Carry On at Your Convenience (1971)

This has to be up there with Khyber, Loving and Camping. The gags flow thick and fast and Williams is in top form. Kenneth Cope's mother is superb with her dry direct approach while Sid James makes one of his better performances. Best scenes are Sid James as the fortune teller "Williams is brilliant" and Patsy Rowlands and again Williams are brilliant in there own private scenes.Putting James and Jacques together as man and wife works well with Sid constantly delivering killer lines and Joan Sims is given free range with some excellent put downs. A number of Carry On's tend to have a lot of hiatus where nothing happens but Convenience never fails to deliver.

I like this entry in the series, I really do. Many others however find it a dud and feel that it should be flushed down one of the toilets that feature at W.C. Boggs' factory in the film. Blending the obvious toilet gags with a tale about unionised shop floors, the Carry On team have actually crafted one of the franchise's less mucky pictures. Sid James, so long the bastion of sexually driven lechery in Carry On folklore, has a very restrained role in this one, and this to me somewhat explains to an extent why "Convenience" is often shunned by the series fans.Elsewhere it's the subplots away from the factory that put the smile on my face. Charles Hawtrey is indulging in strip poker with shop steward, Vic Spanner's, mother!. While James' Sid Plummer is getting horse racing winners from his budgie,! all under the watchful eye of his apparently scatty wife Beattie {a terrific Hattie Jacques}. Sexy eye candy for us blokes comes in the form of Jacki Piper, and the film finale on the Brighton seaside is drunken buffoonery to at least raise a giggle or two. Not the best Carry On by a long shot predicted by Sid's budgie, but certainly not one of the worst either. 6.5/10

Considered by many the best ever "Carry On" film, I think I still prefer CARRY ON...UP THE KHYBER (1968) to it, but it's certainly one of the more tolerable entries in the series. Essentially an update of I'M ALL RIGHT, JACK! (1959) in its concern over working conditions in a factory and the frequent strikes ordered by the union's representative (usually over a trifle, or even a technicality in the regulations!), the fact that the manufacture involved is toiletware, the lavatorial humor associated with this team is quite appropriate here - though it never descends to the grossness which seems to be the norm for today's would-be comedies.Most of the regulars of the series can be seen strutting their stuff (though perhaps the most notable contribution is given by newcomer Kenneth Cope as the shop steward) and there's no shortage of lewd remarks but, as I said, it's all done in fun (while these films may have been restricted to adult audiences back in the day, they're quite PG stuff today!). There's still a bit of padding involved - such as Sid James' winnings at the races (following the predictions of his wife's pet bird!), the love triangle involving Cope, Jacki Piper (as James' daughter) and Richard O'Callaghan (as the son of factory boss Kenneth Williams) and especially the lengthy outing in Brighton; all things considered, however, an enjoyable vintage comedy which is ideal viewing for the festive season.

I love all the carry on films except maybe the last few (England was dire) but this along with 'Screaming' is my favourite. I could and have watched it dozens of times and it still makes me laugh. All the cast are clearly having a laugh and it's nice to see Kenneth Cope not playing Marty Hopkirk (Randall And Hopkirk Deceased - my all time favourite TV show). Sid James is ,well, Sid James but what's wrong with that?, Bernard Bresslaw hilarious and Jacki Piper... well.. forget Barbara Windsor, she was never a looker, Jacki Piper and Angela Douglas (not in this one) were always better looking. The whole concept of making a film in a toilet factory is inspired, has there been another??? The situations at the factory, at Brighton and especially at Sids house with the budgie (ta daddy!, ta daddy!, TA!!!)are all laugh out loud funny. No matter what mood you're in, bung this on and have a bloody good laugh. Brilliant film.