The Complete A–Z of Everything Carry On

MEMORIES

‘One scene in At Your Convenience involved a motorbike sequence with my character and Bernard Bresslaw’s. That was very memorable because Bernard couldn’t ride and was terrified. I think he’d told the production team that he could.

‘On the set at Pinewood, he had to come round this corner to my front door, switch off the engine, park it, leave it on its stand and come up the steps to my character’s house. Well, we could hear the bike revving up around the corner and then the bike would stall. He didn’t appear for about six or seven takes. Eventually he managed to get it around the corner but then drove too far past the mark, so that was no good. This went on for what seemed like all day. What made it even more funnier was that poor old Bernie’s visor was misted up and he couldn’t see anything either. In the end, a couple of fellas pushed the bike into the shot.

‘Matron was a lot of fun, too. Playing Cyril Carter was a lovely part. I had some say in the costume and went for suspenders because I thought they’d be funnier than tights. At lunchtime, you couldn’t get changed else you’d lose about fifteen minutes off your break, so I kept my costume on and walked over to get some lunch, wearing my full make-up, wig, the lot. I used to love going down the corridors in Pinewood because the high heels would make a hell of a noise on the floor. One day I passed three guys in the corridor, dressed like a nurse, and went straight into the gents. That didn’t half make them look!’

KENNETH COPE

COPPING, CORPORAL BILL

Played by Bill Owen

Sergeant Grimshaw’s trusty old corporal. Seen in Sergeant, he helps turn Able Platoon from a bunch of no-hopers into the champion platoon during their ten-week training course.

CORBETT, HARRY H.

Role: Detective Sergeant Sidney Bung in Screaming!

Born in Burma in 1925, the son of an army officer, Harry H. Corbett moved to Manchester as a child and served as a Royal Marine during World War Two, before training as a radiographer.

He was then drawn to the stage, first working as an understudy for the Chorlton Repertory Company and, from 1951, acting with the Theatre Workshop at the Theatre Royal, Stratford. He went on to roles at the Royal Court Theatre and the West End in productions such as Hamlet, The Power and the Glory and The Way of the World.

In 1955 Corbett began his big screen career, acting in films such as Nowhere To Go before going on to play Harold Steptoe in the television comedy series Steptoe and Son in 1962, a role which was the catalyst to his becoming a household name.

He continued acting in films, adding Sammy Going South, The Bargee, Rattle of a Simple Man, and The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins to his lengthening list of credits, as well as appearing in other television series, including Grundy and Potter, while on the stage he was seen playing the lead in Macbeth at the Globe Theatre in 1973.

He was made OBE in 1976, before his death in 1982, aged fifty-seven.

CORDELL, SHANE

Role: Attractive Nurse in Nurse

Shane Cordell was seen in a 1957 episode of Dixon of Dock Green, as well as a handful of films during the ’50s, including Three Men in a Boat, The Good Companions, Fiend Without A Face and Girls At Sea.

CORKTIP

Played by Anita Harris

A belly dancer-cum-fortune teller in Follow That Camel who’s first seen entertaining customers at the Café ZigaZig. Sergeant Nocker takes a shine to her and although she initially works with Sheikh Abdul Abulbul to entrap Nocker and Bertram West, she ends up being employed as Nocker’s batman when he’s eventually promoted to commandant.

CORNELIUS, BILLY

Roles: Odbodd Junior in Screaming!, Soldier in Don’t Lose Your Head, Patient in Plaster in Again Doctor, Guard in Henry, Constable in Girls, Tough Man in Dick, Man with Salad in Behind. Also uncredited roles in Cleo (Companion/escaped slave) and Cowboy (cowboy shot in opening scenes). He doubled for Terry Scott in Up the Jungle

TV: Christmas (’72), One in the Eye for Harold, Under the Round Table and Short Knight, Long Daze

Billy Cornelius, born in London in 1934, entered the printing trade upon leaving school. Always a keen amateur boxer, he turned professional in the mid-1950s and fought competitively for five years.

When he quit the ring, he followed a friend’s suggestion and began doing extra work and stunt work in film and television, which he combined with running pubs around the London area. His screen credits include The Avengers, Doctor Who, Callan, Ace of Wands and three episodes of Carry On Laughing for television, as well as When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, Bless This House, The Mind of Mr Soames and, his last film, The Long Good Friday.

CARRY ON COWBOY

An Anglo Amalgamated film

A Peter Rogers production

Distributed through Warner-Pathe Distribution Ltd

Songs: ‘Carry On Cowboy’ and ‘This is the Night for Love’ – music by Eric Rogers Lyrics by Alan Rogers

Sung by Anon

Released as an A certificate in 1965 in colour

Running time: 95 mins

CAST

Sidney James Johnny Finger / The Rumpo KidKenneth Williams Judge BurkeJim Dale Marshall P. KnuttCharles Hawtrey Big HeapJoan Sims BellePeter Butterworth DocBernard Bresslaw Little HeapAngela Douglas Annie OakleyJon Pertwee Sheriff Albert EarpPercy Herbert CharlieSydney Bromley Sam HoustonEdina Ronay DoloresLionel Murton ClerkPeter Gilmore CurlyDavy Kaye Josh the UndertakerAlan Gifford CommissionerBrian Rawlinson Stagecoach GuardMichael Nightingale Bank ManagerSimon Cain ShortSally Douglas KitkataCal McCord MexGarry Colleano SlimArthur Lovegrove Old CowhandMargaret Nolan Miss JonesTom Clegg BlacksmithLarry Cross PerkinsBrian Coburn TrapperThe Ballet Montparnasse Dancing GirlsHal Galili CowhandNorman Stanley DrunkCarmen Dene Mexican GirlAndrea Allen MinnieVicki Smith PollyAudrey Wilson JaneDonna White JennyLisa Thomas SallyGloria Best BridgetGeorge Mossman Stagecoach DriverRichard O’Brien RiderEric Rogers Pianist

PRODUCTION TEAM

Screenplay by Talbot Rothwell

Music composed and conducted by Eric Rogers

Associate Producer: Frank Bevis

Art Director: Bert Davey

Editor: Rod Keys

Director of Photography: Alan Hume

Camera Operator: Godfrey Godar

Assistant Director: Peter Bolton

Unit Manager: Ron Jackson

Make-up: Geoffrey Rodway

Sound Editor: Jim Groom

Sound Recordists: Robert T. MacPhee and Ken Barker

Hairdressing: Stella Rivers

Costume Designer: Cynthia Tingey

Assistant Editor: Jack Gardner

Master of Horse: Jeremy Taylor

Continuity: Gladys Goldsmith

Producer: Peter Rogers

Director: Gerald Thomas

Judge Burke (Kenneth Williams) lives up to his name

Stodge City is a sleepy Western town where people live in peace and harmony, that is until Johnny Finger, alias the Rumpo Kid, arrives on the scene and starts throwing his weight, and his bullets, around. He cuts a frightening figure and is soon running the place; even Belle’s Place, an inn which only served soft drinks, is renamed Rumpo’s Place and becomes a rowdy, alcohol-swilling gambling house, with dancing girls, fights and goodness knows what as part of the scene. It’s a far cry from the days when Judge Burke tried banishing impropriety by declaring shooting, fighting, boozing and gambling were banned from Stodge, or as he put it so bluntly, ‘no nothing’.

No one has the strength or guts to stand up to the Rumpo Kid and his growing band of followers; the last person to try, Albert Earp, the sheriff, ended up with a chestful of bullets. His dying words were for his folks to be told what happened in the hope they might try and even the score; his wish was heard and heading for Stodge is Earp’s daughter, Annie Oakley, a fine shot who’s determined to track down the man who killed her father. Sharing the stagecoach with her is Marshall Knutt, a drainage, sanitation and garbage disposal engineer, who’s been involved in a terrible mix-up; desperate to recruit a peace marshal to sort things out in Stodge City, the local government take Marshall’s Christian name as meaning he’s a qualified marshal and send him to clean up Stodge City; Knutt, meanwhile, thinks he’s been appointed to clear out the town’s drains.

En route to Stodge, Annie has the chance to show off her prowess with the gun. Worried about the arrival of a new marshal, the Rumpo Kid, not wanting to be implicated himself, seeks the help of a local Indian tribe to try and prevent Knutt reaching Stodge. When they attack the travelling stagecoach carrying Knutt and Oakley, they didn’t expect to be facing a crack shot. Surviving the attack, Knutt thinks he was the one who successfully saw off the Indian threat.

Still desperate to find a way of ridding the town of Marshall P. Knutt, Johnny Finger hatches a plot whereby the marshal is tipped off about cattle-rustling taking place that night. The judge tells Marshall to take a posse out with him but he has trouble recruiting anyone, so Johnny gives him two of his own men. Arriving at the ranch, he’s accused of horse-rustling and finds himself with a hangman’s noose over his head. It looks like it’s curtains for Marshall Knutt until Annie Oakley comes to the rescue.

Back in Stodge City, Annie entices Johnny Finger up to her bedroom and finds a way of getting him to admit to killing her father; she invites him back later and in preparation for his visit rigs up her gun to shoot him when he opens the door. Fortunately for Johnny Finger, his sidekick, Charlie, enters her room first and is killed.

Later, when the judge lets on to the Rumpo Kid that the marshal isn’t actually a marshal, but an engineer sent to the town by mistake, he vows to kill him. Annie Oakley tries to persuade Marshall to leave town, revealing that she was the one who shot the Indians. Marshall isn’t going to run, though, and has a plan he’s confident will work if she can help him become a crack shot in the two hours remaining before the Rumpo Kid’s arrival in town.

He may not know his way around a gun, but Marshall P. Knutt is an expert when it comes to drains and sets about nailing the Rumpo Kid once and for all.

The Rumpo Kid (Sid James) meets his match in the unlikely shape of Marshall Knutt (Jim Dale)

Nowadays, he can be found helping his son run fruit stalls at Putney and Clapham Junction.

CORNELIUS, JOE

Role: Second in Loving

Born in London in 1928, Joe Cornelius started his working life, aged fourteen, in the printing trade. A keen amateur wrestler, by the time he was twenty-two he’d decided to turn pro and travelled to Berlin for his first bout. During a career spanning two decades, he fought around the world, including China and Japan, and was crowned Southern Area heavyweight champion and runner-up in the nationals.

He made occasional television and film appearances, including Adam Adamant Lives! and The Befrienders for the small screen and The File of the Golden Goose, Trog and The Dirty Dozen for the big screen.

After quitting wrestling in 1973, he managed various pubs in London before retiring to Lanzarote, where he remained for six years. Now lives in Spain.

CORRIE, ERIC

Role: Citizen in Constable

On screen since the 1950s, his television work included The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Adventures of Sir Lancelot and Doomwatch, while his film credits ranged from The Colditz Story and A Hill in Korea to The Quatermass Xperiment and The Iron Maiden.

CORSET LADY

Played by Amelia Bayntun

Seen in Loving, the woman is desperately being squeezed into a corset by Esme Crowfoot when Sidney Bliss calls to set up a date for Bertie Muffet.

COUCH, LIONEL

Art Director on Teacher, Regardless, Don’t Lose Your Head, Camping, Loving, Henry, At Your Convenience, Matron, Abroad, Dick, Behind and England

Educated at Dulwich College, Lionel Couch trained at Camberwell Art School and was intending to become an architect before the outbreak of war saw him serve in the army.

After demob he quickly found employment as an assistant art director at Gainsborough Studios before transferring to Pinewood. His CV boasts such pictures as Nurse On Wheels, Night Must Fall, Casino Royale, Anne of the Thousand Days (for which he received an Academy Award nomination), Assault, Bless This House, The Satanic Rites of Dracula and, his last picture as art director, The Awakening.

COULTER, PHIL

Co-wrote the song, ‘Don’t Lose Your Head’, heard in the film of the same name

Born in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, in 1942, composer, pianist and arranger Phil Coulter graduated from Belfast’s Queen’s University and went on to write music for films such as A Man Called Sledge and The Water Babies as well as television series, including 1980’s Metal Mickey.

He’s also made the occasional appearance as an actor, such as in the 1999 film Black Eyed Dog and the television series, You’re A Star, hosted his own show, Coulter and Company for RTE in Ireland, and released many albums.

COUNSELL, JENNY

Role: Night Nurse in Again Doctor

COURTAULDS

The company which supplied all the nurses’ uniforms for Nurse.

COURTENAY, FRANCIS

Played by Kenneth Williams

Seen in Regardless, Francis is an intellectual who’s fluent in sixteen languages, including gobbledygook, which helps when the landlord comes calling. Fancies himself as a model and is delighted when a modelling assignment is given to him – that is until discovering he’s been hired to model hats for beekeepers.

COURTING GIRL

Played by Drina Pavlovic

The Courting Girl, who’s sneaked into the bushes with a boy, is disturbed when Henry Barnes throws a stick into the shrubs during Behind.

COURTS

The shop in Camping which Sid Boggle and Bernie Lugg visit hoping to find a leaflet on the nudist camp they plan visiting with their girlfriends. Unfortunately they pick up the wrong one and end up in a mudpit in Devon. The shop is also visited by Charlie Muggins who causes a commotion before buying some camping gear.

COWBOY, CARRY ON

see feature box here.

COWHAND

Played by Hal Galili

In Cowboy the Cowhand is sitting beside a camp fire with his colleague, Joe, keeping an eye on his herd when he’s attacked by Rumpo’s men.

COWLING, BRENDA

Roles: Matron in Girls and Wife in Behind

London-born Brenda Cowling wanted to be a film star as early as her childhood, but after leaving school trained as a shorthand typist before eventually changing direction and joining RADA. While studying at the Academy she made a brief appearance as a drama student in Hitchcock’s Stage Fright.

Plenty of rep work followed before Cowling made her television debut. Early small screen appearances include several series of an afternoon keep-fit show and The Forsyte Saga. Her career has focused mainly on television but she has occasionally appeared on stage and in films, such as The Railway Children, International Velvet and a small part in the Bond movie, Octopussy.

Television credits include Dad’s Army; It Ain’t Half Hot; Mum, Hi-de-Hi!; Fawlty Towers; The Pallisers; Only When I Laugh; three series of Potter; four series of You Rang, M’Lord?; The Last Detective; Casualty; Murder in Suburbia; Doctors and Nurses and Holby City.

COX, IAN

Technical Advisor on Jack

Lieutenant Commander Ian Cox supplied his naval expertise for other films, such as 1970’s Hell Boats.

COX, JENNY

Role: Veronica in Behind

Born in Abervale, South Wales, Jenny Cox completed her education at Watford Grammar School and joined the local rep, making her debut as a prostitute in The Hostage. She moved on to begin her acting career in earnest at the Oxford Playhouse.

Her stage career has included a host of productions, including The Dirtiest Show in Town and Pyjama Tops, while her occasional small-screen appearances during the 1970s and ’80s include, among others, Steptoe and Son, Rings On Their Fingers, Shoestring, The Chinese Detective and Thames Television’s Spasms in 1977. She also played Dr Livingstone in the 1974 film, Can You Keep It Up for a Week?.

C. R. & J. BRAY

The establishment, which is next-door to D.L. Randall’s, is a tobacconist and newsagent. The front of the property is seen in Behind.

CRIBBINS, BERNARD

Roles: Midshipman Albert Poop-Decker in Jack, Harold Crump in Spying and Mordecai Mendoza in Columbus

Born in Oldham, Lancashire, in 1928, Bernard Cribbins began acting at the age of fourteen upon joining his local repertory company as an assistant stage manager. By the 1950s, he was playing leading roles on the West End stage and featuring in his own revue.

He began appearing on the screen in the late-1950s, with one-off roles in series like The Vise and small parts in films such as The Yangtse Incident and Davy, but it was the 1960s in which he attained national recognition. As well as releasing three novelty records, including Hole in the Ground, which climbed to number nine in 1962, he appeared in a string of films and television shows. His big-screen credits include Two Way Stretch, The Wrong Arm of the Law, Crooks in Cloisters, The Sandwich Man, The Railway Children and Dangerous Davies – The Last Detective. On television, he’s appeared in programmes such as The Troubleshooters, Fawlty Towers, Tales of the Unexpected, Barbara, High and Dry and, most recently, Coronation Street, as Wally Bannister. He’s also remembered for providing the voices to the Wombles on television.

CRIMINAL TYPE

Played by Victor Maddern

When PC Benson steps in and stops someone who he thinks is about to steal a car, he doesn’t realise he’s just stopped Detective Sergeant Liddell from CID.

CROMWELL, THOMAS

Played by Kenneth Williams

Henry VIII’s chancellor is seen in Henry rushing around trying to satisfy his employer’s every need. When money needs to be raised to pay for the King’s annulment, Cromwell comes up with the bright idea for taxing sex, called Sex Enjoyment Tax.

CROOK

Played by Freddie Mills

Seen in Constable, the crook and his accomplices have just robbed a jewellery shop when PC Potter, a callow new police constable, taps him on the shoulder as he climbs into the getaway car and asks for directions to the police station, totally oblivious to the fact that he’s just committed a crime.

CROSS, LARRY

Role: Perkins in Cowboy

Larry Cross, who died in 1976, appeared on television from the 1950s, and among his credits were roles in Sailor of Fortune, International Detective, The Saint, Man of the World, Man in a Suitcase, Callan, The Troubleshooters, Thriller and Hadleigh. In films he was seen in, among others, Time Lock, The Mouse on the Moon, Battle Beneath the Earth and his last film, 1975’s The Wind and the Lion.

CROW, DR

Played by Judith Furse

In charge of the subversive organisation STENCH, Dr Crow is seen in Spying. A threat to all mankind, Crow is responsible for the murder of Professor Stark and the stealing of a top-secret formula.

CROWFOOT, ESME

Played by Joan Sims

A client of the Wedded Bliss Agency who’s personally vetted – on a regular basis to the disgust of Sophie – by Sidney Bliss, who fancies her rotten. The thirty-five-year-old corset specialist lives in a flat at 32 Rogerham Mansions, Dunham Road, London W23, and used to date a man-mountain of a wrestler, Gripper Burke, until he went to fight in America. When he returns, they rekindle their relationship and end up getting engaged.

Bernard Cribbins (right) makes the first of three Carry On appearances (Jack)

CARRY ON CRUISING

An Anglo Amalgamated film

A Peter Rogers production

Distributed through Warner-Pathe Distribution Ltd

From a story by Eric Barker

Released as a U certificate in 1962 in colour

Running time: 89 mins

CAST

Sidney James Captain Wellington CrowtherKenneth Williams Leonard MarjoribanksKenneth Connor Dr Arthur BinnLiz Fraser Glad TrimbleDilys Laye Flo CastleEsma Cannon Bridget MadderleyLance Percival Wilfred HainesJimmy Thompson Sam TurnerRonnie Stevens DrunkVincent Ball JenkinsCyril Chamberlain Tom TreeWilloughby Goddard Very Fat ManEd Devereaux Young OfficerBrian Rawlinson StewardAnton Rodgers Young ManAnthony Sagar CookTerence Holland Passer-byMario Fabrizi CookEvan David BridegroomMarian Collins BrideJill Mai Meredith Shapely MissAlan Casley Kindly Seaman

(Note: the song sung by Dr Binn while attempting to serenade Flo was recorded by Roberto Cardinali, for a fee of £75.)

PRODUCTION TEAM

Screenplay by Norman Hudis

Music composed and conducted by Bruce Montgomery and Douglas Gamley

Director of Photography: Alan Hume

Art Director: Carmen Dillon

Editor: John Shirley

Production Manager: Bill Hill

Camera Operator: Dudley Lovell

Assistant Director: Jack Causey

Sound Editors: Arthur Ridout and Archie Ludski

Sound Recordists: Robert T. MacPhee and Bill Daniels

Continuity: Penny Daniels

Make-up: George Blackler and Geoffrey Rodway

Hairdressing: Biddy Chrystal

Costume Designer: Joan Ellacott

Casting Director: Betty White

Beachwear for Miss Fraser and Miss Laye by ‘Silhouette’

The producers acknowledged the assistance of P&O – ORIENT LINES in the making of the film.

Producer: Peter Rogers

Director: Gerald Thomas

Capt. Crowther (Sid James) presides over a host of new faces