By early autumn, production was under way on Don’t Lose Your Head. It was originally released, as was the next production, Follow That Camel, without the Carry On moniker. When Peter Rogers left Anglo Amalgamated and teamed up with Rank, the new distributors were conscious of releasing future films from Rogers and Thomas under the brand of a competitor. It was only after takings for the two pictures were noticeably lower that the prefix was hastily reinstated.
Filming for Don’t Lose Your Head took place between 12 September and 1 November and the picture, concerning two aristocrats who rescue their French counterparts from the guillotine during the country’s revolution in the late eighteenth century, was released in time for Christmas.
1967
Although he’d become an integral part of seven Carry On films by 1967, the hard-working Sid James was unavailable, due to an earlier heart attack, when it came to casting Follow That Camel. Most of the big players, though, were free to step into period costume for the Foreign Legion adventure. After a run of successful parts, Jim Dale was once again in the thick of the action, this time playing Bo West, in a film based loosely on Percival Christopher Wren’s novel, Beau Geste.
Rank, the new distributor, wanted an American face in the film, believing it would boost sales across the pond and Phil Silvers, alias Sergeant Bilko, was drafted in. But no longer a huge draw in the States, his inclusion did little for the film’s success Stateside, while the actor’s style and vaudeville background wasn’t compatible with the traditional Carry On make-up.
Filming began on the 1 May, and in addition to utilising the back lot at Pinewood, the cast travelled, for the first time, beyond the environs of the studio – all the way to the Sussex coast, for location work at Rye and Camber Sands.
The film was released in September, just as the Carry On gang returned, after twelve films, to the hospital wards. Always a popular theme, Carry On Doctor (made between 11 September and 20 October) boasted the first of two film appearances for Frankie Howerd. With Rogers’ wife, film producer Betty Box, responsible for the successful Doctor films, Peter Rogers sought his spouse’s and John Davis’s (then the chief at Rank) permission to use the title.
When the film was released in December, Carry On fans were delighted to see the return of Sid James, albeit in a lesser capacity, as bed-bound patient Charlie Roper. After his enforced exclusion from the previous picture, James was recovering from his heart attack and accepted a less strenuous role, which he joked was the easiest he’d performed during his lengthy career.
1968
Long-distance location filming was rare in the Carry On world: outside of the immediate vicinity, the furthest the team had travelled was to the Sussex seaside for Follow That Camel. For the next film, Up The Khyber, they were on their travels again – this time to the mountains. But instead of the Himalayas, cold and wet Snowdonia was picked to represent the Khyber Pass. A favourite with both Rogers and Thomas, filming began on 8 April and was completed by the end of May. So realistic was the film’s setting, Rogers and Thomas received letters from war veterans convinced they recognised locations at which they’d served.
There was a September release for Up The Khyber and an autumn shooting schedule (7 October-22 November) for Carry On Camping, another favourite of Rogers and Thomas – and millions of fans, too. It’s become common knowledge that the adventures under canvas weren’t filmed in the holiday season but October and November in the grounds of Pinewood. While the cast shivered in their summer gear, the mud was sprayed green to represent grass. Despite such hardships, the team – which included Barbara Windsor and her famous flying bikini top – turned out one of their best overall performances.
The script, once again, was supplied by Tolly Rothwell, although he’d originally embarked on a Camping script back in 1966, before it was postponed in favour of Follow That Camel.
1969
Camping was released in February and followed quickly by Again Doctor, the last time we’d see Jim Dale in a Carry On before the critically slated Columbus, some twenty-three years later.
Rothwell’s draft script wasn’t entirely satisfactory so he rewrote it and delivered the amended version by the end of January. The screenplay raised a few questions from Rank’s legal adviser, Hugh J. Parton, who, realising Rothwell had written a rejected Doctor in Clover script for Betty Box, queried whether much of Frederick Carver’s dialogue was so reminiscent of Sir Lancelot Spratt (portrayed by James Robertson Justice in the Doctor films) that it was an intended parody. Concern was also expressed over the Medical Mission and slimming cure sequences, which Parton thought he’d read before, perhaps in Rothwell’s Clover script or in one of author Richard Gordon’s books. Worried about copyright infringement, he raised the points with Rogers in February.
Filming began on 17 March and continued until the beginning of May, shooting on F, C and G stages at Pinewood, with location work in Maidenhead. It was released in August, by which time Rothwell had nearly finished Up the Jungle, which carried a working title of Carry On Jungle Boy. When Dale declined the chance to play Jungle Boy, the part was offered to Terry Scott, while Jacki Piper became the first performer to be placed on contract by Rogers and Thomas. Making her debut as Joan Sims’s assistant, June, in the film, she’d appear in Loving and At Your Convenience before a cameo role in Matron. Howerd was back for his final Carry On, which was shot between 13 October and 24 November.
1970
Up the Jungle hit the big screen in March, and within weeks James, Hawtrey et al. were back at Pinewood filming Carry On Loving, which began life as Carry On Courting. Rothwell had started working on the script back in October 1969, but once he’d submitted the final draft, filming began on 6 April and was completed by mid-May.
Loving was released in September, while the cast were back in period costumes for Carry On film number twenty-one – Henry. With Sid James in commanding style as Henry VIII, and impressive sets and locations (including Windsor Great Park and the Long Walk) on view, this richly produced film was a welcome addition to the series. Rothwell had initially been working on Carry On Comrade (later changed to Carry On At Your Convenience, although it also carried the working title of Carry On Working) before the project was cancelled – albeit temporarily – and the scriptwriter was commissioned to pen this medieval romp, which was shot between 12 October and 27 November.
1971
After the release of the latest period piece in February, Talbot Rothwell returned to his lavatories and bidets for At Your Convenience, which reunited Richard O’Callaghan and Jacki Piper. In draft form, the script started out as Carry On Working, but by the time filming began on 22 March the title had changed. The cast travelled to Brighton Pier for some fun at the fair between Monday 3 and Wednesday 5 May and a good time was had by all, but when the film was released in December it met with a lukewarm response from audiences and took several years to recoup its original production costs, perhaps resulting from the way the film portrayed unions and shop stewards. But if audiences didn’t rush to watch At Your Convenience, normal service was resumed with the next offering from the Rogers/Thomas production line because it was back to the world of starched uniforms and stethoscopes with Carry On Matron.
The script was the work of Talbot Rothwell again, but could easily have been original writer Norman Hudis if a proposed contract, originated in November 1969, had been executed. By then, however, Hudis was based in the States and for Rogers to have employed the writer on Matron while he was resident in the US would have cost his budget an additional fee, payable to the Writers’ Guild to fund its pension and health benefits. Following correspondence between Rogers’ office and the Guild, the contract was cancelled and Rothwell hired instead. Talbot’s