The Carry On series are a British institution and one of my guiltiest pleasures. Unashamedly low-brow, they are packed with terrible puns and wonderfully hammy performances.
I first discovered the series of films when I was in elementary school and they have remained favourites ever since. I certainly would never claim that they were great or even particularly good films, but the cheeky humour and (in the later years) heavy use of innuendo amused me and fundamentally affected my sense of humour.
To date there have been twenty nine original Carry On films and one compilation (That's Carry On!), the most recent being released in 1992. Amongst those films are parodies of Cleopatra, James Bond and Beau Geste, as well as more original stories based around national service, the medical profession and holidays.
So below are my top five films from the Carry On series. I will not argue that they are great films but I hold enormous affection for them, and the series to this day. To the list...
5. Carry On Cruising - the early films were penned by writer Norman Hudis and followed a very tight formula. Cruising, the first of the colour Carry Ons and the last to be penned by Hudis, is the story of the inept new crew of a cruise liner and its passengers. It is fun, lively and colourful with all of the cast given a chance to shine. My favourite scene: Esma Canon, Dilys Laye and Liz Fraser getting drunk in the liner's bar.
4. Carry On Loving - I never rated this one but at University a friend who disliked the series told me it was the one film that he liked in the run. I gave it another go and found it much more enjoyable as an adult than I had as a child or teenager. There are some great gags and Richard O'Callaghan and Jacki Piper made for a very cute couple. My favourite scene: the opening scene between Terry Scott's character and the priest on the train.
3. Carry On Cleo - filmed on sets left over from the film Cleopatra, Carry On Cleo is a romp through one of history's best known stories. Here Caesar, played with gusto by regular Kenneth Williams, is portrayed less as an awe-inspiring general but a rather pathetic coward. Believing a British slave to be responsible for saving his life, he installs him as his official bodyguard and goes to Egypt to meet Queen Cleopatra. My favourite scene: Caesar running through the Temple of the Vestal Virgins crying out "Infamy! Infamy! They've all got it in 'fer me!" - a line that has been voted the funniest film one-liner.
2. Carry On Up The Khyber - perhaps the best-loved of the series, it is the wonderful portrayal of the British Empire mentality that makes this film so enjoyable. The story is suitably ridiculous (a group of soldiers attempt to recover a photograph that proves they were wearing underwear under their kilts) and the Boys Own adventure style is suitably lampooned. My favourite scene: another obvious one - the dinner sequence where the British leadership sit at the dinner table and ignore the building being blown up around them.
1. Don't Lose Your Head - at first not labelled as one of the series, Don't Lose Your Head is my favourite because it has so much going on. It's certainly not the funniest of the films (being more of an adventure-comedy than a comedy) but its over the top characters and its star turns from Jim Dale and Sid James as the two foppish aristocrats saving their French counterparts from the revolution are amongst the best the series ever offered. My favourite scene: Citizen Camembert's executioner getting tricked into lying under his own guillotine.
So there you have it - my top five. Amongst those that were on the verge of being put on this list were Carry On Spying (my first!) and Carry On Doctor.