PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Carry On ChristmasTV Specials

I picked up a DVD of the Carry On Christmas TV Specials. Unusual, at least for a rather more obscure British program, is that the DVD is produced in the US by Image. There must be a small gang of Carry On fans out there but I haven't ever meet anyone who even knows much about the film series except for Neil Gaiman. I grew up with the Carry On films in Canada. The movies were in the theaters and on TV. I went to see some of them in the theater in the 1970s. The DVD has all four of the Christmas Specials which first aired in 1969, 1970, 1972 and 1973.

Peter Rogers was the producer of the Carry On film series and he produced these TV specials for Thames Television. Early in his career he was the producer of the Roger Moore Ivanhoe TV series. Before that Peter produced 20 films and one of the later ones was Carry On Sergeant. After that hit he produced 30 more Carry On films and some related TV. He still managed to produce many other non Carry On films over the years. Peter appears at the start of each Special with a short intro. The DVD also has a nice 45 minute Q & A with him. It was filmed at Pinewood Studios in 1999 and he brought his dog. The other extra is Carry On Christmas Memories and it's got Peter reminiscing about the Christmas Specials.

Carry on Christmas 1969

The first special was produced after Carry On Up The Jungle and it's pretty much the same cast. It's script is by Talbot Rothwell who wrote a lot of the Carry On films. The TV special is based on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. It's got Sid James as Scrooge and Charles Hawtrey as the Ghost of Christmas Present. I'm a big fan of both Sid and Charles. I'll watch just about anything with them in it. The rest of the cast play multiple characters. When the ghosts come to tell Scrooge what problems his villainous ways cause they show him dreams that are way different than the ones in the Dicken's story.

In the Christmas Past segment Dr Frank N Stein was looking to Scrooge for a loan to finish his monster. Barbara Windsor plays the monster and Bernard Bresslaw her mate.

In Christmas Present Robert Browning wanted a loan from Scrooge to elope with Elizabeth Barrett. Frankie Howerd plays Robert Browning and Hattie Jacques plays Elizabeth Barrett. I like Frankie a whole lot but I understand he's not to everyone's taste. I recently bought several British DVDs to continue enjoying his work.

Christmas Future tells the story of Cinderella. Barbara Windsor plays Cinderella, Frankie Howerd plays the fairy godmother, and Charles Hawtrey plays Buttons.

It's pretty much panto on TV and gaudy costumes are part of panto. You can see some panto on YouTube though much of it amateur. Here's a professional Cinderella Panto with Frank Skinner as Buttons. Peter Rogers is pretty much unashamed about the type of comedy that fueled the Carry On films and the long term popularity seems to indicate that people, other than me, like it too.

Carry on Again Christmas 1970

The second special was written by Sid Colin and Dave Freeman. Sid had co-written Carry On Spying with Talbot Rothwell and Dave would go on to script Carry On Behind and several episodes of the Carry On Laughing TV series plus the 1992 film Carry On Columbus.

The special is loosely based on Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island with Sid James as Long John Sil, Barbara Windsor as Jim Hawkins, Charles Hawtrey as Old Blind Pew and Terry Scott as Squire Treyhornay.

The special was shot in color but broadcast in black and white because of a technician strike at Thames Television. It resulted in the broadcast of all their Christmas shows that year in black and white. Sadly no one thought to keep the color version.

Carry on Christmas or Carry On Stuffing 1972

Talbot Rothwell started the script for the 3rd special, but got ill, and Dave Freeman was brought in to complete it. There's no Sid James this special and Charles Hawtrey thought he might get top billing. Peter Rogers didn't see that  and Charles pulled out of the production.

The setting is an 18th century dinner party where the guests tell stories to entertain each other. One of the stories is an Adam and Eve thing with Barbara Windsor. There were a couple of madrigals.

There's a haunted house story with Hattie Jacques and Joan Sims. The last story is a weird version of Aladdin set in Peking with Barbara Windsor as Aladdin.

Carry On Christmas 1973

Talbot Rothwell was back with the script for the last of the Christmas Specials. Sid James returns as a department store Father Christmas who has fantasies while on the job. 

One's set in 2001 BC, another in some Elizabethan time, and a third in WWI.

There's some ballet and a sketch about Robin Hood. Sid finally finishes his day only to get a ticket for illegally parking his sled and reindeer. 

All the shows are pretty silly, the first two are my favorites of the lot.

In 1983 there was a special called Carry On Laughing's Christmas Classics with Kenneth Williams and Barbara Windsor as hosts. They introduce some funniest moments from the later Carry On films. It's not on this DVD.

Carry On Christmas

I'm ordering the whole Carry On series from Britain because they aren't available here. I looked on the Wikipedia page for the series and I see there were 4 TV specials from 1969 to 1973 and a clip show 10 years later. They have the regular Carry On cast in their usual antics and the first one had Frankie Howerd as Robert Browning. I pilfered the descriptions from the Wikipedia.

Carry On Christmas 1969

The first special, Carry On Christmas, was broadcast in 1969. It was filmed shortly after the completion of Carry on Up the Jungle and featured the same main cast from that film. It was scripted by long-term Carry On author Talbot Rothwell. The story was an irreverent take on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, featuring Sid James as Scrooge. The 'Christmas Past' sequence reveals that Scrooge failed to invest in the schemes of Dr. Frank N. Stein, who (assisted by his servant, Count Dracula) sought to create a mate for Barbara Windsor's Monster. The 'Christmas Present' sequence described Robert Browning's difficulties in attempting to elope with Elizabeth Barrett without funds, thanks to Scrooge's unwillingness to lend. The 'Christmas Future' sequence retold the story of Cinderella.

Carry On Again Christmas 1970

The second special, Carry On Again Christmas, was shown the following year. Rothwell did not script this episode, but Sid Colin, who had co-written Carry On Spying with Rothwell, wrote the episode with Dave Freeman, who would go on to script Carry On Behind, several episodes of the Carry On Laughing television series, and the 1992 film, Carry On Columbus. Based on the Robert Louis Stevenson story Treasure Island, this episode saw the Carry on debut of Wendy Richard, who would go on to have small roles in Carry On Matron and Carry On Girls. Although the 1969 special was broadcast in colour, the 1970 special was shown in black and white due to a technicians' strikes that caused Thames television to broadcast all their Christmas shows that year in black and white.

Carry on Christmas (or Carry On Stuffing) 1972

In 1972 a new Christmas special was produced, entitled Carry On Christmas (or Carry On Stuffing). Two unforeseen problems meant that many fans consider this the weakest Christmas special. Firstly, Talbot Rothwell became ill whilst writing the script, and was unable to finish it. Dave Freeman had to be brought in to complete the script, but the two men did not work together. As a result, the script does not flow as easily as the earlier offerings. Secondly, Charles Hawtrey pulled out of the special at short notice. Having taken third billing to Sid James and Terry Scott in the previous two shows, and knowing they would both be absent, Hawtrey demanded top billing. But Carry On producer Peter Rogers refused, giving top billing to Hattie Jacques instead. Hawtrey's role had hastily to be recast, and was split between Norman Rossington and Brian Oulton, both of whom had played cameo roles in several Carry On films. The special featured a collection of historical sketches, loosely linked around an 18th-century banquet. It included a performance of two madrigals originally written for Carry On Henry. The songs reappeared in the 1973 stage show Carry On London.

Carry on Christmas 1973

1973 saw the final original Christmas special, Carry On Christmas. Talbot Rothwell made a return as writer, as did Sid James. This was the only special to have a modern-day setting, featuring Sid James as a department store Father Christmas, although it did feature historical sketches.

Carry on Laughing's Christmas Classics 1983

It would be ten years before the next Christmas special. Carry On Laughing's Christmas Classics saw Kenneth Williams and Barbara Windsor introduce some of the funniest moments from the later Carry On films, in a format very similar to the film That's Carry On!. Although people would see this as a fifth special, it is a compilation of clips from the films, and so not officially counted as a Christmas special.

Carry On...3

The last third of the Carry On series is not the best of the 31 film series. There are still a lot of jokes and stuff going on but the quality of the writing has sunk.

 

Carry On At Your Convenience came out December 1971. I couldn't find the whole movie on YouTube and I haven't seen it. I read ont he Wikipedia that it's put the Carry On gang in the world of plumbing. Kenneth Williams owns a factory that makes toilets. There's labor trouble with the local union leader who calls a strike for any little reason. Sid James is the factory foreman and he's trying to get everyone back to work. The company designer designs a bidet that causes a stir.

Carry On Matron came out in May 1972. We're back in the hospital again. Sid James and his gang of criminals want to steal some birth control pills from the local hospital. They plan to sell them overseas. They dress one of the gang up as a woman so he can get a job as a nurse. He then falls for the one of the nurses. Hattie Jacques is the matron.

 

Carry On Abroad came out in December 1972 and we've got Sid James as the owner of a pub. He's off to a holiday in Spain without his wife Joan Sims. She doesn't like flying, but when she finds out the naughty Barbara Windsor is going, she joins her husband on the trip. That doesn't make James very happy. The hotel in Spain is unfinished and that makes for something like comedy. People just seem to love comedy born of pain, don't they.

Carry On Girls came out in November of 1973. Sidney James is Councilor in a little seaside town. They have little or nothing to offer the tourist trade so he wants to put on a beauty contest. Not everyone one on the council is happy about it. There's a definite feminist rebellion to the pageant. Sid's girlfriend is Joan Sims and he treats her pretty sadly. He dumps all the contestants in her hotel which is already struggling to make any money and he's not coughing up any moola for the rooms. There are plenty of pretty girls in skimpy costumes so that's fun. Like most of the films there are some good jokes and some pretty terrible jokes. There's a lot of repeating jokes from film to film.

Carry On Dick came out in July 1974 and we find Sidney James as Dick Turpin. There was a real Dick Turpin, I remembered him from British history in high school. He was a famous highwayman who was hung by the neck for horse stealing. In the movie the King's men are trying to clean up a rash of highwaymen, including the legendary Big Dick. It doesn't get much better than that. This would be the last Carry On film for both Sidney and Hattie Jacques. Who can blame them. They would appear on the Carry On tv show.

Carry On Behind was released December 1975. Two couples are planning their holidays and the men are going one place the women another. The guys chase some other women but they're pretty stupid and fail to catch anything. It's got Elke Sommers as an expert on the Romans. Jokes are noticeably poorer, there's a new writer on this one, all the previous films were written by Talbot Rothwell.

 

Carry On England was released October 1976 and it's even worse than the last. The setting is WW2 and the army is trying a co-ed battery. It's not going so well for the army but all the troops are getting laid. The new commander wants to straighten things out and that means separate tents for the ladies and the lads. Pretty lame jokes abound.

That's Carry On! is a clip show that came out in November of 1977. It's got Kenneth Williams and Barbara Windsor watching clips of the Carry On movies. Many of the clips are ok but the framing story is weak. There's a lot of pee jokes.

Carry On Emmanuelle was released in November 1978. It's pretty awful. It scores a stunningly high 2.5 on the IMDb. With Emmanuale in the title you'd expect some nudity but not so much. That could have been salve to heal the rash from the script. Or something. It was the last of the run until...

Carry On Columbus appeared in Octorber 1992. It was the last film in the series. It was written by Dave Freeman and John Antrobus. Dave wrote Carry On Behind and worked on Benny Hill. Not a good recommendation, huh. John Antrobus wrote The Bed Sitting Room but the surreal odyssey of that unique film is nothing like the same old same old of the Carry On series. It too scores a 2.5 on the IMDb and that's about what it is. Jim Dine is Columbus in this costumed send up that was released during the 500th anniversary of the big C discovering America. The Santa Maria is the only ship. I suspect the budget wouldn't let them get the Nina and the Pinta. They spend a lot of time on the sea and there's some sabotage. The crew nearly hangs Chris but they spot land before he's left dangling. They meet Larry Miller and Charles Fleisher, the local native big wigs. It's all pretty dumb.

Not a group that I can feel good about linking too but there you go. Knock yourselves out. No, really, it will save you from seeing these films. Just trying to help. 

Carry On...2

      

Carry On Cowboy came out November 1965 and the gang moves to the American west in the 1880's to make fun of Cowboys and Indians. You can just imagine. You'll have to since I couldn't find a copy for you to watch.

Carry On Screaming! came out in August 1966 and they're making fun of monster movies. I made the guys watch it at Friday Night Movie and they all fell asleep. Now that's a recommendation, I must say.

Don't Loose Your Head is the December 1966 Carry On film and it's set during the French Revolution. I don't know much about French history. I learned most of what I know from watching Start The Revolution Without Me and that makes me think it was a pretty hilarious period. I seem to remember reading that lots of people were laughing their heads off or something. The French Aristos are losing theirs to the guillotine and Brits Sid James and Jim Dale decide to come lend them a hand. Thus the Black Fingernail is born. SP like he travels around the countryside fighting the revolution and helping some lord or another.

   

Follow That Camel came out September 1967 and it sends up the French Foreign Legion. Jim Dale is playing cricket when he's falsely accused of tripping a man. Humiliated he leaves to join the FFL. The man who accused him, feeling guilty, shoots himself after he hungs himself. Just before he dies he confesses that he lied. Jim's girl goes off to find him. Jim has appeared in several of the Carry On movies and in the last few years he's been the voice of the Harry Potter audio books in the USA.

Carry On Doctor came out December 1967 and it puts the gang into a hospital. Jim Dale is doctor and he's a bit of a goof. Hattie Jacques is the Matron and Kenneth Williams is the Head Doctor. They have it in for Jim and the naughty nurse played by Barbara Windsor. Frankie Howard is one of the patients. He was only in two Carry On movies.

Carry On Up The Kyber was released September 1968. There's an anti-English rebellion going on in the Indian province near the Kyber Pass. There are plenty of jokes about tiffin and what the Highland soldiers wear under their kilts. Thankfully we don't see it.

      

Carry On Camping came out February 1969 and it's got Sid James and the gang camping in a field.

Carry On Again Doctor came out in August 1969 and the Carry On gang is in hospital again. Jim Dale is Doctor Nookie and he's a bumbling boobie who's a bit of an ass. You can tell I've been watching too many of these movies, huh. The Head Surgeon is Kenneth Williams and Joan Sims is his rich patient. Barbara Windsor plays Jim's love interest and she has quite the costume on when they first meet. Hattie Jacques is Matron again. Jim gets in so much trouble that they use that to send him off to the south seas to be a missionary doctor. Sid James is the local guy who runs the tiny clinic. He's got a weight reducing juice that Jim takes back to England to open a clinic around. Sid follows to get a cut of the action.

Carry On Up The Jungle is a March 1970 movie and Frankie Howerd is a jungle adventurer. I can't believe it either but he's giving a lecture with lantern slides which turns into a flashback of his trip. Sidney James and Joan Sims are a couple of the people on the safari. Bernard Bresslaw is the head barrier and Terry Scott is the Jungle Boy. Charles Hawtry is Joan's husband. He'd been lost in the jungle and thought dead. She finds him living with a tribe of women who don't have any male children. The males of the expedition become studs to the tribe and soon have to much of a good thing. Frankie Howerd has been in several movies but only 2 of the Carry On series. He's been popular on Brit tv and had shows in the 1960's and 1970's. I used to see him on the CBC when I was a kid. You can see him in A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum and Up Pompeii.

   

Carry On Loving was a September 1970 release and in this one we find Sid James and Hattie Jacques running a dating agency. They have a fake computer that hides Hattie picking names at random. Richard O'Callahan is new to the series. He takes over for Jim Dale who left the series. He plays the young man who comes to the agency and Hattie hooks him up with Joan Sims. Sid's got a thing going with Joan but she isn't interested in him anymore. Kenneth Williams plays a married councilor who isn't married.

Carry On Henry came out in February 1971 and it's put the flame of humour under the bum of Henry the 8th and cranked it up to 11. I'm lying, the movie isn't that good. At least you can see it for free.

On average I don't think they are as good as the first third of the series. There are still plenty of laughs but they are broader and familiar. That didn't keep me from plowing through the lot of them. You could see a lot worse. You might want to space them out a bit. I'll link up the rest next year. Give you a chance to recover a bit.

Carry On...1

Here's a list of the first 10 Carry On films and a link to the movies on YouTube. After finding out they had the films I started to watch the ones I didn't have on dvd already. You know, so I can have seen them all. I have such low goals, huh. And what is there about seeing everything in a series? And in order too? Keeps me up at night.

 

Carry On Sergeant was the first of the series and it first showed up in the theaters August of 1958. Bob Monkhouse gets a call up for the army at his wedding breakfast. He has to leave bride Shirley Eaton and he winds up under gruff old Sergeant Grimshawe The Sarge is played by William Hartnell who plays the crabby Doctor in Doctor Who. Shirley sneaks onto the base for a bit of her missed honeymoon. The men nearly screw up Grimshawe's bet that his squad will be the best of the new recruits.

Carry On Nurse came out in March of 1959 and the scene is the local hospital. A journalist arrives there to get his appendix out. He falls for nurse Shirley Eaton. Hattie Jacques is Matron and Joan Sims is the new nurse. The patients are a mixed lot of troubles and comedy ensues.  

 

Carry On Teacher came out August of 1959. It's set in a school. The usual gang are the teachers. The students rally around to keep the beloved head master from leaving the school.

Carry On Constable came out in February 1960 and the gang spoofs the coppers. Sid James is the Sergeant and Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey and Kenneth Conner are the constables. Hattie Jacques is the Sergeant of the women and Joan Sims works for her. There's plenty of sex and not much policing. They do catch the crooks in the end. The can see the end of the police in one scene. They hint at it in the poster.

     

Carry On Regardless came out March 1961 and in this we have Sid James running the Helping Hands Agency. They supply people to do odd jobs for people. The jobs that come in are all different and often there's some weird issue or another. There's plenty of the usual antics, lots of talking and plenty of jokes. Stuff gets broken. I thought this movie had some poor posters. The drawings just aren't that good. The poster on the left looks to be signed by Liz Frazer. That would be a good reason to keep that.

Carry On Cruising came out in April 1962 and in this one we find the Carry On gang at sea. There are all the usual jokes and laughs but this time they are on a ship. This movie was the first color film in the series. I really liked that poster. It's one of my favorites in the series. As a whole I don't think the series has the best posters.

   

Carry On Cabby was released June of 1963 and it's takin' the piss out of the taxi business. Sid James runs a cab agency. Hattie Jacques is his wife. They split and she opens her own all girl taxi company. That's the girls up there. You can see she has a certain advantage. Let the sabotage begin. This movie was back to B&W.

 

Carry On Jack came out in November 1963 and we are back to color. This is the first of the Carry On historical comedies. It's back in time to the 1700's and the Royal Navy. Not as many jokes about seamen as you'd expect.

Carry On Spying was first show in June 1964. This parody of the James Bond type spy movie comes with all the cliches that you'd expect.

That's the lot. More than you can watch tonight. I'll stick some more up in a few days. Of the lot I found some of the first ones more entertaining. They are all similar enough. 

Carry On Camping

Just finished watching Carry On Camping. I'd seen a bunch of these in the past. Both on Canadian tv when I was younger and some later on dvd. They put out 12 of the earlier movies in a box set. I have that and have watched it a couple of times. Mostly it's fun. Some of the films in that set are better than others and I think mostly the earlier ones are the better ones. Not that the range between good and not as good is that much. They definitely are a certain type of film not everyone is going to like. In the earlier black and white films there's a lot more story, people talking and interacting. Latter the emphasis turned to the gags, bang bang bang. That's what you think it is. There are 7 other 2 disc sets that cost about 12 bucks each on Amazon but I haven't bought them. I'm leary and don't want to spend 80 to 90 bucks on some films that I might not like that much or want to watch that often. Now I have a chance to see the lot on YouTube for nada. I've hidden a link to COC and other Carry On films on this post. Here's the trailer for a taste.

 

This is the 17th film in the 31 film lot and it came out in 1969. The first film was released in 1958 and 29 more appeared through 1978. There was an attempt to revive the series with the 31st film back in 1992. I'd like to see that one, it has Rik Mayall and Alexie Sayle in it. The films aren't all that great, but they don't pretend to be anything more than low-brow comedies, occasionally they make me laugh. Not popular with the critics as much as Joe Public and if anyone really needs a laugh, it's JP. There's plenty of sex jokes and falling down. Some of the slapstick is a bit much. The dialog is occasionally witty but that doesn't happen often enough to make people expect it. There isn't much nudity but occasionally one of the gals doffs her top briefly. In fact the movie opens with Sid James and his girlfriend, along with another couple, at the cinema. Little do the girls know it's a nudist documentary. It's all down hill from there as the girls get pissed and leave. Sid hopes to make it up to her and make out with her on the couples camping holiday. We move about from group to group, all of whom are on the move and converging at the campground. Besides Sid and his friends we've got a the randy young girls and sexually repressed staff of a finishing school for young women, an annoying couple on a two seater bike, and an odd backpacker. Eventually they all meet at the campground where Sid hopes to get his end away. Later a goat chases an old lady down the lane. Like I said they aren't the greatest films but occasionally I laughed at what was going on on the screen and some of that was at actual jokes. I grew up watching these comedians and they have become familiar voices. That doesn't cloud my vision, I know what I'm watching here.