Happy Birthday Ian Lavender!

 

The youngest member of the original Dad's Army team celebrates a milestone birthday today! Yes, Ian Lavender, that stupid boy, turns 73! Many happy returns to him. Ian was back on the big screen last year having filmed a cameo role in the new version of the BBC sitcom classic.

To Carry On fans, Ian is familiar for his supporting role as Joe Baxter in Carry On Behind. While I love Behind and think it is the last great Carry On, I do think Ian is wasted in the film and barely gets a look in. Ian is quite clearly brought in as the next generation Jim Dale with Adrienne Posta playing his wife as a bubbly blonde Barbara Windsor type. I think both actors did well in their roles and I believe they were asked back for the next film (or at least on the casting list) but sadly neither joined in again for Carry On England.

I think Ian Lavender was ideal casting for a Carry On, bringing that much needed youthful comedy. He may not have had the same comic physicality as Jim Dale but he was certainly a welcome addition to the team. At the time Ian was branching out into several other low brow British comedy films including roles in Confessions of a Pop Performer, Adventures of a Taxi Driver, Adventures of a Private Eye and Not Now, Comrade. All classics I'm sure you'll agree (!)

 

Thankfully Ian is still flying the flag for British comedy today and is still as busy as ever. Whatever he is up to today, I hope he has an excellent birthday. 

You can follow me on Twitter @CarryOnJoan 

Remembering Windsor Davies

The actor Windsor Davies has very sadly passed away at the age of 88. Windsor, as has been seen by the reaction on Twitter today, was an actor held in tremendous affection by the British public, mainly thanks to a series of high profile and well received roles in television situation comedy. An instantly recognisable actor with an unforgettable booming Welsh voice, his death marks the latest in a very sad list of legendary Carry On faces we have recently lost.

Windsor came to acting relatively late on, turning professional in the early 1960s in his early thirties. He came to the Carry On films late in their run too. Joining the team for Carry On Behind in 1975, Windsor was an instant hit with both his fellow team members and the viewing public. His all guns blazing performance as lusty butcher Fred Ramsden was one of the highlights of the film and his double act with Jack Douglas was natural, easy going and very believable. I understand the role of Fred was written by Dave Freeman for Sid James, however with Sid touring overseas at the time, up stepped Windsor. He was the perfect choice. So popular was Windsor that he was quickly brought back for the following film, the Second World War comedy Carry On England in 1976. By now, sadly, Sid James had died and nothing would be quite the same again. Despite this, Windsor gives a spirited performance in a leading role, as the bombastic Sergeant Major, not a million miles away from one of his most famous small screen creations. Again forming a deliciously funny double act (this time with Kenneth Connor) Windsor is one of the few good things about England.

Windsor's Carry On association does not quite end there. Many years later he popped up for a cameo in the ITV drama, Cor Blimey! This adaptation of Terry Johnson's stage play Cleo, Camping, Emmannuelle and Dick, told the story of Sid James, Barbara Windsor and Kenneth Williams and their lives on screen and off. Windsor plays an actor rehearsing the role of Sir Toby Belch opposite Samantha Spiro's Barbara Windsor towards the end of the film. Curiously, Windsor had guest starred as Charlie, a co-worker of Sid James in Sid's classic sitcom Bless This House back in 1974, the year before he would take his place in the Carry On series.

Windsor Davies, one of our most famous Welshmen, was actually born in Canning Town on 28 August 1930. He actually shared a birthday with yours truly, although we were born quite a few years apart. Windsor was born to Welsh parents and the family moved back to Wales upon the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. After receiving his education in the Ogmore Valley, Windsor took on a variety of jobs including that of a coal miner before training to be a school teacher. He was also posted overseas to Egypt amongst other places during his National Service in the 1950s. During his time as a teacher, he also started to become involved in amateur dramatics in his spare time. This eventually sealed his fate, as his wife persuaded him to enrol in a drama course. 

The early 1960s saw Windsor well on his way to success as he began to rack up a long list of credits, mainly on the small screen. His debut came in 1962 when he played Wallace Morton in a television film called The Keep. This comedy drama focussed on a Welsh family tied to the memory of their revered and long dead mother. Before long recurring roles in television series came his way, with parts as Bill Morgan in Probation Officer (1962) and as Detective Sergeant Wade in Ring Out an Alibi (1964). Windsor also made his first forays in cinema at this time with supporting roles in two Agatha Christie adaptations - as Sergeant Brick with Margaret Rutherford in 1964's Murder Most Foul and a year later as Dragbot in The Alphabet Murders. 

He appeared several times as Willy the Gospel in the Sam Kydd family adventure series Orlando in 1966 before being cast as a Returning Officer in two episodes of Granada's Coronation Street later that year. His episodes see regular character Len Fairclough become a Weatherfield Councillor, beating the formidable Rovers Return landlady Annie Walker. Windsor also appeared in another soap opera around this time - as Dan Cray in The Newcomers, which also featured a young Wendy Richard. Later in 1967 Windsor also had a brush with Doctor Who, playing Toby in the Patrick Troughton saga The Evil of the Daleks. 

Windsor continued to play many supporting roles in a useful mix of comedy and drama across the late 1960s and early 1970s, appearing in series such as The Worker with Charlie Drake, UFO, Nearest and Dearest and Special Branch. In 1971 he even joined fellow Carry On actor Peter Gilmore to play Taffy in the classic serial The Onedin Line. However it was his starring role as Sergeant Major Williams in the Perry and Croft BBC sitcom It Ain't Half Hot Mum which catapulted this hard working character actor to lasting stardom. In a cast which also featured Melvyn Hayes, Michael Bates, Donald Hewlett, Michael Knowles and Don Estelle, Windsor played the most iconic character of all. It even led to a chart hit for Windsor and Don in 1975 - a certain Whispering Grass. The series ran to 56 episodes from 1974 until 1981 and became a huge hit, although it is rarely broadcast today due to certain themes broadcasters deem unacceptable. I'll leave you to make your own mind up on that one.

Despite the success of It Ain't Half Hot Mum, Windsor continued to make many appearances elsewhere, in what must have been a very busy schedule. Aside from the two Carry Ons, he also played Mr Truscott, father of Lynda Bellingham's character Mary in the 1976 film Confessions of a Driving Instructor. That same year he joined familiar Carry On faces Carol Hawkins, Leslie Phillips, Ian Lavender and June Whitfield for the Ray Cooney film farce, Not Now, Comrade. And in 1978 he took on what apparently proved to be his favourite part, as Welsh rugby fan Mog Jones in the comedy adventure, Grand Slam. As soon as It Ain't Half Hot Mum came to an end in 1981, Windsor launched himself into another long running sitcom role. He starred opposite Donald Sinden as two rival antiques dealers in the series Never the Twain. Produced by Thames, the series lasted for 67 episodes and for ten years, finally ending in 1991. The 1980s brought many other roles, quite a few of which were in children's television with appearances on The Sooty Show, Alice in Wonderland and Danger: Marmalade at Work. In 1985 he also starred in the comedy series The New Statesman, playing George Vance. 

Windsor continued to work right throughout the 1990s and although comedy still featured, with guest parts in the likes of Oh Doctor Beeching! and 2Point4 Children, both for the BBC, he also got to stretch his dramatic muscles in a range of period dramas. I remember him as Prime Minister David Lloyd George in Channel 4's excellent drama series, Mosley in 1998, with Jonathan Cake playing the infamous British fascist leader, Oswald Mosley. Windsor also played General Tufto in two episodes of the serial Vanity Fair, broadcast the same year. And in 2000, Davies was part of an all star cast for the BBC2 production of Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast. Windsor played Rottcodd in a cast which also featured Warren Mitchell, Eric Sykes, June Brown and Christopher Lee. Windsor's last appearances came in the medical drama series Casualty in 2000 and four years later, in a cameo as a Night Porter in the Robert Lindsay and Zoe Wanamaker BBC sitcom, My Family.

Windsor Davies chose to retire from the acting profession in 2004 at the age of 74. He retired to the South of France with his wife, Eluned. Windsor and Eluned had married in 1957 and were together until her death in September 2018. Together they had five children. 

Windsor clearly had a long, successful life, both professionally and personally. Reaching the grand old age of 88 is a wonderful thing, yet that does not make his passing any easier for those who knew him and loved him. As fans of the very best of British comedy and drama, we can cherish his prolific career and all those brilliant roles he played as only he could. Rest in peace, Windsor, and thanks for all the laughs. 



You can follow me on Twitter @CarryOnJoan and on Instagram

Bernie Carries On … as Arthur Upmore

Over the past year I have written a series of blogs covering each of the roles of some of our favourite Carry On stars. I began my looking back at each film role played by the three leading ladies in the series - Joan Sims, Hattie Jacques and Barbara Windsor - and most recently I've written about all of Kenneth Connor's Carry On performances in the run up to the great man's centenary. 

Today I am continuing a new strand of this series by turning the spotlight on that gentle giant of British comedy, the late Bernard Bresslaw. Probably one of the most under-rated actors in the main team, Bernard was a part of the series for ten years and fourteen films, tackling a superb range of crumbling villains and delightfully dimwitted foils to the likes of Sid James and Kenneth Cope. Bernard enjoyed a long career away from the Carry Ons and spent much of his later life wowing audiences in legitimate theatre. However he will forever to remembered for his clutch of hilarious Carry On supporting turns. 

Bernard joined the Carry On team in the mid 1960s and along with Peter Butterworth was the last main team member to join the gang. Along with Butterworth, Bernard played a series of smaller, supporting roles to begin with before graduating to major roles towards the end of the decade. Bernard fitted in effortlessly with the rest of the team and he's the kind of actor who is working hard but making it look oh so easy. A quiet, erudite, thoughtful family man away from the film studios, I often think Bresslaw has never received the credit he's due as like Connor and Butterworth, he didn't ever seek the limelight or splash his life over the front pages.

So today, we'll bring this series of blogs to an end with my thoughts on Bernard's last role in the Carry On film series, as Arthur Upmore in 1975's Carry On Behind. 

In 1975, after the departure of so many of the leading lights from the series (James, Jacques, Windsor and writer Talbot Rothwell) what was left of the gang reconvened for an update on the classic Carry On Camping. In Carry On Behind, several familiar looking characters went off for a summer holiday at a caravan park. As with Camping, Behind was filmed not in summer but in the early spring so the weather was less than pleasant for all involved - the mud and freezing temperatures clearly visible for most of the film!

Behind is a real hotchpotch of sitcom sequences with no real storyline to speak of - just a bunch of English eccentrics delighting in some increasingly filthy innuendos! Unlike some of the period costume Carry Ons, Behind, set in the grimy world of the mid-1970s really hasn't aged well but lovers of seventies kitch will adore it! I admit I have a real soft spot for this film and it's become something of a guilty pleasure. For me it  is the last proper Carry On ever made. It's certainly much more naughty than previous efforts with much more obvious sexual references and a fair sprinkling of nudity. The whole thing feels much more like a Confessions film, and you can tell Peter Rogers was trying to keep the Carry Ons up to speed with the latest developments at the box office. 

The film features a mix of old faces and newcomers and it is really the cast which carries the film home. As well as regulars Kenneth Williams, Kenneth Connor, Jack Douglas, Bernard Bresslaw, Peter Butterworth, Joan Sims and Patsy Rowlands, I also really enjoy the performances from the likes of Windsor Davies, Carol Hawkins, Ian Lavender, Sherrie Hewson and of course, international guest star Elke Sommer. 

So what about Bernard's role in the film? Well with the absence of some big names Bernard is front and centre as one of Behind's biggest and most bankable stars. Indeed only Kenneth Williams and international guest star Elke Sommer are billed above him. In many ways Bernard provides the anchor for this Carry On last gasp. The threesome of Bernard, Patsy Rowlands and Joan Sims as middle class couple and interfering mother in law is the reassuring sitcom centre to the film and gives us a last chance to see three of our favourite Carry On actors working together and clearly enjoying themselves. Although Joan is given another forgettable shrewish part, playing a character much older than she actually was at the time, the fact she's mainly seen with Bernard and Patsy makes it easier to accept. And Bernard and Patsy are brilliant as husband and wife, surely a sitcom pairing that was begging to be put on the small screen?

As with most Carry Ons, there isn't that much of a storyline and for large chunks of this Carry On Camping re-tread Bernie clearly misses his old sparring partner Sid James. As the everyman of the piece, Bernard is wide eyed and relatively innocent at the bizarre, innuendo encrusted goings on around him and has no idea where to put himself when the likes of Elke Sommer and Adrienne Posta come to call! Of course Patsy, as on screen wife Linda, is always there to catch him in the act of something suspicious even though he's always entirely innocent. 

Much of the humour of their situation is drilled from the arrival of Joan's foul mouthed mynah bird, with vocals from the director Gerald Thomas. Joan, in an early incarnation of the indignant Hyacinth Bucket persona, is never convinced her bird would say anything as crude  as the things it actually comes away with. While this leads to several nicely set up comic misunderstandings, the material is pretty flimsy for such gifted comic actors to work with. Given the fact Behind started to push the boundaries, as Dick had the previous year, the likes of Bernard, Patsy and Joan begin to look slightly out of place. An island of calm in the middle of sea of blue gags and flashes of nudity and crudity. I'm glad they were there as they gave the film some much needed heart, but sadly for two of the actors present it would be their last Carry On with the gang.

I don't really know if Bernard ever went on the record with a reason why Behind was his last Carry On film. I'm not sure if he was offered a part in either England on Emmannuelle. Certainly he continued to appear with the team in the Carry On Laughing series for ATV, also broadcast in 1975, but his Carry On film career came to an end with this entry. The death of Sid James the following April may have made Bernard think twice about appearing in Carry On England as the two were good friends on screen and off. Whatever the reason, Bernard is most definitely missed in the remaining Carry On films, although perhaps given the quality of the last two efforts, he made the right decision not to appear. Patsy Rowlands also made Behind her last association with the team. Although never a main team player, hovering up and down the cast lists, Patsy was an intrinsic and much loved actor and any film without her left a big gap.

The end of Carry On Behind does provide some old fashioned Carry On satisfaction. Warring couples are reunited and everyone ends up happily paired off. The Upmores are seen leaving the campsite happy once more. Joan's Daphne has reunited with her long lost husband Henry (Peter Butterworth). As a note to go out on, it's warm and satisfying. Although in retrospect it really was the end of an era.

I hope you've enjoyed this blog series looking back at all fourteen of Bernard Bresslaw's Carry On contributions. Bernard really was the gentle giant of British comedy. A solid, reliable and very clever actor, Bresslaw has often been overlooked. I hope this series of blogs has shone the light on just how important his contributions were to the Carry On team and just what a superb comedy actor he was.

Stay tuned soon for my next series of blogs looking at all sixteen of Peter Butterworth's Carry on roles. 2019 marks Peter's centenary so what better time to look back at this brilliant actor and his superb work with the team?

You can follow me on Twitter @CarryOnJoan and on Instagram

Happy Birthday Sherrie Hewson!

Many happy returns to the actress Sherrie Hewson who celebrates her birthday today! 

Sherrie made her Carry On appearances very early on in her acting career. She would go on to star in a wide variety of shows, forming a well known association with the comedian Russ Abbot during the 1980s, starring in a wide range of classic television including The Gentle Touch, Jackanory, Minder, Within These Walls and Juliet Bravo. Sherrie of course went on to star alongside Gwen Taylor in the ITV sitcom Barbara and these days is most famous for being a panelist on Loose Women and starring in the Carry On-esque comedy series Benidorm.

I love Sherrie as Maureen Naylor/Holdsworth in Coronation Street. It was a rare occasion where my own surname, Naylor, appeared in the credits of a telly programme! She brought some wonderful comedy to the Street as well as some classic drama. Her relationship with on-screen mother Maud (the fantastic and much missed Elizabeth Bradley) was vey real and  beautifully played. I still wish Maureen would pay the residents of Weatherfield another visit.

Sadly, Sherrie joined the Carry On team just as their star was on the wane. Carry On Behind was her only film appearance with the gang but it's a smashing last great attempt at Carry On on the big screen. As one of the bright young girls giving Windsor Davies and Jack Douglas the run around, Sherrie displays fine comic timing and works really well with Carol Hawkins. It's a shame she didn't join the team for earlier outings as she was a natural fit with the rest of the gang.

Sherrie also appeared in four episodes of the ATV series Carry On Laughing the same year. While the series wasn't a run away success, Sherrie is a high point, forming a wonderful double act in several episodes with the master, Peter Butterworth. 

Whatever Sherrie is up to today, I hope she has a fantastic birthday.

You can follow me on Twitter @CarryOnJoan and on Instagram

Carry On Blogging Interview: Elke Sommer

It's a huge thrill to be able to bring you an interview with one of the best remembered guest stars ever to grace a Carry On film. In 1975, international film and television actress Elke Sommer travelled to England to head the cast of probably the last successful Carry On film to be made, Carry On Behind. Starring opposite Kenneth Williams, Elke played Russian archaeologist Professor Anna Vooshka in the Dave Freeman scripted comedy, joining a cast which included the likes of Windsor Davies, Bernard Bresslaw, Joan Sims and Patsy Rowlands.

Elke fitted in seamlessly with the rest of the cast and took to Carry On comedy like a duck to water. She had previously worked for Peter Rogers' wife Betty Box and Gerald's brother Ralph Thomas on similar comedies Percy and Percy's Progress so she was on familiar territory. I've long wanted to feature an interview with Elke and indeed had hoped to meet her on a recently planned trip to the UK to attend the Classic TV and Sitcom Classics Day up in Borehamwood. Sadly Elke couldn't attend but certainly intends to fulfil this commitment in the near future. 

So, without further ado, here's how we got on:

Can you tell me what made you want to become an actress in the first place?

Oh my God it is such a long story and one I really want to tell in depth when I visit England. I never really wanted to be an actress at first, I wanted to become a doctor which involved lots of studying to learn Greek, Latin and English.

During your career you have made many films in both the U.S & UK. What do you think are the main differences between the two film industries?

I have worked in many different countries from UK to Sri Lanka & the United States to South Africa and Italy. Every country has their slight differences and way of doing things. In Italy there is a lot of improvisation, in the United States everything has to go like clockwork, to the second and to perfection.

I felt closer to the UK style due to the British sense of humour - we have the same humour and that built a base for good friendships.

Fans in the UK will probably know you best for the classic film A Shot in the Dark with Peter Sellers. What was Peter like to work with on that picture?

Wow, another question that I would easily be able to take half an hour to answer! Peter was a good friend and was always desperate to get married (not to me!). He had the clairvoyant and astrologer Maurice Woodruff with him quite often and this is certainly one for the UK visit! 

We also worked together on the remake of The Prisoner of Zenda which didn't do too well unfortunately.

You worked several times with producer Betty Box and director Ralph Thomas - what were they like to work with?

They were just fantastic! We were great friends, almost family you might say. We always ate together during filming and enjoyed each others company.

You formed a strong friendship with producer Peter Rogers. What kind of man was Peter away from the film studios?

Peter was a gentleman. A typical English gentleman. Extremely funny when he wanted to be. Peter was very intelligent. He never had the same joy in his eyes on set that Ralph Thomas had but the best way to describe him I would say is a kind of grey eminence.

What are your memories of making Carry On Behind with the late great Kenneth Williams?

I had heard about the Carry Ons. Someone suggested I should take part in one but when the offer came in for Carry On Behind I was so busy with other work. In the end Kenny talked me into it. I had a lovely time making that film, it was a blast. It was full of British humour, just like me!

Kenny Williams was a wonderful talent and very funny. I remember they asked me what I would like and I didn't really know what to say apart from I'd seen two absolutely beautiful couches. So they sent them out, one to each home and that was my payment. I still have the couches.

You acted opposite the wonderful David Niven in the 1979 film, A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square. What was he like?   

David… He was nice. He was extremely respectful and a complete gentleman. He never became a great friend but we dined together a lot and certainly was a good acquaintance.

From 1970 onwards you have appeared regularly on stage, what has been your favourite role in the theatre and why?

I had many wonderful experiences such as appearing at Chicago's Drury Lane Theatre in 1971 appearing as the lead role in Cactus Flower and also Born Yesterday playing the role of Billie Dawn. I really enjoyed Same Time Next Year at the Grand Dinner Theatre in California.

I feel you have to do the stage/theatre to prove you are an actor.

Some people may not be aware that you are also a hugely successful artist. What has inspired you artwork over the years?

I had painted since I was a child and my grandfather was a good artist. As I was also in show business my artwork was the only thing I could really call all mine and had not been produced or directed by someone else like the films and television I appeared in.

Painting gave me peace and quiet and also allowed me to express my feelings at various times, be it joy or pain. 

What was it like working with The Muppets?

It was Fantastic! Miss Piggy hated me, Gonzo loved me and Bob Mackie made me a stunning dress. And I got to sing Row Row Row on "The Nile" with them.

Do you have a preference out of Theatre/TV & Movies?

I enjoy them all, but theatre commands a lot of respect, you only get one attempt, there are no retakes, it's more challenging. i work well under pressure, you have to be on time and precise. Very German!

Speaking of Germany, did you watch the World Cup?

I did, the Mexico game Germany seemed to play in slow motion and they did not do enough to progress. And Leroy Sane should have been selected!

Elke asked for her love to be passed on to everyone in the UK. I'm so grateful to her for agreeing to answer my questions and I'm also indebted to Rich, the organiser of the Classic TV day at Borehamwood for making all this possible. You can follow Rich on Twitter @sitcomdelights.

And you can find out more about Elke Sommer on her official website

You can follow me on Twitter @CarryOnJoan and on Instagram 

Connor Carries On … As Major Leap

Next month will mark Kenneth Connor's centenary. This feels like the right time to celebrate the man's legacy and what better a legacy that his seventeen glorious performances in the Carry On films. As I've already done with the three main leading ladies of the series, I plan to embark on a series of blogs profiling each of Kenneth's roles in the Carry Ons, giving my own take on his contributions.

Kenneth is another one of those actors who worked steadily, prolifically and across all mediums throughout his career. From his very early days in film before the outbreak of World War Two, through the 1950s which saw him become an integral part of British radio comedy to the Carry Ons and his unforgettable roles in several 1980s sitcoms, Connor was an incredibly gifted actor. He worked right up until his death at the age of 75 in November 1993. However unlike Sid, Kenneth Williams or Barbara Windsor, I feel that Connor never really got the credit he deserved. He didn't have an outrageous private life, no scandals to be told. He shunned the limelight and his many performances as the ordinary man in the street mirrored his own life away from the cameras. 

Kenneth was also one of the precious few actors who's career spanned pretty much the entire run of the Carry Ons. He was there at the very beginning in Carry On Sergeant and, a five year gap in the mind 1960s aside, remained loyal to the films until the very end of the original run in 1978. Connor, along with Williams and Eric Barker were the only actors to appear in the very first and the very last of the series. Kenneth was still around when Columbus was made in 1992 but declined to take part, probably very wisely. This new series of blogs will be a celebration of all those wonderful comedy performances in the Carry Ons - from bumbling romantic lead through to crumbling character parts, Kenneth could play them all.

So let's continue with Kenneth's fifteenth role in the series, as Major Leap in the 1975 film, Carry On Behind!

In 1975, after the departure of so many of the leading lights from the series (James, Jacques, Windsor and writer Talbot Rothwell) what was left of the gang reconvened for an update on the classic Carry On Camping. In Carry On Behind, several familiar looking characters went off for a summer holiday at a caravan park. As with Camping, Behind was filmed not in summer but in the early spring so the weather was less than pleasant for all involved - the mud and freezing temperatures clearly visible for most of the film!

Behind is a real hotchpotch of sitcom sequences with no real storyline to speak of - just a bunch of English eccentrics delighting in some increasingly filthy innuendos! Unlike some of the period costume Carry Ons, Behind, set in the grimy world of the mid-1970s really hasn't aged well but lovers of seventies kitch will adore it! I admit I have a real soft spot for this film and it's become something of a guilty pleasure. For me it  is the last proper Carry On ever made. It's certainly much more naughty than previous efforts with much more obvious sexual references and a fair sprinkling of nudity. The whole thing feels much more like a Confessions film, and you can tell Peter Rogers was trying to keep the Carry Ons up to speed with the latest developments at the box office. 

The film features a mix of old faces and newcomers and it is really the cast which carries the film home. As well as regulars Kenneth Williams, Kenneth Connor, Jack Douglas, Bernard Bresslaw, Peter Butterworth, Joan Sims and Patsy Rowlands, I also really enjoy the performances from the likes of Windsor Davies, Carol Hawkins, Ian Lavender, Sherrie Hewson and of course, international guest star Elke Sommer. 

So what about Kenneth Connor's role in the film? Kenneth returns to a major starring role in Behind following his brief cameo role in the previous film, Carry On Dick. Major Leap, the owner of the caravan site the main characters all descend upon, is a rather upper-crust army type with a randy side and an eye for the ladies! Much like his character Stanley Blunt in Carry On Abroad, Major Leap is a picture of frustrated middle-aged British male. Kenneth's comic timing is sublime as ever and he pops up regularly throughout the action which is great as he gets scenes with the vast majority of the cast. 

The poor old Major tries it on with everyone from Carol Hawkins and Sherrie Hewson to Joan Sims and Elke Sommer, getting absolutely nowhere. Yes it's not exactly subtle material but Dave Freeman's script does well to follow on from the sterling work from the now absent Talbot Rothwell. Kenneth and Joan in particular, two old stagers of the Carry Ons dating back to the black and white days, work splendidly together as Leap attempts to woo Daphne Barnes with a few drinks down the pub and some military music back at his caravan to get her in the mood! Kenneth also enjoys a running gag with Peter Butterworth's lowly camp handyman, who turns out to be Joan's long lost husband at the end of the film. Kenneth and Peter are superb together and it's clear to see the two actors were the best of friends off screen as they work incredibly well in this film. Kenneth's airs and graces contrast beautifully with the bumbling, grimy Peter B!

In a film which misses the likes of Barbara Windsor, Charles Hawtrey, Hattie Jacques and Sid James, the importance of actors like Kenneth Connor cannot be understated. Connor, having rejoined the gang in the late 1960s, provides much needed continuity and the smaller cast of recognisable regulars gives Kenneth more screen time and more material to work with. As the series began to fade by the second half of the 1970s his presence would become more and more important. 

Connor is also involved in the farcical, climatic sequence at the end of the film which sees his character unveil his brand new clubhouse complete with over-painted sticky chairs and some rather unexpected entertainment in the shapely shape of a stripper played by Jenny Cox. Kenneth is a brilliantly funny mix of shame, embarrassment  and lechery as he watches the chaos unfold alongside his electrician (a fantastic cameo from Larry Martyn). Despite it all ending in utter failure as the party guests leave with dignity in shreds, Connor's Major Leap comes up trumps as he heads for the exit door with Jenny's dancer! 

The end of Carry On Behind is always a bit misty-eyed for me. Yes it's a knockabout farce which edges the series ever closer to Confessions territory but for me, Dave Freeman does an excellent job of maintaining the community feel of the earlier pictures. As Kenneth greets the various groups of holidaymakers as they leave his campsite, it really does feel like the end of an era. Audiences of the time wouldn't know it, but Behind really was the last film in the series to feature such a familiar, ensemble cast. The final two films in the original series would both feature Kenneth Connor in starring roles so we'll carry on with them next.

Stay tuned for my blog on Kenneth Connor's next role in the series, in the 1976 film Carry On England.

You can follow me on Twitter @CarryOnJoan and on Instagram