Carry
On Abroad Trivia
- When released in Germany it lost it's Carry On title
and became A Mad Holiday.
- The Technical Advisor is listed as Sun Tan Lo Tion in
the credits.
- When the cast were offered their parts they wondered
what part of sunny Spain they would be going to. It was in fact
Pinewood Studios car park.
- This was Charles Hawtrey's final appearance. One
screen he was presented as a drunk 90% of the time and this was intentional on Talbot
Rothwell's part due to Charlie's real life drunkenness, that had been getting
progressively worse since Carry On Cowboy, and this was the reason for him
being dropped from the films in the end.
- Although much play was made of the package holiday
plot for Carry On Abroad, the budget was as tight as ever. No far-flung
location filming was called for as June Whitfield ruefully remembers: “I
wondered where in sunny Europe we would be filming. Alas, the location
turned out to be a car park at Pinewood!” In addition, the newly built ‘K’
and ‘J’ Stages were extensively used during filming, while the village set
was on the studio back lot. The exterior shots of the Wundatours office were
completed in just one day, on local location, in Slough high street.
- The sequences aboard the coach also called for cast
and crew to be transported to Gatwick Airport and dusty roads in Bagshot.
Indeed, this day’s filming was Charles Hawtrey’s rather ignoble farewell to
the Carry Ons. In a further budgetary cut, an entire dialogue sequence with
Sid James, Joan Sims, Jimmy Logan and the other holiday-makers, was
jettisoned from the script just prior to filming. The actress Lindsay March,
cast as the aeroplane airhostess was paid but never used.
- Bill Maynard who, since joining the series in Carry
On Loving in 1970, had enjoyed supporting roles in all the films, had been
cast as Mr Fiddler, the lecherous owner of Wundatours Limited. However,
sadly, despite his scenes with Kenneth Williams, Patsy Rowlands and Carry On
newcomer Gail Grainger, being filmed, over-running on the final print
dictated Bill’s entire performance be cut from the released film.
- Although the only Carry On film for 1972 and a move
which would start a one film a year trend until the original series came to
a halt in 1978, the production company were still very hard at work. In July
1972 producer Peter Rogers and director Gerald Thomas began work on the
feature film version of Bless This House. Carry On Abroad stars Sid James,
Peter Butterworth, June Whitfield, Carol Hawkins and Sally Geeson were among
those retained for the project.
- Although the Carry On franchise had hit a purple
patch at home in Britain, some parts of the world still didn’t equate the
familiar cast with a familiar brand name. In Germany, for example, the film
was re-titled A Mad Holiday. It’s certain that Germanic audiences probably
missed the subtle credit gag which identified the ‘Technical Advisor’ as Sun
Tan Lo Tion!
