Carry
On Sergeant Trivia
- Kenneth Williams' first wage packet ,
according to his diaries, was £800. It only increased when Sid James joined
the series in Carry On Cabby, and then it was raised to £5000. Although
average wages for the time were £250 a year.
- Kenneth Williams was in West End revue show
Share My Lettuce at the Garrick Theatre at the same time as making this
film.
- Originally conceived as a drama (based on
the book The Bull Boys), about a troupe of ballet dancers being conscripted
in to the Army, it was only later in the production that it was changed to a
comedy.
- Bob Monkhouse was cast as Charlie Sage at
the insistence of Stuart Levy, owner of production company Anglo
Amalgamated. Peter Rogers wanted George Cole for the role.
- Cyril Chamberlain would have be offered the
part William Hartnell played if he hadn't accepted the role.
- Williams Hartnell was renownedly bad
tempered on set and took to ordering other actors around in the style of
Sergeant Grimmshaw, so much so that a real army visitor commented on how
good he was keeping everyone in check. If fact he wanted Bernard Kay fired
because of all the tension on set between them
- Kenneth Williams smeared the rope for the
rope swing scene with grease causing Bob Monkhouse great problems getting
across the mud pit.
- Whilst John Antrobus wrote the original
script, this was rejected and was offered to Spike Milligan and Eric Sykes,
but they passed and it ended up on Norman Hudis' lap to complete, but left
some ideas from Antrobus' original script in.
- Hammer Horror stalwart Val Guest was offered
the directors chair before Gerald Thomas.
- Patrick Newell was cast in a small role and
arrived on set to see the Sergeant who drilled him when he was in the army,
drilling the actors and promptly left stating he wasn't going through that
again.
- Kenneth Williams saying "Charming" when
getting a hat plonked on his head was one of the few adlibs to stay in the
Carry Ons.
- Being the first Carry On, Peter Rogers and
Gerald Thomas never conceived of creating the decades spanning series at the
start, it was only after the success of this film and using the prefix Carry
On, on the next film, Nurse, and keeping some of the same cast did the idea
suggest itself.
- Third highest takings at the box office in
1958.