Monday 18 May 2015

Whatever Happened To ... June Jago?


I've been running an occasional series looking at semi-regular Carry On actors who are perhaps a little less well known to the general public than the main team. Their faces are instantly recognisable to us all but sometimes we don't know very much else about them.

So far I've blogged about Marianne Stone, Imogen Hassall, Esma Cannon and Carol Hawkins. Today I'm going to focus on another actress who appeared in two classic 1960s Carry Ons, June Jago.

June Jago first appeared in the series in Carry On Regardless in 1961. She played one of the nursing staff in the hospital sequence which also featured Sid James, Hattie Jacques and Joan Hickson. It was a brief but effective performance and the producers must have remembered her when they cast their next Carry On with a medical theme, Carry On Doctor, six years later.



In Carry On Doctor, June Jago played Sister, sidekick to the formidable Matron, Hattie Jacques. Jago is on no nonsense form in Doctor, providing an excellent supporting turn and featuring prominently in scenes opposite Frankie Howerd, Hattie Jacques and Anita Harris. Poor Sister gets her own comeuppance at the end of the film when Dilys Laye and co lock her in a cupboard. Her last appearance also provides a glimpse at Sister's red knickers! Ahem!

After such a memorable supporting role it is somewhat surprising that June Jago didn't return to the Carry On series again. She did pop up in a much earlier Rogers and Thomas offering, Please Turn Over, in 1959. Apart from these screen appearances, June's other career credits are relatively sparse. She guest starred in an episode of The Good Life in 1975 playing a doctor who tended to Tom Good's bad back. She also cropped up in the likes of The Dick Emery Show, Crown Court and Budgie. However June's last screen credit came in 1986. So what else did she do?




Most of June Jago's career was spent on the stage with long spells working at the Royal Court or with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Born in Australia in 1926 she arrived in Britain in the late 1950s and worked here for many years before returning home, presumably in the 1980s. She then devoted the rest of her career to working in the Australian theatre. She also worked as a drama teacher. 

I did once read that Ms Jago often refused to talk about her roles in the Carry Ons in her later career, although I have no idea why that could be. Perhaps she was trying to separate the serious stage actress she was from those knockabout comedy roles? Or maybe she didn't enjoy the experience of working for Rogers and Thomas - not everybody liked their way of working! Sadly, we'll never know as June Jago passed away in August 2010 at the age of 84. 

I certainly enjoyed her roles in both Carry On Regardless and Doctor and wish we'd seen June in more Carry Ons. If anyone knows anything more about her life and career, do get in touch!


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15 comments:

  1. Always thought she was superb in 'Carry on Doctor' - her facial reactions were so funny and loved the timbre of her voice - very distinctive!

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  2. I've always thought June stole a lot of the scenes she was in as the wonderfully named Sister Hoggett - a characterisation as starchy as her uniform! And took great guilty pleasure in her fate at the hands of the mutineering patients!

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    1. Thanks for your comments! Yes she was brilliant in both her Carry On appearances. A shame she didn't appear in more of the films

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  3. Favourite June moments from 'Carry on Doctor' - when Hattie forcefully removes Frankie Howerd's gaudily patterned underwear and swiftly hands them to June to hold. The look of absolute didain on June's face and the way she holds the pants away from her as far as possible using just her thumb and finger - masterful comic acting.
    Also, a brief but magical moment later on in the film where Jim Dale is filling a syringe and accidentally squirts Sister as she walks past - quite cheeky.

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    1. Anid I also love the moment when Frankie Howerd loudly proclaims, 'Fancy wearing red ones underneath all that' referencing Sister's exposed underwear as she is carried protesting to her humiliating fate in the linen cupboard.

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    2. Yes it's excellent and completely unexpected!

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  4. When you rewatch 'Carry on Doctor' next keep an eye on June Jago's facial reactions - they are perfectly timed and extremely expressive!

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  5. Just to fill in the blanks of her time back in Australia, in the late 1970s June became one of the principle teachers at the Victorian College of the Arts where she introduced a generation of professional actors to Shakespeare. She was adored as a serene but steely guide through the complexities of verse speaking and emotional connection. Here insistence on correct enunciation ("it's Duke, darling, not Juke") was legendary. Many of her former pupils are familiar faces in the theatre, film and TV in Australia (Belinda McClory - 'Switch' in The Matrix, for example) and many attended her highly eccentric funeral when she died in 2010.

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    1. Thanks so much for this extra info - I will update the blog with the details. If you have any more information on June and would like to get in touch with me directly I'd love to hear from you. You can use the Get in Touch contact form on the blog or email me at carryonfan15@gmail.com

      Thanks

      Graeme

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    2. Rewatched June in Carry on Doctor last night - she really does hold her own in all her scenes with the regulars of the team and in my opinion steals some of the scenes!

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    3. Yes she's fantastic in Doctor. She's also brilliant in the Peter Rogers/Gerald Thomas film Please Turn Over. Quite a big part in that one. A shame she didn't do more and I believe she was reticent to talk about the Carry Ons later in her career.

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    4. Every time I watch 'Carry on Doctor' - many times primarily for June Jago's performance, I often wonder what happens to her character after her humiliating treatment by the mutineer ing patients? Does she supervise the Fosdick Ward after the revolt?

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    5. It's also a shame that June wasn't called back to reprise the role in Carry on Again Doctor'!

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  6. Also loved her in the Good Life episode when Tom injured his back. She played the doctor

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  7. I saw JJ in 'No Kidding' yesterday.
    Likable film and she was very good in it,playing a children's matron in charge of diet and exercise.She did,as always play priggish and authorative very well and gelled perfectly with
    another Carry On semi regular Joan Hickson who played the drunken cook.
    JJ was great in her(sadly only two)
    Carry On's.

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