Carry On (franchise)
British comedy franchise of 31 films and spin-offs.
Last updated
Tancrède Dumas · Public domain
The Carry On franchise is a series of British comedy films known for innuendo and parodying British institutions like the National Health Service and British history.[1] Critics frequently gave the films negative reviews, yet they generally achieved strong popularity with viewers.[1]
Making and release
The first film, Carry On Sergeant, was released in 1958, a low-budget black and white movie whose plot centered on National Service.[2] Many titles parodied more serious films, such as homages to James Bond, westerns, and Hammer horror films. Carry On Cleo (1964) made use of impressive sets created for the 1963 epic Cleopatra. Carry On Emmannuelle (1978), inspired by the soft-porn Emmanuelle, brought the original run to an end.[3] The project was abandoned after Rogers's death in April 2009.[4] The last Carry On film that was proposed before producer Peter Rogers died in 2009 was Carry On London.[5]
Carry On London* was first announced in 2003 and was still in pre-production as late as 2008.[5]
What the cited sources add
A BBC News article from 2008 notes that the Carry On films held up a mirror to British society and its rapid changes from 1958 to 1978.[2] The same article states that the makers had no serious ambition for the films other than as easy entertainment in the music hall tradition.[2] Tanya Gold, writing in The Guardian in 2007, described the typical Carry On hero as an everyman living a life of misery and unrequited lust.[6] Gold also wrote that the films held up a cartoonish mirror to the depressed and repressed Britain of the 1950s and 1960s.[6]
References
- Wikipedia, "Carry On (franchise)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "More than just a Carry On?", BBC News, 25 July 2008; Bradshaw, "What a Carry On!", The Guardian, 15 May 2004; Cook, "Film Blog: Stop Carry Ons", Blogs.guardian.co.uk, 18 March 2008; Tanya Gold, "Infamy? They've got it", The Guardian, 28 September 2007; "The possibility of happiness...", Newstatesman.com, 1 October 2001; Campling, "A 50th anniversary appreciation of the Carry On movie", The Times, 29 July 2008; White, "A British comedy classic that could carry on", Telegraph.co.uk, July 2021; "Carry On quip tops one-liner poll", BB en.wikipedia.org
- "More than just a Carry On?", BBC News, 25 July 2008. facts only, no text reused. news.bbc.co.uk
- Wikipedia, "Carry On (franchise)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Vagg, "Forgotten British Film Studios: The Rank Organisation 1978-81", 1 September 2025 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Carry On (franchise)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "'Carry On' producer Rogers dies", BBC News, 2009-04-15 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Carry On (franchise)" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Hassan, "Carry On script gets green light", BBC News, 13 March 2008 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Tanya Gold, "Infamy? They've got it", The Guardian, 28 September 2007. facts only, no text reused. theguardian.com
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Carry On (franchise) (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
More in British film series
Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Carry On (franchise) (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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