Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

My Dad purchased the first Blu-ray collection of the first four ‘Carry On’ films recently. I greatly enjoyed checking out these British comedy films, since they’re very entertaining. There’s ‘Carry On Sergeant’, ‘Carry On Nurse’, ‘Carry On Teacher’ and ‘Carry On Constable’ in the Blu-ray set of films. 🙂

‘Carry On Sergeant’ is particularly notable for starring William Hartnell, who would go on to play the First Doctor in ‘Doctor Who’. It was amazing to find him in this film and playing the ‘tough guy’ role that it’s often claimed he’s remembered for playing. I found him terrific and entertaining as the Sergeant.

In the film, Bob Monkhouse as Charlie is distraught when he receives his call-up papers just after he married Shirley Eaton as Mary, and this happens during their wedding breakfast. He travels to a National Service Depot where William Hartnell as Sgt. Grimshaw is to put new recruits into shape. 😐

There are a lot of cast members in ‘Carry On Sergeant’ that would go on to appear in future instalments of the ‘Carry On’ film series. There’s Kenneth Connor (who would go on to play Monsieur Alfonse in ‘Allo ‘Allo!’) as Private Horace Strong, a recruit who is a chronic hypochondriac.

There’s Charles Hawtrey as Private Peter Golightly, Kenneth Williams as Private James Bailey, Terence Longdon as Private Miles Heywood and Gerald Campion as Private Andy Galloway. There’s also Hattie Jacques (who I’ve seen in the Norman Wisdom film ‘Follow a Star’) as Captain Clark, R.A.M.C. 🙂

The film also features Eric Parker as Captain Potts, Dora Bryan as Norah (who has a fancy for Kenneth Connor’s character) and Bill Owen as Corporal Copping. The film also briefly features Terry Scott (who would go on to be in ‘Terry and June’ with June Whitefield) as Sergeant Paddy O’Brien. 🙂

The second ‘Carry On’ film is ‘Carry On Nurse’. ‘Carry On Sergeant’ was made in 1958 whilst ‘Carry On Nurse’ was made in 1959. I didn’t enjoy this one as much as ‘Carry On Sergeant’, as I’m not sure what the plot was supposed to be about, though there are some amusing and entertaining moments to enjoy.

The film features Kenneth Connor again as boxer Bernie Bishop. There’s Shirley Eaton as Staff Nurse Dorothy Denton, Charles Hawtrey as Humphrey Hinton, Hattie Jacques as Matron, Terence Longdon as Ted York, Bill Owen as Percy Hickson and Leslie Phillips makes his ‘Carry On’ debut as Jack Bell. 😀

I’ve heard Leslie Phillips in the Big Finish audios of ‘Doctor Who’ with Colin Baker, including ‘Medicinal Purposes’ and ‘Assassin in the Limelight’. There’s Joan Sims as Student Nurse Stella Dawson. I’ve also seen Joan Sims in ‘The Mysterious Planet’ segment of ‘The Trial of a Time Lord’. 🙂

Susan Stephen plays Nurse Georgie Axwell, Kenneth Williams plays Oliver Reckitt and Wilfrid Hyde White plays the Colonel. Joan Hickson, who would go on to play Miss Marple in the BBC TV series plays a Sister at the hospital in the film. It was so surreal to see Joan Hickson in a ‘Carry On’ film.

Apparently, June Whitfield makes an appearance as Meg, one of the visitors to see one of the patients in the film. Aww, that’s a shame. Had Terry Scott made an appearance in ‘Carry On Nurse’ instead of ‘Carry On Sergeant’, he could’ve met June Whitfield early before meeting her in ‘Happily Ever After’ and ‘Terry and June’. 😀

The third film ‘Carry On Teacher’, which was also released in 1959 (the same year as ‘Carry On Nurse’), is a very enjoyable and engaging film and has more of a plot to it than its predecessor. The ‘Carry On’ cast get to be teachers and end up having pranks played on them by the pupils attending.

This is before the TV sitcom series ‘Please Sir!’ came along in the 1970s. 😀 Once again, Kenneth Connor appears in this film, playing science master Mr. Gregory Adams. There’s Ted Ray as Mr. William Wakefield, Charley Hawtrey as Mr. Michael Bean and Leslie Phillips as Mr. Alistair Grigg.

There’s Joan Sims as Miss Sarah Allcock, Kenneth Williams as Mr. Edwin Milton, Hattie Jacques as Miss Grace Short and Rosalind Knight as Miss Felicity Wheeler. Incidentally, Rosalind Knight previously appeared in ‘Carry On Nurse’ as Student Nurse Nightingale. She has a bigger role in ‘Carry On Teacher’. 😀

There’s also Cyril Chamberlain as Mr. Alf Hodgson (who also appeared in ‘Carry On Sergeant’ and ‘Carry On Nurse’) and Richard O’Sullivan as Robin Stevens. Robin Stevens stirs up the pranks that happen at the school, after he overhears that Mr. Wakefield is planning to depart at the end of term.

I did wonder throughout the film why the kids led by Robin were playing these pranks on the teachers during a school inspection. I mean, they could have made a protest and campaign for Mr. Wakefield to not leave, but then, things could have been done very differently at schools in 1959. 😀

The fourth and final film of the first ‘Carry On’ Blu-ray collection is ‘Carry On Constable’, which was released in 1960. This echoes the Norman Wisdom film ‘On the Beat’ for me, except it focuses on more than one police constable and the ‘Carry On’ constables aren’t good at their jobs in the film. 😀

Again, Kenneth Connor returns to play Constable Charlie Constable in the film. Yes, yes, I know, he’s Constable Constable! Unfortunate surname that. 😀 The film also features the ‘Carry On’ debut of Sidney James, who I’ve also seen in the sitcom series ‘Bless This House’, which Dad often likes to see.

There’s Eric Barker as Inspector Mills, Charles Hawtrey as Special Constable Timothy Gorse, Kenneth Williams as PC Stanley Benson, Leslie Phillips as PC Tom Potter, Joan Sims as WPC Gloria Passworthy, Hattie Jacques as Sergeant Laura Moon and Shirley Eaton as Sally Barry. ‘Carry On’ favourites, hey? 😀

I must say, I’m not sure if any audience member would remember the names of these characters in every ‘Carry On’ film. I mean, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy always went by their stage names in their films, so why couldn’t the ‘Carry On’ members go by their stage names instead of different ones each time?

There’s Cyril Chamberlain as PC Thurston, Joan Hickson again as Mrs. May and Terence Longdon as Herbert Hall. Again, I’m not sure if the plot is as good as what’s in ‘Carry On Sergeant’ and ‘Carry On Teacher’, though I think that ‘Carry On Constable’ is better than ‘Carry On Nurse’ in the collection. 🙂

It was nice to check out these four ‘Carry On’ films in the first collection on Blu-ray. I think the 1950s to 1960s films are tamer compared to what came later in the 1970s. Regardless, it was invigorating to check these out films, and I’m pleased I got to see William Hartnell in a film before he did ‘Doctor Who’.

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim 🙂