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

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

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

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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