A Write Carry On: The Untold Story Of A Man In The Shadows - Author: Mike Cobley - Publisher: Wholepoint Publications (wholepoint.co.uk) - 18th June 2012 - The story of Talbot 'Tolly' Rothwell, one of the great unsung heroes of British comedy writing (Carry On films, Up Pompeii! and The Crazy Gang).
Sid James was wandering the perimeter of the small paddock that sat at the rear of Talbot 'Tolly' Rothwell's house. Tolly was, at the time, deep into his stint of being screenwriter to twenty-two of the iconic Carry On films series.
Sid was alone and looking somewhat haggard as I slipped out into the midday summer's sun and sat on a small bench at the side of the paddock.
He was dressed in khaki coloured slacks and an open lose fitting untucked check shirt. His sandals, like much of what he was wearing, looked very much on their last legs.
For at least ten minutes Sid kept his distance and remained deep in thought. From inside Tolly's house the sound of Kenneth Williams and Barbara Windsor holding court was clearly one of the reasons Sid was braving the direct intensity of the sun's rays. Kenny Williams wasn’t his cup of tea – that was common knowledge.
Later we were joined by Tolly. He patted me on the head and smiled and then ambled over to Sid and gave the actor a hearty pat on the back.
‘All right, old chap?’
‘That bloody Williams is getting on my tits, Tolly. I know I shouldn’t rise to it, but the way he looks down his nose at me and talks over the end of my sentences, drives me mad.’
‘He means well, Sid. Anyway, food's up and we are all about to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to Jim (Dale). Join us, come on.’
With that Sid wandered over, grabbed me by the arm and said: ‘If I ain’t getting out of this neither are you.’ We entered the house, painted on our smiles, opened our mouths and sang ‘happy birthday’ to a rather squiffy looking Jim Dale.
To read more on Kenneth Williams, Jim Dale, Sid James, Barbara Windsor and the rest of the Carry On cast and crew .. buy a copy of A Write Carry On .. JustCLICK HERE
Watching an actor learn his lines is tantamount to
watching paint dry. Even when said actor is Kenneth Williams and said lines
will only be witnessed by the lucky few who squeeze into an unremarkable
village hall.
It was a few days shy of Christmas and Kenneth had
arrived at Talbot ‘Tolly’ Rothwell's (Carry On scriptwriter), house with just
three hours to learn his lines, rehearse his scenes and partake in a dress
rehearsal.
So, with time short .. Kenneth did none of the above
three. Instead he put on a show there and then, to an audience of just three.
Tolly, my dad and myself sat enraptured, though a
little intimidated, as Kenneth delivered uncensored anecdotes on the behind the
scenes going-ons of his fellow Carry On stars.
The air was blue, Tolly and my dad were blushing and
fidgeting awkwardly in their chairs .. while I was in seventh heaven. Kenneth
noted my youthful abandon and delivered many of his cutting/killer punchlines
down his long nose and directly to my lugholes.
With an hour till showtime he tired of us and was
whisked away to the local village hall. By all accounts, he adlibbed the local
amateur dramatic society off of the stage, endeared himself to few of those in
attendance, and loved every minute of the unforgettable and outrageous scene
had he created.
My dad dined-out on the story
for years to come. As time passed he somewhat elevated his part in that night’s
proceedings. He really should have known better. There was only one performer
that night, and he played a blinder!
To read more on Kenneth Williams and the rest of the Carry On cast and crew .. buy a copy of A Write Carry On .. JustCLICK HERE
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)
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 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.
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!
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.
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, inUp 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.
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 .. JustCLICK HERE
The first time I met Kenneth Williams we were stood, along with Jim Dale, in the front room of Talbot ‘Tolly’ Rothwell’s house. Tolly was the then scriptwriter of the much lovedCarry On films (and Kenneth Williams and Jim Dale were two long serving actors of the successful series).
Kenneth was bleating. He did that a lot. If you were in another room with a crowd of chattering people, then that not-so-far-away sound of bleating was more than likely to be the sound of Kenneth Williams holding court.
For when Kenneth was in a room 1/ he was never alone, and 2/ he was the king of all he surveyed and the others were there merely to listen.
‘Is this where you get felt?’ These were the first words Kenneth Williams uttered in my presence. I was barely into my teens and took his query to be one pertaining to non-woven cloth and not the sexually charged nod-and-a-wink meaning he had in mind.
Jim Dale piped-up in my defence and asked Kenneth to pipe-down. ‘He knows I’m only having a laugh, don’t you?’ I smiled back. Kenneth then asked my name and how come I happened to be at Tolly’s gaffe at the same time as comedy royalty.
I explained that Tolly and my dad had been friends since school and that we were often here at weekends. ‘Well, good for you. And what fine profession have you got your eye on,’ inquired Kenneth.
‘I want to be a vet.’
‘A vet. Dirty job. All those hours with you hands up strangers’ arses. What drew you to that?’
‘James Herriot. Well his books, I love them.’
‘Good for you,’ smiled Kenneth. ‘Read and ye shall find.’ He then broke his attention away from me, realised the bulk of guests were in another room .. and the next I heard was the not-so-distant sound of a bleating sheep.
To read more on Kenneth Williams and the rest of the Carry On cast and crew .. buy a copy of A Write Carry On .. JustCLICK HERE
It was the dying
embers of an all-too-rare long hot summer and my parent's social life was about
to peak when an unexpected invitation arrived for them to be among the select
guests at aPreston Nomads versus celebrities charity cricket match.
The Preston Nomads
were based in the village of Fulking, at the foot of the South Downs, in East Sussex, and it was a ground I knew well as Carry On
scriptwriter, Talbot 'Tolly' Rothwell, was an honorary member of the club.
I'd spent many a
summer's Sunday basking in the tradition of drunken men swinging wood at
leather and berating the inevitable early loss of their open wicket. The game itself
meant little to me; the open space, relaxed atmosphere and copious amounts of
sugary offerings were a different matter.
We’d spent the morning at Tolly’s while my dad took it
upon himself to be chief motivator and bottle washer .. i.e he was getting in
the way and taking the coming proceedings far too seriously.
Sid James, Peter Butterworth and Jim Dale arrived just
before we left for the game. I sat next to Jim Dale on the short journey and
I’m sure I sensed nerves among his quick wit and boyish charms.
From the first over onwards it became pretty clear
that the batting total of the local Preston Nomads side was likely to cause
embarrassment to the celebrities’ final score. So Eric Sykes took it
upon himself to the play the clown, a role he was born too.
His one-liners, fake falls, mimed catches and
impersonations brought the host side to its knees .. not an easy position to
bat from. The obviously superior Nomads side saw their batting order collapse
in just a few short overs.
After whisky-laced refreshments, Tolly and his band of
misbehaving brothers stepped up and took under an hour to pass the Nomads
total.
Victory was theirs, and the drinks were free. Celebrations
went on long into the evening and my dad rescued me from the debauchery not
long before its effects would’ve left a permanent scar on my emotional development!
To read more on Sid James, Jim Dale and the rest of the Carry On cast and crew .. buy a copy of A Write Carry On .. JustCLICK HERE
I was proud of my unbranded 49cc moped. It sat in the
family driveway, dripping petrol and oil fuel mixture and rust.
On a whim and a
prayer I rose one Saturday morning and decided that I was now competent enough
to dispense with endless rides around local streets and cut a path across the South
Downs and pay a visit to the Carry On scriptwriter, and firm family friend,
Talbot 'Tolly' Rothwell.
Following a hearty breakfast and quick safety check of
the moped, it was chocks away - followed by a frantic pedal - and the engine
spluttered into some semblance of life.
The journey, from my Brighton home to the village of Fulking, was both slow and painful.
I arrived without warning and was greeted by Tolly as
though he'd been waiting for me all my life.
He invited me to his kitchen and we sat and chatted
over a cup of tea. He seemed nervy and a little distracted.
The root of his unease was a looming deadline for submission
of a Carry On script. It was the script that was to be his last in the series.
Tolly's health had been failing. Recently he'd found
himself sat in front of his typewriter keyboard, unable to recognise the workings of its qwerty layout.
The clock was ticking and Tolly and was seeing his professional
life passing before his eyes.
He parted with the shocking news that he was having to
dictate the script to his daughter so that even though the deadline had been
missed, at least the it would eventually make it on to the desk of Carry On
producer, Peter Rogers.
To read the full account of Tolly's breakdown and the final days of his Carry On scriptwriting career .. buy a copy of A Write Carry On .. JustCLICK HERE
I contacted Cass Adams in the hope of setting up an interview
with Colin Meloy of The Decemberists. She’s a busy freelancer working out of Portland, Oregon,
and I thought she’d be sympathetic to a new book I was undertaking (The
Americana Hour – coming March 2013). But all Cass wanted to talk about was my
current book, A Write Carry On. No probs, I thought, so here’s what wasn’t
meant to be .. Cass Adams interviews me about A Write Carry On!
Cass Adams (CA): Mike, it’s so great to be able to chat with
someone who actually met the Carry On cast. Here in the US we love the
English humour, though I think sometimes the lines get blurred. Were the Carry
On films of the late 60s and early 70s really like life on the streets of England?
Mike Cobley (MC): Well it’s good to hear the Carry Ons are
appreciated away from these shores. I guess, in all honesty, that period you
mention was, in actuality, very different from what was on screen. I think that
had to be the case really, otherwise people wouldn’t have been drawn to the cinema.
Movies are an escape from real life. No-one wants to work Monday to Friday and
then pay to go and see their life reflected back at them from the big screen.
But having said that, they do need to identify with the
humour and characters. Much like music, there has to be a connection. Whether
it is a bumbling doctor, scary matron or leery older man, they all know someone
in real life who fits the bill.
CA: Kinda guess that makes sense. But what about the sexual
politics? No way, these days, could men be so overtly sexist and controlling of
women. How did women view the Carry On humour back then?
MC: I remember being in the pub (bar to you guys) and
hearing women turn on Talbot Rothwell (the Carry On scriptwriter) and tell him
that if their husbands treated them that way they’d be out the door with a good
clip round the ear. Then again, in the same breath they admitted they found it
funny. Because, if you watched closely, often the women came out on top anyway
(no pun intended). Yes it is cringe worthy viewing now, and much of the humour
is of its time, but what is timeless is the Carry On cast. People’s love for
the likes of Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Barbara Windsor, Charles Hawtrey and
the rest, burns as bright today as it did back then. Sometimes it’s hard to
separate the actors from the characters.
CA: I guess that’s where the genius of the writer comes in?
CA: Was very interested that in A Write Carry On you mention
how outside of the circleFrankie Howerd was. There’s a sad little bit where
you describe Frankie leaving a Carry On party alone.
MC: I was sat on a hill observing all those great actors as
they stumbled out of Talbot Rothwell’s front door and were whisked away in a
fleet of vehicles. Sid James was all touchy feely, Kenneth Williams was loud,
brash and appeared to believe the party had been in his honour. Meanwhile poor
Frankie Howerd emerged into the fading daylight with his head bowed and
shoulders slouched. He looked so detached and
lonely, much as he had at the party. Tears of clown, I guess!
CA: Finally, I feel I must ask you about Talbot Rothwell
himself. You describe beautifully your relationship with him (you as a shy and
awkward teenager and him as fatherly figure) but on his death bed you seemingly
would have nothing to do with him. What changed, what went wrong?
MC: It was all my fault. The only change in Talbot Rothwell
was his health. He suffered a depilating stroke, as well as an earlier
breakdown, and wasn’t able to speak for the last few years of his life, whereas I went through puberty and emerged on the otherside as a punk/mod. I still
believe totally in the ideals and beliefs I took from those movements, but what
I’m not proud of is how, in viewing Talbot’s generation as the old guard, I
dismissed a lot of relationships in my life which,
for one reason or another, I was never able to mend.
CA: I love the (book's) cover. Think I’m right in saying that the
faces we see are those ofSid James and Barbara Windsor. But is that you with
your back to us?
MC: You certainly are right about Sid and Barbara, but it is
Talbot Rothwell with his back to us.
The cover’s designer, Mandy Hills, was conveying Talbot’s
place as ‘the man in the shadows’, when it came to the public’s perception of
all things Carry On.
CA: Note you went with a publisher (Wholepoint Publications)
for the digital release of A Write Carry On. Wouldn’t it have been easier to
put it out yourself?
MC: Wholepoint Publications is very much built around an
ethos, one shared by those with a Mod leaning. On these shores the whole musical
tribal thing defines many people’s lives from puberty to the grave. Iain Munn’s
digital publishing house is a Mecca
for those of us who believe in the Mod maxim of 'clean living under difficult
circumstances.’ I wouldn’t have considered putting the title with anyone else,
so it’s lucky for me Iain said ‘yes’!
With thanks to Cass Adams c.adams@musicspectaor.com for the use of this interview. It will appear in full in a Portland, Oregon, publication at a later date.
A Write Carry On available for just £2 .. CLICK HERE
