Carry On Up the Khyber **** (1968, Sidney James, Joan Sims, Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, Bernard Bresslaw, Peter Butterworth, Roy Castle, Terry Scott, Angela Douglas) – Classic Movie Review 1134

The 16th Carry On film from 1968 Carry On Up the Khyber is easily one of the finest, delivering a hilarious quota of great fun as the team take to India in the 1890s and find themselves under attack from the scheming Khazi of Kalabar (Kenneth Williams). Director Gerald Thomas’s film is a spoof of Rudyard Kipling-style Raj stories and movies, and of course the risqué title plays on ‘Khyber Pass’ being Cockney rhyming slang for ‘arse’.

Sidney James stars as Governor Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond, who is in charge of looking after the British outpost near the Khyber Pass. But the Khazi wants all the British dead. However, his troops fear the kilt-wearing Scotsmen of the Third Foot and Mouth Regiment – the devils in skirts are rumoured not to wear anything under their kilts!

It should be pointed out for the sake of national honour that the Third Foot and Mouth Regiment is a merely fictional Highland infantry regiment of the British Army. Happily, the detachment at Kalabar is under the loyal and genial command of Captain Keene (Roy Castle) and his second-in-command Sergeant Major MacNutt (played by Terry Scott).

Pinewood Studios’ wardrobe department reused the regimental tartans and bonnet badges designed for the Highland regiment in the 1960 film Tunes of Glory to kit the Third Foot and Mouth Regiment.

Regular writer Talbot Rothwell’s script, with its usual blend of smutty and corny gags that makes this series so eternally popular, is especially funny this time. It boasts its highlights in two classic sequences – the attacked British outpost dinner party scene, and the kilt-lifting by the Scotsmen of the Third Foot and Mouth Regiment. But there is a high tally of such deliriously silly comic moments throughout the film.

Joan Sims, as a particularly pickled Lady Ruff-Diamond, has the best line in the film as the Burpa tribesmen assault the British residency, causing the ceiling to collapse on her: ‘I seem to have got a little plastered!’ OK, OK, but it’s funny when Joan Sims says it.

Carry On Up the Khyber is subtitled: Or the British Position in India.

It is the first and only Carry On film for Roy Castle, replacing Jim Dale, who was unavailable. He plays the romantic lead Captain Keene. Terry Scott returns to the series as Sergeant Major MacNutt after his minor role in the first film of the series, Carry On Sergeant, back in 1958. Angela Douglas makes her fourth and final appearance in the series, playing Princess Jelhi.

Charles Hawtrey (Private James Widdle), Bernard Bresslaw (Bungdit Din), Peter Butterworth (Brother Belcher), Cardew Robinson (the Fakir), Julian Holloway (Major Shorthouse), Johnny Briggs (Sporran Soldier), Peter Gilmore (Private Ginger Hale), Leon Thau (Stinghi) and Wanda Ventham (the Khazi’s first wife) also star.

Also in the cast are Michael Mellinger as Chindi, and Alexandra Dane as Busti.

They sure were on fire with these character names!

A plaque in Llanberis, Wales, commemorates the nearby filming.

Scenes on the North West Frontier were filmed beneath the summit of Snowdon in North Wales. The lower part of the Watkin Path was used as the Khyber Pass with the garrison and border gate. In September 2005, a plaque was unveiled in Snowdonia to mark where the film was shot.

Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond’s residence was actually Heatherden Hall, on whose estate the film studios are based. The interiors were shot at Pinewood Studios, Buckinghamshire.

Johnny Briggs in HMS Defiant (1962).

RIP acting stalwart and soap legend Johnny Briggs, who died on 28 February 2021 aged 85. He was in films as a child actor onwards, starting with a bit part in Hue and Cry (1947), and played Mike Baldwin for 30 years in Coronation Street (1976–2006), appearing in 2,348 episodes.

He also appeared among many others in The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), The Magic Box (1951), Cosh Boy (1953), Second Fiddle (1957), The Diplomatic Corpse (1958), Sink the Bismarck! (1960), Light Up the Sky! (1960), The Bulldog Breed (1960), The Wind of Change (1961), Information Received (1961), HMS Defiant (1962), The Wild and the Willing (1962), Doctor in Distress (1963) – Medical Student, A Stitch in Time (1963), The Leather Boys (1964), The Devil-Ship Pirates (1964), 633 Squadron (1964) and The Intelligence Men (1965) as well as three Carry Ons – Carry On Up the Khyber, Carry On Behind and Carry On England. On TV, he also appeared in Crossroads, The Saint, The Persuaders!, Thick as Thieves and No Hiding Place.

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