The Carry On Films

1. Carry on Sergeant (1958)

The series got off to a flying start by lampooning national service. Developed from a play by R.F. Delderfield, Sergeant was made on a budget of £75,000 and was an instant hit, although some saw it as a rip off of The Army Game.

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2. Carry on Nurse (1959)

The most commercially successful of the Carry Ons, Nurse was a surprising hit in the United States and firmly established the series. The daffodil gag at the end of the film caused a sensation in the British press.

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3. Carry on Teacher (1959)

One of the most overlooked of the Carry Ons, Teacher takes an affectionate yet subversive look at secondary education in the UK. This is the St Trinian's of the Carry Ons and is great family entertainment.

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4. Carry on Constable (1960)

Sid James makes his first appearance in a role that had been written for his predecessor, Ted Ray. Best remembered for the scene in which Kenneth Williams and Charles Hawtrey get into drag to lower the crime statistics.

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5. Carry on Regardless (1961)

This episodic film has some great gags: Kenneth Williams playing nursemaid to a chimp, Charles Hawtrey in the boxing ring, Joan Sims getting sozzled and Kenneth Connor re-enacting Hitchcock's The 39 Steps.

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6. Carry on Cruising (1962)

Carry On goes into colour but the gags are still of the old black-and-white variety. Screenwriter Norman Hudis bows out at this point, having helped to launch a great British institution.

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7. Carry on Cabby (1963)

With its gritty realism, Cabby is the kitchen sink of the Carry Ons. This is the first of the films to be scripted by Talboth Rothwell, who would pen a further nineteen Carry Ons and make them an enduring phenomenon.

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8. Carry on Jack (1963)

The first of the historical Carry Ons, Jack still impresses with its quality production values. Although short on gags, this is a respectable parody of the pirate film, with great turns from Bernard Cribbins and Juliet Mills.

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9. Carry on Spying (1964)

The last of the black-and-white Carry Ons is a hilarious spoof of the spy thriller. Barbara Windsor makes a memorable debut in what is obviously a send up of the first two James Bond films, with a touch of The Third Man thrown in.

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10. Carry on Cleo (1964)

With sets and costumes borrowed from the Hollywood blockbuster Cleopatra, it is no wonder that this is the most lavish of the Carry Ons. With her poisonous asp, Amanda Barrie makes a far better Cleopatra than Liz Taylor

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11. Carry on Cowboy (1966)

The team went West for their 11th Carry On, and got as far as Chobham Common, Surrey. Despite the penny pinching, the sets and costumes are authentic, making this the best British take on the classic Hollywood western.

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12. Carry On Screaming! (1966)

Hammer horror gets the full Carry On treatment. One of the best horror spoofs ever, Screaming is most memorable for Fenella Fielding's vampiric vamp and Kenneth Williams screaming "Frying to night!" in a vat of boiling wax.

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13. Don't Lose Your Head (1966)

The Scarlet Pimpernel was the inspiration for this typically irreverent take on the French Revolution. The first of the films to be made for the Rank Organisation, the Carry On prefix was dropped from the title, but later reinstated when Rank realised the value of branding.

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14. Follow That Camel (1967)

To boost receipts in America, Phil Silvers was cast as a replacement to Sid James in this Beau Geste parody, with Camber Sands standing in for the Sahara Desert. Still missing the Carry On prefix, the film was only a moderate success. Audiences clearly preferred Sid.

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15. Carry on Doctor (1967)

With the last two Carry Ons performing badly, desperate measures were called for. Capitalising on the success of the Doctor films, this second hospital Carry On was a major hit and effectively saved the series at a time when it could have been axed.

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16. Carry On Up the Khyber (1968)

The most highly regarded of the Carry Ons (and the one with the filthiest title), Up the Khyber is best remembered for the dinner party sequence which shows the sang froid of the British as their Empire collapses around them.

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17. Carry on Camping (1969)

The one in which Barabara Windsor's bikini goes flying off into Kenneth Williams' face. Camping is an effective satire of the typical British holiday, showing that the expectations are only ever met by the grimmest of realities.

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18. Carry on Again Doctor (1969)

Jim Dale goes out in a blaze of glory, performing stunts that make your eyes water, in the third hospital Carry On. The jokes are older than Methuselah but still manage to get a laugh.

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19. Carry on Up the Jungle (1970)

Terry Scott as Tarzan? Arguably the daftest of the Carry Ons, Up the Jungle suffers from the lack of Kenneth Williams, but Frankie Howerd is a good stand-in. The stunning Valerie Leon also has her good points (ahem).

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20. Carry on Loving (1970)

The Carry Ons enter the permissive era and begin to move away from the subtle innuendo of the past towards more overt sexual references. This would ultimately be the series' undoing but the production team clearly felt they had to move with the times...

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21. Carry on Henry (1971)

Henry had eight wives, according to this bawdy historical yarn. Sid James makes a superb Henry VIII in this lavish-looking production, with Barbara Windsor at her most gorgeous as the wife the history books shamelessly forgot.

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22. Carry on at Your Convenience (1971)

This satirical swipe at the trades unions was ill-received by the tabloid press and alienated the Carry Ons' predominantly working class audience. The first Carry On to lose money, At Your Convenience still offers many good laughs.

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23. Carry on Matron (1972)

The final hospital Carry On sees Hattie Jacques reprising her best-loved role, the indomitable matron, for the last time. The medical jokes look so worn that you can almost see your face in them but the gusto that the regulars bring to their performances makes up for that.

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24. Carry on Abroad (1972)

The last of the classic Carry Ons is this spirited Mickey-take on that new bane of modern living, the package holiday. The gags are tired but most of the regulars are here to amuse us for the last time. After this, it would be downhill all the way.

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25. Carry on Girls (1973)

With Kenneth Williams and Charles Hawtrey both conspicuous by their absence, Girls shows its scripting deficiencies more than any previous Carry On. The chaotic storyline and deficit of gags are scarcely made up for by the contributions from the depleted regulars.

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26. Carry on Dick (1974)

The last Carry On to be scripted by the great Talbot Rothwell, and the last one to feature Sid James and Hattie Jacques, Dick feels like the end of an era. The humour is strained and tends too easily to cheap vulgarity, but the production values are excellent.

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27. Carry on Behind (1975)

This is where it all began to go horribly wrong. A bad script, some bad casting decisions, and a surfeit of tacky vulgarity masquerading as humour all conspire to bring this down to the bottom of the pile. Surely the Carry Ons couldn't sink any lower than this?

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28. Carry on England (1976)

Onwards and downwards. The dullest of the Carry Ons sees the remaining regulars relegated to bit parts and actors with limited comic ability brought in as the leads. What was Peter Rogers thinking? The wall-to-wall vulgarity robbed the series of its family audience. No wonder the film sank without trace.

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29. Carry on Emmannuelle (1978)

Making a tacky parody of a soft core porn movie probably isn't the best way to win back a mainstream family audience... By this stage, the Carry On production team had totally lost the plot - and their audience. Clearly, Carry On Emmannuelle wasn't made for laughs. This was the end... or was it?

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30. Carry on Columbus (1992)

This is the film that every Carry On fan wants to forget. The script was written in ten days, the cast (a mix of Carry On veterans and new alternative comedians) failed to get on, and the production was in disarray almost from the word go. The result: utter disaster.

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