h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: The Ultimate Carry On Film Guide: 1965 - 1969 - A87899783
Author: Bluebottle - U43530

A look at the longest-running Comedy film series at a time when the series was at its zenith.

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What better than reading about Carry On while waiting for other people to finish what they're doing so I can carry on with what I'm doing?

" the definitive western comedy" - a bold claim!

"only with added manhole covers to the sewers" - what does this mean? Is it that sewers were not in other Wild West films so there was no need to include access to them?

"However Jim Dale was not the film's star; his commitments to George and the Dragon had proved so stressful that Sid James had had a heart attack" - this sentence needs clarification

"the Barbara Windsor exercising scene" - this is perhaps too tantalising a phrase for someone unfamiliar with the film, although I can visualise it myself Ah, you mention the right amount of detail later on

Is Khyber timeless? I wonder if it has dated in relation to racism as Camping dated in relation to sexism...

The length of Carry On Again Doctor is missing

" Kenneth Williams' character Frederick Carver was originally to be Sir Lancelott Spratt." - I don't see how this follows from Rank owning the rights to Carry On and the Doctor books.

"love hearts, she had gone on a strict diet to lose weight, much to the director's disappointment" - is this to do with the 'postcard humour' style of Carry On?

The Role of Women section sits nicely here, although the paragraph of jobs is perhaps not helpful. This Entry is around 2,500 words shorter than 1958-64 Entry, but the Summary table is probably still expendable...

Changes made

The 'with added manhole covers to the sewers' bit was because westerns don't normally have sewerage systems – and as it is a set I doubt very much they're actual sewers and it is more likely that they are merely holes with manhole covers on top to make it look like a sewer – but I've slightly tweaked that anyway.

Is 'Carry On Up The Khyber' timeless? Well, I think mocking colonialism and imperialism is certainly timeless. Yes, 'Carry On Up The Khyber' is a product of its time and does use a lot of stereotypes. Most seriously you could consider Bernard Bresslaw's character to be approaching the line at least if not over it. However most of the humour is making fun of the British characters and way of life rather than that of the fictional Burpas. It is a spoof of the Boys' Own adventure genre and while it does employ stereotypes it often does so to mock them. The whole story is considered a game and even when the British are fighting for their very lives in bitter hand-to-hand combat, they still politely ask their enemy 'Do you come here often?' But it is a criticism of the earlier, unacceptable view of the world.

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Now unsummarised.

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I wonder if you can tighten up some of the sections for films where there is already an Entry in the Guide...

Fenella Fielding and Sid James are mentioned in the Entry about Carry On Screaming. You go into a lot of detail about Dan Dann, but I'm not sure Sydney Bromley merits such? Was Norman Mitchell a regular before being a minor character in Carry On Screaming, or would that be better as a footnote?

I think the paragraphs beginning "In early 1966" and "Rank was the biggest" would fit better after the 'Don't Lose Your Head' table to avoid the need for repetition.

In Carry On Camping, you repeat the mention of Barbara Windsor - the second mention is much more evocative than the first so you could reword to remove the repetition.

Thanks for your comments, I've made some tweaks and rearranged paragraphs too to avoid repetition, and I've also rearranged paragraphs and made tweaks to avoid repetition too.

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If you put the information beginning "In many ways the start of a new era of the series, this marked several actors' first Carry On appearances, " into the introduction rather than after the Cowboy table then you can delete the table at the end

Tweaks made.

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