Carry On Matron *** (1972, Sidney James, Kenneth Williams, Hattie Jacques, Joan Sims, Charles Hawtrey, Kenneth Cope) – Classic Movie Review 1,212

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Gerald Thomas’s 1972 comedy film Carry On Matron is the 23rd in the series and the fourth Carry On with a hospital background. Most of the regular team is assembled in an amusing episode, back near their peak form.

‘Matron, the screens!’

Director Gerald Thomas’s 1972 comedy film Carry On Matron is the 23rd in the series and the fourth Carry On with a hospital background. Most of the regular team is assembled in an amusing episode, back near their peak form of the 1960s.

The story centres on a plot by disguised criminals Sid Carter (Sid James), Cyril Carter (Kenneth Cope, looking good in drag!) and Ernie Bragg (Bernard Bresslaw) to rob the local Finisham maternity hospital of a valuable shipment of contraceptive pills.

An amusing script by regular screenwriter Talbot Rothwell, one of his best, boasts lots of funny jokes about expectant mums and cut-throat doctors, but it’s mainly a performing success.

The star trio are hilarious in disguise, with James in beard and specs, and Cope and Bresslaw in drag as a female nurse and a mum. Plus there are very funny turns from Joan Sims as the indigestion-prone mum-to-be Mrs Tidey, Kenneth Williams as the hypochondriac consultant Sir Bernard Cutting, and of course Hattie Jacques as Matron.

Barbara Windsor, Terry Scott, Kenneth Connor, Jacki Piper, Bill Maynard, Patsy Rowlands, Derek Francis, Valerie Leon, Gwendoline Watts, Margaret Nolan, Wendy Richard, Bill Kenwright and Jack Douglas also star.

At a total of 11, it is the film that features the largest number of Carry On regulars, a total shared with Carry on Abroad (1972). They are Joan Sims, Kenneth Williams, Barbara Windsor, Terry Scott, Kenneth Connor, Hattie Jacques, Bernard Bresslaw, Patsy Rowlands, Sidney James, Jack Douglas and Charles Hawtrey. But Jim Dale and Peter Butterworth are missing. Butterworth was to play Freddy but Bill Maynard took over when Butterworth’s work engagements got in the way.

It is the last of seven Carry On films for Terry Scott.

The cast are Sid James as Sid Carter, Kenneth Williams as Sir Bernard Cutting, Charles Hawtrey as Doctor Francis A Goode, Hattie Jacques as Matron, Joan Sims as Mrs Tidey, Bernard Bresslaw as Ernie Bragg, Barbara Windsor as Nurse Susan Ball, Kenneth Connor as Mr Tidey, Terry Scott as Doctor Prodd, Kenneth Cope as Cyril Carter, Jacki Piper as Sister, Bill Maynard as Freddy, Patsy Rowlands as Evelyn Banks, Derek Francis as Arthur, Amelia Bayntun as Mrs Jenkins, Valerie Leon as Jane Darling, Brian Osborne as ambulance driver, Gwendolyn Watts as Frances Kemp, Valerie Shute as Miss Smethurst, Margaret Nolan as Mrs Tucker, Michael Nightingale as Doctor Pearson, Wendy Richard as Miss Willing, Zena Clifton as au pair girl, Bill Kenwright as reporter, Robin Hunter as Mr Darling, Jack Douglas as twitching father, Madeline Smith as Mrs Pullitt, Juliet Harmer as Mrs Bentley, Gilly Grant as nurse in bath, Lindsay March as shapely nurse, and Laura Collins as nurse.

Filming dates: 11 October-26 November 1971.

Release date: 19 May 1972.

It was shot at Pinewood Studios, Buckinghamshire, and on location at Heatherwood Hospital, Ascot, Berkshire; The White House, Denham, Buckinghamshire; and St Mary’s Church, Denham, Buckinghamshire.

Kenneth Cope (14 April 1931 – 11 September 2024).

Kenneth Cope appears uncredited in Carry On Jack (1963) as Sailor, but later had leading roles in Carry On at Your Convenience as Vic Spanner and in Carry On Matron (1972) as Cyril Carter.

The obnoxious shop steward Vic Spanner is central to both the main trade union/ industrial problems storyline in Carry On at Your Convenience and to the romantic sub-plot as the rival. But in Carry On Matron (1972) Cope has the sympathetic role of Cyril Carter, a thief’s son forced to impersonate a female nurse in his father’s bid to rob a maternity hospital.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Film Review 1,212

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more film reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/

Kenneth Cope and Hattie Jacques.

Kenneth Connor.

Barbara Windsor.

Bernard Bresslaw.