Fresh Cream Cakes Advert Collection - British Comedy Stars

Fresh Cream Cakes Naughty But Nice advert from the eighties.
Starring Pat Coombs, Tommy Cooper, Barbara Windsor, Kenneth Williams, Julia McKenzie, Les Dawson, Roy Barraclough, Larry Grayson & Frankie Howerd.
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While Mr Kipling ran its sedate, well-mannered commercials for decades, boringly recounting scenes not seen in normal households for centuries, Lyons decided that a more modern approach was required. The basic theme of the ‘Naughty… but Nice’ campaign was that, yeah, the cakes might have loads of sugar and cream in them that may be bad for your figure, but who cared when they tasted as good as this? This devilish assertion was backed up by a roster of celebs, from Les Dawson in drag to Barbara Windsor, via Kenneth Williams in, improbably enough, Dracula mode. (‘Ere! The trouble with these midnight snacks is you get crumbs all over the bed!’) The slogan is said to be the creation of Salman Rushdie, trying to raise a few bob to write novels by working as a copywriter. Perhaps if he’d stuck to writing about cream cakes then he wouldn’t have had so much hassle in later years. In fact Rushdie is not alone in taking the commercial shilling over the years – legendary sports commentator Murray Walker may have been well-known for his garbled English, but in a previous career he’d informed the nation that Opal Fruits were ‘made to make your mouth water’.

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Who is Carol Hawkins?

Blonde, beautiful and extremely likable are some of the many ways to describe Carol Hawkins.
She first appeared on the screen in The Body Stealers (1969) and in a few other films following her debut. However, it is for her 'Carry On...' film work which she is best remembered throughout the 1970s, together with her role as sexy Sharon Eversleigh in the TV series, Please Sir! (1968).

Appearing in the very successful Carry on Abroad (1972) as Marge, her character was paired with 'Lily' played by Sally Geeson, both of whom go off to the Spanish Island, with the rest of the 'Carry On...' gang, looking for love. Her contribution to the film was an important one and her character is enjoyable to watch on-screen.
Her performance was so successful that she was asked back to be Sandra in Carry on Behind (1975). Although, not the best of the Carry On films she was certainly memorable.
In addition to appearing in two Carry On films, she had also appeared in Carry on Again Christmas (1970).

Carol also appeared as a supporting player in the Carry on Laughing! (1975) television series. Her place in 'Carry On...' history as a supporting 'Carry Oner' is certainly sealed.
In recent years, and with the decline of the British film industry, Carol found work in television in comedy series like My Husband and I (1987). It is a shame that she has not done more work on television, however she did appear in Doctors (2000) in 2004 playing "Pam Jordan" in an episode called "Getting On".

In recent times, Carol has appeared at some of the memorabilia events at the NEC in Birmingham.
Hawkins trained early on as a shorthand typist at Pitman´s College, London, but following some modelling and promotion work attended the Corona Stage Academy in Hammersmith, London. While still training as an actress, she won the part of Sharon Eversleigh in the film of the popular television series Please Sir!, replacing the departed Penny Spencer. Hawkins went on to play the part of Sharon in The Fenn Street Gang.

Hawkins is perhaps best known for her sexy "crumpet" roles in Please Sir! and in two Carry On films: Carry On Abroad (1972), alongside Sally Geeson, and Carry On Behind (1975), alongside Sherrie Hewson. She appeared in the television series, but she declined to appear in the 1976 Carry On England, finding the proposed nudity excessive (the part written for Hawkins was played instead by Tricia Newby). Other film appearances at this time include principal roles in British comedy films Not Now, Comrade, and the sex comedy Confessions of a Pop Performer. At the end of 1976, she appeared in the Porridge episode The Desperate Hours as a fake doctor assigned to secretly give Fletcher a false passport.
Hawkins "more or less retired" in 2005, with the aim of devoting more time to spiritual matters and animal care.

Who is Warren Mitchell?

Warren Mitchell

Warren Mitchell was born on January 14, 1926 in Stoke Newington, London, England as Warren Misell. He was an actor, known for Till Death Us Do Part (1965), In Sickness and in Health (1985) and Jabberwocky (1977).

Mitchell was born in Stoke Newington, London. His father was a glass and china merchant. He was of Russian Jewish descent and described himself in an interview as an atheist, but also stated that he "enjoyed being Jewish". He was interested in acting from an early age and attended Gladys Gordon's Academy of Dramatic Arts in Walthamstow from the age of seven. He did well at Southgate County School (now Southgate School), a state grammar school at Palmers Green, Middlesex. He then studied physical chemistry at University College, Oxford, for six months. There he met his contemporary, Richard Burton, and together they joined the Royal Air Force in 1944. He completed his navigator training in Canada just as the Second World War ended.

Richard Burton's description of the acting profession had convinced him that it would be better than completing his chemistry degree and so Mitchell attended RADA for two years, performing in the evening with London's Unity Theatre. After a short stint as a DJ on Radio Luxembourg, in 1951, Mitchell became a versatile professional actor with straight and comedy roles on stage, radio, film and television.

His first broadcast was as a regular on the radio show Educating Archie, and this led to appearances in both the radio and television versions of Hancock's Half Hour. By the late '50s, he regularly appeared on television: as Sean Connery's trainer in boxing drama Requiem for a Heavyweight (1957), with Charlie Drake in the sitcom Drake's Progress (BBC, 1957) and a title role in Three 'Tough' Guys (ITV, 1957), in which he played a bungling criminal. He also appeared in several episodes of Armchair Theatre. During the first of these, Underground (1958), one of the lead actors died during the live performance. He also had roles in The Avengers in addition to many ITC drama series including: William Tell, The Four Just Men, Sir Francis Drake, Danger Man and as a recurrent guest in The Saint.

His cinema début was in Guy Hamilton's Manuela (1957), and he began a career of minor roles as sinister foreign agents, assisted by his premature baldness and facility with Eastern European accents. He appeared in The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (José Quintero, 1961), Carry On Cleo (1964) and Help! (Richard Lester, 1965) and played leads in All the Way Up (James MacTaggart, 1970), The Chain (Jack Gold, 1984), The Dunera Boys (Ben Lewin, 1985) and Foreign Body (Ronald Neame, 1986).

In 1965, Mitchell was cast in the role for which he became best known, as the Conservative-voting, bigoted cockney West Ham United supporter Alf Garnett in a play for the BBC Comedy Playhouse series, broadcast on 22 July 1965. This was the pilot edition of the long-running series Till Death Us Do Part, with Gretchen Franklin, Una Stubbs and Antony Booth. The part of Mum, played by Franklin, was recast with Dandy Nichols in the role when the programme was commissioned as a series. Mitchell's real life persona was different from Alf Garnett, being Jewish, Labour-voting and a staunch supporter of Tottenham Hotspur. The show ran from 1966 to 1975, in seven series, making a total of 53 episodes.

Mitchell had a long and distinguished career on stage and television. Other small screen roles included a 13-episode series, Men of Affairs with Brian Rix (ITV, 1973–74), based on the West End hit farce Don't Just Lie There, Say Something! There were also performances in 1975 in Play for Today (showing that he could play a serious character role in the episode, Moss), The Sweeney (Thames Television for ITV, 1978), Lovejoy (BBC), Waking the Dead (BBC), Kavanagh QC (Carlton Television for ITV, he played a concentration camp survivor in the episode Ancient History), as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice (BBC, 1980) and Gormenghast. In 2001, he appeared in a Christmas Special episode of Last of the Summer Wine, "Potts in Pole Position".

In the early 1970s, Mitchell appeared as a team captain on the television comedy panel game show Jokers Wild, opposite Les Dawson.

He was a subject of the television programme This Is Your Life in 1972 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews.

On stage he received extensive critical acclaim for his performances as Willy Loman in Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman at the National Theatre directed by Michael Rudman (1979, being originally cast in the role by Stephen Barry at the Playhouse in Perth, Australia);[ Harold Pinter's The Caretaker at the National Theatre; Pinter's The Homecoming at London's Comedy Theatre (1991) and Miller's The Price at the Apollo Theatre in 2003.

Mitchell reprised the role of Alf Garnett in the films Till Death Us Do Part (1969) and The Alf Garnett Saga (1972), in the ATV series Till Death... (1981), and in the BBC series In Sickness and in Health (1985–92). He also reprised his role as Alf Garnett in 1983 in the television series The Main Attraction where comedians recreated their famous acts from their past in front of a live and television audience (similar to An Audience with... that began in 1976).

 In 1997 he played the role in An Audience with Alf Garnett. The same year, ITV aired a series of mini-episodes called A Word With Alf, featuring Alf and his friends. All the TV shows and both films were written by Johnny Speight. When Speight died in 1998, the series was cancelled at Mitchell's request.

In 2008, at the age of 82, Mitchell was performing, alongside Ross Gardiner at the Trafalgar Studios, in London's West End, as a retired dry-cleaner in Jeff Baron's portrait of Jewish-American life Visiting Mr. Green.

Mitchell was a patron of the British Humanist Association. In 1951 he married Constance M. Wake, an actress who appeared in early 1960s television dramas such as Maigret. They had three children.

For over twenty years, Mitchell suffered pain from nerve damage, caused by transverse myelitis, and was a supporter of the Neuropathy Trust. He suffered a mild stroke in August 2004. He was back onstage a week later, reprising his lauded role as a cantankerous old Jew in Arthur Miller's The Price.

Mitchell died in Highgate, London, on 14 November 2015 after a long illness, two months before his 90th birthday.

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Who is Angela Douglas?

Angela Douglas

Angela Douglas is without a doubt a very classy actress, who is remembered by million for her "Carry On..." career as well as other character roles.

Absolutely amazing in Carry on Cowboy (1965) as gorgeous, all-singing and trigger happy Annie Oakley, she eventually appeared in four "Carry On..." films and her best performance was probably as "The Princess Jelhi" in Carry On... Up the Khyber (1968).

Her entire "Carry On..." career is one of class not bawdiness, and she is a true heroine from the film's most successful period. She is often seen today in character roles in television and film.
She was happily married to actor Kenneth More for 14 years, after originally meeting him on the set of Some People (1962) in Bristol.

Miss Douglas made an appearance in north Wales in late September 2005 to unveil a plaque dedicated to the filming of Carry On... Up the Khyber (1968). Part of the movie had been shot in Llanberis, north Wales. She was quoted on BBC News saying that she loved appearing in Carry on Cowboy (1965) and Carry On... Up the Khyber (1968) and that they were her favourites.

Douglas started acting as a teenager, joining the Worthing, West Sussex repertory company, before making her West End theatre debut in 1958.
She made her film debut in 1959 with Donald Pleasence in The Shakedown, and then appeared with Tommy Steele in It's All Happening.

She is best remembered for her roles in several Carry On Films in the 1960s, including Carry On Cowboy (1965) as an all-singing and trigger-happy version of Annie Oakley. She then appeared in Carry On Screaming! (1966), Follow That Camel (1967) and Carry On... Up the Khyber (1968). She has, by virtue of this association, appeared on many retrospective and spin-off programmes. Douglas made an appearance in North Wales in September 2005 to unveil a plaque dedicated to the filming of Carry On... Up the Khyber, as part of the movie had been shot in Llanberis.


Her other films have included The Comedy Man, Digby, the Biggest Dog in the World and The Four Feathers.
Her television credits have included The Avengers, The Saint, Z-Cars, Dixon of Dock Green, Jason King and Coronation Street, and Doctor at Large.

After husband Kenneth More was diagnosed with Parkinsons Disease, she put her career on hold after 11 episodes of Oil Strike North. After More's death, she returned in various roles, including Doris Lethbridge-Stewart in Doctor Who (1989) and Peak Practice. In 1996 she played the part of Isobel Trimble in the third series of Cardiac Arrest.

She has since concentrated on a career in journalism and writing, having completed two books.

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Who is Valerie Leon?

Valerie Leon

Valerie Leon is an English actress who had roles in a number of high-profile British film franchises, including the Carry On series.

Her father was a director of a textile company, and her mother, who trained at RADA, ended her acting career in order to become a full-time mother. She is the eldest of four privately educated children. After leaving school, she became a trainee fashion buyer at Harrods, before playing truant one day to go to an audition which led to her becoming a chorus girl, and then appearing with Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl at The Prince of Wales Theatre in London.

Leon appeared in several of the Carry On films and has been a Bond

girl twice: in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and the "non-official" Never Say Never Again (1983). Other supporting appearances include Revenge of the Pink Panther, The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer (as the secretary Tanya), a hotel receptionist in The Italian Job, and a stockings clad callgirl in No Sex Please, We're British, alongside fellow Carry On actress Margaret Nolan.

The 1971 Hammer horror film Blood from the Mummy's Tomb offered Leon a rare lead role, as a reincarnated Egyptian queen.

On television, Leon is probably best remembered for her part as a tall sexy buxom woman with a whip driven wild by a small and puny man wearing Hai Karate aftershave, in a series of commercials for the product. She also appeared in The Saint, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), Up Pompeii!, The Avengers, Space: 1999, The Persuaders, and in The Goodies comedy episode "It Might as Well Be String".

Leon was married to the television comedy producer, Michael Mills from 1974 until his death in 1988. The marriage produced two children, a boy, Leon, born in 1975 and a girl, Merope, born in 1977, who is a journalist on The Guardian newspaper and currently editor of the Weekend supplement.

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Who is Patsy Rowlands?

Patsy Rowlands

Patsy Rowlands was an English actress who is best remembered for her roles in the Carry On films series, and as Betty Lewis in the popular ITV Thames sitcom Bless This House, and as Alice Meredith in the Yorkshire Television sitcom Hallelujah!.

She was born in Palmers Green, London and attended the Sacred Heart convent school at Whetstone. While attending, an elocution teacher spotted her potential and encouraged her to pursue a career in acting. She applied for the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and won a scholarship aged fifteen.
Rowlands began her career in the chorus of Annie Get Your Gun, followed by a summer season in Torquay. She then spent several years with the Players' Theatre in London, before making her West End debut in Sandy Wilson's musical Valmouth. It was at this time she met her future husband, the composer Malcolm Sircom. They divorced in 1967.

Other West End theatre credits included Semi-Detached with Laurence Olivier and directed by Tony Richardson (with whom she was to work often, appearing in his 1963 film Tom Jones), Shut Your Eyes and Think of England, with Donald Sinden, The Seagull and Ben Travers's The Bed Before Yesterday, both directed by Lindsay Anderson and When We Are Married for Ronald Eyre. She also starred in Cameron Mackintosh's revival of Oliver! in the mid-1990s, as well as playing Jack's mother in the original London cast of Sondheim's Into the Woods. Her final appearance was as Mrs Pearce in the National Theatre's production of My Fair Lady which also starred Jonathan Pryce.

Rowlands also appeared quite frequently on television early in her career. Amongst the various series in which she appeared, were several appearances in Gert and Daisy (1959) as Bonnie, as well as appearing in 2 episodes of Danger Man (as different, unrelated characters) and in The Avengers episode "Love All"

She made her debut in the Carry On films in Carry On Again Doctor in 1969 and soon became a
On 7 March 1971 she starred in a single episode (You've Really Landed Me In It This Time) of popular ITV sitcom Doctor at Large, with Barry Evans and George Layton, as a nymphomaniac secretary, a role she seemed to relish and had played similarly in Carry On Loving.
regular member of the team, usually playing the dowdy, put-upon wife or the long-suffering secretary. Between 1969 and 1975 she appeared in nine of the films in increasingly large roles, including Carry On Loving, Carry On at Your Convenience, Carry On Girls and Carry On Behind.

From 1971 to 1976, she played Betty, the feckless neighbour in the popular ITV sitcom Bless This House, which starred fellow Carry On star Sid James. Her other television credits at this time included appearances with comedians such as Les Dawson and Dick Emery. In the early 1980s, she appeared with Thora Hird in the sitcom Hallelujah!, in which they played an aunt and niece in The Salvation Army. In 1991 she appeared in an episode of Zorro filmed in Madrid, Spain.

Towards the end of her life, Rowlands appeared in several revivals of major musicals such as Oliver! and My Fair Lady.
Later television credits include The Cazalets, The Canterbury Tales, The Cater Street Hangman, Get Well Soon, Vanity Fair, Murder Most English, and Bottom for the BBC. In 2002, she was a guest on the paranormal series Most Haunted. Rowlands took part in several DVD audio commentaries along with other surviving stars of the Carry On films in 2003.

Rowlands developed breast cancer and had to abandon her plans to become an acting teacher, and quietly retire. She died of the disease in an East Sussex hospice, three days after her 74th birthday. She was survived by her only son, Alan.

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Who is Nigel Planer?

Nigel Planer

 

Nigel Planer is an English actor, comedian, novelist and playwright who is best known for his role as Neil in the cult BBC comedy The Young Ones. He has appeared in many West End musicals, including original casts of Evita, Chicago, We Will Rock You, Wicked, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He has also appeared in Hairspray. He won a BRIT award in 1984 and has been nominated for Olivier, TMA, What's On Stage, and BAFTA awards.

Planer was born in Westminster, London. He was educated at King's House School and Westminster School and then studied at the University of Sussex and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA).

A founding member of the London Comedy Store and original member of The Comic Strip - pioneers of the alternative comedy movement in the UK. Planer appeared with Peter Richardson as part of the double act 'The Outer Limits'. Planer and Richardson also wrote the That's Life! parody on Not The Nine O'Clock News. Over the next 20 years he went on to star in film, theatre and television. With Christopher Douglas he created the spoof actor character Nicholas Craig, who appears in book, radio, TV and articles as well as live; most recently at the Festival Hall, London in Stewart Lee 's At Last the 1984 show. Planer is also the author of several books, plays, radio plays, and TV scripts as well as a small volume of poetry. He was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Arts degree from Edinburgh Napier University in June 2011.

Planer is best known for his role as Neil, the hippie housemate in the cult BBC comedy The Young Ones, which ran from 1982–84.

He also stars in The Comic Strip Presents... series of short films from 1983–present, invariably in the guise of various strange outsiders, to great comedic effect, most recently, to critical acclaim, he played Peter Mandelson in The Hunt for Tony Blair. In 2007 he appeared on a BBC 4 programme in the guise of 'Nicholas Craig', interviewed by Mark Lawson. In 2010 he guest starred in "Agatha Christie's Marple: The Pale Horse" In 2003, he played Professor Dumbledore in a Harry Potter parody, Harry Potter and the Secret Chamber Pot of Azerbaijan. 2013 guest starred in Jonathan Creek for a second time. Other leading roles on TV include Shine on Harvey Moon, Filthy, Rich and Catflap, The Grimleys, King & Castle, Bonjour La Classe and Roll Over Beethoven.

He also starred in Michael Palin's Number 27, Simon Gray's Two Lumps of Ice, Emma Tennant's Frankenstein's Baby and Blackeyes by Dennis Potter.

Guest appearances include programmes such as The Bill, French and Saunders, Jonathan Creek, Blackadder III, The Last Detective, the Paul Merton Show, the Lenny Henry Show and Gary Wilmot's Songs from the Shows. He also made a guest appearance in an episode of This is Jinsy entitled Nameworm. He also appears in Episodes as Matt le Blanc's lawyer. He is currently appearing in the BBC series "Boomers".
In 2010, Planer returned to the role of the Narrator in the UK Tour of The Rocky Horror Show, playing in Cambridge and Northampton, before also reprising the role of Wilbur in Manchester and Leeds. He also featured in Doctor Who: Live touring the UK, as Vorgenson The Inter-Galactic Showman, before appearing in Pantomime as Captain Hook at the Lyceum Theatre in Sheffield.

Planer has appeared in a number of films:- Flood, Virgin Territory, Bright Young Things, Hogfather, The Colour of Magic, Wind in the Willows, Land Girls, Clockwork Mice, Carry on Columbus, Brazil, The Supergrass, I Give It a Year and Yellowbeard.

Planer played Den Dennis, one of the four members of the 1980s spoof rock band, Bad News who made two albums produced by Brian May. They also performed at the Hammersmith Apollo as well as the Donington and Reading Rock Festivals.

As Neil from The Young Ones, Planer gained a number two hit single in 1984 in the form of "Hole in My Shoe", (originally a hit for 1960s band Traffic). A cover of Tomorrow's "My White Bicycle" was a less successful follow up, only reaching No.97 in the charts. After that, an album was produced, entitled Neil's Heavy Concept Album. Planer also took Neil's stage act on the road in that year as Neil in the "Bad Karma in The UK" tour. The Young Ones also appeared on Cliff Richard's 1986 charity rerecording of "Living Doll", which spent three weeks at number one in the UK.

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Who is Rik Mayall?

Rik Mayall

Rik Mayall was an English comedian, writer, actor and voice-over artist.
Mayall was a pioneer of alternative comedy in the early 1980s. He formed a comedy partnership with Ade Edmondson, and appeared in numerous cult classic sitcoms, including The Young Ones (1982–84), Filthy Rich & Catflap (1987), The New Statesman (1987–94), Bottom (1991–95), Blackadder, and in the comedy films Drop Dead Fred (1991) and Guest House Paradiso (1999). His acting style was described as energetic "post-punk".

His acting style was described as energetic "post-punk".At the time of his death, Mayall was described by Danny Cohen, director of BBC Television, as a "truly brilliant" comedian with a unique stage presence, whose "fireball creativity" and approach to sitcom had inspired a generation of comedy stars.
Mayall, the second of four children, was born in Epping, Essex, to John and Gillian (Harrild) Mayall. He had an older brother, Anthony, and two younger sisters, Libby and Kate. When Mayall was three years old, he and his parents—who taught drama—moved to Droitwich Spa, Worcestershire, where he spent the rest of his childhood and performed in his parents' plays.

After attending The King's School, Worcester,where he failed most of his O-levels and scraped through A-levels, Mayall went to the University of Manchester in 1975 to study drama, where he befriended his future comedy partner Ade Edmondson. He never graduated. There he also met Ben Elton, a fellow student, and Lise Mayer, with whom he later co-wrote The Young Ones.
Edmondson and Mayall gained their reputation at The Comedy Store, from 1980. Apart from performing in their double act, 20th Century Coyote, Mayall developed solo routines, using characters such as Kevin Turvey and a pompous anarchist poet named Rick. This led to Edmondson and Mayall, along with Comedy Store compere Alexei Sayle and other upcoming comedians, including Nigel Planer, Peter Richardson, French and Saunders, Arnold Brown and Pete Richens, setting up their own comedy club called "The Comic Strip" in the Raymond Revuebar, a strip club in Soho. Mayall's Kevin Turvey character gained a regular slot in A Kick Up the Eighties, first broadcast in 1981. He appeared as "Rest Home" Ricky in Richard O'Brien's Shock Treatment, a sequel to The Rocky Horror Picture Show. He played Dentonvale's resident attendant as the love interest to Nell Campbell's Nurse Ansalong.

Mayall's television appearances as Kevin Turvey warranted a mockumentary based on the character titled Kevin Turvey – The Man Behind The Green Door, broadcast in 1982. The previous year, he appeared in a bit role in An American Werewolf in London. His stage partnership with Edmondson continued, with them often appearing together as "The Dangerous Brothers", hapless daredevils whose hyper-violent antics foreshadowed their characters in Bottom. Channel 4 offered the Comic Strip group six short films, which became The Comic Strip Presents..., debuting on 2 November 1982. The series, which continued sporadically for many years, saw Mayall play a wide variety of roles. It was known for anti-establishment humour and for parodies such as Bad News on Tour, a spoof "rockumentary" starring Mayall, Richardson, Edmondson and Planer as a heavy metal band.

At the time The Comic Strip Presents... was negotiated, the BBC took an interest in The Young Ones, a sitcom written by Mayall and then-girlfriend Lise Mayer, in the same anarchic vein as Comic Strip. Ben Elton joined the writers. The series was commissioned and first broadcast in 1982, shortly before Comic Strip. Mayall played Rick, a pompous sociology student and Cliff Richard devotee. Despite the sitcom format, Mayall maintained his double-act with Edmondson, who starred as violent punk Vyvyan. Nigel Planer (as hippie Neil) and Christopher Ryan (as "Mike the cool person") also starred, with additional material written and performed by Alexei Sayle.
The first series was successful and a second was screened in 1984. The show owed a comic debt to Spike Milligan, but Milligan was disapproving of Mayall. In 1986, Mayall played the Detective in the video of "Peter Gunn" by Art of Noise featuring Duane Eddy.

Richard Michael "Rik" Mayall was an English comedian, writer, actor and voice-over artist. Mayall was a pioneer of alternative comedy in the early 1980s. He formed a comedy partnership with Ade Edmondson, and appeared in numerous cult classic sitcoms, including The Young Ones, Filthy Rich & Catflap, The New Statesman, Bottom, Blackadder, and in the comedy films Drop Dead Fred and Guest House Paradiso. His acting style was described as energetic "post-punk".

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Who is Barbara Windsor?

Barbara Windsor

Barbara Ann Deeks, MBE, known professionally as Barbara Windsor, is an English actress, best known for her appearances in the Carry On films and for playing Peggy Mitchell in the BBC One soap opera EastEnders. She joined the cast of EastEnders in 1994 and won the 1999 British Soap Award for Best Actress. She left the show in 2010, before returning for one episode a year between 2013 and 2015.

Windsor began her career on stage at the age of 13 and made her West End debut in 1952. Her first film was The Belles of St Trinian's in 1954. She received a BAFTA Award nomination as Best British Actress for the 1963 film Sparrers Can't Sing, and a Tony Award nomination as Best Featured Actress in a Musical for the 1964 Broadway production of Oh, What A Lovely War!. Other stage roles include starring opposite Vanessa Redgrave in the 1972 West End production of The Threepenny Opera. Between 1964 and 1974, she appeared in nine Carry On films, including Carry On Spying (1964), Carry On Doctor (1967), Carry On Camping (1969), Carry On Henry (1971) and Carry On Abroad (1972). She also co-presented the 1977 Carry On compilation That's Carry On!, along with Kenneth Williams. Other film roles include A Study in Terror (1965), Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968) and as the voice of Dormouse in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland (2010) and the upcoming Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016).

Windsor came to real prominence with her portrayals of a 'sexy good time girl' in nine Carry On films. Her first was Carry On Spying in 1964 and her final Carry On... film acting role was in Carry On Dick in 1974. She also appeared in several Carry On... television and compilation specials between 1964 and 1977.
One of her most iconic sexy scenes was in Carry On Camping in 1969, where her bikini top flew off during outdoor aerobic exercises. In classic Carry On style, exposure is implied but little is in fact seen.

From 1973 to 1975 she appeared with several of the Carry On team in the West End revue Carry On London! During this time she had a well-publicised affair with her co-star, Sid James.
She was strongly identified with the Carry On films for many years, which restricted the variety of roles she was chosen to play later.
She took over the role of Peggy Mitchell, for which she received the "Best Actress" award at The British Soap Awards in 1999 and a "Lifetime Achievement Award" from the same source in 2009.
A debilitating case of the Epstein-Barr virus forced a two-year absence from the role between 2003 to 2005, although Windsor was able to make a two episode appearance in 2004. She rejoined the cast in mid-2005, initially on a one-year contract, though this was later extended.

The Doctor Who episode "Army of Ghosts" broadcast on 1 July 2006 included a specially recorded clip featuring her appearing in character. She was seen telling the ghost of Den Watts to "get outta my pub!" In November 2005, as part of the BBC's Children In Need charity night, a Catherine Tate Show/EastEnders mini episode was broadcast. It featured Windsor as Peggy in the Queen Victoria Public House, being tormented by Catherine Tate's schoolgirl character Lauren Cooper.
In October 2009 Windsor announced she was to quit her role as Peggy Mitchell, saying she wanted to spend more time with her husband. On 10 September 2010 her character left Albert Square after a fire at the Queen Victoria pub, of which she was the owner.

In July 2013, it was announced that Windsor was to return for one episode, which aired on 20 September 2013. She again returned for a single episode on 25 September 2014, and made a further appearance for EastEnders 30th anniversary on 17 February 2015. In February 2015, Windsor, alongside Pam St. Clement (Pat Butcher), took part in EastEnders: Back to Ours to celebrate 30 years of EastEnders. Windsor and Clement looked back on some of their characters' most infamous moments.
In 2017, a drama about the life and career of actress Barbara Windsor was made by the BBC entitled Babs.

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Who is Sally Geeson?

Sally Geeson

Sally Louise Geeson (born 23 June 1950 in Cuckfield, West Sussex, England) is an English actress with a career mostly on television in the 1970s. Her most famous role was as Sid James's daughter, Sally, in Bless This House. Her character was only 16 at the start despite the fact Geeson herself was in her early 20s.
Geeson studied at Corona Stage Academy from 1957 to 1966, during which time she played small parts in several movies, including The Millionairess (1960), Expresso Bongo (1959), and Carry On Regardless (1961). She also appeared in Carry On Abroad (1972) and Carry On Girls (1973). She also starred alongside Norman Wisdom in the film What's Good for the Goose in 1969, and appeared with Vincent Price in two horror films, The Oblong Box (1969) and Cry of the Banshee (1970).

In August 2013 Geeson featured in a TV commercial for Anglian Windows. Geeson was the second wife of television personality William G. Stewart. She later took up a career in teaching. She has three children called Barney, Hayley and Christopher. Her sister, the actress Judy Geeson, lives in Hollywood.

Filmography:
Don't Raise the Bridge, Lower the River (1968)
The Oblong Box (1969)
What's Good for the Goose (1969)
Cry of the Banshee (1970)
Mr. Forbush and the Penguins (1971)
Bless This House (1972)
Carry On Abroad (1972)
Carry On Girls (1973)

Television:
Armchair Mystery Theatre (1964)
Boy Meets Girl (1967)
Man in a Suitcase - Day of Execution (1967)
Sanctuary - The Girl with the Blue Guitar (1968)
ITV Playhouse - Camille (1968)
You and the World (1968)
Galton and Simpson Comedy (1969)
Detective - Hunt the Peacock (1969)
Strange Report - Whose Pretty Girl Are You (1969)
Softly, Softly: Taskforce - Sue (1970)
Z-Cars - A Day Like Every Day (1970)
Wicked Women - Florence Maybrick (1970)
The Fenn Street Gang - Smart Lad Wanted (1972)
My Name Is Harry Worth - The Family Reunion (1974)
Bless This House (1971–76)

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Who is Margaret Nolan?

Who is Margaret Nolan

Margaret Nolan (born 29 October 1943) is an English visual artist, actress and former glamour model. She was born in Hampstead, London to Irish parents. Nolan was married to English playwright Tom Kempinski in 1963 and divorced in 1972. She has two sons.

Margaret Nolan began her career in front of a camera lens as a model. As her glamour modelling career took off, she was briefly known as Vicky Kennedy in the early 1960s. Nolan reverted to her birth name as soon as acting roles beckoned; appearing in numerous television shows, theatre productions and movies. The latter included A Hard Day's Night with the Beatles, Ferry Cross the Mersey with Gerry and the Pacemakers and Marcel Carné's Three Rooms in Manhattan.

In 1964, Nolan played the small role of Dink, Bond's masseuse, in the James Bond film Goldfinger. She was painted gold and wore a gold bikini for Robert Brownjohn's title-sequence, advertisements and soundtrack-cover. This led to photographs in Playboy magazine's James Bond's Girls edition of November 1965.

On appearing in Michael Pertwee's 1969 farce She's Done It Again at London's Garrick Theatre, Nolan was known for five BBC series with Spike Milligan and in 2013 published a short essay on her time working with him. Nolan gave a live reading of the work at the Poetry Society in Covent Garden, reviewed by What's On London as a "deeply-personal memoir... her performance simply magical."

Nolan was given bigger roles in several 1970s Carry On films – and most sizably Carry On Girls. The scene in Carry On Girls where a woman in a one-piece swim suit sneezes and bursts open two buttons on her outfit (revealing most of her breasts) is Nolan. The same film contains the sequence of Nolan (in a silver bikini) and Barbara Windsor cat-fighting on a hotel floor.

As a visual artist, Margaret Nolan is recognised for her expressively graphic and sometimes grotesque photo-montages assembled from cut-outs of her early publicity photographs.

She has exhibited in London at many venues, whilst a screen-print is held by Kemistry Gallery.

Nolan lives and works in her home town of Hampstead, continues to exhibit, and occasionally attends conventions for film fans.

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Who is Hattie Jacques?

Who is Hattie Jacques?

Hattie Jacques (born Josephine Edwina Jaques; 7 February 1922 – 6 October 1980) was an English comedy actress of stage, radio and screen. She is best known as a regular of the Carry On films, where she typically played strict, no-nonsense characters, but was also a prolific television and radio performer.

Jacques started her career in 1944 with an appearance at the Players' Theatre in London, but came to national prominence through her appearances on three highly popular radio series on the BBC: with Tommy Handley on It's That Man Again; with ventriloquist Peter Brough on Educating Archie; and then with Tony Hancock on Hancock's Half Hour. After the Second World War Jacques made her cinematic debut in Green for Danger, in which she had a brief, uncredited role. From 1958 to 1974 she appeared in 14 Carry On films, playing various roles including the formidable hospital matron. On television she had a long professional partnership with Eric Sykes, with whom she co-starred in his long-running series Sykes and Sykes and a.... The role endeared her to the public and the two became staples of British television.

In private, Jacques led a turbulent life. She was married to the actor John Le Mesurier from 1949 until their divorce in 1965,[1] a separation caused by her five-year affair with another man. Jacques, who had been overweight since her teenage years, suffered ill-health soon after the separation from Le Mesurier and her weight rose to nearly 20 stone (130 kg). She died of a heart attack on 6 October 1980, at the age of 58. Her biographer, Francis Gray, considers Jacques had a "talent for larger-than-life comedy which never lost its grip on humanity", while she could also display "a broader comic mode" as a result of her "extraordinary versatility".

When the first Carry On film was made in 1958, Jacques formed part of the cast. This series would go on to employ the same group of actors who would collectively become known as the "Carry On team". Jacques appeared in 14 of these films over a 15-year period and like many of her Carry On co-stars, she quickly became typecast. A reoccurring role for Jacques was a no-nonsense matron which she played in five of the films – Carry On Nurse, Carry On Doctor, Carry On Again Doctor, Carry On Camping and Carry On Matron. She became known by the team as a "Mother Hen" figure, and was a close friend to many of her co-stars, including Kenneth Williams and Joan Sims, whom Jacques provided with a great deal of advice and practical help. In return, Sims regarded Jacques as her "greatest friend", and as "both a sister and a mother to me". Jacques would frequently invite Sims, Williams and Hawtrey to her house for Christmas dinner.

Jacques began her association with the Carry On series in March 1958 with the first film in the series, Carry On Sergeant.

On 29 January 1960 Jacques appeared in the first episode of the BBC comedy series Sykes and a..., co-starring with Eric Sykes as a pair of twins; Richard Wattis and Deryck Guyler were also regulars in the cast. Jacques's character—Hattie (Hat) Sykes—was "a middle-class, slightly pretentious lady struggling to keep her dignity as the men made fools of themselves". Sykes and a... went on to run for sixty episodes over nine series during the next five years. they released a comedy album entitled Eric and Hattie and Things!!!, but it failed to chart. In September 1960 she starred in her second television series, Our House, alongside Charles Hawtrey, Bernard Bresslaw and Joan Sims; Jacques played the librarian Georgina Ruddy, who was forced to keep quiet at work and so made up for it by being extremely noisy at home. Later that year she played minor roles in two films: Watch Your Stern, with many of the Carry On regulars, and School for Scoundrels, opposite Ian Carmichael. After these her screen time increased with the part of Nanette Parry in Make Mine Mink in which she co-starred with Terry-Thomas and Athene Seyler. She later described this as her favourite film.

By this time Carry On had become a leading film franchise, with the author Robert Ross describing it as a "phenomenon". That year's film, Carry On Regardless, was the fifth in the series; Jacques received a fee of £100 for the small role of a disgruntled hospital nurse, who appeared briefly on screen alongside the English character actor Kynaston Reeves who played her cantankerous boss. Jacques was initially intended for a major part in the film, but she was unable to commit to a longer role because of ill health. She appeared in her sixth Carry On, Carry On Cabby, in 1963, as "Peggy Hawkins", the emotionally neglected wife of taxi-firm boss "Charlie", played by Sid James. Jacques later named the film as her favourite of the series, as she was allowed to drop her "battleaxe" persona and play the romantic lead opposite James.

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Who is Charles Hawtrey?

Who is Charles Hawtrey?

George Frederick Joffre Hartree (30 November 1914 – 27 October 1988), known as Charles Hawtrey, was an English comedy actor and musician.

Beginning at a young age as a boy soprano, he made several records before moving on to the radio. His later career encompassed the theatre (as both actor and director), the cinema (where he regularly appeared supporting Will Hay in the 1930s and '40s in films such as The Ghost of St. Michael's), through the Carry On films, and television.

Born in Hounslow, Middlesex, England in 1914, to William John Hartree and his wife Alice Hartree née Crow as George Frederick Joffre Hartree, he took his stage name from the theatrical knight, Sir Charles Hawtrey, and encouraged the suggestion that he was his son. However, his father was actually a London car mechanic.

Following study at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts in London, he embarked on a career in the theatre as both actor and director.

By the 1940s, Hawtrey was appearing on radio during Children's Hour in the Norman and Henry Bones, the Boy Detectives series alongside the actress Patricia Hayes (first broadcast in 1943). Later he also played the voice of snooty Hubert Lane, the nemesis of William in the Just William series. His catchphrase was "How's yer mother off for dripping?" Hawtrey's film career continued, but The Ghost of St. Michael's (1941) and The Goose Steps Out (1942) were his last films with Will Hay. After the latter film he asked Hay to give him a bigger role, which Hay refused.

Hawtrey also took a hand at directing films himself, including What Do We Do Now? (1945) a musical-mystery written by the English author George Cooper, and starring George Moon. Around the same time, Hawtrey directed the British actress Dame Flora Robson in Dumb Dora Discovers Tobacco (1946). Both films are believed lost.

In Our House (1960–62), Hawtrey played the character of council official Simon Willow. The series was created by Norman Hudis, the screenwriter for the first six Carry On films. In the opening episode ('Moving into Our House') two couples and five individuals meet at an estate agent's and realise that if they pool their resources they can buy a house big enough to accommodate them all. Hattie Jacques as librarian Georgina Ruddy, who was forced to keep quiet at work and so made up for it by being extremely noisy at home, was arguably the star of the series. Joan Sims starred as the unemployable Daisy Burke.

The series initially ran for 13 episodes from September to December 1960, returning the following year with Bernard Bresslaw and Hylda Baker as Henrietta added to the cast. Of the 39 episodes transmitted, only three survive today

By this time, he had become a regular participant in the Carry On films series. Hawtrey was in the first entry, Carry On Sergeant (1958), and more than 20 of the subsequent films. Hawtrey's characters ranged from the wimpish through the effete to the effeminate.

His last film was Carry On Abroad (1972), after which he was dropped from the series. The last straw occurred in 1972 when, in a bid to finally gain higher billing, Hawtrey withdrew from a Carry On Christmas television programme in which he was scheduled to appear, giving just a few days' notice for his absence and despite appearing in promotional material. After this, producer Peter Rogers stopped using him for Carry On roles. Rogers explained: "He became rather difficult and impossible to deal with because he was drinking a lot. We used to feed him black coffee before he would go on. It really became that we were wasting time." Hawtrey's alcohol consumption had noticeably increased since Carry On Cowboy (1965), which was released in the year his mother died.

On the 24th of October 1988 Hawtrey collapsed in the doorway of the Royal hotel in Deal.He shattered his femur and was rushed in an ambulance to the Buckland hospital in Dover. He was discovered to be suffering from peripheral vascular disease, a condition of the arteries brought on by a lifetime of heavy smoking. Hawtrey was told that to save his life, his legs would have to be amputated. He refused, allegedly saying he preferred to die with his boots on, and died later in the month, aged 73, in a Walmer, Kent nursing home, near Deal. On his deathbed, Hawtrey supposedly threw a vase at his nurse who asked for an autograph[19] – it was the last thing he did. His ashes were scattered in Mortlake Crematorium, close to Chiswick in London; no friends or family attended.

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Who is Joan Sims?

Who is Joan Sims?

Joan Sims AKA Irene Joan Marion Sims (9 May 1930 – 27 June 2001), best known as Joan Sims, was an English actress, best remembered for her roles in the Carry On films, for playing Madge Hardcastle in As Time Goes By and Mrs Wembley, the cook with a liking for sherry, in On the Up.

Sims was born in 1930, the daughter of the station master of Laindon railway station in Laindon, Essex. Sims' early interest in being an actress came from living at the railway station.

In 1946, Sims first applied to RADA, but her audition was unsuccessful. Her first audition included a rendition of Winnie the Pooh. She did succeed in being admitted to PARADA, the academy's preparatory school, and finally, on her fourth attempt, she graduated and was trained at RADA. She graduated from RADA in 1950 at the age of 19. One of her first stage performances was in the 1951 pantomime, The Happy Ha'penny, opposite Stanley Baxter at Glasgow's Citizens Theatre.

Sims made her first film appearance in Will Any Gentleman? with George Cole in 1953.

In 1954, she made a cameo appearance in Doctor in the House, opposite Dirk Bogarde as the sexually repressed Nurse Rigor Mortis. Sims became a regular in the Doctors series, which was produced by Betty E. Box, and was hence spotted by Box's husband Peter Rogers.

She had a small part in the 1957 film Carry on Admiral, unrelated to the later Carry On series and with no other cast members in common with the series.

In 1958, Sims received a script from Peter Rogers; it was for Carry On Nurse. The film Carry On Sergeant had been a huge success at the box office and in the autumn of that year, Rogers and director Gerald Thomas began planning a follow-up.

She first starred in Carry On Nurse, then Carry On Teacher, followed by Carry On Constable and Carry On Regardless, and this sealed her future as a regular Carry On performer. Following a bout of ill health, Dilys Laye had to be brought in to take her place in Carry On Cruising at very short notice; however, Sims rejoined the team with Carry On Cleo. Her role in this was to set the tone for the rest of the Carry On films.

Sims' characters evolved from objects of desire in the early films to frumpy, nagging wives in the later ones, epitomised by the Emily Bung role in Carry On Screaming. Following the success of Carry On Cleo, she stayed with the films all the way though to the final one in the original series, Carry On Emmannuelle. Sims appeared in 24 Carry On films in all; she did not return for the one-off revival film, Carry On Columbus (1992).

After the Carry On series ended in 1978, Sims continued to work on television. She appeared opposite Katharine Hepburn and Laurence Olivier in the award-winning 1975 television film Love Among the Ruins and had a recurring role as Gran in the BBC comedy series Till Death Us Do Part. From 1979 until 1981, she played the recurring character Mrs Bloomsbury-Barton in Worzel Gummidge for Southern Television. Also in 1986, Sims appeared in the long-running BBC science fiction series Doctor Who in the four episodes of The Trial of a Time Lord: The Mysterious Planet as Katryca.

In 1987 she joined the cast on And There's More and was paired up with Nicholas Smith for a number of sketches for each episode as an old couple.

In 1989, she appeared as a medium in the video for Morrissey's "Ouija Board, Ouija Board".

In her later years, Sims fought a long battle against depression. This was worsened by the deaths of her agent Peter Eade, her best friend Hattie Jacques and her mother, all within a two-year period, after which she fell into alcoholism. Sims suffered from Bell's palsy in 1999 and fractured her hip in 2000, but recovered well. However, her alcoholism was beginning to dominate life in her rented Kensington flat, and she described herself as "the queen of puddings." After assessment by a doctor, she was offered a place in a rehabilitation centre, but declined. Offered the opportunity to write her autobiography, she took a role in the BBC television film The Last of the Blonde Bombshells, alongside Dame Judi Dench and Olympia Dukakis.

Sims, like her fellow Carry On star Kenneth Williams, never married. Williams, who was homosexual, did however propose a marriage of convenience to her, which she promptly declined.

Sims entered hospital in November 2000, and complications of a routine operation caused her to slip into a coma. Her lifelong friend and stand-in Norah Holland spoke of the doctors' amazement at her strength and courage throughout her final illness.

On 27 June 2001, ten minutes before she died, Norah Holland spoke to her gently about Kenneth Williams, Hattie Jacques and their time on the Carry On films. She died with Holland holding her hand. She was cremated at Putney Vale Crematorium, and her ashes scattered in the grounds there.

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Who is Kenneth Williams?

Who is Kenneth Williams?

Kenneth Charles Williams (22 February 1926 – 15 April 1988) was an English comic actor and comedian of Welsh parentage. He was one of the main ensemble in 26 of the 31 Carry On films, and appeared in numerous British television shows and radio comedies, including series with Tony Hancock and Kenneth Horne among others.

Kenneth Charles Williams was born on 22 February 1926 in Bingfield Street, King's Cross, London,[3] the son of Louisa ("Lou" or "Louie") Morgan and Charles Williams, a barber and strict Methodist from Wales. Williams had a half-sister, Alice Patricia "Pat", born illegitimately before Louie had met Charlie Williams. Kenneth was educated at Lyulph Stanley School, later becoming apprenticed as a draughtsman to a mapmaker. He joined the Army in 1944 at 18. As part of the Royal Engineers survey section in Bombay, he first performed on stage in the Combined Services Entertainment alongside Stanley Baxter and Peter Nichols. He was a voracious reader able to quote poems or literary extracts from memory. Excerpts from the diaries he kept as an adult show that he adored his supportive and theatrical mother but despised his homophobic, morose and selfish father.

When Hancock steered the show away from what he considered gimmicks and silly voices, Williams found he had less to do. Tiring of this reduced status, he joined Kenneth Horne in Beyond Our Ken (1958–1964), and its sequel, Round the Horne (1965–1968). His roles in Round the Horne included Rambling Syd Rumpo, the eccentric folk singer; Dr Chou En Ginsberg, MA (failed), Oriental criminal mastermind; J. Peasemold Gruntfuttock, telephone heavy breather and dirty old man; and Sandy of the camp couple Julian and Sandy (Julian was played by Hugh Paddick). Their double act contained double entendres and Polari, the homosexual argot.

Williams worked regularly in British film during the 1960s and 1970s, mainly in the Carry On series (1958–1978) with its double entendre humour; and appearing in the series more than any other actor. The films were commercially successful but Williams and the cast were apparently poorly paid. In his diaries, Williams wrote that he earned more in a British Gas advert than for any Carry On film. He often privately criticised and "dripped vitriol" upon the films, considering them beneath him. This became the case with many of the films and shows in which he appeared. He was quick to find fault with his own work, and that of others. Despite this, he spoke fondly of the Carry Ons in interviews. Peter Rogers, producer of the series, recollected, "Kenneth was worth taking care of because, while he cost very little – £5,000 a film, he made a great deal of money for the franchise."

Williams was a regular on the BBC radio panel game Just a Minute from its second season in 1968 until his death. From 1972, when he felt he was not being appreciated, he would scream, "I've come all the way from Great Portland Street" (it was a short distance to the studio from his home). He also talked for almost a minute about a supposed Austrian psychiatrist called Heinrich Swartzberg, correctly guessing that the show's creator, Ian Messiter, had just made the name up.

On television he was a frequent contributor to the 1973–1974 revival of What's My Line?, hosted the weekly entertainment show International Cabaret and was a regular reader on the children's storytelling series Jackanory on BBC1, hosting 69 episodes. He appeared on Michael Parkinson's chat show on eight occasions, regaling audiences with anecdotes from his career. Williams was a stand-in host on the Wogan talk show in 1986; and also voiced the cartoon series Willo the Wisp (1981).

On 14 October 1962, Charlie Williams was taken to hospital after drinking carbon tetrachloride that had been stored in a cough-mixture bottle. Kenneth refused to visit him. The next day Charlie died while Kenneth was out to lunch and the cinema; an hour after being given the news, Kenneth went on stage in the West End. The coroner's court recorded a verdict of accidental death due to corrosive poisoning by carbon tetrachloride.

Several years later Williams turned down work with Orson Welles in America because he disliked the country and had no desire to work there. Many years after his death, The Mail on Sunday, quoting Wes Butters, co-writer of the book Kenneth Williams Unseen: The Private Notes, Scripts And Photographs, claimed Williams had been denied a visa because Scotland Yard considered him a suspect in his father's death.

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Who Is Sid James?

Who Is Sid James?

Sid James (born Solomon Joel Cohen; 8 May 1913 – 26 April 1976) was a South African-born English actor and comedian.

Appearing in British films from 1947, he was cast in numerous small and supporting roles into the 1960s. His profile was raised as Tony Hancock's co-star in Hancock's Half Hour, which ran on television from 1956 until 1960, and then he became known as a regular performer in the Carry On films, appearing in 19 films of the series with the top billing role in 17, in the other two he was cast below Frankie Howerd. Meanwhile, his starring roles in television sitcoms continued for the rest of his life. He starred alongside Diana Coupland in the 1970s sitcom Bless This House which aired from 1971 until James died in 1976.

In 1954, he had begun working with Tony Hancock in his BBC Radio series Hancock's Half Hour. Having seen him in The Lavender Hill Mob, it was the idea of Hancock's writers, Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, to cast James. He played a character with his own name (but having the invented middle name Balmoral), who was a petty criminal who would usually manage to con Hancock, although the character eventually ceased to be Hancock's adversary. With the exception of James, the other regular cast members of the radio series were dropped when the series made the transition to television. His part in the show now greatly increased, many viewers considered Hancock and James to be a double act.

Feeling the format had become exhausted, Hancock decided to end his professional relationship with James at the end of the sixth television series in 1960. Although the two men remained friends, James was upset at his colleague's decision. Galton and Simpson continued to write for both men for a while, and the Sidney Balmoral James character resurfaced in the Citizen James (1960–62) series. Sid James was now consistently taking the lead role in his television work. Taxi! (1963–64) was his next series.

James became a leading member of the Carry On films team, originally to replace Ted Ray who had appeared in Carry On Teacher (1959). It was intended that Ray would become a recurring presence in the Carry On series, but he had been dropped after just one film because of contractual problems. James ultimately made 19 Carry On films, receiving top-billing in 17, making him one of the most featured performers of the regular cast.

The characters he portrayed in the films were usually very similar to the wise-cracking, sly, lecherous Cockney he was famed for playing on television, and in most cases bore the name Sid or Sidney, including Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond in Carry On... Up the Khyber (1968) and elsewhere in his credits. His trademark "dirty laugh" was often used and became, along with a world-weary "Cor, blimey!", his catchphrase.

There were Carry On films in which James played characters who were not called Sid or Sidney, namely, Carry On Henry (1971, a parody of The Six Wives of Henry VIII TV series) and Carry On Dick, a parody of legendary highwayman Dick Turpin, in both of which he played the title roles, and Carry On Cleo, in which he played Mark Antony. In Carry On Cowboy, he even adopted an American accent for his part as "The Rumpo Kid".

In 1967, James was intending to play Sergeant Nocker in Follow That Camel, but was already committed to recording the TV series George and the Dragon (1966–68) for ATV, then one of the ITV contractors. James was replaced in Follow That Camel by the American comic actor Phil Silvers. On 13 May 1967, two weeks after the filming began of what eventually became an entry in the Carry On series, James suffered a severe heart attack. In the same year in Carry On Doctor. James was shown mainly lying in a hospital bed, owing to his real-life health problems. After his heart attack James gave up his heavy cigarette habit and instead smoked a pipe with an occasional cigar; he lost weight, ate only one main meal a day, and limited himself to two or three alcoholic drinks per evening.

Meanwhile his success in TV situation comedy continued with the series Two in Clover (1969–70), and Bless This House (1971-76) as Sid Abbott, a successful enough series in its day to spawn its own film version in 1972.

On 26 April 1976, while on a revival tour of The Mating Season, a 1969 farce by the Irish playwright Sam Cree, James suffered a heart attack on stage at the Sunderland Empire Theatre. Actress Olga Lowe thought that James was playing a practical joke at first when he failed to reply to her dialogue. The technical manager called for the curtain to close and requested a doctor, while the audience laughed, believing the events to be part of the show. He was taken to hospital by ambulance, but died about an hour later. James, aged 62, was cremated and his ashes were scattered at Golders Green Crematorium.

Some, including Comedian Les Dawson claim to have seen the ghost of James at the theatre.

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