Carry On

That pinging sound was a career being launched.

An excellent example of a Universal Adaptor Cast, the Carry On films were a long series of movies made with a diverse troupe of British comic actors. All were produced by Peter Rogers and directed by Gerald Thomas. Over the years, different actors would join or leave the Carry On gang, or just take a break for a film or two. Kenneth Williams was the actor who appeared in the most Carry On movies, some of the other actors who regularly appeared included Joan Sims, Charles Hawtrey, Sid James, Kenneth Connor, Peter Butterworth, Bernard Bresslaw, Hattie Jacques, Jim Dale, Peter Gilmore, and Barbara Windsor. And many others.

Each Carry On actor tended to specialize in a particular type of role. Thus Kenneth Williams would usually play a snide, haughty character who would easily be outraged, Joan Sims started out playing young and desirable women then moved to older and less-desirable women, Charles Hawtrey would be naive and effete, Sid James played lecherous, leering Cockneys (often named "Sid"), and so on. Each Carry On film would find a different situation to put these types in. Sometimes a normal everyday setting (a hospital setting was used four times), sometimes a well-known historical period or a parody of a specific film genre. Once in a while an actor would play different from their usual type, such as Kenneth Williams playing the Mayor in Carry On Cowboy with a Fake American accent instead of in the voice and style usually associated with Kenneth Williams.

Some say these movies have an important place in the history of British film comedy, others say they represent one of the lowest points of British comedy. Most say the series was uneven, with some films better than others, but there is little consensus on which are the best films. The series relied heavily on one-liners, puns, and sexual innuendo. Gradually, as censorship standards for British films changed over the period, the sexual humour came to be more explicit, until it seems to completely dominate the later movies, it was, after all, the age of the Awful British Sex Comedy.

The complete list of films in the series is as follows:

  • Carry On Sergeant (1958) Army Basic Training
  • Carry On Nurse (1959) Hospital
  • Carry On Teacher (1959) The Good Old British Comp
  • Carry On Constable (1960) Police Force
  • Carry On Regardless (1961) Temporary Employment Agency
  • Carry On Cruising (1962) Cruise Ship
  • Carry On Cabby (1963) Taxicab company
  • Carry On Jack (1963) British navy in the time of Nelson
  • Carry On Spying (1964) Espionage, especially James Bond etc.
  • Carry On Cleo (1964) Ancient Rome and Ancient Egypt
  • Carry On Cowboy (1965) The Wild West
  • Carry On Screaming! (1966) Horror, especially Hammer Horror
  • Don't Lose Your Head (1966) The Scarlet Pimpernel
  • Follow That Camel (1967) French Foreign Legion
  • Carry On Doctor (1967) Another Hospital
  • Carry On Up the Khyber (1968) Northwest frontier of 19th century British India
  • Carry On Camping (1969) Camping
  • Carry On Again Doctor (1969) Yet another Hospital
  • Carry On Up the Jungle (1970) African Exploration, including Tarzan
  • Carry On Loving (1970) Computer dating agency
  • Carry On Henry (1971) Henry VIII
  • Carry On at Your Convenience (1971) Trade Union in a toilet factory.
  • Carry On Matron (1972) Still another Hospital
  • Carry On Abroad (1972) Package Tour
  • Carry On Girls (1973) Beauty Pageant
  • Carry On Dick (1974) Dick Turpin
  • Carry On Behind (1975) Camping
  • Carry On England (1976) World War II
  • That's Carry On! (1977) Compilation of clips from the series
  • Carry On Emmannuelle (1978) Softcore Porn
  • Carry On Columbus (1992) Christopher Columbus

Note that two of the films were originally released with titles that did not include the words "Carry On"; this was due to a change of film distributor. They were later known as Carry On Follow that Camel! and Carry On Don't Lose Your Head

These films are frequently shown on British television, only very rarely in the United States. This is probably due both to more stringent rules about sexual humour and nudity on American television, and also due to the very British quality of the humour.

In addition to the films, the group made four Christmas specials for British television (in 1969, 1970, 1972 and 1973), and there were three live stage shows. There were also two television series called Carry On Laughing; the first in 1975 consisted of spoofs of period pieces (King Arthur legends, The Prisoner of Zenda, various historical events, etc.); the second from 1981-1983 consisted of clips from the films.

Rumors persist that a new Carry On movie, titled Carry On London, will start shooting soon.

Not to be confused with the Funny Animal Web Comic of the same title.

Carry On films with their own trope pages include:
The remaining Carry On films contain examples of:
  • Ambiguous Gender - Dr. Crow, the head of STENCH in Carry On Spying, is part of a race of new superhumans embodying the strengths of both men and women while not being wholly one or the other. (The character was played by Judith Furse, but affecting a deep, almost tenor voice.)
  • Anachronism Stew - A staple of the "historical" films, always for purely humorous purposes. Just as an example, irrespective of the era in which the films were set, Charles Hawtrey's characters always wore "granny glasses".
  • Animal Assassin - A snake is dropped into the heroes' bed in Carry On Screaming!
  • Apron Matron - "Ooh, Matron!" A fixture of the hospital films, always played by Hattie Jacques.
  • Armed Farces - Carry On Sergeant, Carry On Jack, Follow That Camel, Carry On Up the Khyber, and Carry On England.
  • Artifact Title - Carry on, Sergeant was a common order given by officers which audiences would have been familiar with. After that there is usually no phrase or pun involved for subsequent films' titles, it's just tacking "Carry On" before the subject.
  • Ass Shove - In Carry On Henry, the Queen has been thrown into the Tower of London, and asks a sympathetic priest to smuggle a letter out. The priest says he is searched thoroughly by the guards, but there is one place they don't look -- he has second thoughts when the Queen produces an enormous scroll.
  • Attractive Bent Gender - Often accompanies Disguised in Drag. For example, in Carry On Matron, Kenneth Cope is disguised as a female nurse to case the hospital Sid James' gang are planning to rob. He promptly attracts the attention of a lecherous doctor played by Terry Scott.
  • The Big Guy - Bernard Bresslaw. All 6'7½" of him.
  • Blind Without'Em
  • A Bloody Mess - Happens in Carry On Behind when an explosion upsets a caravan, causing a bottle of tomato sauce to fall out of a cupboard and splatter its contents over Professor Crump (Kenneth Williams). He thinks he's been wounded and faints. Hilarity Ensues.
  • Brotherhood of Funny Hats - In Carry On Matron, Sir Bernard Cutting (Kenneth Williams) is about to thrash Dr. Goode (Charles Hawtrey) over their perceived shared affection for Matron (Hattie Jacques)... until it emerges that they are both members of the Grand Order of Newts (Sir Bernard in the Watford "pond", Dr. Goode in the Wapping "pond"), whereupon they begin reciting the Newts' loyalty oath in unison.
  • But This Is Ridiculous - Carry On Cowboy: "I know this is the Wild West..."
  • Camp Straight - Any character played by Kenneth Williams or Charles Hawtrey. The latter was actually gay, while Kenneth Williams is a matter of debate to this day.
    • Frankie Howerd, also known to have been gay, embodied this trope in his two Carry On appearances (Carry On Doctor and Carry On Up the Jungle).
  • Catch Phrase - Although they were playing different characters in each film, some of the actors had a few catchphrases which showed up with considerable regularity.
    • Charles Hawtrey's first line in each film was nearly always a very camp "Oh, hel-lo!"
    • Kenneth Williams would often deliver at least a few lines in his "Snide" voice from Hancock's Half Hour (in a few films, such as Carry On Spying, he would do the entire role in "Snide" mode), including the character's catchphrases of "No, don't be like that!" and "Stop messin' about!"
  • Christmas Episode - Carry On Christmas, the collective name for four one-off Christmas television specials starring many of the Carry On regulars (notably excluding Kenneth Williams, who refused to take part) produced in 1969, 1970, 1972, and 1973.
  • Clip Show - That's Carry On! was conceived by Peter Rogers as a Carry On version of the successful That's Entertainment! compilations, with clips presented by Kenneth Williams and Barbara Windsor. The second Carry On Laughing series which ran from 1981 to 1983 transferred the idea to television, minus Ken and Babs (except for the 1983 Christmas special).
  • Cloudcuckoolander - Many of Charles Hawtrey's characters.
  • The Danza - Many of Sid James' characters were named Sid or Sidney, although this also happened from time to time with Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, Joan Sims, Barbara Windsor, and various others.
    • Carry On Camping probably contains the most uses of this trope, with characters including Sid Boggle (James), Kenneth Soaper (Williams), Charlie Muggins (Hawtrey), Bernie Lugg (Bresslaw), Joan Fussey (Sims), and Babs (Windsor).
    • The character of Sidney Bung in Carry On Screaming! was intended to invoke this trope, but when Sid James proved unavailable, the role was recast with Harry H. Corbett, averting the trope.
  • Dawson Casting - Frequently used. For example, in Carry On Sergeant, the National Service recruits, who should be in their late teens or early 20s, were all played by actors who were over 30 at the time of filming (in fact, Charles Hawtrey was over 40, Kenneth Connor nearly so). Similarly, in Carry On Camping, the finishing school girls were played by actresses in their late 20s or early 30s rather than in their late teens or early 20s (for example, Barbara Windsor was 31).
  • Disguised in Drag - Often involving the aforementioned Bernard Bresslaw. Peter Butterworth, Charles Hawtrey, and Kenneth Williams also frequently dressed in drag to go undercover, almost invariably without bothering to disguise their voices.
  • Doing It for the Art - Bernard Bresslaw in Carry On Up the Jungle went to the trouble of translating his lines into the appropriate African dialect. The rest said he could have just made up some Foreign Sounding Gibberish and no-one would be the wiser, while the extras playing the other Africans were of Caribbean origin and didn't understand him anyway. Years later, an immigrant from that area told him he remembered that scene and thanked him! (Sid James, who had lived in South Africa until his early 30s, also congratulated Bresslaw on his diligence.)
  • Drill Sergeant Nasty - Carry On Sergeant and Carry On England, the former with William Hartnell in the role, the latter with Windsor Davies.
  • Efficient Displacement - Carry On Screaming: "I do wish Junior would learn to use the door!"
  • Embarrassing Slide - In Carry On Behind, Professor Crump (Kenneth Williams) delivers a narration to what he thinks is a film on archaeology being projected behind him. Unknown to him, the wrong film was shipped and the audience is actually watching footage of a stripper.
  • Exact Words - In Carry On England, the unpopular Captain Melly issues new uniform regulations, telling the female soldiers that they must wear battle dress trousers, then ends his announcement with "That is all." The next morning, the women show up for morning parade wearing battle dress trousers - and nothing else.
  • Fan Service - Let's just say Barbara Windsor and have done with it.
    • "In Carry On, [insert 90% of the list of fanservice tropes here]".
    • Carry On Cabby presents the argument that in a free market, no amount of quality can compete with blatant fanservice, as a rival cab company arrives out of nowhere providing only drivers with large breasts. One sequence features a succession of customers happily fixing their own cabs as the drivers lean against them idly.
    • Carry On Emmannuelle was an attempt at building an entire film around the concept of fanservice. It failed dismally, demonstrating a profound truth about how fanservice works. Or possibly not.
    • Margaret Nolan!
  • Follow That Car! - In Carry On Loving, Sidney Bliss flags a cab and tells it to go to a certain address. When it takes off without him, he flags down another cab and tells it to "follow that cab", and this cab also drives off without him, leaving Sidney incredibly annoyed.
  • Food Fight - The climax of Carry On Loving involves one of these at a wedding reception.
  • Foreshadowing - Carry On Spying contains a rather clever example for a series which usually placed so little emphasis on narrative. When STENCH leader Dr. Crow calls the Chief (Eric Barker) at the beginning of the film to taunt him about the theft of the formula, the Chief orders the call traced, and the number comes back WHitehall 66066. The Chief realises that is their own number and assumes the trace has failed. It turns out the STENCH base is directly below the headquarters of British Intelligence; at the end of the film, Simpkins and his team emerge from a secret exit in the safe in the Chief's office in which Simpkins had been locked at the beginning of the film.
  • Franchise Zombie - Carry On Columbus was a badly misconceived effort to carry on the series, stocking the cast with alternative comedians yet sticking to the hopelessly out of date type of jokes that the series had been using in its heyday.
  • Frankenstein's Monster - Carry On Screaming!
  • Frying Pan of Doom
  • Fun with Acronyms - Carry On Spying features British Intelligence fighting STENCH (the Society for the Total Extinction of Non-Conforming Humans), while Dilys Laye's character is secretly working for SNOG (the Society for the Neutralisation Of Germs).

Simpkins (Kenneth Williams): [upon being invited to join SNOG at the end of the film] Ooh, yes, I always wanted to do a bit o' SNOGgin'!

  • Genre Savvy - In Carry On Teacher, the headmaster, Mr. Wakefield, is very sharp on the comic book style pranks and tricks (e.g. the magazine down the back of the shorts) that the schoolkids play.

Mr. Wakefield: I see, and what do you think I should about it?
Stevens: Cane me?
Mr. Wakefield: And split a perfectly good magazine?
Stevens: Sir?
Mr. Wakefield: Remove the padding, Stevens; you're crackling like a pan full of frying bacon!

Mr. Wakefield: Flour again? Couldn't you have found some soot just for a change?

  • Getting Crap Past the Radar - Oh, where to start?
    • How about Carry On Up the Khyber's title. It's Cockney rhyming slang: Khyber → Khyber Pass → Arse (Anus).
      • And "FAKIR! OFF!" from the same film.
    • "Peace on?" "Peace off!"
    • In Carry On Henry, after Guy[1] Fawkes' plan to blow up Henry VIII with gunpowder has fizzled out (literally), Lord Hampton of Wick (whose name is another example, "Hampton Wick" being Cockney rhyming slang for... well, just guess) mutters, "Oh, Fawkes!"
      • Related to Lord Hampton of Wick, there are plenty of names across the series derived in some way from "Hampton"; for example, the hospital in Carry On Again Doctor is called Longhampton Hospital.
    • In Carry On England, when Sgt.-Maj. Bloomer derides Sgt. Able's ability to recognise different aircraft, Able retorts, "I know a Fokker when I see one..."
  • Gone Swimming, Clothes Stolen - Happens in Carry On Up the Jungle with the delicious Jacki Piper. She goes swimming with the Ape Man and an ape steals her clothes.
  • Henpecked Husband - Many of Sid James' characters, with the nagging wife generally played by Hattie Jacques or Joan Sims. Also sometimes played by Kenneth Connor (Carry On Cleo, Carry On Abroad) or Terry Scott (Carry On Camping).
  • Hollywood Mirage - Follow That Camel, including the inevitable fake-out when a real luxury hotel in the middle of the desert is dismissed as a mirage (to the dismay of the proprietors).
  • Incredibly Conspicuous Drag - Several of the films involve Sid James or Bernard Bresslaw (or someone similarly unmistakeably masculine) wearing a dress, and the authority figure they're trying to evade falling instantly for him, despite the fact that he's clearly Sid James or Bernard Bresslaw wearing a dress. (The fact that the authority figure was frequently Kenneth Williams may add a bit of subtext to this.)
  • Incredibly Lame Pun - Many, many infamous examples.
  • Informed Attractiveness - Barbara Windsor was not exactly a Hollywood beauty, though she did have a couple of things in her favour.[2]
  • Invisible Holes - Occurs in Follow That Camel (shot by Arabs) and Carry On Henry (tortured in an iron maiden).
  • Lovable Rogue - Many of Sid James' characters, when he wasn't playing Henpecked Husbands.
  • Male Gaze - In Carry On Henry, Henry VIII tricks Barbara Windsor into providing fanservice. A courtier comments on her beautiful face, her fine neck, her shoulders...

Henry VIII: I'm going the other way.

  • Man in a Kilt - Carry On Up the Khyber features a Highland regiment, known as the "Devils in Skirts". The question of what's worn beneath the kilt becomes a significant plot point.
  • Meaningful Name - If a cheap joke could be got out of a person's name it was.
  • Mistaken for Badass - Major plot points in a few films, especially Carry On Cowboy (Marshal is his name) and Carry On Cleo.
  • Naked People Are Funny - Most commonly Barbara Windsor, alternatively Charles Hawtrey.
  • Of Corsets Funny - In many of the films.
  • Potty Emergency - The bus ride/pub crawl in Carry On at Your Convenience builds to a gushing, Benny Hill-style finale as they search for a convenient bush to pish behind.
  • Punny Name - A staple of the series once Talbot Rothwell took over as writer. For example, the hero of Carry On Doctor was Dr. Kilmore, Carry On Again Doctor featured a Dr. Carver, and the hospital in Carry On Matron was named Finisham Maternity Hospital, with head surgeon Sir Bernard Cutting.
    • Shamelessly indulged in for Carry On At Your Convenience. The toilet factory is run by W.C. Boggs and his son Lew, with factory foreman Sid Plummer.
    • Other punny names were more suggestive, such as the slimming clinic in Carry On Again Doctor founded by Dr. Nookey with capital from Ellen Moore: the Moore-Nookey clinic.
  • Recycled: the Series - The first Carry On Laughing! was an attempt to bring the style of the Carry On films to television; it ran for 13 episodes across two series in 1975. The series was not a success, in part because only around half the film series' regular cast members were involved[3] while longtime writer Talbot Rothwell had retired due to ill health, and while the films are still frequently repeated on British television to this day, Carry On Laughing! has been largely forgotten.
  • Sex Comedy - the premise.
  • Slippery Skid - Carry On Cleo has a scene spoofing the legend about Cleopatra bathing in asses' milk, which culminates in somebody slipping on a bar of soap and falling on her.
  • Smug Snake - Many of Kenneth Williams' characters.
  • Special Guest - Phil Silvers as a very Sgt. Bilko-esque Foreign Legion sergeant in Follow That Camel (a role originally intended for Sid James; writer Talbot Rothwell felt that Silvers would be ideal for the role when James proved unavailable).
  • Stiff Upper Lip - A Running Gag associated with being British. Your hotel is collapsing into a river (Abroad)? Keep partying. Your fortress is being destroyed (Up the Khyber)? Ignore it and have dinner while making offhand comments about the noise. Peter Butterworth's character is the Only Sane Man during both scenes.
  • Sweet Polly Oliver - In Carry On Jack, Sally (Juliet Mills) steals the uniform of Midshipman Albert Poop-Decker (Bernard Cribbins) and takes his place on the frigate Venus so that she can go to sea in search of her childhood sweetheart, while Albert finds himself pressganged onto the same ship as a common seaman.
  • Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist - Kenneth Williams in Don't Lose Your Head and Carry On Dick.
  • This Trope Is Bleep - "What's a diddler?" "Well... it's... *accordion*" "Ooooh! No wonder they call it a diddler!"
    • From Carry On Cabby:

Allbright: All right, but I don't know what the union's gonna say about all this!
Sarge: [microphone feedback] the union![4]
Allbright: Well, really!...

  • Title Drop - Often occurs near the end of the films. Carry On Regardless has one right at the end that is notable for how completely it fails to arise naturally out of the dialogue.
  • The Trope Kid - Sid James as 'The Rumpo Kid' in Carry On Cowboy.
  • Tuxedo and Martini - Jim Dale in Carry On Spying is one of these. Through no fault of his own his work is rendered completely ineffectual because of the comedic incompetence of the main characters.
  • Universal Adaptor Cast - The cast did the same thing, more or less, regardless of setting.
  • Victoria's Secret Compartment - In Carry On Cowboy Belle keeps a derringer in her cleavage.
  • Wardrobe Malfunction - Carry On Camping provided the canonical one in the UK. Barbara is doing aerobics. She flings her arms a bit too wide at one point and... *pop* goes her bikini, right into the face of Kenneth Williams. Watch it here.
    • This is just the most famous example; nearly every film featured at least one scene where a male character either lost or split his trousers or a female character lost her skirt or top.
  • Wax Museum Morgue - Carry On Screaming!
  • What Did I Do Last Night? - Near the end of Carry On At Your Convenience, following an uncharacteristically wild party, W.C. Boggs (Kenneth Williams) wakes up in bed with his secretary (Patsy Rowlands). When he asks her, rather nervously, whether they... you know, she looks smug and says that if he doesn't remember, she's not going to tell him.
    • This phrase is spoken word for word by Sgt. Bung in Carry On Screaming! the morning after his nocturnal rampage as Mr. Hyde.
  • Who's Your Daddy? - At the end of Follow That Camel, Bo West has married Lady Jane, and when Sgt. Nocker is re-united with them, he finds her pushing a pram. She says her baby is the image of his father... at which point we see he looks uncannily like Commandant Burger, right down to the monocle. (Burger and the baby were both played by Kenneth Williams.)
  • Wooden Ships and Iron Men - Carry On Jack.
  • A Worldwide Punomenon - Actually quite restrained in its use of puns. For instance, Kenneth Williams in Carry On Cleo:

Infamy, infamy, they've all got it in fer me![5]

  1. ↑ presumably; his first name is never mentioned
  2. ↑ Although Windsor herself has noted that they looked bigger than they were due to her small waist and the fact that her small feet meant that she walked in a way that emphasised her bust.
  3. ↑ Charles Hawtrey had parted company with the series several years earlier, Kenneth Williams refused to take part, and Sid James filmed four episodes and Hattie Jacques just one; the slack was taken up by Kenneth Connor, Joan Sims, Barbara Windsor, Peter Butterworth, Bernard Bresslaw, and Jack Douglas
  4. ↑ Cyril Chamberlain's mouth does not actually move during the microphone feedback.
  5. ↑ This gag was originally written for the radio series Take It From Here by Frank Muir and Denis Norden.
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