As for casting - well they need a team don’t they, a company of the best of British comedy acting talent who could happily be drawn from for any future releases. (more…)
A series that has had top comedy writers such as Douglas Adams and Steven Moffat writing for it, Doctor Who with all of its wondrous idiosyncrasies, would be perfect Carry On fodder. Third Doctor Who jon Pertwee meanwhile appeared in Carry On Cowboy and Carry On Screaming before taking the TARDIS controls in 1970.
Carry on Doctor Who was one of 10 unmade Carry On films. Location scouting had been carried out in London in 1990 but finances fell through
Imagine that!
Just two years prior to Carry On Columbus, one suspects that the finances were well to hand, but BBC permission wasn’t. In fact, Carry On regular Jim Dale was once linked to a Doctor Who movie - perhaps this was in fact that project?
You can read more on this item at Doctor Who webzine Kasterborous.com
We hear so much about the “tragic” comics – Tony Hancock, for instance – that the tragedy tends to overshadow the body of work that they leave behind.
Of course it makes a good story for the media to talk about lonely comics, holed up in hotel rooms, away from their families and friends, topping themselves.
Dwelling on these actions, however, enforces the tragedy, and increases the legend, which always results in us being unable to forget these characters.
Personally speaking I’m not a big fan of Tony Hancock’s; but there are others, such as Kenneth Williams, who might well have committed suicide, whose loss was a sad one for many British comedy fans.
Yet these types of figures don’t (I hope I’m not tempting fate here) seem to be with us anymore in the world of comedy, at least. There are obviously the mental health problems that Paul Merton suffered, and other comics have terrible times on the road, from the club circuit all the way to the top.
Is it that these days comedians are made of sterner stuff?
It’s silly, bawdy, in many cases badly and cheaply made, yet Carry On… is still wonderful, giving us some of the biggest stars in comedy history, launching careers, giving work to old actors who need it and generally being British.
Without Carry On…, we would have no Barbara Windsor. Kenneth Williams would never have become so well known, Sid James might have languished as a serious movie actor gangster type, Frankie Howerd might never have been Lurcio… the list is endless.
So it’s good to know that the old stars – mostly co-stars or stars of the later films these days – get together to celebrate anniversaries still, and Leslie Phillips, producer Peter Rogers, Valerie Leon, Frank Thornton, Dora Bryan, Anita Harris, Bill Maynard, Shirley Eaton and Fenella Fielding are all expected, along with Norman Hudis, the scriptwriter that gave us the first 6 films, which started with Carry On Sergeant, starring William Hartnell and ably assisted by Kenneth Connor, Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, Hattie Jacques – staples of the later films.
Give me double entendre over Ricky Gervais any day of the week…
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