Carry on Doctor
Playing Doctor with Nurses
The 15th Carry On film produced by Peter Rogers and Directed by Gerald Thomas was also the first of just two films that starred Frankie Howerd. The other one was Up The Jungle. In this film he plays a philosopher come con artist called Francis Bigger. In many ways the character is a parody of Howerd’s smugly self-aware yet brilliantly creative persona. When the reverend Bigger ends up in hospital with a severe back injury, he meets the most peculiar group of quaint characters any hospital has ever seen. Pretty much all of the patients only seem to be hospital, because they can’t bear to be at home for whatever reason and prefer to be mucking about on the wards, whilst winding up the nurses, or sneaking out of bed to flirt with the female patients.
In many ways this is a much funnier remake of Carry On Nurse. It is pretty much the same plot only the laughs are a lot more frequent, whilst Frankie Howard has brilliant chemistry with the rest of the Carry On regulars, who are pretty much all here, apart from the wonderful Kenneth Connor. Nevertheless this a fun watch and I really enjoyed it. Carry On Again Doctor was released just 18 months later.
7/10 – Calum Roberts
(Why not check out the ‘Carry On Again Doctor’ review as well)