Wednesday 18 May 2016

The A - Z of Carry On Supporting Actors: John Antrobus

 

This is the first blog in a brand new series for Carry On Blogging. It might be slightly ambitious, but I'm going to attempt to do a run through the alphabet of some of the more interesting Carry On supporting actors. One of the reasons I set up this blog was to turn the spotlight on some of the lesser known Carry On actors who nevertheless played an important role in the success of the film series. 

As this is an alphabet-driven blog, we may as well start with A and A is for John Antrobus. 

Carry On films: Appeared as a "Citizen" complaining to Policeman Cyril Chamberlain at the start of Carry On Constable (1960) and as a manservant in Carry On Columbus (1992).

 

Also appeared in: As an actor, also appeared as a Street Musician in the 1961 comedy film Raising The Wind, played various characters in the 1972 series The Marty Feldman Comedy Machine and in Milligan In... with Spike Milligan in 1973.

Best known for: being a comedy script writer. Antrobus contributed additional material to both the first and last Carry Ons - Sergeant in 1958 and Colubus in 1992. He was a member of the Associated London Scripts team, headed up by Spike Milligan and Eric Sykes. He wrote regularly with both Milligan and Sykes as well the likes of Johnny Speight, Barry Took, Marty Feldman and Ray Galton.

Did you know: John Antrobus provided the story for the classic 1965 crime comedy caper The Big Job, which starred Sid James, Joan Sims, Dick Emery and Jim Dale.


What are they up to now: Antrobus, now aged 83 is very much still around today. Most recently he worked on an updated version of his 1962 play The Bed-Sitting Room with Paul Merton for BBC Radio 4.  

Stay tuned for the next entry in my A - Z of Carry On Supporting Actors! 

You can follow me on Twitter @CarryOnJoan and also on Facebook

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