TV Cream

Films: C is for...

Carry On Teacher

Still finding its feet, this is the third ‘On, and pretty slight it is too, resorting to Joan Sims bending over whenever the pace slackens. Ted ‘Ray’s a Laugh’ Ray, Richard O’Sullivan and Carol ‘Cathy Come Home’ White augment the regulars.

8 Comments

8 Comments

  1. Glenn Aylett

    July 10, 2020 at 10:36 am

    I watched this on Film 4 last night and quite enjoyed Leslie Phillips at this womanising, caddish best( a shame he wasn’t used more in the series) and Richard O Sullivan as one of the rebellious pupils. My favourite scene in Teacher has to be the one with the itching powder in the staff room, where the teachers jump around like maniacs. Also, I think the black and white Ons don’t look as cheap as the colour ones and are more amusing.

  2. richardpd

    July 10, 2020 at 11:34 pm

    The black & White Carry Ons have a different feel to them, possibly because the writing style of Norman Hudis was different to that of Talbot Rothwell & Sid Colin, who wrote most of the better colour ones.

    The original TV Cream had a feature on the Carry Ons which ranked them with a points system. All the B&W ones automatically won a point in the “looks like a real film” category.

  3. droogie

    July 11, 2020 at 10:58 pm

    The mention of Richard O’Sullivan got me thinking of what an interesting actor he was and how his career was a fascinating snapshot of British cinema. from the 60’s onwards. .Carry On Teacher.. Cliff Richard movies. Cleopatra with Liz and Dick..Michael Reeve’s The Sorcerers. This was all before his successful ITV Sitcom career too. What a genuine angel x

    • Glenn Aylett

      July 12, 2020 at 11:44 am

      Richard O Sullivan also played Dick Turpin as a folk hero in an ITV dramatisation from 1979, where he outwitted an evil local landowner and his henchmen in every episode. An excellent series that portrayed Dick Turpin more as a folk hero, taking on the evil Sir John Glutton, than an armed robber. Then when this finished, he made the good( by ITV standards) sitcom Me And My Girl.
      Might I be right in saying Richard now lives in a home and is in very poor health?

      • THX 1139

        July 12, 2020 at 1:28 pm

        Yes, the poor guy had a stroke a few years ago, and never really recovered, so has lived in a nursing home ever since. A sad end for a very talented comic actor.

        Mind you, as well as the above he also appeared with a starkers Gabrielle Drake in Au Pair Girls and did his “comedy homosexual” act for reasons best known to himself in Can You Keep It Up for a Week? What weird careers thespians had in the 1970s.

        • Glenn Aylett

          July 13, 2020 at 10:59 am

          To be an English thesp in the seventies was to take whatever work you could find, as the film industry was in decline and if you weren’t known in America like Michael Caine, it was a case of lowering your standards to make a living. I’m sure a few classically trained actors ended up in sex comedies.

          • richardpd

            July 13, 2020 at 10:44 pm

            Kenneth Williams supposedly made most of his income from adverts, even though he thought it was below his talents.

            I’ve heard of a few other performers voicing adverts to make ends meet, Phil Cool did this after regular TV work became hard for him to get.

  4. Glenn Aylett

    November 27, 2022 at 12:25 pm

    RIP Leslie Phillips, he was the best character in this film as the caddish, womanising school inspector who tries to pull the gym mistress, played by Sylvia Sims, and ends up on his back.

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