Carry On Sergeant
- 1958 film
The first Carry On film. Sergeant Grimshawe is desperate to win the award for best troop before he retires. Stars William Hartnell, Bob Monkhouse, Shirley Eaton, Eric Barker, Dora Bryan and more.
Carry On Sergeant trivia
Sergeat Grimshawe's name is seen written in the film both with and without the trailing 'e'.
Although uncredited, Carry On Sergeant was inspired by an original script treatment titled The Bull Boys, by R.F. Delderfield.
The budget for Carry On Sergeant was just £77,956. It eventually cost £68,714 19s.
The unrelated 1957 film Carry On Admiral was hastily re-released upon the success of Sergeant, aiming to capitalise on the latter's immediate popularity.
The Bull Boys was so long - at 180 pages, more than twice the length of a normal film of the time - that no producer would take it on. Studio boss Sydney Box, who owned the rights to the script, eventually gave it to his brother-in-law, Peter Rogers. Between Rogers, his director Gerald Thomas and contract writer Norman Hudis, the original story, about a pair of ballet dancers called up for National Service, turned into the Carry On Sergeant story we know today.
Filming began on Monday 24th March 1958 at Stoughton Barracks, Guildford.
Patrick Newell was due to feature in the film, but quit on the first day of filming when he discovered that the real life sergeant hired to train the actors was his own sergeant from his days in the service.
The Bull Boys was imagined as a pro-National Service film, but reforms set out in 1957 ended the call-up.