The Carry On School Of Modern Day Comedy

It's still possible to identify the Carry On influence in modern mainstream British comedy.

From the pseudo working men's clubs insights of Peter Kay, to the knowing tickle-yer-granny's funny bone 'off-the-cuff' sitcom sauciness of Mrs Brown's Boys .. the double entendre and innuendo laced humour of the Carry Ons are alive and well and on a DVD shelf near you.

Julian Clary, who features in the forthcoming ebook, Intimate Insights (Wholepoint Publications), starred in the ill-received Carry On Columbus, and, for his sins, found himself in a recent run of Celebrity Big Brother.

But ringing through the heart of Julian’s comedy persona are the infectious vowels and delivery of Kenneth Williams.

Even as far back as his days as The Joan Collins Fan Club, his modus operandi was to shock through use of his vocabulary .. a technique so expertly mastered by Williams.

Williams would also use song as part of his intellectual arsenal. Releasing two albums under his own name, Kenneth Williams on Pleasure Bent and The World of Kenneth Williams; he has been cited as a great influence on Tim Minchin.

Minchin is an Australian-British comedian, actor, and musician who describes his act as a ‘funny cabaret show’ and sees himself primarily as a musician and songwriter as opposed to a comedian.

His songs, he says: "just happen to be funny."  His reasoning for combining the disciplines of music and comedy was revealed in one interview when he said:

"I'm a good musician for a comedian and I'm a good comedian for a musician but if I had to do any of them in isolation I dunno."

 

 

Minchin’s self doubts over giving his talents to just one comedy genre are much like those of Williams.

The Carry On regular wanted most of all to be taken seriously, but is best remembered for his slapstick appearances in the long running comedy film series.

From the stadium-filling mainstream comedy of Michael McIntyre, to the sardonic observational comedy of Dylan Moran, we have the likes of Sid James, Charles Hawtrey, Kenneth Williams, Jim Dale, Barbara Windsor et al to thank for coming up with the ideas first!

 

 

Available now at Amazon - iBookstore - Kobo

A Write Carry On - The Untold Story Of A Man In The Shadows

by Mike Cobley
 

Wholepoint Publications

A Write Carry On - A Screenwriting Bestseller

Available now at Amazon - iBookstore - Kobo

A Write Carry On - The Untold Story Of A Man In The Shadows

by Mike Cobley

Wholepoint Publications

 

Imagine growing up with the Carry Ons. Getting to hobnob on a regular basis with the likes of Sid James, Barbara Windsor, Frankie Howerd, Charles Hawtrey, Jim Dale and Kenneth Williams. Well, I was that lucky guy. The catalyst for my meetings with the cream of saucy British comedy was Talbot‘Tolly’ Rothwell.

Tolly wrote the scripts for twenty-two of the big-screen Carry Ons, and was a close family friend for all of those glorious mega-grossing box office years.

 

A Write Carry On catalogues not only his eleven years with the Carry Ons, but also Tolly’s time as a Second World War captive at the notorious POW camp, Stalag Luft III (best known for two famous prisoner escapes that took place there by tunnelling, which were depicted in the films The Great Escape (1963) and The Wooden Horse (1950), and the books by former prisoners Paul Brickhill and Eric Williams from which these films were adapted).

Along the way you will get a behind-the-scenes peek at the lives and personalities of all the major Carry On stars. There were a lot of laughs but also a few tears. Oh, and the odd illicit affair too!

I really enjoyed reading about the real people that i only knew from the carry on films.
It was so interesting finding out about the man behind the scripts, a true genius.
Funny, sad and informative from an unusual perspective.
Would recommend this to all. (Verified Amazon Buyer Review)



‘The spine of the book lists his name. The title looks familiar. Even the dust jacket speaks of ideas that had once come so easily to him. But here, in this now unfamiliar room, his past belongs to another and the present holds few clues to his self. Fear takes a grip.’ ('A Write Carry On')

This was the moment when one of the great unsung heroes of British comedy writing knew the game was up. Having been responsible for a rollercoaster half-decade of screenwriting twenty Carry On films, as well as Up Pompeii and The Crazy Gang, Talbot ’Tolly’ Rothwell could no longer recognise the keys on his typewriter. His past had caught up with him.

 

Talbot went on to receive an OBE - yet still managed to be 'A Man In The Shadows’.

 

Featuring the likes of Kenneth Williams, Sid James, Frankie Howerd, Hattie Jacques et al, this gripping tale takes the reader deep into the complex characters who have, even after their passing, become a mainstay of British comedy.

 

‘A Write Carry On’ also take the reader behind enemy lines during the Second World War, when Talbot was incarcerated in the notorious Stalag Luft III. There he teamed up with Peter Butterworth to produce camp concerts which aided tunnelling escape efforts.

"Infamy! Infamy! They've all got it in for me!" - Kenneth Williams (Julius Caesar) Carry On Cleo (1964)

AMAZON WORLDWIDE LINKS

USA

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008BMEMQC

GERMANY

https://www.amazon.de/dp/B008BMEMQC

FRANCE

https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B008BMEMQC

SPAIN

https://www.amazon.es/dp/B008BMEMQC

ITALY

https://www.amazon.it/dp/B008BMEMQC

Crisis? What Crisis?: The Carry On Crown Was Slipping

Supertramp may not be the name that trips off of the tongue when discussing the Carry Ons, but back in 1975 I was forced to flee a somewhat numbers depleted cast and crew get together to celebrate my fourteenth birthday at Brighton Dome in the company of that very band.

 

As a present from my brother Martyn, I had been invited to join his very own 'crew’, and head in to the centre of Brighton to catch the band Supertramp, who had just released their fourth album, 'Crisis? What Crisis?'

Among my fellow group of gig-goers there was much talk of poppers (alkyl nitrites), of which I happily concluded would mean end of evening balloons. I was to be both confused and disappointed by naivety!

Rewind back to lunchtime and I was sat in the kitchen of ex-Carry On scriptwriter Talbot 'Tolly' Rothwell's house, quietly observing the coming, goings and conversations of the few Carry Oners who had accepted the invitation to Tolly's farewell shindig in honour of his uprooting from his beloved secluded bolt hole in the picturesque village of Fulking, to the rather more urban soundtrack of the bustling coastal town of Worthing.

 

 

The move had been necessitated after Tolly's breakdown following scripting twenty-two of the highly successful and lucrative Carry On films.

Sadly, it was glaringly obvious from the turn out of cast and crew that the famous Carry On brotherhood counted for little once talent had flown the nest.

But Kenneth Williams, Barbara Windsor, Jim Dale and producer Peter Rogers were the 'a-listers' who mingled at Tolly’s along with a sprinkling of those who worked behind the Carry On scenes.

Conversation was unusually muted, and the expected ribbing and backbiting was absent. All-in-all, and not surprisingly due to the circumstances, it was a party that had the air of a wake.

Meanwhile, I was clock watching. I still had to get out of Fulking and back to Brighton by 7pm to meet my brother and his cast of merry misfits.

My attendance at my first ever gig was imminent, and I was almost breathless with anticipation. Supertramp meant nothing to me. I hadn't heard their music and didn't even know they were American and at the peak of their prog/pop powers.

Upon entering the Dome I tried to act in a nonplussed and laid-back manner. Most of the longhairs milling around the venue were sporting the band's current album title, 'Crisis? What Crisis?' on their t-shirts.

The memory of the gig itself is a bit of a blur. I remember being highly impressed by both the personality and musicianship of John Helliwell (woodwinds, keyboards, backing vocals), as well as the swearing heavily featured on the band's closing number, 'Bloody Well Right'.

Once back outside and engulfed by the town's ice cold air, I discovered poppers had nothing to do with balloons! But I went home happy and a few years wiser to the world.

The next morning my brother presented me with a second present, a copy of Supertramp's break through third album 'Crime of the Century'.

For me, much like for those involved in the ongoing Carry On franchise, the times they were a changin'.

Available now at Amazon - iBookstore - Kobo

A Write Carry On - The Untold Story Of A Man In The Shadows

by Mike Cobley

Wholepoint Publications

Getting Intimate With The Carry Ons

It was a scene blessed. The rolling South Downs covered in crisp late autumnal early morning dew, while - from my vantage point in the front room of the then Carry On scriptwriter, Talbot ‘Tolly’ Rothwell’s house - I was being willingly given a poetic crash course in all things Mother Nature.

Tolly’s two Golden Retrievers were getting restless. All the talk of the great outdoors was sending them over the edge.

 

The four of us were soon stepping out and crossing the few feet from Tolly’s gravel driveway and on to the damp green blades of the Downs.

Talk on that half-term Wednesday morning soon turned to the somewhat surreal happenings of the previous Sunday. An afternoon dominated by grand arrivals and off-centre lessons in the complexities of adult gatherings.

The occasion had been one of the sporadic social get togethers of Carry On cast and crew. A time when the post midday hours were orchestrated by Kenneth Williams, and played out to a soundtrack of laughter and one-upmanship.

 

 

Tolly had been intrigued to what I had made of the event. He’d noted that Hattie Jacques had spent a good hour with me .. the two of us engaged in deep conversation.

I explained that she had raised the somewhat thorny topic of weight gain .. a ‘condition’ that had hung heavy on both our lives.

Hattie was sweet and understanding. I was barely in my teens and she geared the conversation towards my adolescent body image concerns.

 

Initially I was embarrassed that the topic had been raised. But Hattie’s almost sisterly approach instilled in me a new found confidence.   

Then there was Sid, the old rascal. Sid James, bless him. A man very much of his time. Flirty-yet-a-gentleman. Trustworthy, though would bet your granny if he thought the old nag would come home first.

At the party I’d also been accosted by Kenneth Williams. Don’t think he liked the fact I’d been happily sitting quietly with his fellow Carry On team.

 

 

Kenneth very much saw himself as the numero uno. So I was subjected to his full repertoire of peacock-like strutting. Much laughter was had!

 

Barbara Windsor had arrived well after the party had peaked. Kenneth made sure he was next to her, or there abouts, for the remainder of the afternoon.

 

I noted that while he was talking to Barbara his eyes were actually locked into an intense gaze with Sid's. It would be a few years before I knew what that was all about!

 

Tolly loved to hear these tales. He found the inner workings of the Carry On cast a great inspiration for his writing.

 

As lunchtime approached we dropped down from the hills and took lunch at his local, The Shepherd and Dog. Tolly's attention was soon lost to the throng. I think they loved him just about as much as I did!

Available now at Amazon - iBookstore - Kobo

A Write Carry On - The Untold Story Of A Man In The Shadows

by Mike Cobley

Wholepoint Publications
 

A Write Carry On: The Readers Offer Up Their Intimate Insights!

Feedback during the four months since the publication of A Write Carry On has been both enlightening and informative.

 

Sally Majors, from 'up Gloucestershire way', emailed to say as a teenager in the early 1970s whilst visiting her grandparents in East Sussex, they had all been excited to come across a 'somewhat jovial Sid James and Barbara Windsor' sat in the quiet alcove of an Alfriston pub.

Sally and her grandfather approached the couple when they were at the bar ordering more ‘liveners’. Both were friendly, and Sally remembers Barbara taking a keen interest in her somewhat ‘off-the-wall teenage attire’.

Considering, at the time, that the Carry On couple were having an unpublicised affair, Sally is, in hindsight, amazed at how open and forthcoming the duo were.

 

 

Another interesting insight, from a fellow A Write Carry On reader, arrived via a private message on my Facebook page.

Dan Carter, a self-styled ‘British comedy film buff’ clearly remembers tracking down Carry On scriptwriter, Talbot‘Tolly’ Rothwell, to the Shepherd and Dog, his local pub in Fulking.

A few whiskeys later and talk turned to the ins and outs of writing to deadline and the process that saw the scriptwriting project brought to completion.

Tolly told Dan that Carry On producer Peter Rogers, once a scriptwriter himself, was both meticulous and demanding when it came to perusing the various script drafts.

They would return to Tolly with red crossings and markings as well as being heavily annotated.

 

There would be a number of these exchanges, and Tolly felt it was his willingness to take on board criticism (justified or not) and his quick turn around in ideas and drafts that kept him onboard the Carry On team for twenty-two of the series thirty-one films.

 

 

Lastly, in this blog entry, the last hurrah goes to Annie Crocket, now based in Northern France, but during the early 1960s and late 1970s she was a resident of Eastbourne, in East Sussex.

Annie worked as an extra on many projects shot at Pinewood Studios. She had muted background scenes in a number of Carry On films, and got to know a few of the personalities behind their on screen characters.

Having read A Write Carry On Annie dropped me a long email. Firstly she congratulated me on bringing out the true essence of the likes of Kenneth Williams, Sid James, Jim Dale, Hattie Jacques and Charles Hawtrey.

It was the latter she chatted to the most. Annie said she found Hawtrey a loner who, when sober, was friendly and always welcoming of a quiet chat. She said he kept himself pretty much to himself, and that initially once he began drinking heavily he found it easier to be a part of such a close nit group of actors.

 

She also bonded with Kenneth Williams. Always 'on' and never predictable. A true Carry On trait if ever there was one! 

Available now at Amazon - iBookstore - Kobo

A Write Carry On - The Untold Story Of A Man In The Shadows

by Mike Cobley

Wholepoint Publications

Beyond The Carry Ons: ‘Intimate Insights’ Coming To Wholepoint Publications

A Write Carry On (Wholepoint Publications) is not the whole story, it just marks the halfway point in my collection of reminisces about growing up with the Carry Ons.

The first ebook focused on my family's friendship with the big screen series long-term scriptwriter, Talbot 'Tolly' Rothwell.

The final part of the tale, Intimate Insights, is currently at the first draft stage and will be available for download (via Amazon/Kob/iTunes) before the year's end.

 

Like A Write Carry On, the new ebook has been picked up by Wholepoint Publications.

Intimate Insights will focus on my meetings with many of the regular Carry On cast. The majority of those off screen stumble-upons took place in Fulking (Sussex), at the home of 'Tolly' Rothwell.

A few of them, like my chance meeting with Julian Clary (Carry On Columbus), are worthy of their inclusion in Intimate Insights.

 

Julian was fine company; a thoughtful, engaging and open interviewee – despite being caught somewhat off guard.

 

 

As for the featured Carry On regulars (Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, Barbara Windsor, Jim Dale, Hattie Jacques, Joan Sims and Jim Dale), separately they were great company. Together, in certain combinations, they could be a nightmare. I had the (mis)-fortune to witness both!
 
Intimate Insights will also feature the illustrations of Mandy Hills. Mandy drew the cover for A Write Carry On, and has teamed-up with me in the past where she has supplied illustrations for poetry anthologies and magazines .. as well as drawing a mean Virginia Woolf!   

Available now at Amazon - iBookstore - Kobo

A Write Carry On - The Untold Story Of A Man In The Shadows

by Mike Cobley

Wholepoint Publications

'Intimate Insights' - A Peek Behind The Carry Ons!

The forthcoming free mini-ebook 'Intimate Insights' will bring to a close the final chapter on my unique tale of growing up with the Carry Ons. In A Write Carry On (Wholepoint Publications) I offered a glimpse into the life and times of the longtime series scriptwriter, Talbot 'Tolly' Rothwell.

'Intimate Insights' delves a little deeper into the household names who were so universally loved and respected; those icons of British comedy who included Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, Hattie Jacques, Barbara Windsor, Frankie Howerd and Jim Dale.

Some of the mini-ebook’s insights have featured on this blog, others will be unique and previously unpublished.

‘Intimate Insights’ will be free to download from Scribd and this blog from 20^th October. Check back regularly for updates.

A Write Carry On is available now via Amazon – Kobo and iTunes .. click here for more details.

Available now at Amazon - iBookstore - Kobo

A Write Carry On - The Untold Story Of A Man In The Shadows

by Mike Cobley

Wholepoint Publications

Sid James & The Girl From The Evening Standard

Sidney ‘Sid’ James sat in his trailer sipping on a wisky and glancing absent mindedly at the new script he’d found awaiting him in a sealed brown envelope.

Sid had arrived mid-afternoon, having stopped off on the way for quick livener and a flutter on the Gee-Gees.

To do a full read through was too much like hard work, he decided. So he gave the script the quick once over before doing much the same to a passing Barbara Windsor. He watched her run to catch Kenneth Williams and wondered to himself what a nice girl like her was doing with a prat like him?

Sid was cold and wrapped himself in a blanket just as a light knock at the door sounded. He ignored it, but soon there came another, and then another. ‘Come in, why don’t you.’

The door opened and hesitantly a young blonde eased her way in, dusted herself down and turned to face Sid. ‘Kathy, Evening Standard, Mr Williams said it would be ok to talk to you.’

‘Did he now? The little fucker,’ smiled Sid. He patted the space next to him and Kathy nervously approached and brushed her skirt flat as she sat down.

‘Now, what can I do for you?’

‘Really, what I’m after is a few words on how you think the Carry On films have changed since Mr Hudis left and Mr Rothwell took over?’

‘Well, that’s different at least,’ cackled Sid. ‘Fancy a drink?’

You could say Sid was more than an average red blooded male. He worshipped the female form, and along with that came a deep respect for the love and support they could give him.

His much publicised affair with Barbara Windsor went beyond the simple attraction of an older man for a younger female. As Windsor has said on many occasions, what for her was a bit of a fling, was for him much more.

To find out what transpired when ‘Kathy, from the Evening Standard’, entered Sid James’ life .. read the bestselling ebook ..

A Write Carry On (Wholepoint Publications)

Available Now!

To purchase a copy CLICK HERE

Contact the author at editor@brighton.co.uk

Beating Up The Carry Ons! All Aboard The Good Ship Windsor

Barbara ‘Babs’ Windsor adored a bit of Motown and was more than a little partial to the sounds that emanated from the Stax label.

But thanks to fellow Carry Oners Sid James and Peter Butterworth, Talbot ‘Tolly’ Rothwell’s turntable spun to the antiquated dreariness of the crooners (Frank Sinatra, Perry Como and Bing Crosby).

As the Carry On scriptwriter, Tolly wasn’t high on the pecking order when it came to selecting the aural ambience of his abode, especially on those rare weekends when the stars came out and illuminated the sleepy little Sussex village of Fulking.

But Babs was no shrinking violet, and often once the whisky and wine was in full flow, Tolly’s wall mounted speakers would throb to the wah-wah guitars and hard driving beat of The Temptations ‘Cloud Nine’. That’s when things got interesting .. especially if Kenneth Williams was in residence!

At first Kenneth would moan and bemoan the sudden competition for the room’s attention. He may have told his anecdotes many times over, but there was always an audience hanging on his every word.  

It wouldn’t be long before young Ken would note Sid James’ disdain at the ongoing racket, and that’s when, without a second thought, Kenneth would jump raft and come down on the side of the good ship, Windsor.

‘Turn it up, Barb’, he would scream. ‘Come on everyone, are we the only ones ‘ere with a pulse?’ Babs would love it, I loved it .. and Tolly would just give that ‘wink’ of his and retire graciously to the rear garden. 

The battle had been won. Soon, the likes of Marvin Gaye, The Isley Brothers, Martha and the Vandellas, Booker T. & the M.G.'s, Eddie Floyd and Wilson Pickett would drive Sid and his compatriots out of both the house and the party spirit. Kenneth may have been left with a much diminished audience, but it was an audience all the same!

Available now at Amazon - iBookstore - Kobo

A Write Carry On - The Untold Story Of A Man In The Shadows

by Mike Cobley

Wholepoint Publications

Julian Clary Had His Part In Carry On Columbus!

Of course the Carry On film franchise didn't come to an end when its long-term scriptwriter Talbot 'Tolly' Rothwell’s contract came to an end with ‘Dick’, in 1974.

After stuttering on for another four films, there would be a break of some fourteen years until what, so far, has become the series finale, ‘Columbus’.

The ‘big four’ from the past to join the project were Jim Dale, Bernard Cribbins, Leslie Phillips and June Whitfield.

The reviews were as disappointing as the film itself, but what of the thoughts of the cast? The closest I came to an answer was having the opportunity to quiz Julian Clary.

The unplanned meeting was a few years back at the Sussex Arts Club, a private members establishment in Brighton.

At the time Julian was looking to retire to the country and write books. He'd had enough of the endless touring and showbiz glitz.

It was a sedentary lifestyle he was to soon to tire of, and it wasn't long - five years to be precise - before his next tour.

At the time of 'Columbus,' Julian told me, he would delight in 'shocking people'. That some people 'deserved to be shocked.' And ‘wasn't upsetting the apple cart what the Carry Ons were all about anyway?'

Julian believed, quite rightly, that his suggestive and middle-England bothering style of humour was very much of the Tolly Rothwell genre. Julian adored the double entendres packed Tolly scripts.

He also loved Tolly’s many great comedy moments that brought the very best out of Frankie Howerd, in Up Pompeii.

And it was with Frankie that he seemingly identified the most. Julian admitted to the same self-doubts and anxieties, as well as the promiscuous early years as a blossoming gay man.

So when the call came with an offer of a part of in ‘Columbus’ the fact that Frankie was to be on board was a big plus point. Sadly the great man passed away just two days before filming got underway.

Julian wouldn’t be drawn on the negative sides of the experience, just that it had been an honour to be asked and subsequently involved.

If he’d been born twenty years earlier, no-doubt Julian would have stood side-by-side with Frankie, Sid James, Kenneth Williams et al. As it was, the true Carry On spirit was pensioned off at the same time Tolly called it a day.

A Write Carry On

The Untold Story Of A Man In The Shadows

By Mike Cobley

Wholepoint Publications

Available now at Amazon
Available now via iTunes
Read On Your Kobo

The Times They Were A Changing For The Carry Ons

The South Downs has a life all of its own. Running from the Itchen Valley of Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head, near Eastbourne, East Sussex, in the east; and I have walked its hundred-plus miles on more than one occasion.

Whatever time of the year you set off along its mainly chalk encrusted paths it’s best to remember that the seasons are never to be trusted.

Sometimes it's as though they conspire to lay-in-wait for the passing traveler, before unleashing their armory upon their unsuspecting gargoyle-wearing prey as they innocently wander the nooks and crannies of the supposed sleeping giant.

Twice the elements have forced me from the hills and down into the sparsely populated and welcoming valleys.

On both occasions I found myself in Fulking, the home of Carry On scriptwriter, Talbot ‘Tolly’ Rothwell. And on the second occasion it was he who gave me refuge.

I turned up at his door wet, tired, hungry and unannounced. He cured me on all of the first three accounts. At the time Tolly was working on his final Carry On script, ‘Dick’, and he wasn’t in the best of physical or mental health.

His study door was open and screwed up pieces of paper were littered across its floor. I was, for that night, to be his sounding board.

Tolly felt that it wasn’t just him who was feeling his age. The Carry On series itself was, with ‘Dick’, about to ring in some unwanted changes.

For a start it was to be the last appearances of Sid James (after 19 entries in the series) and Hattie Jacques (after 14 entries).

Then, of course, the film also brought down the curtain on Tolly’s eleven year reign as scriptwriter for the Carry Ons.

Plus, it was also to be Barbara Windsor's final acting role in a Carry On film. The times they were a changing!

Tolly could read the changes of the South Downs weather much better than I could, and early the next morning I was on my way.

I left a troubled, but much loved, man alone with his demons and failing health. The Carry Ons were in terminal decline also.

To read more on Sid James, Barbara Windsor and the rest of the Carry On cast and crew .. buy a copy of A Write Carry On .. Just CLICK HERE

A Write Carry On

The Untold Story Of A Man In The Shadows

By Mike Cobley

Wholepoint Publications

Available now at Amazon
Available now via iTunes
Read On Your Kobo