Why a Bank Holiday needs a Carry On

 

Sadly the television networks have let us down again. Despite the mad proliferation of random stations bringing us everything from how to lay a patio to the exploits of housewives from the Mid West, it would seem none of them can provide a right good old fashioned Carry On on a Bank Holiday Monday.

For me, a Carry On film or two on the box on a Bank Holiday is tradition. A British Bank Holiday means a precious day off for many hard working people. It can be a day out at the seaside, maybe a barbeque with friends or even getting around to some of that much needed DIY. Whatever we all get up to, it's a comforting thought that we can collapse in front of a Carry On film at the end of the day.

For several years now ITV3 seems to have been the home of Carry On. Since the wonderful documentary Carry On Forever in 2015, they have shown some of the films on a fairly regular basis. Channel 4 also used to show the occasional Carry On - I remember a wonderful season of old black and white British comedies being shown on 4 in the 1990s and several Carry Ons were included. I sat one wet Bank Holiday with my grandfather and roared with laughter as Joan Sims got tipsy at that wine tasting with Nicholas Parsons! These days Film 4 will show the likes of Khyber or Behind but that's about it. It's now very rare to see a Carry On film on the BBC. I don't know why that is as even within my lifetime they did show them quite often, even if it was at 1am, you could still set the video!

 

Some Carry On films are shown again and again on the television while others are rarely shown at all. I can't remember the last time a channel showed Carry On Nurse, Cabby, Doctor or Abroad. Anyway, I digress. My main reason for tapping away at the keyboard this fine Bank Holiday morning (well it is in Scotland anyway) was to bemoan the lack of a Carry On in the schedules. So which Carry On do you think best suits Bank Holiday viewing?

Well for me only one fits the bill. It has to be Carry On At Your Convenience. I'm not quite sure why. Maybe it's the workers on a day out to the seaside sequence that does it for me. It's a memory of holidays from days gone by, before tablets and ipods and city breaks. For me nothing quite sums up both the joy of the Carry Ons and what a traditional British knees up should be about, than the sight of Kenneth, Charles, Sid and Joan camping about Brighton pier. It's so gloriously evocative with the kiss me quick hats, the ghost train, the ice cream, fish and chips and one two many in the pub on the pier! I love it and it's just a crying shame we can't enjoy the antics of W.C Boggs and Co today. Still, there's always the DVD...

 

So which Carry On do you think best suits Bank Holiday viewing?

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