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. ...
I’m afraid this isn’t one of our six free articles available in full, which are set out in the first two rows of the ‘Magazine’ page.
Please click here to find them.
To buy a digital version of this issue for just £1.99, click here
