"Actor: Kenneth Williams"

• Carry On Loving | DVD | (07/07/2003) from £11.27   |  Saving you £1.72 (15.26%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Setting a Carry On film in a marriage bureau has a certain self-serving obviousness, so it's hardly surprising that Carry On Loving milks the idea for all it's worth. The Wedded Bliss Agency is of course a pretty dubious outfit, being run by Sid (James) and Sophie Bliss (Hattie Jacques), who together are the worst possible example for both marriage and their own profession: they constantly snipe at each other, they aren't actually married and their sophisticated computer matching system is in fact a complete fake. The remainder of the team are mostly cast as hapless clients, with predictable but often very funny situations arising from the various mismatches engineered by the agency, such as the inevitable misunderstanding over one client's interest in modelling. Yes, the humour is about as subtle as a flatulent elephant, but you can't help entering into the spirit of the thing. If there's an outstanding performance it has to be that of Imogen Hassall, who handles her transformation from round-shouldered frump to well-bred love goddess with considerable expertise and a genuine sense of fun. --Roger Thomas

• Carry On Cleo | DVD | (27/08/2001) from £5.99   |  Saving you £11.00 (183.64%)   |  RRP £16.99

  Ninth entry in the Carry On series. Ancient British slaves save Caesar (Kenneth Williams) from assassination in Rome 50 B.C. Meanwhile Mark Antony (Sid James) romances Egyptian Empress Cleopatra (Amanda Barrie). Revolting Britons include Kenneth Connor and Charles Hawtrey while Warren Mitchell plays a partner in the slave-trading firm Markus & Spencius.

• The Hound Of The Baskervilles | DVD | (30/08/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £1.99

  It could have been a stroke of genius reuniting Peter Cooke and Dudley Moore in a send-up of The Hound of the Baskervilles. In the event, director Paul Morrissey goes for Carry On-style humour: plenty of coarse word-play and camp innuendo, but little wit or subtlety. Cooke is a rather androgynous Sherlock Holmes, while Moore inexplicably attempts a Welsh accent to portray Dr Watson (his cameo as Holmes' mother is far less contrived). The support cast is a compendium of British comedy acting of the period--all now departed, and clearly relishing the one-liners and musical-hall farce. There are excellent contributions from Max Wall, Joan Greenwood (priceless in the seduction scene), and--in one of his last major screen appearances--Terry Thomas, as well as a winning "madame" from Penelope Keith. Don't expect even a free adaptation of Conan Doyle's novel, just let the humour take its enjoyably silly course. On the DVD: The Hound of the Baskervilles film reproduces very decently in the 4:3 aspect ratio, with stereo sound that's not too artificial in effect. Special features consist of nine biographical overviews, the re-release trailer, and a six-minute interview with director Morrissey. Die-hard fans of "Pete and Dud" will most welcome the inclusion of the original theatrical feature, playing for almost 80 minutes and featuring extra footage of Moore's wonderfully inept piano playing. --Richard Whitehouse

• Man at the Top: The Complete Series | DVD | (12/02/2018) from £43.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  An intense, compelling series from the early '70s, Man at the Top stars Kenneth Haigh in the continuing story of Joe Lampton, the aggressively ambitious anti-hero of John Braine's bestselling novel Room at the Top. Haigh won a BAFTA nomination for his portrayal of Lampton, and a strong supporting cast includes Zena Walker, Paul Eddington, George Sewell and Colin Welland. This set contains both series and the hit film sequel from Hammer Films. Thirteen years on from his marriage to the pregnant Susan, Joe is now a father of two with a stockbroker-belt home and a career in management consultancy. As tenacious and pushy as ever, his attentions rarely remain fixed; with plenty of candidates eagerly forming the 'other woman' queue, Joe will seize any opportunity, be it personal or professional, to further his climb to the top in the world of big business and beyond...

• Carry On Cowboy | DVD | (29/01/2007) from £5.69   |  Saving you £7.30 (56.20%)   |  RRP £12.99

  An hilarious romp through the bars and bedrooms of the Wild West with the Carry On gang! Sid James is on top form as the Rompo kid an outlaw who shakes up the sleepy residents of Stodge City. Kenneth Williams is the puritanical judge and Jim Dale plays Marshall P. Knutt a hapless plumber mistakenly sent to clean up the town.

• Carry On Nurse | DVD | (29/01/2007) from £6.74   |  Saving you £6.25 (92.73%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The Carry On which caused a national sensation when a daffodil replaced a thermometer - you know where! The Carry On team have picked up their stethoscopes and bed pans for a strong dose of hospital humour. Hattie Jacques is the infamous matron doing battle with the patients in the second series of the world famous Carry On series.

• Carry On Vol.2 | DVD | (01/09/2008) from £17.53   |  Saving you £-4.54 (-34.90%)   |  RRP £12.99

  This Carry On collection includes the following films: Carry On Again Doctor: If you are seriously ill and need to go to hospital just make sure it isn't the Long Hampton Hospital as this is where the Carry On team have taken up malpractice. If it's laughter you're after join eminent surgeon Frederick Carver orderly Screwer and Doctors Stoppidge and Nookey for a prescription of smutty smiles. It's the perfect tonic you should take as regularly as your funny bone allows. Where there's a pill there's a way! Carry On Camping: Sid (Sidney James) and his reluctant mate Bernie (Bernard Bresslaw) hit on the idea of a nudist camping holiday to spice things up with their girlfriends! The arrival of Dr Soaper (Kenneth Williams) headmaster of the Chayste Place Finishing School his matron Miss Haggard (Hattie Jacques) in charge of eleven nubile girls including star pupil Babs (Barbara Windsor) set the scene for one of the funniest frolics in the Carry On repertoire. Carry On Up The Jungle: The Carry On Team go ape crazy in darkest Africa as Professor Inigo Tinkle (Frankie Howerd) and his clumsy sidekick Claude (Kenneth Connor) embark on a bird fancying expedition. Primitive passions are unleashed a forgotten tribe of gorgeous man-hungry females is encountered and a loin-clothed vine-swinging jungle boy (Terry Scott) is the unlikely hero in this riotous romp. Sid James as the fearless white hunter Bill Boosey Joan Sims as the naughty Lady Bagley and Charles Hawtry as Tonka - the father of countless happily go native for this classic Carry On. Carry On Henry: The (almost) true story of the love-life of that much-married British monarch Henry VIII (Sid James). A right Royal Flush is guaranteed when flirty Bettina (Barbara Windsor) becomes a favourite at court much to the displeasure of Queen Marie (Joan Sims). Discover the previously hidden details of Henry's private life such as his hatred of garlic and his love of hunting... wenches that is! Sid James turns in a majestic performance and is given noble support by Carry On greats Kenneth Williams Terry Scott Charles Hawtry and Kenneth Connor as his not-so-loyal courtiers.

• His and Hers | Blu Ray | (11/08/2014) from £12.98   |  Saving you £4.00 (36.40%)   |  RRP £14.99

  The incomparable Terry-Thomas heads the cast of this rare 1960 domestic farce directed by Brian Desmond Hurst - best-known for the 1951 box-office triumph Scrooge. Also starring Carry On legends Kenneth Williams Joan Sims and Kenneth Connor with early film roles for Oliver Reed and Francesca Annis His and Hers is featured here in a brand-new transfer made from original film elements in its as-exhibited theatrical aspect ratio. Writer Reggie Blake takes an unorthodox approach to his craft seeking inspiration in the various adventures suggested by his editor. Blake's latest research trip sees him getting lost in the desert and adopted by a Bedouin tribe; and by the time he finally gets home his personality has been utterly transformed - to the displeasure of his wife Fran... Special Features: Image Gallery

• Carry On Screaming | DVD | (27/08/2001) from £9.35   |  Saving you £6.64 (71.02%)   |  RRP £15.99

  One of the funniest Carry Ons ever! Who is stealing virgins and turning them into shop-window mannequins? What is the meaning of the gigantic hairy finger found at the scene of the latest crime? What clues can the mad professor or his deathly pale and impossibly buxom sister provide to the hopeless Detective Bung?

• Carry On Up The Khyber | DVD | (27/08/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Filmed in 1968 and set in British India in 1895, Carry On Up the Khyber is one of the team's most memorable efforts. Sid James plays Sid James as ever, though nominally his role is that of Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond, the unflappable British Governor who must deal with the snakelike, scheming Khasi of Khalabar, played by Kenneth Williams. A crisis occurs when the mystique of the "devils in skirts" of the 3rd Foot and Mouth regiment is exploded when one of their numbers, the sensitive-to-draughts Charles Hawtrey, is discovered by the natives to be wearing underpants. Revolt is in the offing, with Bernard Bresslaw once again playing a seething native warrior. Roy Castle neatly plays the sort of role normally assigned to Jim Dale, as the ineffectual young officer, Peter Butterworth is a splendid compromised evangelist, while Terry Scott puts his comedic all into the role of the gruff Sergeant. Most enduring, however, is the final dinner party sequence in which the British contingent, with the Burpas at the gates of the compound, plaster falling all about them, demonstrates typical insouciance in the face of imminent peril. The "I'm Backing Britain" Union Jack hoist at the end, however, over-excitedly reveals the streak of reactionary patriotism that lurked beneath the bumbling double entendres of most Carry On films. On the DVD: Sadly, no extra features except scene selection. The picture is 4:3 full screen. --David Stubbs

• Carry On Regardless | DVD | (29/01/2007) from £6.39   |  Saving you £6.60 (103.29%)   |  RRP £12.99

  It's non-stop romps as the Carry On team deliver the goods in one of the rudest and funniest of the Carry On films. The cast are all on top form as a bunch of no-hopers who join an agency in the search for a job. The anarchy mounts as they do a series of odd jobs including a chimps tea party trying to stay sober at a wine tasting and demolishing a house.

• Carry On At Your Convenience | DVD | (27/08/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  In 1971 when Carry On at Your Convenience hit the screen, the series had long since become part of the fabric of British popular entertainment. Never mind the situation, the characters were essentially the same, film after film. The jokes were all as old as the hills, but nobody cared, they were still funny. But it's just too easy to treat them as a job lot of postcard humour and music hall innuendo. This tale of revolt at a sanitary ware factory--Boggs and Son, what else?--certainly chimed in with the state of the nation in the early 1970s when strikes were called at the drop of a hat. Here, tea urns, demarcation and the company's decision to branch out into bidets all wreak havoc. Kenneth Williams as the company's besieged managing director, Sidney James and Joan Sims give their all as usual, but it's the lesser roles that really add some lustre. Hattie Jacques as Sid's budgerigar-obsessed, sluggish put-upon wife and Renee Houston as a superbly domineering battleaxe with a penchant for strip poker remind us that in the hands of fine actors, even the laziest of caricatures becomes a real human being. On the DVD: Presented in 4:3 format with a good clean print and standard mono soundtrack, Carry On at Your Convenience feels as comfortable as an old pair of shoes. But where's the context? The lack of extras leaves the viewer wanting biographies and some documentary sense of the film's position in the series. The scene index is often arbitrary and the budget packaging means that we don't even get a full cast list. --Piers Ford

• Carry On Regardless | DVD | (27/08/2001) from £6.66   |  Saving you £-0.67 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  It's non stop romps as the Carry On team deliver the goods in one of the rudest and funniest of the Carry On films. The cast are all on top form as a bunch of no-hoppers who join an agency in the search for a job. The anarchy mounts as they do a series of odd jobs including a chimps tea party trying to stay sober at a wine tasting and demolishing a house.

• That's Carry On | DVD | (07/07/2003) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-7.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Celebrating twenty years of classic Carry On films two of the film's best loved stars Kenneth Williams and Barbara Windsor return to Pinewood Film Studios to unwrap some rib-tickling moments to the series. From the original military mayhem of 'Carry On Sergeant' through to the really ancient archaeological gags of 'Carry On Behind' our saucy hosts get their titters out for this laugh-a-second gallop through the most successful series of British comedy films ever made. With a cast

• Carry On Cruising | DVD | (27/08/2001) from £10.42   |  Saving you £3.57 (34.26%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Well, the gang's all here, but Carry On Cruising isn't one of the classics of the series. This may be partly due to the film's well-intentioned stab at some sort of authenticity, being set as it is on a genuine cruise liner rather than in a studio full of cheap sets. It swiftly becomes apparent that the cramped environment isn't well suited to the kind of slapstick which is usually a key ingredient in any Carry On film. Veteran couch spuds will recall that the TV series Triangle was similarly disadvantaged, except that it wasn't supposed to be funny. As ever, though, the brilliant cast-in-residence manage to make the most of the situation. The plot, such as it is, deals with the tribulations which beset a world-weary captain (James) when he realises he's been saddled with a crew of misfits and incompetents (practically everybody else) on a cruise which is of course supposed to offer its passengers every comfort and convenience. If there's a single outstanding performance it has to be that of Lance Percival's chef, whose cheeriness as he presides over his various culinary experiments is extremely funny in a menacing sort of way. On the DVD: The DVD issue has no additional features. --Roger Thomas

• Carry On Jack | Blu Ray | (07/07/2014) from £8.00   |  Saving you £14.99 (187.38%)   |  RRP £22.99

  Carry On Jack was the 1963 offering from a team which had, by then, become a repertory company with special guests dropping in for a dose of innuendo. "What's all this jigging in the rigging?" demands Kenneth Williams, this time playing a ship's captain, and the scene is set for 90 minutes of ribaldry involving cross-dressing, press-ganging and plank walking. The plot scarcely matters. It's set after the Battle of Trafalgar and the sea is awash with Spanish galleons and pirates as the British navy sets about defending its shores with as much incompetence as possible. Sally, a barmaid at the Dirty Duck (Juliet Mills in feisty principal boy mode), knocks Bernard Cribbins on the head and steals his uniform so that she can go in search of her childhood sweetheart. He is promptly press-ganged and they end up on the same ship. Williams, on the brink of his ascendancy as a star turn, just about keeps the mannerisms under control enough to build the character of the naïve and neurotic captain. Familiar Carry On faces on top form include Charles Hawtrey and Jim Dale, while Peter Gilmore--in his pre-Onedin Line days--appears as a pirate. Peter Rodgers' script is not quite vintage Carry On but the jokes keep coming and it's all good, clean fun. On the DVD: This was one of the first Carry On films to be made in colour. The print is in reasonable condition. The picture quality, apart from a couple of scratchy scenes of sailing ships that were probably drafted in from stock footage, is fair, as is the sound. But apart from the scene index there are no extras on the disc. Given the cult status of the Carry On films, and the wealth of documentary material which has been made about them and their stars, you'd think something extra could have been offered with the DVD releases to make them a more worthwhile alternative to the video. --Piers Ford

• Kenneth Williams - An Audience With Kenneth Williams | DVD | (16/09/2002) from £4.93   |  Saving you £5.06 (102.64%)   |  RRP £9.99

  By the time he recorded An Audience with Kenneth Williams in 1982, the comic actor had virtually given up the stage and screen and was well into his late career as a raconteur. As a potted hour of autobiography, it's a slick, polished affair. Fans will be familiar with the anecdotes about Noel Coward and piles, Edith Evans and the farting waiter and of course, the Carry On films. But perhaps the most notable thing is that while his posthumously published diaries revealed a dark and bitter melancholia, often aimed viciously at others, he was a very generous performer. These are mainly tales about other people; Williams rarely puts himself centre stage other than in his masterly telling. And there is real warmth in his reminiscences of people like Maggie Smith, Gordon Jackson and Hattie Jacques. He was also a highly intelligent commentator on his craft. "Revue produces an eccentric, very stylised performer," he explains, talking about Smith and Fenella Fielding but clearly including himself. Although many of the stars in the audience are long since gone it's somehow reassuring to note that still, more than 20 years later, no televised evening with a celebrity is complete without Judith Chalmers and Matthew Kelly.--Piers Ford

• Carry On Constable | DVD | (29/01/2007) from £6.99   |  Saving you £6.00 (85.84%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The fourth entry in the Carry On series. Police Sergeant Wilkins (Sid James in his Carry On debut) has a new batch of inept recruits on his hands whose idea of covert surveillance involves dressing up in drag. Bumbling PCs include Kenneth Williams Charles Hawtrey Kenneth Connor and Leslie Phillips.

• Carry On Behind | DVD | (27/08/2001) from £7.66   |  Saving you £2.33 (30.42%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The discovery of valuable archaeological remains beneath a holiday caravan site is the cause of the mayhem in Carry On Behind. That said, the sub-"plots", which involve Windsor Davies and Jack Douglas as a pair of randy fishermen, a couple sharing their caravan with an outsize dog (no, it's not like that...), the obligatory giggling dolly birds and so on are all typical grist to the Carry On mill. The location is of course as bleakly miserable as such a place could ever be and will bring a frisson of familiarity to many Brits. Widely held to be one of the best in the series, the film would in fact have been a rather lacklustre effort were it not for the superbly over-the-top presence of Elke Sommer, whose performance as the strapping assistant to archaeologist Roland Crump (Kenneth Williams) seems like a wonderful hybrid of Ute Lemper and Charlie Dimmock. --Roger Thomas

• Cult Sci-Fi Collection | DVD | (03/10/2011) from £36.08   |  Saving you £-16.09 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Titles Comprise:The Incredible Shrinking Man: One of the best science-fiction films of the 50's, The Incredible Shrinking Man is a gripping and thought-provoking classic. Scott Carey (Grant Williams) encounters a mysterious radioactive mist on a boating trip and soon finds his life taking a bizarre and frightening twist. His physical size begins to diminish as he shrinks to a mere two inches. Suddenly ordinary household situations loom over him with lethal intensity: a playful cat becomes a demon and a spider a gargantuan monster. Carey finds he must rely on his wits to survive in his new oversized world in this fascinating film based on Richard Matheson's riveting sreenplay.The Creature From The Black Lagoon: Scientists drug and capture a creature from the mysterious Black Lagoon, who becomes enamoured with the head scientist's female assistant (Julia Adams). The lonely creature, a living amphibious missing link, escapes and kidnaps the object of his affection. Chief scientist (Richard Carlson) then launches a crusade to rescue his assistant and cast the ominous creature back to the depths from where he came. Well-acted and directed, and with Bud Westmore's brilliantly designed monster, The Creature From The Black Lagoon: remains an enduring tribute to the imaginative genius of its Hollywood creators.The Thing From Another World: Artic researchers discover a huge, frozen spaceling inside a crash-landed UFO, then fight for their lives after the murderous being (a pre-Gunsmoke James Arness) emerges from icy captivity. Will other creatures soon follow? The famed final words of this film are both warning and answer: Keep watching the skies!It Came From Outer Space: Amateur astronomer John Putnam (Richard Carlson) and his fiance Ellen Fields (Baraba Rush) are stargazing in the desert when a spaceship bursts from the sky and crashes to the ground. Just before a landslide buries the ship, a mysterious creature emerges and disappears into the darkness. Of course, when he tells his story to the sheriff (Charles Drake), John is branded a crackpot; but before long, strange things begin to happen, and the tide of disbelief turns... Based on a story by acclaimed writer Ray Bradbury, It Came From Outer Space: is a science fiction classic that is as thought provoking and tantalizing today as it was when it first landed on the silver screen.