Friday 31 March 2017

The A - Z of Carry On Characters - B is for...

 

This is part of a new series for Carry On Blogging looking at some of the best and most memorable characters in the Carry On films. I have already written a series looking at some of the best remembered supporting actors and this will be a similar A-Z format but based on my favourite character names.

Let's continue on today with B and first of all, and B is for Babs! Who else could I feature here other than Barbara Windsor herself in her classic, career defining role as Babs in Carry On Camping? Camping is one of the first films in the series to use many of the regular's real names for their character names. So we have Sid, Joan, Charlie and Babs! 

Camping was Barbara's third Carry On. Following her debut in Spying in 1964, there had been a gap of three years before her triumphant return in the supporting role of Nurse Sandra May in Carry On Doctor. Doctor began a regular one film a year commitment for Windsor which carried on, as it were, right through to Dick in 1974. Babs is an iconic role for Windsor, mainly for the oft repeated sequence of the early morning exercise class which sees her bikini top fly off (thanks to a fishing line), much to the horror of Kenneth Williams' prudish Dr Soaper "Matron! Take them away!" has gone down in cinema history and is very much a part of British culture.

Camping was also the first proper on screen partnership between Barbara and Sid James. They had met briefly in Doctor however Camping was the first film which saw Sid's character chase Babs, the object of his lustful affections. Babs, together with her friend Fanny, are the most prominent pupils at Dr Soaper's finishing school, Chayste Place, and are off on a camping holiday to get back to nature. Dr Soaper and Matron get much more than they bargained for!

Camping is a classic film in the series and one of the franchise's highest grossing releases. It catapulted Barbara to a whole new level and all pretty much guaranteed a flash of boob in all of the films that followed. It was a definite shift to the saucy side and perhaps the films lost a bit of their innocent charm from then on in.

B is also for...

 

...James Bailey, the intellectual National Service recruit in Carry On Sergeant, played by Kenneth Williams...

 

...Sid Boggle, who spent much of the aforementioned Carry On Camping chasing none other than Babs and Fanny. Definitive Sidney James...

 

...Stanley and Evelyn Blunt, the bickering couple played by Kenneth Connor and June Whitfield in Carry On Abroad. While Stanley was all repressed and pent up tension, Evelyn was prudish and buttoned up, until her awakening at the Palace Hotel...

 

....Frederick and Mildred Bumble, another masterful characterisation for Kenneth Connor as Carry On Girls civil dignitary Frederick, together with his put upon wife come Women's Lib agitant Mildred, surely one of Patsy Rowlands' greatest Carry On roles?...

 

...Dawn Brakes, or Sidney Fiddler's favourite time for getting up...the Carry On Girls beauty queen so memorably brought to life by Margaret Nolan...

 

...Bungdit-Din, one of Bernard Bresslaw's most memorable, towering and ferocious Carry On pantomime villains, a majestic performance in the classic Up The Khyber...

 

...Bernie Bishop, the boxer played with relish by the Carry Ons' leading character player, the wonderful Kenneth Connor in Carry On Nurse...

 

...Lady Evelyn Bagley, Joan Sims' uppercrust character in Up The Jungle, in search of her baby boy lost many years before and now, portrayed by Terry Scott, three years old than Joan herself...

...and finally...Sid and Sophie Bliss, proprietors of the less than successful Wedded Bliss Agency in the 1970 classic, Carry On Loving. Another chance to glory in the screen chemistry between Sid and Hattie.


Stay tuned for the next in this series when we tackle more memorable Carry On characters. And if you can think of any more, get in touch!



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