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

The Right-Wing 'Carry On' That Shed The Most Pounds

A little bit of politics in a mainstream comedy film can stem the flow of cash at the Box Office. Take ‘Carry On At Your Convenience’; the twenty-second film in the series.

With ‘Convenience’ a lot of audience goodwill went out the window. In a time of bitter industrial disputes, scriptwriter Talbot ‘Tolly’ Rothwell explored the political themes of the trade union movement.

The script had a noticeable right-wing slant; both mocking and sending-up the unions of the day. In doing so, Tolly alienated the traditional working-class audience of the series.

It was originally conceived with the overtly communist title of 'Carry On Comrade' in reflection of the negative treatment of the union and union bosses.

The film was re-titled 'Carry On Working'. That title was ultimately retained in the film’s closing sequence, a dialogue scene that didn’t appear in Tolly's final draft of the script.

To add even further confusion, the word ‘convenience’ wasn’t used for lavatories in America or Australia, so the film was re-labelled 'Carry On Round The Bend' for release in those countries.‎

The plot centred on a bolshie union representative Vic Spanner, played by Kenneth Cope, who continually stirs up trouble in the works, to the irritation of his co-workers and management.

He calls a strike for almost any minor incident – or because he wants time off to attend a local football match.

Sid Plummer (Sid James) is the factory foreman bridging the gap between workers and management, shrewdly keeping the place going amid the unrest.

'Carry On At Your Convenience' took a full five-years to cover its full production costs.

Available now at Amazon - iBookstore - Kobo

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

by Mike Cobley

Wholepoint Publications