Carry On Modernism
While Britain modernised itself between the fifties and the seventies, our most conspicuous cinematic output was the Carry On series, lasting for 30 films between 1958 and 1978, with one further errant number in the nineties. It was inevitable, I suppose, that the films and their many eccentric, troubled and curious stars would end up straying into the parallel world of world of modernism on a number of occasions. Here's my top five encounters between Carry On and Modernism.
1. Here's Kenneth Williams on Parkinson, alongside John Betjeman and Maggie Smith, sounding off among many things about the Elephant and Castle rebuilding and the scandal of Centre Point, much to Betjeman's delight. Although he soon loses the moral high ground when revealing his thoughts on the world of work.
2. Oh hello! It's Carry On stalwalt Charles Hawtrey in a promo film for prefabs, The Ten Year Plan, from 1945, playing a fearless investigative reporter.
3. Carry On Matron (1972) was filmed at Heatherwood Hospital in Ascot, Berkshire, a rather typical red brick/prefabricated postwar NHS hospital. Although the photo below is from their studio set.
4. In Carry On Regardless, 1961, Kenneth Connor manages to break The Bed of the Century at the Ideal Home Exhibition, a parody of the Smithsons' House of the Future. Unfortunately I can't find any video of this sequence to embed, though essentially all you need to do is imagine Peter Smithson played in the style of Norman Wisdom.
5. The finest moment in modernism for any of the Carry On stars was Fenella Fielding's casting in Cumbernauld Hit, the extraordinary Italian Job-style action thriller fimed to promote the new town in 1977. A year later the film series went on hiatus, so it seems a good place to end our saucy little tour.
1. Here's Kenneth Williams on Parkinson, alongside John Betjeman and Maggie Smith, sounding off among many things about the Elephant and Castle rebuilding and the scandal of Centre Point, much to Betjeman's delight. Although he soon loses the moral high ground when revealing his thoughts on the world of work.
2. Oh hello! It's Carry On stalwalt Charles Hawtrey in a promo film for prefabs, The Ten Year Plan, from 1945, playing a fearless investigative reporter.
3. Carry On Matron (1972) was filmed at Heatherwood Hospital in Ascot, Berkshire, a rather typical red brick/prefabricated postwar NHS hospital. Although the photo below is from their studio set.
4. In Carry On Regardless, 1961, Kenneth Connor manages to break The Bed of the Century at the Ideal Home Exhibition, a parody of the Smithsons' House of the Future. Unfortunately I can't find any video of this sequence to embed, though essentially all you need to do is imagine Peter Smithson played in the style of Norman Wisdom.
5. The finest moment in modernism for any of the Carry On stars was Fenella Fielding's casting in Cumbernauld Hit, the extraordinary Italian Job-style action thriller fimed to promote the new town in 1977. A year later the film series went on hiatus, so it seems a good place to end our saucy little tour.
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