Thank you … and Carry On!

Today I have hit a rather significant milestone. After writing this love letter to the Carry On films for the past three years, my blog has just been visited one million times. To be quite honest with you I had no significant plan for the blog when I started writing in March 2015. It was just an instinctive thing, a creative outpouring for me.

The blog can be hard work at times as I have a busy life in the real world with all manner of things but it's a lovely way to get creative, interact with fellow fans and indulge a passion. Over the past three years I've had some unforgettable experiences thanks to the blog. I've made some amazing new friends and acquaintances, attended some memorable events and met some of my favourite Carry On actors. Not too bad for an ordinary bloke from the west of Scotland. 

I've had the great good fortune to interact with so many Carry On fans from all over the place, thanks to the blog and to the blog's following on Twitter. It's amazing and I'm so grateful to everyone who takes the time to tweet me, comment on something I've posted or reads one of my blogs. It means a lot. A massive thank you to the increasing number of you who have also written your own guest blogs for my site. Sharing your posts has been one of the joys of running the blog and i'm genuinely touched that so many of you have taken the time to write for me, sharing your passion for the very best of British comedy.

Without a doubt one of the highlights of blogging has been the numerous opportunities to meet and interview some lovely people connected with the Carry Ons. Over the years I've featured interviews with quite a wide range of well known faces: Valerie Leon, Jacki Piper, Robin Askwith, Amanda Barrie, Madeline Smith, Angela Douglas, Fenella Fielding, Julian Holloway, David Kernan, Elke Sommer, Christine Ozanne, Sally Geeson, Robert Ross, Robin Le Mesurier, Morris Bright, Josephine Bailey, Anita Harris, Patricia Franklin and Hugh Futcher. A huge thank you to all of them for being so kind and generous with their time. There are a few more people I'd really love to have a chat with but we'll wait and see what happens.

I've also had the great pleasure of featuring a wide variety of other actors, writers and assorted talents and it's been an honour to get to know the likes of Judy Matheson, Simon Sheridan, Craig Deeley, Judy Buxton, Stuart Ball, Andrew Lynford, Ty Jeffries, James Hogg, Sarah Miller Walters, Jayne Tunnicliffe, Steve Lilly, Greg Robertson, Odysseas from Art and Hue, Louise who runs the Joan Hickson tribute Twitter account, Jason Figgis, Francois Pascal, Ben Peyton, David Barry, Dr Laura Mayne, Tessa Le Bars, Mark Farrelly, Paul Taylor-Greaves, Jennie Linden, Stuart Morriss, Mark O'Connell, Patrick Purcell, Jack Lane, Georgy Jamieson, Derek Griffiths, Kathy Jones, John Hewer, Kaye Crawford and Julian Dutton. Phew - I didn't realise just how much I'd put myself about!

If your name's not there and it should be - apologies, but it was quite a trawl to bring them all together!

This sounds like a farewell, but it's not. I'll Carry On Blogging as long as I'm sitting up and taking notice…and as long as I've got something to say!

I checked my stats on Blogger before I wrote this and, despite a certain trepidation that the internet is part of the dark arts, I really did see its power. My words, twitterings and Carry On-love have been read everywhere from the United States and Canada, to Russia, Spain, Poland and Australia. I shall remember that next time I'm typing away on my laptop in my pyjamas! 

Thanks very much for being involved and for being a part of it all.

You can follow me on Twitter @CarryOnJoan and on Instagram