Story

Fred (Windsor Davies), and Ernie (Jack Douglas), are off on a weekend fishing trip to the country but when two busty young cyclists (Sherrie Hewson and Carol Hawkins) pitch their tent in the shadow of Fred’s caravan, he decides to go after an altogether different catch.  

Meanwhile, Professor Crump (Kenneth Williams) and his glamorous colleague Dr Vooshka (Elke Sommer) are examining the remains of a mysterious Roman encampment, recently discovered beneath the site.  

As the excavations continue, the weather gets progressively worse and the campsite grows increasingly treacherous – if the rain doesn’t get the campers, the mysterious holes appearing in the ground surely will.

For Daphne Barnes (Joan Sims), there is an even bigger discovery.  After years of being estranged from her husband (Peter Butterworth), he is revealed to be none other than the down-at-heel camp handyman.

A Peter Rogers Production
Directed by Gerald Thomas

1975
Colour

Screenplay: Dave Freeman
Music: Eric Rogers
Certificate AA
90 minutes

Roland Crump, played by Carry On favourite Kenneth Williams, is an eminent archaeologist excavating a Roman Town that just happens to lie beneath a caravan site at the height of the summer season.

In Carry On Behind, the team leave no stone unturned in their ruthless pursuit of laughter."

Review

There is a more mature, somewhat less family friendly edge to Carry On Behind, compared to many of the earlier films, but the end result is absolutely hilarious.  Centre stage goes to Carry On newcomer Windsor Davies, who is paired up with Jack Douglas in his biggest Carry On role to date.  Essentially, they are playing Sid and Bernie from Carry On Camping in what is essentially little more than a re-tread of that same film.  What distinguishes Carry On Behind from Camping and so many of the films that have gone before is its maturity, not just in terms of increased nudity but also in more direct sexual humour.

Dave Freeman’s script is tonally quite different from the sort of romps Talbot Rothwell used to write. The characters live slightly more in the real world, the humour is less nuanced, there’s less archness and the story is more straightforward.  

If Carry On Dick was the last gasp of the old Carry On ways, Behind can be seen as a fresh start.  There are enough of the old gang present to remind you that you’re still watching a Carry On, but there is a fresh wave of newcomers and with them a feeling that this is quite a different way of carrying on.  Carry On Behind is the Star Trek Generations of the Carry On films. We have the old guard looking as if they’re getting ready to bow out and a new wave of performers stepping into their mud-soaked loafers.  

Carry On Behind is a vastly underrated Carry On.  The widely held notion that as the 70s moved on the Carry Ons lost their appeal and became one-note “smut-a-thons” simply isn’t true.  Carry On Behind shows that “adult” entertainment isn’t all just naked flesh and romps under the covers.