Carry On Censoring

"I'm making a mental note of all the equipment they've got"

As fans of the old Carry On films and Carry On Camping being a particular old favourite, the people over at Melon Farmers were shocked to discover recently that ITV has taken to deleting the old nude scene involving naturists being shown at a cinema at the beginning of the film. In the past they recall it was never censored even when it was shown early in the afternoon and well before the 9.00pm watershed; and it was never censored when we first saw Carry On Camping back in the 1970s. All of a sudden, in the last few months, ITV have decided to censor the nude scene. What a let down.

It appears that ITV have also cut the famous Barbara Windsor bra flying off scene too; something any child in the 70s could recall watching in their front room in the company of their parents. Who'd think, asks Melon Farmers, that in more enlightened times, when people are generally exposed to more nudity, ITV would actually become more prudish?





All of which is not to suggest that shocked censors were amused when the Carry On films were first released. Although they are generaly seen today as harmless slapstick comedies, newly revealed files show that the films, made mostly in the Sixties and Seventies, were considered too ribald for the tastes of the time – with censors demanding extensive cuts and prepared to give many of them X-certificates. Of the 1971 romp Carry On Henry, censors said: 'Every joke has a sexual meaning', and ordered 17 changes. In Carry On Cleo, they demanded the cutting of a shot where Mark Antony, played by Sid James, falls on top of Cleopatra, played by Amanda Barrie, 'so we don’t see him wriggling his legs'. Many of the scenes which ended up on the cutting-room floor were restored into the video versions of the films.

The censors’ concerns are revealed at the British Board of Film Classification, which has allowed access to its archives as part of celebrations to mark its centenary. Made at Pinewood Studios until 1978, the films established the careers of some of Britain's best-loved comedy actors, including Kenneth Williams, Barbara Windsor, Sid James and Hattie Jacques. Between 1958 and 1978, 29 Carry On films were produced. The saga started at a time when Britain finally emerged from the grey post-war gloom.