Doctor Who Vs. Carry On @ 65

The Carry On franchise consists of thirty low-budget British comedy

features, produced from 1958 to 1978, whilst a final production was

released in 1992. 

Thames Television later screened four Carry On Christmas specials

between 1969 and 1973, followed by Carry On Laughing from ATV in

1975. The series also spawned three West End (1973-75) and regional

stage plays (1976 and 1992), and even an album in 1971.

Anglo Amalgamated Films produced the first dozen titles (until 1966),

and the Rank Organisation made the next nineteen. Writer Norman

Hudis (1922-2016) scripted the first six films, then was replaced by

Talbot Rothwell (1916-1981) who penned the next twenty. Every film

was made at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, with most location

filming undertaken nearby.

The films' humour (albeit dated and sexist by modern standards) was

in the comic tradition of the British music halls and bawdy seaside post-

cards. Producer Peter Rogers (1914-2009) and director Gerald Thomas

(1920-1993) made all thirty-one films, and drew on their own repertory

company of actors that included Kenneth Williams (who made 25 appear-

ances), Joan Sims (24), Charles Hawtrey (23), Sid James (19), Kenneth

Connor (17), Peter Butterworth (16), Hattie Jacques, Bernard Bresslaw

(14 each), Michael Nightingal (13), Jim Dale, Peter Gilmore (11),

Barbara Windsor (10), Patsy Rowlands, Marianne Stone (9), Julian

Holloway, Jack Douglas, Billy Cornelius (8), Terry Scott, Hugh Futcher,

Cyril Chamberlain, Gertan Klauber, Anthony Sagar (7), Lucy Griffiths

(6), Joan Hickson, David Lodge, Bill Maynard (5), Eric Barker, Bill Owen,

June Whitfield, Leslie Phillips, Liz Fraser, Dilys Laye, Angela Douglas,

Jacki Piper, Jon Pertwee (4), and Bernard Cribbins (3).

Hartnell (the titular officer,
Grimshawe) & Kenneth Connor

TV documentary What a Carry On? 
marked the fortieth anniversary of 
the series in 1998, and BBC Radio 
2 broadcast a two-part celebration
 in 2010. 
ITV first screened their three-part 
retrospective, also titled Carry On 
Forever, over Easter 2015.

This iconic franchise began sixty-

five years ago this summer with

the release of Carry On Sergeant

- shown on Sky Greats today.

Based on the play, The Bull Boys, 
by English novelist RF Delderfield, 
the comedy was never intended to 
launch any sequels, but due to its

box-office success, Carry On Nurse,

followed a year later. The rest is cinema history.

Led by William Hartnell, the cast here featured Charles Hawtrey, Norman Rossington (his co-stars from Granada's The Army Game),

Jacques, Bob Monkhouse, Shirley Eaton, Owen, and ten future

Doctor Who alumni:

• Gerald [Theron] Campion (Calloway) was Wilkin in Shada
• [Albert] Martin Boddey (Specialist here; Perkins in Carry On Nurse) was Robert Walker in The Sea Devils
• Bernard [Frederic Bemrose] Kay (Recruit) was Carl Tyler in The Dalek Invasion of Earth, Saladin in The Crusade, DI Crossland in The Faceless Ones, and Caldwell in Colony in Space, then voiced Major Dickens for Big Fiish's Night Thoughts (2006)
• Leon Eagles (Recruit) was Jabel in The Face of Evil
• Derek Martinus [born Buitenhuis] (Recruit) was the director of Galaxy 4, Mission to the Unknown, The Tenth Planet, The Evil of the Daleks, The Ice Warriors and Spearhead from Space
• Ivor Danvers (Recruit) voiced Wendle Marr for Nekromanteia (2003), Dr. John Dee for A Storm of Angels (2005), and Professor Gareth Edmons for Buried Secrets (2006)
• Norman Huntley (Recruit) was Ulf in The Time Meddler, and Sergeant Peters in The Invasion
• Don McCorkindale (Recruit here; Tubby in Carry On Cabby) voiced Don Fabrizio for The Ghosts of N-Space, and Porthintus for The Wreck of the World (2017)
• Reg Thomason (Soldier here; Porter in Carry On Nurse; Operator in Carry On Constable; Passenger in Carry On Cruising; Officer in Carry On Jack; Citizen in Carry On Cleo; Patron in Carry On Cowboy; Guest in Carry On Loving; Councillor in Carry On Girls; Audience in Carry On Behind) was a Resistance Man in Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 AD
• Joan Ellacott (dress designer here & Carry On Nurse, then costume designer on Carry On Regardless; Carry On Cruising; Carry On Cabby; Carry On Jack) was assigned to The Deadly Assassin