Book Review: The Carry On Companion, by Robert Ross

The Carry On Companion by Robert Ross is a reasonably comprehensive look at a British comedy institution, the Carry On films. 

Beginning with Carry On Sergeant in 1958, director Gerald Thomas and producer Peter Rogers worked their way through a series of 30 brisk and increasingly bawdy comedies until Carry On Columbus in 1992. 

The series more successful entries included Carry On Nurse (1959), Cleopatra spoof Carry On Cleo (1964), Hammer horror send-up Carry On Screaming (1966), Carry On Doctor (1967), imperial adventure parody Carry On Up the Khyber (1968) and Carry On Camping (1969).

Until their later years, the films were blessed with an expert cast of farceurs - including Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, Hattie Jacques and Barbara Windsor - and distinguished by a barrage of jokes, innuendo and double entendres about boobs, big ones and having it off, most of them supplied by the series long-term scriptwriter Talbot Rothwell.

Robert Ross takes a clear approach to the series in the Carry On Companion, examining each film in chronological order, with background information, credits and some recollections from surviving cast members. The book is part reference work and part fan appreciation, as the author also picks his own favourite moment and favourite performance from each film. 

As well as the 30 official films, he details the compilation film That's Carry On, the Carry On television specials and stage shows, and the TV sketch series Carry On Laughing.   

There is quite a lot of information presented here on the making of the films and TV series, augmented by some of the cast members' reminiscences. At the time this book was originally written in the late 1990s, most of the major Carry On stars (including Williams, James, Hawtrey and Jacques) had passed on, but Ross still managed to round up recollections from some significant performers, including series regulars Jim Dale, Barbara Windsor and Jack Douglas. 

It's pleasing to learn that the actors generally enjoyed each other's company and their experiences making the films. This is despite the Carry On films' tight shooting schedules and notoriously parsimonious budgets. These meant that the actors would have limited rehearsals - and sometimes no rehearsals at all - scenes were often completed on the first take and, as the series progressed, ad libbing by the cast was all but outlawed. Not because the scripts were unimproveable, but to make sure that filming stayed on schedule and that any re-takes were limited as much as possible.  

The producer's reluctance to stretch to the expense of location filming almost becomes a running joke in the book. Kenneth Williams was persuaded to forego a pay rise for Carry On Cruising with the promise of filming on a Mediterranean cruise ship. Which then turned into a British Isles cruise and eventually just a cruise ship set on the Pinewood backlot. 

Carry On Up the Khyber went as far afield as North Wales for location filming, while Follow That Camel managed to recreate the Arabian desert on the beach at Camber Sands in Sussex. Surprisingly, even as late as 1971, some of the actors still seem to have been expecting actual foreign location shooting for the Spanish-set Carry On Abroad. The naive fools! The Spanish hotel and beach were created in the Pinewood Studios car park. Something that's all too obvious if you actually watch the film. 

Ross describes himself as a comedy historian, but he's also very much a fan and enthusiast. In fact, he often can't help himself and goes overboard with the praise. The book begins badly by claiming that the Carry Ons are "the longest, most successful and best-loved series of films in British cinematic history". Presumably, he just forgot about the James Bond films. 

Perhaps it's a lack of perspective that causes Ross's enthusiasm to so often get the better of him. Almost everything in the Carry On films, every scene, every line, expression or intonation, is deluged with praise. It's "superb", "stunning", "legendary", "genius", "almost immortal" and even "classic beyond belief". Everything gets sprayed with so much incontinent praise, that you have to wonder how he would react to watching a film that was actually good, instead of Carry On at Your Convenience. Ross even manages to praise Carry On Emmanuelle, a film so legendarily dismal that it killed off the series for 14 years.

He also tries too hard to find links between the films and callbacks within the series. In Carry On Constable, when Charles Hawtrey has the line "I haven't done this since the army", Ross describes it as a reference to Carry On Sergeant, which it may well be. But then every character referred to as "Sarge" or "Sergeant", or any reference to the army in any subsequent film, is apparently also a callback to Carry On Sergeant. 

Ross even describes Harry H. Corbett in Carry On Screaming as referencing Kenneth Williams's character from the radio series Hancock's Half Hour. This is because he says "Good evening" to someone, which was a catchphrase of Kenneth Williams in that series. I hate to break it to Ross, but "Good evening" is a pretty standard greeting and without the particular intonation or voice that Williams used, it doesn't mean anything other than "Good evening".

Ross also quotes many lines from the films, but when he does so they are often taken completely out of context. This means that any humour is lost and the line will not make sense to anyone who doesn't remember that particular line in that particular scene. Which will be most people, other than the most die-hard fans. This is even more of a problem with the TV shows, which probably only the most dedicated fans will even know exist.

Sometimes it's not clear what in the book is fact and how much is just supposition. Ross states that Bernard Bresslaw's character in Follow That Camel is a direct parody of Anthony Quinn in David Lean's epic Lawrence of Arabia. But has this actually been confirmed by Bresslaw or anyone else, or is it simply the author's opinion? It does seem like the latter. 

A First World War sketch in a Carry On Christmas TV special gave the writer Talbot Rothwell the idea of a World War I setting for a Carry On film. Ross says that this unused idea was then reworked and resurrected by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton as the TV series Blackadder Goes Forth. But that is extremely unlikely. Blackadder Goes Forth is Blackadder transplanted to World War I; it bears no relation at all to a Carry On film. The notion of a comedy set in World War I is not even very original - you might as well say that Talbot Rothwell's idea was a reworking of the Frankie Howerd comedy Up the Front.

On the other hand, the book could do with more historical contextualising, as there is surprisingly little on the cultural context of the films. Entries like Carry On Loving (computer dating), Carry On at Your Convenience (industrial relations), Carry On Girls (feminism and beauty contests) and Carry On Abroad (foreign package holidays) all draw directly from social changes in Britain in the early 1970s. And something like the "I'm Backing Britain" joke at the end of Carry On Up the Khyber really does need explaining to anyone who wasn't around in 1968.

The book would also benefit from more information on the popularity or otherwise of individual films in the series at the box office, as well as more on their contemporary reviews. Admittedly the reviews, like the films, will often be similar, but some in the series were much better received than others. 

The unlikely success of Carry On Nurse in the US is at least mentioned. Its enterprising distributor took the film to colleges, funfairs and other unusual venues to screen it, and it ran for a whole year in one particular cinema. 

Other than this unique example, the films' successes or otherwise overseas are not detailed, although the author does mention one or two title changes, which usually kept the Carry On name. The naval adventure Carry On Jack, for example, became Carry On Venus (after the ship in the film) in some countries, while the lavatorial Carry On at Your Convenience was retitled Carry On Round the Bend. This retaining of the Carry On name does suggest at least some degree of popularity and familiarity with the series in other markets. 

Aside from the films themselves, the detailing of the TV specials and stage shows is useful, particularly as many will not have seen these or even be aware of their existence. Ross even includes the "Carry On Banging" sketch in Harry Enfield's affectionate cinema parody Norbert Smith - A Life. Mainly because Enfield managed to round up Carry On regulars Barbara Windsor, Kenneth Connor and Jack Douglas to take part in it. 

There is also some interesting information buried in the chronology section at the back of the book. Of particular interest are the unmade Carry On films, and these could probably have done with a small section of their own. 

These included scripts for "Carry On Flying" (air force pilots), "Carry On Smoking" (firemen) and "Carry On Spaceman" (trainee astronauts). These were written by Norman Hudis, the series' first regular scriptwriter, and are recognisable as typical Carry On subjects from the series' early years. 

Later on, during the series hiatus between 1978 and 1992, there were attempts to return to the safety and familiarity of the hospital setting (a location for four previous Carry On films), with scripts for "Carry On Nursing" and even "Carry On Again, Nurse". 

By the late 1980s, the supposed next film in the series was announced as being "Carry On Texas", a spoof of the TV soap Dallas. Instead of Larry Hagman as J. R. Ewing, this was apparently set to star Kenneth Williams as "R. U. Ramming". Although, in Kenneth Williams's case, "U. R. Hamming" might have been more appropriate.

While there's a lot of information in the book, it would help if the author had more perspective and took a less indulgent view of this series. You don't necessarily expect a history of the Carry On films to be a serious academic work, but there's still a big difference between being a comedy historian and being a gushing fan. 

Ross's frame of reference is also too narrow, being limited almost entirely to other Carry On films and a few related comedies, without considering the cultural, economic and political context of the series, from the end of National Service to the rise of package holidays. There is, though, much of interest in the Carry On Companion, if you can get past the sometimes hyperbolic style.