Carrying On with … The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery!

I've recently written a great deal about some of the other great series of British comedy films, such as the Norman Wisdom comedies and the Doctor films, and how the Carry Ons made an impression in these lovely films. I've now decided to write about another legendary set of films, the St Trinian's films. Set in the fictional unruly all girls private school somewhere in England, the films followed their adventures and those of both the staff of the school, the law enforcers chasing after them and the education department who frequently despaired of what they got up to!

The films featured countless wonderful performances and will always be synonymous with a handful of timeless actors. So without further ado, let's continue on today with a look at the fourth film in the series, The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery from 1966. It was the last of the original run of films, although they would return fourteen years later! 

What's it about?

"Alphonse" Askett is a hairdresser who is also the operational leader of a gang of crooks who are led behind the scenes by an invisible mastermind (voiced by Stratford Johns). He gives instructions to Askett about the robbery, Operation Windfall, using a variety of James Bond-like communications devices—including a converted showerhead.

The crooks hide the loot in Hamingwell Grange, a deserted country mansion, and after waiting for the hue and cry to die down they return to collect the numerous mailbags which contain £2.5 million (the same amount as in the real robbery). However, following a Labour Party election victory, the house has been converted into a new home for St Trinian's School for Girls. The crooks decide to infiltrate the school by sending Askett's delinquent daughters, Lavinia and Marcia Mary, to St Trinian's as pupils, with instructions to case the joint to find a means of recovering the money, secretly, from its hiding place. The crooks' subsequent attempt to retrieve the mailbags on Parents' Day, disguised as caterers, results in a climactic train chase between the robbers and the girls.

A sub-plot is the affair between the headmistress of St Trinian's and the Minister, who uses his influence to corruptly obtain a large government grant for re-housing the school, following the latest fire, thus enabling it to move into the mansion. This angers his staff who are normally Conservatives but who, early in the film, are seen excitedly watching Labour win the election, as they believe St Trinians will be shut down by a Labour government.

Who's in it?

One of the very few original cast members to return for this 1966 series entry was George Cole who once again reprises his role as Flash Harry. Boosting the cast this time around are reliable comedy stars Reg Varney, Dora Bryan and a certain Mr Francis Howerd! 

Carry On faces?

As always, the quality of the extended Carry On cast meant that many were called upon to spruce up other films. Leading the pack here is Frankie Howerd who is top billed a Alphonse. Frankie would appear in Carry On Doctor the following year before returning in 1969 for Up The Jungle and a guest starring role in the TV Carry On Christmas special. Also starring is Carry On original Dora Bryan, in the role of headmistress Amber Spottiswood. Dora played Norah in Carry On Sergeant back in 1958.

Carry On Spying supporting player Richard Wattis reprises his role as Manton Bassett while Spying co-star Eric Barker again plays Culpepper-Brown. Another face from a previous St Trinian's adventure also makes an appearance - future Carry On regular Terry Scott playing yet another policeman.

A whole host of recognisable Carry On faces also appear in smaller, supporting roles. Norman Mitchell (Cabby, Spying, Cleo, Screaming) plays William while Cyril Chamberlain (the first seven Carry Ons) turns up as Maxie. Carry On guest actor Larry Martyn (Convenience & Behind) plays Chips and familiar face Peter Gilmore (a total of eleven Carry On roles) is Butters.  

Two final actors definitely worth a mention. Jean St Clair has a small role as Drunken Dolly (!) - the following year she would play Mrs Smith, Peter Butterworth's grape scoffing wife in Carry On Doctor. And look out for the gorgeous Margaret Nolan as Susie Naphill! Maggie had made her Carry On debut the previous year in Cowboy and would return four years later for a run of films starting with Carry On Henry. 

Did you know? 

Future Carry On Abroad and Bless This House actress Sally Geeson has a small uncredited role in the film as a schoolgirl.

With a career in films dating back to 1936, this film saw Cyril Chamberlain's last credited performance. He did make an uncredited 'bit' appearance in The Yellow Hat released later in 1966 but after that Cyril retired from acting and spent his final years restoring antique furniture.

Several attempts were made to woo Joyce Grenfell back to play Sergeant Ruby Gates one more time but she refused all offers. 

You can follow me on Twitter @CarryOnJoan and on Instagram

Bernie Carries On … as Sir Roger Daley!

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 Sir Roger Daley (!) in the 1974 historical adventure, Carry On Dick.

Carry On Dick has never been one of my favourites in the series. As a later effort though and one of the last historical films it works fairly well however compared to earlier entries like Don't Lose Your Head and Up The Khyber, Dick is very static and studio-based and some of the cast are starting to show their age. Despite this, the film captures the seedy atmosphere of the times very well and all the scenes set in the Old Cock Inn are brilliant to watch. Dick also provides fans with the last opportunity to see several favourites in a Carry On film. The cast is bursting with team members as all current actors in the gang appear. As well as Hattie, this film is also the farewell for both Sid James and Barbara Windsor. Sid and Barbara would appear in several episodes of the ATV Carry On Laughing series broadcast the follow year (even Hattie would make an appearance) however this would be the last original feature film for all three stalwarts. Also, prolific writer Talbot Rothwell retired from the films after Dick, his health having deteriorated further. Future films in the series would really suffer without his talents.

Carry On Dick tells the well-worn story of highway man Dick Turpin and who else could play Dick but Sidney James. The film follows his gang as they rob the rich and constantly evade capture by Captain Desmond Fancey and Sergeant Jock Strapp (Kenneth Williams and Jack Douglas). Sid's last role in the series is a great one. Dick Turpin is Sid at his twinkly, naughtiest best while the film also provides him with the dual role of the Rev Flasher (!) Dick's cover story as the sedate, understated local vicar. The rest of his gang comprise Peter  Butterworth as Tom and Barbara Windsor as Harriet. Sid and Barbara have terrific chemistry throughout and go as near the knuckle as they could possibly go! 

Dick is in many ways a sequel to the French Revolution romp, Don't Lose Your Head, almost eight years earlier. In that film Sid also had a dual role as both Sid Rodney Ffing and the Black Fingernail. It allows Sid the actor to really work and show some subtlety in performance (Yes that was possible even in a Carry On). It's a great role for him to go out on even though nobody knew it at the time. He was due to appear in Carry On Behind, however touring commitments in the theatre meant the role written for him eventually went to Windsor Davies. 

So anyway, back to Bernard's role in the film. Rising up the cast lists as other veterans take time out or sadly don't come back, Bernard enjoys a fairly large supporting turn in Dick. As the chief law enforcer and fierce-some leader of the Bow Street Runners, it's a towering performance in every sense of the word. Bernard's Sir Roger is not really like any other role he plays in the series and that can surely only be a good thing, as far as the actor is concerned. He's not his usual simple, bumbling accomplice to Sid James and neither is he on full historical villain mode like his parts in Khyber or Follow That Camel. He's an authoritarian who has little time for the antics of Kenneth Williams or Jack Douglas, preferring to spend his time with a bevy of young lovelies. 

Although I'm not mad on the film, I do love the trio of Williams, Douglas and Bresslaw. It's a great triumvirate of comedy, with Douglas as the bumbling Jock Strap, constantly letting down Kenneth's haughty Captain Desmond Fancey, who in turn is constantly deferential and cow towing whenever his superior Sir Roger appears on the scene. The class system in action perhaps? Although seen through a typically bawdy Carry On lens. Poor Bernard loses his clothes at least twice during the film as his stagecoach is repeatedly held up at gun point by Big Dick and his gang. Leaving little to the imagination, Bresslaw is obviously game and as a cheeky behind the scenes snap reveals, the crew weren't afraid of playing a trick on the actors! 

Bernard is paired with the fragrant Margaret Nolan in Dick. Playing Lady Daley, Maggie is more prim and proper than usual and her supporting turn is rather understated when compared to other parts such as her previous role as Dawn Brakes in Carry On girls. Sadly, this would be her last Carry On performance. Much fruitier is Bernard's pairing with none other than Joan Sims. Joan is on fine form as the bogus French Madame Desiree, touring dubious hostelries with her 'Birds of Paradise'. Slipping into her common Cockney, Joan is at her vulgar best and makes for a memorable double act with Bernard once he's despatched his wife back to London!

Bernard spends most of the film stomping about with suitable authority, he may not get the majority of the belly laughs, but it's still a fine performance. In a cast which does still burst with Carry On talent, Bernard stands head and shoulders above them all. Literally. The majority of the action goes to Sid, Barbara, Kenneth Williams and Jack Douglas. This leaves little for Joan, Peter Butterworth, Hattie Jacques or Kenneth Connor to do but Bernie fairs ok. He was perhaps finally stepping into the Carry On leading man role vacated by Jim Dale five years earlier.

Sadly, Dick was the beginning of the end for the franchise, with so many key contributors bidding farewell, even if they weren't aware of it at the time. Bernard would return for one final film adventure with the gang and plenty more besides. With Carry On London still playing twice nightly at the Victoria Palace well into the following year and Bernard appearing in several of the ATV Carry On Laughing episodes on telly, 1975 may have been Bernard's final year of Carrying On, but it was also his most prolific.

Stay tuned for the final blog in this series coming up soon. I'll be looking at Bernard's fourteenth and final role, as henpecked Arthur Upmore in Carry On Behind. 


You can follow me on Twitter @CarryOnJoan and on Instagram

Happy Birthday Margaret Nolan!

 

Today we're wishing the lovely Margaret Nolan a very happy birthday! Margaret has been a fixture in British film, television and stage since the early 1960s and continues to delight fans at Film Conventions to this day. 

Of course to us, Maggie will always be best remembered for her six cracking Carry On appearances. Beginning with an eye catching scene in the 1965 film Carry On Cowboy, Margaret went on to appear in Henry, At Your Convenience, Matron, Girls and finally Dick in 1974. While always playing a certain type of character - usually glamorous and a bit ditzy, there was never any doubting how talented an actor Margaret was and is.

Margaret is also well remembered for her appearance not only in the classic Bond film Goldfinger (as Dink) but also for her work as a model in the wonderful Robert Brownjohn title sequences for the film. Other film appearances have included A Hard Day's Night and No Sex Please We're British. On television she has appeared in everything from Steptoe and Son and Crossroads to Budgie and The Sweeney. Margaret also worked a great deal on television with Spike Milligan in the 1970s.

 

These days Margaret is back in London, after living in Spain for many years. She promotes her film work and also her work as a talented artist. You can find out more about Margaret's life and career by visiting her website here

There is also a great fan Twitter account which is certainly worth a follow and you can find that here 

Whatever Margaret is up to today, I hope she has an excellent birthday! 

 

You can follow me on Twitter @CarryOnJoan 

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