A New Carry On or Not?

[Donald the Great]

There was much fanfare in 2016 when it was announced a return of the popular Carry On series. It was supposed to be filmed that year for a 2017 release. It is now November and no word on the cast for the film let alone the finished product.
Susan Nickson and Tim Dawson,best known for the long-running bawdy comedy Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, were to write the scripts for firstly Carry On Doctors about the National Health Service followed by Carry On Campus in 2018. Is this yet another attempt to resurrect the Brit institution to have gone down the gurgler? So will Carry On be back or not? Have your say.

[George 1978]

Re: A New Carry On or Not?

I think that the magic had ran out by the end of the 1970s - they were almost correct to end it with That's Carry On in 1978 - it was the full stop of its 20 year run.

One problem is that nearly of all the main regular actors, (with the exception of Windsor and Dale and a few others) are no longer with us. There was Carry on Columbus of course in 1992, marking 500 years since Columbus' discovery of America. Although Jim Dale was in that one, the cast were almost parodies of their predecessors - Julian Clary was just a updated version of Kenneth Williams for example. There were talk about doing one called Carry on Texas in around 1987, and I believe that former Carry On actors such as Leslie Phillips appeared on Wogan and TV-am about it.

The earlier ones that were made by Anglo-Amalgamated were not as good as later ones only because they were made in black and white, and that was the only problem. They reached their peak in 1969 when they did Carry On Again Doctor - it was the funniest and dare I say, sexiest film with the inclusion of Valerie Leon. The hospital going into chaos bit when Jim Dale's character fuses an x-ray machine and rolls down a flight of stars on a trolley and crashes into a window appeared in the opening titles of the compilation series Carry On Laughing in the mid 1980s. It's also worth noting that the Carry On films were the first to use the name Mr Bean for a comedy character, over 30 years before the start of Rowan Atkinson started to use it.

I think that after Charles Hawtrey was sacked from the films in 1972 because of his drinking (which was also satirised in his final Carry On film of Abroad), and after Sid James did Carry On Dick in 1974 - his last one, it weakened the remaining cast with regards to what other films could be made. Carry On England in 1976 was indeed poor in comparison, with a lot of the cast gone, one can tell that the franchise has a couple of years left at the most.

In a nutshell, I enjoy watching the films, but I do think that the Carry On franchise would be alien outside its 1960s and 1970s territory. A new film could be made, but it wouldn't reach the same value as its predecessors. I don't think it would be successful.

[Donald the Great]

Re: A New Carry On or Not?

I for one would welcome a new Carry On series for a new generation. To be honest when the last one finished in the late 70s there was an emptyness in cinematic comedy. Yes they were low budget, filled with inuendo and bawdiness, not side splittingly humorous, but Carry On had something special that made it enduring.. To me that was the incredible rapport and professionalism of the core ensemble of Sid James, Joan Sims, Kenneth Williams, Hattie Jacques and Charles Hawtrey. They purred along film after film like a classic Rolls.. I do have to agree in part with you that a new series may not work simply because of time. The old series had 20 years to win over its audience.

[Richard1978]

Re: A New Carry On or Not?

I've heard of a few potential Carry Ons since 1992, one was going to Brian Conley in it.

The black & white ones had a different feel to the better colour ones, but still good fun to watch.

By the mid 1970s the magic seemed to have drained away, like the budget & stars.

[I. R. Fincham]

Re: A New Carry On or Not?

Carry On Shakespeare. A parody of the anti-Stratfordian theory. Plenty of references to the movie Anonymous and Shakespeare in Love.


Carry On Robbin' Parody of the Robin Hood legend.


Actually, probably not. The films were good in their time, but they belong to a bygone era. The above ideas could have made good films back in the seventies, but not today. You can't really do that style of humour any more.

[catflap]

Re: A New Carry On or Not?

Carry On Shakespeare. A parody of the anti-Stratfordian theory. Plenty of references to the movie Anonymous and Shakespeare in Love.


Carry On Robbin' Parody of the Robin Hood legend.


Actually, probably not. The films were good in their time, but they belong to a bygone era. The above ideas could have made good films back in the seventies, but not today. You can't really do that style of humour any more.

They did have Robin Hood: Men in Tights of course - which I've seen but was so good I can't remember a thing about it!

Carry On was a great series and I'll watch most of them again when they are repeated because they were so bright and cheery, but let them stay in the past - no way on Earth anyone could make a new one work now.

[staffslad]

Re: A New Carry On or Not?

I don't think a new Carry On film would work. The series was gloriously un-PC, especially the later films, but any new film would have to comply with our modern sensibilities, or rather the modern sensibilities that are forced upon us, or run the risk of accusations of being any number of -phobics or -ists--take your pick for there are so many to choose from. Also, who exactly could ever replace the likes of Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Hattie Jacques, Babs Windsor, Charles Hawtrey, Bernie Breslaw, Peter Butterworth, Kenneth Connor etc? There are none.

[Trickyvee]

Re: A New Carry On or Not?

I like the Carry On films but they were very much of their time. I don't think a new one would work nowadays.

[marc]

Re: A New Carry On or Not?

The carry On films should not be resurrected in modern form. They were excellent send up comedies of the times. All the actors and actresses bonded in a way that would be almost impossible now. Each person played the character in such a way, that the character became them. There will never be another Sid James, Charles Hawtrey Etc. The series ran its course, people and time have moved on.

[Pussywillow]

Re: A New Carry On or Not?

I'm with the majority here.

Some old films really shouldn't be re-made or brought back from the dead, and this franchise is one of them. Leave them to stand as a lasting testament to the golden age of British sex comedy's.

I'd put The Confessions series in that category as well.

[George 1978]

Re: A New Carry On or Not?

I think that the Carry On films were on the same level as the movie versions of sitcoms that were around in the 1970s - I have always liked them, but I can't imagine them being made today - in fact, I couldn't have imagined them still being made in the mid 1980s.

[Hooper68]

Re: A New Carry On or Not?

I love Carry on films and still enjoy watching them, but the cast really made the films and sadly only a couple of them are alive so no more carry on films please?.
I think film makers are running out of ideas which is why we're getting inferior remake after inferior remake, I just hope they don't try to remake my favourite movie,Jaws.

[George 1978]

Re: A New Carry On or Not?

Also, I think that Carry On Emmanuel which was made in 1978 was the only one to have a 15 certificate because of its sexual content, and that meant that when the whole collection of the 30 films on DVD were released a few years back had to have a 15 certificate on them - one couldn't imagine that film being made during its Anglo-Amalgamated years of the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Because of the innuendo that made the films what they were (and I bet that Mary Whitehouse wasn't too fond of them when they were first released), I have this feeling that a new Carry On film would be allowed to be a lot stronger than its predecessors when it comes to its innuendo content, due to the fact that films and programmes can get away with a lot more graphic content than they would have done over 40 or 50 years ago. And that I am almost certain that the BBFC would give it a 15 certificate most likely.

I suppose with regards to Emmanuel, it was probably a good thing that the original franchise had stopped around 1978 anyway, if that was the shape of things to come. Don't get me wrong: I am not a politically correct prude, but I think that the earlier films were more family orientated with the British "seaside postcard" aspect towards them - they were even shown during the time of day when youngsters would watch children's TV programmes; they were certainly not post-watershed films.