Carry On Camping, 1969
In Tribute To Dame Barbara Windsor
It’s hard to believe this is over fifty years old! Carry On Camping remains one of the most popular and most iconic of the series, famous of course for Barbara Windsor’s bra scene.
Camping was the seventeenth film in the popular series made on a budget of £208,354, just over 3.5 million on today’s money. It became the highest grossing film in the UK of 1969.
The film was shot during a rainy autumn that produced rather a lot of mud. This can be seen frequently through the film, including people sinking & slipping. To hide the mud, green paint was used. The leaves (which had by now either dropped or turned brown) were spray-painted.
The famous bra flying scene when Babs and the girls are doing their exercises, caused some problems for poor Barbara Windsor. Her bra was actually connected to a fishing line. The idea was at the given time an old stagehand would pull it off. However things didn’t quite go according to plan and Barbara was actually pulled over in to the mud. When it was successfully done, she was determined to keep covered up at all costs, but then Kenneth Williams says “Matron – take them away”, and so Matron grabs her arm, uncovering her for all to see. The yell she lets out at this point is real.
Summary
Sid Boggle (Sid James) and his bumbling mate, Bernie Lugg (Bernard Bresslaw) hit on the idea of a nudist camp holiday after watching a film about a camp called “Paradise”. The idea is to spice things up with their girlfriends.
They travel to the campsite named Paradise. After paying the membership fees to the owner, money-grabbing farmer Josh Fiddler, Sid realises it is not the camp seen in the film, but merely a standard family campsite. To add to their disappointment, it is no paradise but instead, a damp field; the only facilities being a very basic toilet and a washing block.
They reluctantly agree to stay there after Fiddler refuses a refund and the girls approve of the place. There is further disappointment when the girls will not share a tent with the boys.
However in true Carry On style things take a turn for the better when Dr. Soaper (Kenneth Williams), Headmaster of the Chayste Place Finishing School and his Matron, Miss Haggard (Hattie Jacques), arrive with a gaggle of nubile girls.
Under the crooked eye of Joshua Fiddler the money-grabbing site proprietor, chaos follows confusion. There are goings-on after lights out, collapsing tents, a mix-up with a mad bull, panic in the washrooms and a rude awakening from a bunch of hippies. Prepare for an onslaught of robust breezy humour when the Carry On team take to the great outdoors.
Clips
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Cast
Sid James – Sid Boggle
Kenneth Williams – Dr Kenneth Soper
Joan Sims – Joan Fussey
Charles Hawtry – Charlie Muggins
Terry Scott – Peter Potter
Barbara Windsor – Babs
Bernard Bresslaw – Bernie Lugg
Hattie Jacques – Miss Haggard
Peter Butterworth – Joshua Fiddler
Details
Written By: Talbot Rothwell
Produced By: Peter Rogers
Directed By; Gerald Thomas
Original Release Date: 29th May 1969