My Favourite Scene: Carry On Abroad

This is very much a matter of personal preference, but that kind of thing normally sparks an interesting debate! Rather than review each individual Carry On film, I've decided to look at the films and choose my favourite scene from each film. 

I love Carry On Abroad. It is probably the last really great film in the series. It succeeds mainly thanks to a terrific script, a brilliant premise - taking a bunch of English eccentrics off on a package tour - and a belting cast of Carry On favourites all on top form. The film has so many brilliant set pieces it is quite tough to pick out my favourite scene. While I love Kenneth and his exploding switchboard, all the stuff with Peter Butterworth and Hattie Jacques as the harassed hotel owners and the classic scene with Sid and June Whitfield "I tried it once..." I've gone for another lovely scene featuring Sid and Joan Sims.

Sid and Joan were a perfect match on screen. They were partnered together so often in the Carry Ons because they really were believable as husband and wife. It is also clear from their performances that they loved working together and got on like a house on fire. The warmth and affection bounces off the screen unlike any other cinematic coupling. In Abroad they play Vic and Cora Flange, a middle aged married couple who's marriage is under significant strain. For most of the film they are moving further and further apart however eventually the calamitous nature of their weekend away brings them right back together again.

The running gag of there being no windows in their bedroom brings some inspired comedy from Peter Butterworth but it is the climax towards the end of the film that I love more than anything else in the movie. A drunken Sid attempts to open the window and not realising that it has now been fixed goes crashing straight through it! His brilliant line "They've put the bloody glass in!" is met with shrieks of laughter from Joan. The shared laughter of Sid and Joan goes way beyond film performance. They are clearly having a ball and not even a gallon of water tipping down on them in bed can extinguish it! A truly wonderful scene! 

Do you agree? What's your favourite scene in Carry On Abroad? You can relive mine here:

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