How Did Such A Legendary Series Start Anyway?
Even great institutions, such as the Carry Ons have modest beginnings. “Carry On Sergeant” is no exception. The first film in the Carry On series, “Carry On Sergeant”, started out as a script called “The Bull Boys” by novelist and playwright R.F. Delderfield. Almost every producer had rejected it, however Peter Rodgers (The producer of all the Carry Ons) saw potential in it if he could liven it up and add some humour to it. He handed the script to a man called John Antrobus who re-wrote it. This pointed Peter Rogers in a clearer direction, however it still wasn’t quite right. Some of Antrobus’ work is still in “Carry On Sergeant”. Norman Hudis was the last scriptwriter to look at it and he gave birth to what we know as “Carry On Sergeant” today.
Everything was ready for shooting the film. Gerald Thomas was the director, all that the film needed was a name. They eventually decided on the catchy name “Carry On Sergeant”. The prefix “Carry On” was taken from a film called Carry On Admiral made the year before.
“Carry On Sergeant”, was shot over a period of six weeks at Pinewood Studios and on location at the Queen's Barracks in Stoughton, Surrey, during the March and April of 1958, actually commencing on 24th March.
The budget was a mere £74,000. The actors that appeared were potential comedians of that time; only William Hartnell had really made a name for himself, and Bob Monkhouse. But it was these potentials that would return in many of the following Carry Ons, paid a few hundred pounds each, for “Carry On Sergeant”, these actors became the regulars we all know and love.
Charles Hawtrey, Kenneth Connor, Hattie Jacques and Kenneth Williams were the foundations of the Carry On team. Terence Longdon, Bill Owen and Shirley Eaton also went on to make a few ore of the earlier Carry Ons.
The film, much to almost everyone’s surprise was a big box office hit. In fact it was only Kenneth Connor who knew there was something special about “Carry On Sergeant”, he once said: “I knew that we would run and run from the beginning, and doing a Carry On certainly beats working”.
When compared to the later films in the series it is very different, though you can see the blueprint of a true Carry On. In the later films there was less romantic subplots and occasional sentimentality. Though that’s not to say it isn’t funny. Many of the comic set pieces, such as Kenneth Connor's relentless medical examinations, Charles Hawtrey getting everything wrong and the various training disasters, are still funny and confidently handled by experts in comedy.
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