Roger Lewis salutes a new history of the comedy series – a shrewd, funny, realistic reflection of austere, post-war Britain
There are few more reliable pleasures in life than settling back to watch a Carry On – the bouncy music; the lurid, cheap cinematography and shoddy editing (continuity mistakes abound); the bawdy Talbot Rothwell dialogue we know by heart: ‘I do not object to jiggery but I do take exception to pokery.’
Most of all, there’s the joy of the overqualified cast – Kenneth Williams worked with Orson Welles, Jim Dale was at the National with Olivier, and Charles Hawtrey was directed by Hitchcock – whom we greet as old and familiar friends.
