During the darkest days of the war Captain S Melly is put in charge of the experimental 1313 Anti-Aircraft Battery along with the bellowing, ball-squeezing Sergeant Major “Tiger” Bloomer. Melly soon discovers the “experiment” is that half his men are women, led by the randy Bombardier Ready, Sergeant Tilly Willing and Sergeant Len Able. Tiger is unable to discipline properly as he is unable to swear around women and must avoid the libidinous advances of Private Ffoukes-Sharpe. Meanwhile the battery are happy to spend the war in each other’s beds.
Melly shakes things up with a fake air raid and is furious when instead of loading the gun they dive for cover in their private bunker, the “Snoggery”. Even worse the anti-aircraft cannon is made of wood; with a war on, real guns are hard to come by.
Determined to get the battery up to standard Melly and Tiger put the men, and women, through vigorous retraining, violent exercise and 12 mile long route marches. In response Ready, Willing and Able sabotage Melly’s uniform, leaving him red faced and bare cheeked. The whole battery is confined to camp as punishment, Melly not realising that men and women in close quarters don’t need to leave camp to enjoy themselves. Realising his mistake Melly endeavours to separate man from woman with barbed wire around the sleeping quarters, round the clock battle drills and separate mealtimes.
Determined to reunite with their beloveds, the battery digs secret tunnels under the barbed wire for easy access, making life bearable again. Unfortunately the very next day Melly finally takes delivery of an anti-aircraft cannon, which promptly falls into the tunnel. Forced by Melly to retrieve the gun from its hole the battery sabotages an inspection by Melly’s Brigadier, hoping Melly will be reassigned somewhere else.
When a real air raid arrives both battery and officers pull together to defend England, successfully shooting down all enemy planes and with only one casualty: Captain Melly’s two sprained fingers, which go on to inspire one of the most famous symbols of victory for the entire war.
Production
This film featured few established members of the Carry On team. Carry On regular Kenneth Connor played a leading role, but the only other long-time regulars present, Joan Sims and Peter Butterworth, had only small supporting roles.
Windsor Davies, who had joined the series with a main role in the preceding film Carry On Behind, again plays a major role, reprising (in all but name) his Sergeant-Major character from the BBC sitcom It Ain't Half Hot Mum, along with Melvyn Hayes as his effeminate foil. Other main roles are played by established and recognisable actors Judy Geeson and Patrick Mower, both newcomers to the Carry On films.
The role of the Brigadier was written for series regular Kenneth Williams, and the role of Private Easy was written for series regular Barbara Windsor, but Williams was unavailable due to appearing in the stage play Signed and Sealed, and Windsor was unavailable due to appearing in Twelfth Night at the Chichester Festival Theatre.
Series regular Sid James was unavailable for the film due to appearing in the stage play The Mating Season. On the opening night of the play at Sunderland Empire Theatre on 26 April 1976, James suffered a heart attack on stage and died, at the age of 62.
In 2023, actor Larry Dann dedicated a chapter of his autobiography "Oh, What A Lovely Memoir" to share his memories of the making of this production.[1]
The film was originally certified AA by the British Board of Film Censors which would have restricted audiences to those aged fourteen and over, but was cut down to the non-age limited A certificate by heavily toning down the scenes featuring topless nudity and removing one comedic use of the word fokker. However, it still proved to be a major commercial failure and was withdrawn from some cinemas after just three days.[2]
