The iconic Carry On franchise is being rebooted with Carry On Beside The Sea, here are the details.
The Carry On franchise is a uniquely British institution. Essentially its own sub-genre, the series began in 1958 with William Hartnell and Bob Monkhouse in Carry On Sergeant.
Gradually, the films evolved into innuendo-laden broad farces, which is a stereotype that might be unfair but isn’t entirely untrue. That said, Carry On Camping was the most popular film at the UK box office in 1969, and Carry On Screaming is a brilliant horror parody. The films reached a rather limp conclusion in 1992 with Carry On Columbus, which despite including contemporary comic talent of the time like Rik Mayall and Julian Clary, bombed at the box office.
There have been various unmade Carry On film ideas mooted over the years, as we examined here. The most recent attempt was a script called Carry On Doctors, written by Two Pints Of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps creator Susan Nickson and Tim Dawson, which was completed in 2016 and was to be the first of three films, but it did not go into production due to legal issues.
There’s no shortage of unmade Carry On films.
According to the British Comedy Guide, a new film called Carry On Beside The Sea is in development. The plot, about a beauty pageant at a British seaside resort, closely resembles Talbot Rothwell’s 1973 film Carry On Girls. There are also plans for an accompanying stage show
Producer Nigel Gordon-Stewart, one of the executives and investors behind other attempts to renew the series over the past decade, said “We want Carry On to be a family entertainment brand with the only intention of making people laugh and enjoy themselves. Ask yourself the question: what makes you laugh? Chances are it’s lots of different things – a bit of slapstick, a bit of innuendo, a farcical situation, a misunderstanding, some physical comedy, a naughty, witty or cheeky line or a full-on, well told joke. We have no intention of making jokes, plots or scripts deliberately in bad taste or with intent to offend anyone, but we can’t guarantee that we won’t, because you just can’t do that anymore”.
Producers are also determined to move the series away from more controversial elements like sex, objectification and vulgarity.
Gordon Stewart said “People can take offence, even if it’s not intentionally given. We want Carry On to be a family entertainment brand with the only intention of making people laugh and enjoy themselves. We don’t see any need for gratuitous nudity, or what they used to call deliberate vulgarity. We struggle with talk of objectification when you see current television or even social media which is full of sexualised content of both guys and girls. We don’t need to make unkind jokes out of nudity, although I’m sure we can all think of some extremely awkward situations in our own lives which, looking back, were pretty funny, so those are fair game! Objectification is not on our radar – family entertainment is. We want to be a trusted brand for entertainment and a good laugh for the whole family. In these stressful times, let’s just get the family together for a good laugh, from granny and grandad right down to the grandkids”.
We’ll keep you updated as we hear more.
