglo Amalgamated.
But following the death of their co-founder, Stuart Levy,
Peter Rogers turned to a distribution company
based within the home of the Carry Ons.
The Rank Organisation were a bit reluctant to pick up a series
so heavily associated with a rival company
that they made Don't Lose Your Head without the Carry On prefix.
'Peter Rogers and Gerald Thomas have brought the Carry On crew
together again in Don't Lose Your Head.'
# Don't lose your head when they're screaming for blood...
Don't miss it. We're not.
This was made as a Carry On. There's no two ways about it.
It's the same cast, the same writer, the same director, the same crew -
everything's the same, it's just without "Carry On."
The next year, Rank would play the same trick with Follow That Camel -
not just without the words "Carry On" in the title,
but also without Sid James, who was working on a new TV sitcom
before a heart attack cut short his involvement.
A parody of big-screen adventures with the Foreign Legion,
this was a Carry On film that also had an international name
in the lead role.
Phil Silvers was asked to star in this film
because they wanted to open the market to the American audience.
In the most original fashion, I play a sergeant.
Something knew to me (!)
A sergeant in the Foreign Legion.
And I'm the only American in it,
and possibly the best actor of the bunch.
The only popular film in America had been Carry On Nurse at that point.
And I think The Rank Organisation had a feeling that maybe
an American star would help it.
Let me in.
Let me in, for pity's sake!
Well, Phil Silvers, you know, Sergeant Bilko,
in the late '50s, I mean, he was huge.
You didn't go out that night when he was on television.
Sergeant Nocker reporting, sir.
Back from patrol... (MUMBLES)
So I thought, "I'm gonna meet Phil Silvers, how amazing."
And I'm taken into this little sort of house on the beach,
and there's this man with a muffler and a coat on,
and he said,
"Mr Silvers, this is Angela Douglas."
He said, "Oh, hello, Angela." Like this, he said,
"Tell me, have you ever been constipated?"
I went, "Oh! How do you do?"
I got something for you!
With an appearance fee of £30,000,
Phil Silvers became the highest paid actor in Carry On history,
dwarfing the £6,000 paid to regular Kenneth Williams.
Silvers was definitely more Hollywood than Pinewood.
He did have certain demands. He wanted to be flown over first class,
for his family to come with him,
to be put up in The Dorchester hotel -
but he was an American star.
He had quite a problem. Unfortunately,
his memory wasn't good. He had to have the words alongside the camera.
What for? For talking back to your sergeant!
For not being ready for parade!
And for acting like a couple of motherless, fatherless kids!
Now you get with it! Get dressed and be out there in five seconds!
(SHOUTS INCOHERENTLY)
We had problems with this cos WE knew our words,
but we tried to make him feel as comfortable as possible.
Another newcomer to the Carry On team was 24-year-old singer Anita Harris,
making her feature film debut.
Well, it's one thing being offered your first movie,
and thinking, "Ah! This is it!",
and then you suddenly realise you've got to be a bombshell,
um, with a different accent... (GIGGLES)
We haven't seen you here before. No, I have just come from Egypt.
Ah, Egypt. Land of mystery.
Home of the mighty fairies.
You mean pharaohs. I know what I mean.
I went to a vocal coach,
and of course for the belly dancing
I had to spend about six weeks with a REAL belly dancer.
And, um, she said, "You're too skinny. You're too thin.
You've got to have a belly."
There she was, in this lovely frilly Turkish dress,
being an utter delight.
She had this very sexy little dance, which she was very good at.
It was a bit of fun. All I had to do was a good job
and feel very looked after.
Location filming took place in early 1967.
Having decamped to the coast for three weeks,
this was the longest period
the Carry Ons would ever spend away from Pinewood Studios.
But with purse strings as tight as ever,
cast and crew didn't have to travel far for filming.
The exotic landscape of the Sahara would be found in East Sussex.
Oh, it's just so beautiful to be back.
So, Sergeant Bilko, where are you? (LAUGHS)
Jezebel!
I'll never trust another woman as long as I live.
(SPITS) Disgusting!
I think the fort must have been somewhere over there.
The fort!
And the camp with all the beautiful girls.
One thing about Gerald Thomas and Peter Rogers
was they knew how to pick the girls. (LAUGHS)
Man, you gotta hand it to these A-rabs.
They got the craziest camping equipment!
The camel was interesting.
She came from Chessington Zoo.
We soon learned that actually
the camel didn't like sand... (LAUGHS) ..at all.
So they lay tracks under the sand so she could be sure-footed
for the scene she did. In fact, she did really well.
She did - a bit smelly, but really well. (LAUGHS)
Oh, lovely memories.
Lovely memories.
To be a part of that team was absolutely wonderful.
They became a family.
And to join that family, when you're in your early 20s,
is a bit special. It really was lovely.
Lovely.
But losing "Carry On" from the titles Don't Lose Your Head
and Follow That Camel also led to losses at the box office.
And Phil Silvers had failed to draw in fans across the Atlantic.
In 1967, the words "Carry On" were back,
but it seemed this was a brand
that might need even more drastic surgery.
Peter Rogers had told Kenneth Williams
that Carry On Doctor was to be the last Carry On.
Good morning, Matron. Good morning, Doctor.
Rumours went around that maybe Anglo would start doing rival Carry On films with some of the cast.
Inspired by the popular Doctor films produced by his wife, Betty Box,
Peter Rogers moved away from hysterical historicals
and called upon Matron Hattie Jacques and the gang
to help nurse Carry On back to health.
Indeed, rude health.
Oh, no you don't. Oh!
I saw that film. I thought you'd like to smell it.
The lead role went to comedian Frankie Howerd,
perfectly cast as charlatan faith healer Francis Bigger.
While my assistant passes amongst you with the collection box...
Purely travelling expenses, of course. (CHUCKLES)
No cheques, please, just notes.
I'd known Frankie since I was 20 years old.
He came into the film and played Frankie Howerd,
which was all we wanted, and was very funny being Frankie.
What's going on here, Nurse?
Oh, Sister, he won't let me take his underpants off, the silly boy.
You're darn right I won't! And I'm not a boy, as you'd soon find out.
Carry On Doctor saw a welcome return for the old gang
who had made some of the brand's most popular films of the mid '60s,
including Sid James, confined to scenes in bed
while recovering from a recent heart attack.
I'm Nurse May. I was told to report here, Sister.
I'll be with you in a moment. Hi.
The part of Matron was offered to Joan Sims,
but Sims stepped aside, saying that no-one could make a better matron
than her friend Hattie Jacques,
who'd made the role her own in 1959's Carry On Nurse.
After four years' absence, Hattie was back on her rounds.
It was roles like this that earned her
the fond nickname of Mother Superior from the rest of the cast.
Hattie was just a real woman.
A force to encounter.
She was endearing. But she was also very matter-of-fact.
"Morning. Good morning. Everybody alright? Good.
Right, let's get on with it", you know?
And then the matron came through all of that, of course.
Dr Kilmore?
Dr Kilmore! Why are you listening at Dr Tinkle's door?
What was that?
Ooh! Why are you listening
at Dr Tinkle's door? Was I?
Josephine Edwina Jacques was born on the 7th of February, 1922
in Sandgate, Kent.
Known as Hattie from the age of 20,
during the Second World War she worked as a nurse
and a factory welder before turning to the theatre.
In 1950, she landed her first major role
in the film Chance of a Lifetime.
I know which one I'D give his cards to.
Oh, you do, do you? Yes, I do!
Who? You, you big puffed up bag of wind!
Eight years later,
she would be called up for the first Carry On film.
Hattie's brilliance at playing the archetypal British battle-axe
would be put to good use in the majority of her 14 Carry On roles.
Dismissed! You've got no feeling for the sick!
I remind you I am an officer!
And I remind you that I'm a sick man!
She was lovely off-stage, and people were shocked.
She was mumsy. Sitting at the table, she'd be serving, doing everything.
When you've finished, Dr Prodd,
perhaps we can carry on with the business of the hospital?
After you, Matron.
She was Mum to everybody. Every single person that I talked to
on those movies always told me that she was like the...the matriarch.
Morning, Matron. Good morning, Sister.
Those screens are untidy, Sister.
She was a real mum, and very gentle, and very loving,
and she was great to both me and my brother
when we were growing up.
I have to say, Christmas time was...
..amazing.
It was like Carry On Christmas at home.
Kenny Williams would come, Joan Sims would come.
My mum would unwrap Christmas crackers
and put personal things
to those people who were sitting at that seat, just for them.
She was amazing.
Hattie Jacques was married to Dad's Army star John Le Mesurier
for 16 years, but behind her smile lay a lifelong struggle.
She was very self-conscious of her weight.
And she tried desperately to go on all sorts of regimes and diets
and whatnot, which never really worked.
To my mum, it mattered that she was larger. It really did.
You don't mind discussing your problems with a woman, I hope.
Oh, no, not at all. My mother was a woman, you know.
When she walked in a room full of people,
full of her friends, close friends, it would take...
..a lot of deep breaths and courage to walk in there.
You?
I... So that's it!
Gawd blimey, what a mug I've been!
Charlie, please. I know what you're thinking.
Good! Then it save me telling you!
Her contributions to the Carry On films were unbelievable.
And her sense of humour, and her comedic timing
was off the wall.
She was a joy.
After a period of not quite feeling itself...
(SCREAMS)
..Carry On Doctor had seen the brand once more fighting fit.
But the next instalment, in 1968,
would be a strong contender for the greatest Carry On of them all,
as Britain's colonial past was sent up in Carry On Up the Khyber,
a spoof of adventure movies like Michael Caine's Zulu.
It's an epic film. It's the one that gets its foot into the door
of respectability. It's number 99
in the British Film Institute Top 100 British Films of all time.
So one Carry On at 99 just squeezed in the back door, as it were.
Oh, I say! He did not half crack that one, did he not?
Dearest, if you can't express yourself in more elegant terms,
kindly shut your cakehole.
Once again, Pinewood was the principle location
as England doubled as India.
The studio was always filled with what I would call "proper work."
And we were always the sort of poor relation.
Played, sir! Well played, Philip!
We were shooting the polo sequence at the beginning of the film.
Dick Van Dyke was filming Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
on another stage,
and tottered across onto our set.
I think he'd had a couple of scoops.
I don't think he had any idea where he was! (LAUGHS)
But, er, they were occupying possibly three or four sound stages
to our one.
But when it came to recreating the Khyber Pass,
well, there was nothing like this in leafy Buckinghamshire.
So cast and crew upped sticks
and headed for the Snowdonia National Park in North Wales.
230 miles from Pinewood Studios, it would be the furthest afield
the Carry On team would ever travel.
This rare example of behind-the-scenes footage
was shot by a local TV crew in May, 1968.
How did you find it in the first place?
Oh, I came down here with my art director and cameraman on a recce,
and we met Colonel Goodchild, who lives here in the village,
and he came with us - he found these places for us.
He was most helpful. This is the only place really
in the British Isles that looks like the Khyber Pass.
40 local Welshmen were drafted in
to play the soldiers of the 3rd Foot and Mouth Regiment -
for once, proving less than perfect casting.
I found that everybody in Wales is called Williams.
Having a leading actor called Williams, every time I say,
"Look at Mr Williams" they look at each other.
'And so the British carried on with their carefree life,
little knowing that high in the snow-capped mountains to the north
the spark was soon to be lit that would set Kalabar ablaze.
Here was the famous Khyber Pass.'
70 cast and crew spent one week in wet and windy Wales
facing a daily trek 3,000ft up to Watkin's Path.
Among them was 27-year-old Angela Douglas,
making her fourth and final Carry On appearance.
Wow.
It's more beautiful than I remember. Much, much more beautiful.
But maybe I'm more appreciative now. It's just stunning.
Stunning.
Halt! Who goes-
Who goes, erm...
Oh, what's the word? There.
Oh, Thank you. Who goes there? I go there. Very good friend.
Oh, advance, friend, and give the password.
Big pleasure, sir. What is password, please?
Pomegranate. Very good. Pass, friend.
There used to be a gate here.
And the unit and the crew were all up there,
under sort of... We had a sort of awning.
And it was freezing. Absolutely free...
Today's magical and just... you could drink it,
but um, it was freezing.
And underneath all the flimsy clothes, I had thermals.
It appears the Khasi is coming down the pass with his army.
I've decided that you will all try and get back to the residency.
We? What about you?
I remember I had wonderful clunky, very sort of Indian type jewellery,
and I lost an earring.
And of course, then there was hell to pay.
"Angela's lost an earring. How are we gonna find it? Continuity."
And do you know, I don't think we did find it,
and I had to go through the whole... (LAUGHS) ..sort of doing this.
Kill! Kill! Kill!
Kenny Williams, he would have run all the way round here,
and I guess he would have moaned a bit.
He didn't trip.
I always like being back in Wales. Always.
You see, my parents are Welsh.
My mother was from (INDISTINCT) and my father was from Port Talbot.
You're playing the part of an Indian er...
I am playing, yes, Rhandi Lal, the Khasi.
He was the sort of raja, you see,
who is anti-British in this.
Do you think that this is the type of part you like acting?
Oh, I always do. It's got a touch of the sadism in it, you see,
and I'm very good at all that, being a bit nasty, you know.
Enjoy that very much.
Kill them! Kill them all! Attack! Attack!
Kill! Kill! Kill!
Back at Pinewood, the battle between the Burpers and the British
came to a head in a scene that would bring the house down
in cinemas across the country.
The dinner party sequence was the high spot of the movie.
Peter Butterworth was hysterical.
Um, and it was very difficult to keep a straight face.
Bravo! Encore!
Encore! (LAUGHS)
Fuller's Earth should have had billing, because it was one of
the most important aspects of the shoot.
Well, you only had the one take, you know,
because they went through the ceiling, and the windows.
Oh, dear. (LAUGHS)
I seem to have got a little plastered. (LAUGHS)
(LAUGHTER)
I don't think there's any shots of me at all
cos I couldn't stop laughing. Tears were pouring down my face.
I was wondering if I might pop outside, see what's happening.
But you haven't had your pudding.
Oh, and it's strawberry mousse.
Oh. Well, in that case...
The food, which was repulsive on day one,
by the time we got to day five,
it was...inedible,
because there were bits of Styrofoam that had fallen in.
I mean, how any of us didn't get something seriously wrong with us
is completely beyond me.
It was seriously unpleasant.
But, I mean, it made the film.
Raise!
(SCREAMING)
Carry On Up the Khyber was revealed to a warm welcome
in November, 1968.
Oh, my gawd.
But the gang were already packing their bags and back on the road
in what would be the biggest success in Carry On history.
(TYRES SCREECH)
Carry On Camping is one of those films which I think
is like a rite of passage - you must see it if you were born in this country.
Come along, girls. Collect your bags.
The plotline is simple - a load of misfits go on a camping holiday
and meet at this campsite. That's it.
Ten quid we spent here!
Anybody'd think the field belonged to him.
Sid, my stew!
We shot in October, which was hardly ideal
for a movie that was supposed to be about a summer holiday.
So the conditions were unpleasant, to say the least.
Look at that! What?
We shot the whole thing in the orchard
at the back of Pinewood Studios.
Frightfully expensive.
And, um,
they were spraying the mud green
so that it might look like grass.
Well? Well what?
Well are we leaving or not?
Leaving? A lovely cheap place like this?
I don't call 10 quid cheap. Oh, shut up!
Leaving? You must be barmy.
It was pretty...awful.
It was meant to be the summer, of course.
I can remember all the duckboards they had put out,
if you were lucky enough to get to stand on one.
Otherwise, we were all wandering around in mud.
As Britain marched towards the end of the swinging '60s,
the country was shedding its inhibitions and its clothes.
Carry On followed suit,
with what would be perhaps their most famous moment ever.
Yes, the famous exercise scene -
us all doing our physical jerks with Kenneth Williams.
It was a question of getting it right, as it was a rather
delicate little scene - particularly for poor Barbara.
And fling! And in.
And both arms fling.
In a bid to reel in new fans with its sauciest scene to date,
director Gerald Thomas sought a surprisingly simple solution.
And fling!
Ohh! (LAUGHTER)
They had a...fishing rod and a hook
attached to her bra,
and then, at the count of three, it was whipped off
and they were out. (CHUCKLES)
Matron, take them away! Ohh!
(SCREAMS)
If you were a gentleman, you'd close your eyes. (CHUCKLES)
Carry On Camping made millions laugh on its way to becoming
the highest-grossing film of the year.
Surely now this was the way to go for Rogers, Thomas and the team.
Barbara's bikini coming off probably opened the floodgates,
particularly for Peter Rogers,
because it then meant
that the seaside postcard element of the films...was done,
and we were actually now going to see flesh.
Next time, Carry On ramps up the sex factor with a fumble in the jungle...
Here we go again.
..saucy goings-on abroad...
..and the gang get to grips with a really big one.
Ahh!
There he is!
Fire!
subtitles by Deluxe