Carrying On with … A Doctor in Trouble

This is the final part of series of blogs looking back at the wonderful series of British comedy films - the Doctor … series. There were seven Doctor films produced at Pinewood Studios between 1954 and 1970, all with Betty Box and Ralph Thomas at the helm. With Betty being Peter Rogers' wife and Ralph the brother of Gerald Thomas, there were bound to be a fair few Carry On connections.

These medical comedy films were extremely popular at the time and while perhaps they do not have the lasting appeal of the Carry Ons, there is no doubting their classic status. Always looking more lavish than their sister films in the Pinewood stable, they did share a cosy ensemble feel with many familiar faces appearing again and again over the years.

So let's conclude today by looking at the seventh and final film in the Doctor series, the 1970 film Doctor in Trouble.

What's it about?

Renowned surgeon Sir Lancelot Spratt arranges a cruise for his patient, the famous television star Basil Beauchamp. The captain of the ship is Lancelot Spratt's brother George Spratt. 

Doctor Burke becomes a stowaway by mistake when chasing his girlfriend onto the ship to propose to her. She is one of a group of models doing a fashion shoot with camp photographer. Other passengers aboard ship include pools winner Llewellyn Wendover  and Mrs. Dailey, a socially ambitious lady hoping to find a wealthy match for her daughter Dawn.

Burke is pursued by the Master at Arms who correctly suspects that he does not have a ticket. Burke tries various ruses to try to escape him, including dressing up as a doctor. Eventually he is caught and exposed as a stowaway. Captain Spratt orders him to serve as an orderly, scrubbing the ship.

When the ship's doctor falls ill from a tropical disease, Burke takes over his duties. He is called into action when a Soviet cargo ship sends a request for help due to a patient with acute appendictis. Burke is transferred to that ship to perform an operation. By the time he has finished his own ship has departed, and he is forced to stay on board the Soviet vessel until it reaches Grimsby. When the cruise ship finally returns to port, Burke learns his girlfriend has married the ship's doctor, now recovered from his illness.

Who's in it?

Leslie Phillips returns for one final starring role in the series, playing Dr Anthony Burke. It was his third Doctor film. Doctor in Trouble also features James Robertson Justice, playing Sir Lancelot Spratt for the seventh and last time. Also look out for Harry Secombe as Llewellyn Wendover, Robert Morley as Captain George Spratt and television personality Simon Dee as Basil Beauchamp.

Carry On faces?

As always, quite a few. Leslie Phillips appears once again in the leading role. The great Irene Handl, known to Carry On fans for small roles in Carry On Nurse and Constable, plays a major supporting role here as Mrs Dailey, mother of Dawn, played by another Carry On actress, Janet Mahoney. Janet appeared as Sally Martin's flatmate and fellow model Gay in Carry On Loving made the same year.

Returning for her fifth supporting role in the series, this time playing perhaps her most bizarre role of all in the Doctor films is Joan Sims as a Russian Ship Captain. There is also a small role for Jacki Piper playing a girl in a taxi at the end of the film. Jacki had recently filmed her Carry On debut in Up The Jungle for Peter Rogers and was cast in this role while at Pinewood. 

And keep your eyes peeled for small supporting roles for Yutte Stensgaard (Carry On Again Doctor) as a model called Eve; Jimmy Thompson (Carry On Regardless, Cruising and Jack) as the Ship's Doctor; John Bluthal (Carry On Spying, Follow That Camel and Henry) as a TV Doctor and Marianne Stone as a Spinster.

Did you know? 

This, the last Doctor film, proved a less than happy experience for Betty Box and Ralph Thomas. Their long association with the actor James Robertson Justice came to an end here after the actor suffered a stroke and was unable to film his dual role as Sir Lancelot and George Spratt. James still appeared in the smaller of the two roles but his health was very poor.

Box and Thomas felt so loyal to Robertson Justice that despite his inability to film both parts, the actor was still paid both salaries, as in the words of Betty Box, "he deserved it for long and loyal service".

The actor and playwright Tom Kempinski plays the role of Stedman Green in the film. During the 1960s and early 70s Tom was married to the actress Margaret Nolan, who made several appearances in the Carry Ons. 

This film was the first time Angela Scoular worked with leading man Leslie Phillips. The pair would eventually become romantically involved and married in 1982.

You can follow me on Twitter @CarryOnJoan and on Instagram

Jacki Piper: Still Carrying On

Comedy historian Robert Ross will be back at the Museum of Comedy in London later this year, hosting yet another special Carry On event, in this the 60th anniversary year of our beloved Carry On films.

Celebrate sixty glorious years of the Carry On films with the only actor producer Peter Rogers ever put under a three-year contract. In that time Jacki Piper starred in four Carry On films: cavorting with Terry Scott in Carry On Up the Jungle, enjoying the matrimonial mix-ups of Carry On Loving, playing the savvy daughter of Sid James in Carry On At Your Convenience, and, finally, giggling her way through the maternity ward madness of Carry On Matron.

Having made her film debut opposite Roger Moore in The Man Who Haunted Himself, Jacki has chalked up appearances opposite some of the best loved names in comedy including Eric Sykes, Leonard Rossiter, Leslie Phillips, and Ronnie Barker. 

Jacki will be at the Museum of Comedy in conversation with comedy historian Robert Ross on Sunday 25 November. The event kicks off at 4pm and you can buy tickets via Robert's website

And you can read my Carry On Blogging interview with Jacki here

You can follow me on Twitter @CarryOnJoan and on Instagram

Bernie Carries On … As Bernie Hulke!

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 continue this new series looking at Bernard's role as the simple Bernie Hulke, second in command to the union leader Vic Spanner in the 1971 film Carry On At Your Convenience.

Although Carry On At Your Convenience is now seen as a classic Carry On, with stand out performances from a core team of favourite stars, an outrageous script jam-packed full of wonderful innuendo and a storyline that takes in natural Carry On territory of a toilet factory and a trip to Brighton, back in 1971 it was a very different tale. Convenience was the first film to bomb at the box office, with the working class audience less than impressed with the film's treatment of the trade unions. While Kenneth Cope and Bernard Bresslaw put in terrific performances as the union men who are permanently on strike, they are basically a pair of idiotic clowns. This was a rare miss-step on the part of Peter Rogers and Gerald Thomas, who immediately attempted to regain popularity with their next entry, the classic Carry On Matron.


These days, Convenience is a fan favourite. The canteen scene at the beginning of the film is just one innuendo after the other with Joan Sims and Sid James having a whale of a time. The other highlight for me is the trip to Brighton which crams in so many wonderful British seaside moments. Chief amongst those is the brilliant fortune teller scene with Sid in drag. It's sublime. While the rest of the cast make it Brighton, sadly Hattie Jacques is stuck at home but her role does provide some wonderful 'domestic sitcom' from her and Sid James. However the two form an irresistible double act yet again, delivering the goods as only they could. Hattie's character Beattie Plummer spends her entire day stuck indoors talking to her pet budgie. Husband Sid is understandably fed up with her slovenly ways until he cottons on to the fact that the budgie can predict the winners in every single horse race. 

So what about Bernard's role in proceedings? Well Convenience is a pivotal role in Bernard's Carry On career as it began a continuous run of appearances across all the gang's cinema releases until his last, Carry On Behind in 1975. This was, in part, due to production going down from two to one film per year. The 1970s films see Bernard's prominence increase though as the team had already lost leading man Jim Dale and after Abroad, there would be no more Charles Hawtrey either. 

Convenience sees Bernard play another version of his rather dim-witted but kind Army Game persona, not unlike his characters in Carry On Doctor or Carry On Camping. Bernard often played second in command in a double act, usually with Sid James, however here he's paired with newcomer to the series, Coronation Street and Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) star Kenneth Cope. Bernard and Kenneth are excellent together as the bickering Union reps and their delightful comedic chemistry is at the heart of the film. Bernard certainly has more screen time than previous efforts and once again acts as a useful bridge between the older more established talent and the younger actors (Cope, Piper and O'Callaghan). 

Bernie Hulke is a sometimes unwilling accomplice to Cope's Union leader however, bound my loyalty to the cause, he backs him to the hilt and we see that early on when Vic Spanner calls a stoppage of the works and conducts a hilarious scene in the canteen. In many ways this sequence is Carry On in its purest form and there is sparkling byplay between Cope, James, O'Callaghan and a raunchy, twinkly Joan Sims. Bernie chips in with some perfectly timed misunderstandings and the whole thing is a joy. Once the strike has been called Bernie acts as a foil to Vic as the latter follows the object of his affections, Myrtle Plummer (Piper) on a date with snooty bosses' son Lewis (O'Callaghan). This leads to some excellent, funny scenes as Vic and Bernie attempt to remain inconspicuous in the back of a cinema while a blue movie is played - impossible when you're with a towering Bernie in motorcycle leathers and crash helmet! The sequence culminates in Bernie taking off on his bike, leaving Vic behind in the road, minus his trousers! 

I also love the scene when Bernie turns up as Mrs Spanner's house to collect Vic and, engine revving wildly, completely misses Mrs Spanner's colourful instructions for him to pipe down. Hard to do when Mrs Spanner is brought to life by the incredibly vivid Scottish character actress Renee Houston! We also get to enjoy a spot of coy Bernie embarrassment and misunderstanding as he later interrupts Agatha Spanner and Charles Hawtrey's Mr Coote mid-way through a game of strip poker! Bernie's bulging eyes of incredulity as Charles answers the door in his boxer shorts is one for the scrap book!

Of course, as I've already mentioned, the highlight of Convenience is the deliciously bawdy and outrageous works' outing to Brighton that takes up the latter part of the film. Here Bernie is provided with a love interest in the shapely shape of Margaret Nolan, playing a character called Popsy. Quite. Bernard and Maggie are great together and my only complaint is that Nolan wasn't brought into the film earlier in the action. The scenes of Bernie and Maggie enjoying the delights of Brighton pier are the stuff of legend, especially when they take on the helter skelter - "What's that sticking in me?" asks Popsy…"It's only me camera!" Not to mention their misadventures no the ghost train which I'm sure Bresslaw rather enjoyed!! Down wiv 'em! 

By the end of the film, with support for Vic's strike waning, his men gradually drift away from him. Bernie stands by him until the end though, when faced by the local females in uprising about the state of the factory and their loss of earnings. Yes, it's another fairly right wing, capitalist moment in the film, but when it involves the likes of Joan Sims, Marianne Stone and Hattie Jacques storming the barricades as Renee Houston puts Kenneth Cope over her knee for a spanking, the film makers can almost be forgiven! In the end, Bernie packs it in and temporarily deserts his mate. All is right in the end though with Vic having learnt his lesson as they, wait for it…Carry On Working! 

So those are my thoughts on Bernard's role in Carry On At Your Convenience. Stay tuned for my next blog in this series, as I look back at Bernard's role in the classic Carry On Matron!

You can follow me on Twitter @CarryOnJoan and on Instagram

Carry On at 60 in The Telegraph

With the Carry On films turning 60 years young this year there has been a rather subdued flurry of articles about our favourite series of films in the press. I've just come across one of these, written by Andy Roberts for The Telegraph. 

I always read such pieces with trepidation as I hope the writer is going to treat the films and their long departed stars fairly. And I think, on the whole, Mr Roberts does just that. It's a very interesting piece which describes the very best and the very worst of the Carry Ons in glorious detail. 

While Roberts claims that the majority of the well-known cast of actors did their best work elsewhere, he does state that the films would have been nothing without their talents and there I wholeheartedly agree with him. Despite Peter Rogers claiming, as Roberts repeats, that the title Carry On was the star, we all know that wasn't true. It was those loyal, underpaid yet beautifully skilled comedy actors that kept as and indeed keep us coming back for more.

Andy Roberts flags up Norman Hudis for particular praise, believing that his first six films in the series were well written for the actors engaged to play his parts. I was also pleased to see actors such as Peter Butterworth and Patsy Rowlands given plenty of credit for their delightful contributions over the years. So often actors like Peter and Patsy are missed out in tributes. Roberts also pays tributes to the likes of Imogen Hassall, Jacki Piper and Elke Sommer and I'm so glad he has.

And he ends the piece with mention of my favourite Carry On of all time. You can read the article in full here although you may need to register with the site first. It's definitely worth a read.


You can follow me on Twitter @CarryOnJoan and on Instagram

My Carry On Blogging Cast Interviews

Following on from my recent chat with the delightful Julian Holloway earlier in the week I thought I would bring together all the interviews I've done for the blog in one place. I've had the great good fortune to speak to a wide range of actors, writers and fans over the past three and a bit years and I can't thank all those who have contributed to the blog enough for their time, energy and enthusiasm. 

I've had the pleasure of blogging interviews with quite a few actors who were directly involved in the Carry On series and here they all are for your reading pleasure:

My interview with Julian Holloway can be found here and here

My interview with Elke Sommer can be found here

My interview with Fenella Fielding is right here  

My interview with the actress and author Josephine Bailey, who appeared as a child actor in Carry On Teacher can be found here

My interview with Jacki Piper is here 

My interview with Angela Douglas can be read here 

Click here for my interview with Valerie Leon

And click here for my chat with Madeline Smith

You can read my interview with Amanda Barrie here

My interview with Patricia Franklin can be found here and here

And my interview with Robin Askwith is here and  here  

Click here for my interview with Sally Geeson

Click here and here for my interview with Hugh Futcher

 

And follow this link here for my interview with Christine Ozanne

And last but certainly not least, my interview with Anita Harris is here

My thanks once again to everyone who has taken time to speak to me. It's been an absolute treat. 

You can follow me on Twitter @CarryOnJoan and on Instagram