Carry On Henry

The 21st Carry On film produced by Peter Rogers and Gerald Thomas is a parody of Henry VIII and his relationship with one of his wives, who is portrayed as Marie of Normandy, a member of the French royal family and a staunch lover of garlic, from there the story goes into the usual Carry On plot, only set in Tudor times, but unfortunately without the traditional laughs.

For me this addition to the series falls down the same trap as Don’t Lose Your Head, it may seem like a good idea on paper to parody the sadistic and promiscuous dictator known as Henry VIII, but on execution, it’s a complete and utter disaster, but at least Don’t Lose Your Head had a constructive plot and a couple of funny lines. Henry? I can’t think of anything I liked in this one other than a gag in the opening credits, a secret about the king which they explain themselves is a load of cobblers, even that comes and goes within 10 seconds. Everything else just feels like Rogers and Thomas recycling the exact same jokes from 8 films ago only set in Tudor times, yet without any form of proper plot. Yes I know the Carry On films are more or less the same give or take, but at least they all had some basic form of a comprehensive story, they may have well as shot this film without a script, it wouldn’t have made any difference. Actually it probably would’ve been a little better because everything would’ve been improvised and slightly unexpected.

There are however two positives that I can think of, firstly the cast seemed to have a great time making this spoof, especially Sid James playing Henry which makes for a fun viewing. But also it’s lovely to see all the most famous Carry On stars in one shape or another in a film together. It only happened a couple of times in the series and it’s really nostalgic to see it here, if only it could’ve been in a better film. For me this is one of the worst films in the whole series and by far and away the most disappointing, quite sad really.

2/10 – Calum Robert