Film / Carry On Again Doctor

"Anyone for Casualty?!".

— A drunken Dr. Jimmy Nookey rampaging through the hospital.

Carry On Again Doctor is a 1969 film and the eighteenth Carry On film starring regulars Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, Jim Dale, Joan Sims, Barbara Windsor, and Hattie Jacques.

Dr. Jimmy Nookey (Dale) is the scourge of Long Hampton Hospital, somehow finding himself in one embarrassing situation after another, such as giving the highly-strung Miss Armitage (Ann Lancaster) a fright when he loses his towel in front of her. These incidents earn him Dr. Ernest Stoppidge (Hawtrey) as an enemy, and his hatred for him is worsened by Dr. Frederick Carver (Williams) continuously letting Dr. Nookey off the hook for his actions.

Meanwhile, Dr. Carver is hoping to run his own private clinic with funds from wealthy widow Ellen Moore (Sims), but she won't budge until she finds someone to run the Moore Medical Mission on the inhospitable Beatific Islands. After Dr. Stoppidge spikes the punch at the Long Hampton Hospital Dance, Dr. Nookey makes a disastrous attempt at courting model Goldie Locks (Windsor) and goes on a drunken rampage through the wards. As punishment, Dr. Carver sends Dr. Nookey to the Beatific Islands, where he meets the womanizing Gladstone Screwer (James), who shows him a native slimming potion he created.

When Dr. Carver sets off to the Beatific Islands alongside his secretary, Miss Fosdick (Patsy Rowlands), Dr. Nookey returns to England to cash in on the potion with investment from Mrs. Moore, which allows him to open a the Moore-Nookey Clinic, a lavish slimming clinic. When Dr. Carver returns to Long Hampton Hospital, he is outraged that his dream of a private clinic has been hijacked by Dr. Nookey, alongside Miss Soaper (Jacques), the former Matron. Dr. Carver plots his revenge by making Dr. Stoppidge drag up to play Lady Puddleton, which will allow him to infiltrate the Moore-Nookey Clinic and steal some of the slimming potion. Meanwhile, Gladstone learns that his invention is making Dr. Nookey a very rich man, so he too comes to England to get a proper cut of the profits as Hilarity Ensues.

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Tropes Included:

• Abhorrent Admirer: Matron sees Gladstone as one, and is particularly disgusted at how he only seems to care for whiskey and sex.
  Gladstone: I know, I'll call you "Sunday".
  Matron: Well I won't be in.
• Accidental Misnaming:
  • The native porter mishears Dr. Nookie's name as "Dr. Cookie", then introduces him to Gladstone Screwer as "Dr. Kinky".
  • Gladstone accidentally calls Lady Puddleton "Lady Piddleton".
• Actor Allusion: Wilfrid Brambell plays Mr. Pullen, an elderly but lecherous patient who has come to Long Hampton Hospital for a hormone injection. As he is led into the consulting room, the theme tune to Steptoe and Son, in which Brambell starred at the time, plays on the soundtrack.
• Agony of the Feet: Dr. Nookey hurts his foot when he steps on a woodworm-riddled wooden plank at Gladstone's clinic and he goes through the floor.
• Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: Dr. Nookey gets absolutely sloshed on spiked fruit cup at the Long Hampton Hospital Dance and dances wildly before running loose through the hospital, and ending up going down the stairs on a trolley which launches him through a window.
• Alliterative Name:
  • Dr. Nookey is sent to the Beatific Islands by the Moore Medical Mission.
  • Goldie Locks' second Stage Name "Melody Madder".
• All Men Are Perverts: At first, this is implied with Dr. Nookey. Dr. Stoppidge tells Dr. Carver of Dr. Nookey's supposed dirty behaviour towards young female patients and nurses, but Dr. Carver doesn't believe him (and supposedly the viewer's not supposed to either). But soon after, we get a scene of Dr. Nookey owning a calendar with a bikini-clad Goldie Locks posing on it (presuming the rest of the calendar is full of photographs like that), moaning to another doctor that he wants to find a patient with an "attractive" body, acting unprofessionally upon the sight of Goldie's half-naked body and then shamelessly flirting with her in front of the Matron, and trying to force himself upon her when they reunite. Dr. Stoppidge might just flat out not like the man, but his accusations must have some truth in them.
• All There in the Script:
  • We don't get to know Dr. Stoppidge's first name, but the back of the DVD in "The Classic Carry On Film Collection" boxset gives it as "Ernest".
  • The name of the nurse who attends to Mr. Pullen is only given as Nurse Willing in official cast lists, but she would have been mentioned by name in a Deleted Scene from the Long Hampton Hospital Dance sequence.
  • In addition, the Long Hampton Hospital chairman's name is also given as Lord Paragon.
• Amusing Injuries: Dr. Nookey suffers several throughout the film, such as getting flung through a window into a table of cakes or trying to lie on a hammock, which collapses and sends him to the ground.
• Apron Matron: Miss Soaper, the Matron, as is typical for Hattie Jacques' characters in medical Carry On films, is physically imposing, a tough boss to the nurses, and is the first line of defense for nurses and female patients against the sexual advances of wayward doctors like Jimmy Nookey.
• Attractive Bent-Gender: Dr. Stoppidge infiltrates the Moore-Nookey Clinic as Lady Puddleton. Unfortunately, he catches the eye of Gladstone.
• Balloon Belly: When Dr. Nookey is first trying to court Goldie, he shows her the hospital's X-ray machine, but gets carried away and causes a massive electrical surge; his attempt to head off the problem at the fuse box just makes things worse, especially for an unfortunate patient on a ventilator which begins pumping faster and faster, causing him to inflate like a balloon.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing
  • Dr. Stoppidge seems outwardly harmless, but spends the first half of the film scheming to get Dr. Nookey struck off, or at least sacked from Long Hampton, although he was led to this out of concern that Dr. Nookey's behaviour could rub off onto new staff.
  • Dr. Carver, once he discovers that Dr. Nookey has become friends and business partners with Ellen Moore, joins Dr. Stoppidge in scheming to bring down Dr. Nookey, or at least get a share of the money he is making from the clinic.
  • Dr. Nookey himself, after discovering the slimming potion that Gladstone made, decides to make himself a rich man with the potion back in England, and chooses not to tell Gladstone of the piles of money he is making, instead continuing to pay him in cartons of Rothmans cigarettes per their original agreement.
• Blackmail: In the film's penultimate sequence, Dr. Carver threatens to reveal the slimming clinic's secret to the Medical Council unless Dr. Nookey makes him a partner in the clinic. Between this demand and Gladstone replacing the serum with male hormones (thereby causing the female patients to start growing full beards) to force Dr. Nookey to make him a partner as well, since he invented the serum in the first place, the clinic is renamed the Moore-Nookey Gladstone-Carver Clinic.
• Brief Accent Imitation: Dr. Nookey does a Chinese accent when showing off the X-ray machine to Goldie.
• The Cameo:
  • Wilfrid Brambell, alias Albert Steptoe on Steptoe and Son, makes an uncredited appearance (accompanied by the Steptoe and Son theme music) as Dirty Old Man patient Mr. Pullen.
  • Series regular Peter Butterworth appears in a single scene as a shuffling patient whom Dr. Nookey and Henry try (unsuccessfully) to diagnose at sight.
  • Carry On theme music composer Eric Rogers appears as the lead clarinet player in the band at the Long Hampton Hospital Dance.
  • Scrubba, the native girl whom Gladstone presents as a possible girlfriend to the lovelorn Dr. Nookey, is played in an uncredited (and silent) appearance by former Miss Guyana turned actress/model Shakira Baksh (four years before she became the second wife of Michael Caine).
• Carpet of Virility: Dr. Nookey's Shirtless Scene shows his chest covered with manly fur.
• Cassandra Truth: Dr. Stoppidge keeps warning Dr. Carver about Dr. Nookey's antics, but isn't taken seriously until Dr. Nookey reacts to a spiked drink at the Long Hampton Hospital Dance (although Dr. Stoppidge was the one who spiked it).
• Chubby Chaser: Having lived on the Beatific Islands since birth, Gladstone Screwer falls in line with the local views on beauty: that in a woman, bigger is better. He is somewhat puzzled when Dr. Nookey tries to explain the slimmer ideal of beauty held back in England, and when he goes there himself, he is immediately attracted to the heavyset Matron.
• Cleavage Window: The dress Mrs. Moore wears to the Long Hampton Hospital Dance shows off ample bosom.
• Clothing Damage: A Deleted Scene saw Dr. Nookey accidentally rip off Nurse Willing's skirt while dancing.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Dr. Ernest Stoppidge, as ever for Charles Hawtrey's characters in Carry On films. It doesn't occur to him that there's anything untoward about telling Miss Armitage (a paranoid female patient who is out of her bed) that he just wants to get her into bed, while when he goes undercover in drag at the slimming clinic as Lady Puddleton, he keeps forgetting that he has a female cover identity and says he'll only share a room if it's with another man, and that he and Dr. Carver roomed together as medical students.
• Comedic Underwear Exposure:
  • A Deleted Scene saw Nurse Willing's skirt getting torn off and revealing her knickers.
  • When in his Lady Puddleton disguise, Dr. Stoppidge raises his skirt to fix his garters, helping clue in Dr. Nookey and Matron to the fact that Lady Puddleton isn't who she seems.
• Covered in Gunge: After being flung through a window, Dr. Nookey crashes into a buffet table and ends up covered in cakes.
• Digging Yourself Deeper: When Miss Armitage is having a turn after seeing Dr. Nookey naked, Dr. Stoppidge tries to calm her down and get her back to sleep. Although it seems telling her he wants to get her into bed wasn't the smartest decision as it sets her off and she causes a ruckus.
• Dirty Old Man:
  • Mr. Pullen, the elderly patient who visits Dr. Nookey for a hormone injection, already seems to have more than enough hormones to go around. When Nurse Willing leads him into the consulting room, he gropes her chest and backside and whispers lewd suggestions (which the audience cannot hear) into her ear.
  • Gladstone Screwer, par for the course for Sid James' characters. He has five native wives in the Beatific Islands, one for every weekday, and many children by them. When Dr. Carver and his secretary, Miss Fosdick (Patsy Rowlands), arrive on the islands, Miss Fosdick becomes his Saturday wife, and when he arrives in England, he begins aggressively pursuing Matron as his prospective Sunday wife.
• Disguised in Drag: As part of the plan to get a cut of the profits from the Moore-Nookey Clinic, Dr. Carver books Dr. Stoppidge in as a female patient named Lady Puddleton.
  Dr. Stoppidge: Wait! I can't share a room with a woman! What about undressing?
  Dr. Carver: Good heavens man, you're a doctor! She'll have nothing to surprise you!
  Dr. Stoppidge: No, but I'll have something to surprise her.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Dr. Nookey inspecting Goldie, who had fallen over on her back in her revealing "bikini". He is so flustered that at one point, he puts a thermometer in his own mouth instead of Goldie's while taking her pulse.
• Dr. Jerk: Dr. Stoppidge is constantly scheming to undermine Dr. Nookey as he doesn't feel that he is good enough to work at Long Hampton Hospital.
• Drowning My Sorrows: Upon discovering that there really isn't much medical work to be done on the Beatific Islands, Dr. Nookey grabs two bottles of whiskey from the "medicine cabinet" and the 500-piece jigsaw of Queen Victoria and her children and locks himself in his room for several weeks to work his way through both the whiskey and the jigsaw. At one point, he looks at a letter he sent to Goldie that has been marked "Return to Sender - Not Known" and then at a picture of her on his bedside table before he breaks down crying.
• Dub Name Change: In the Hungarian dub:
  • Gladstone Screwer becomes "Ilivere Bambula" ("Bambula" may refer to "Bamboula", a type of drum played in the Congo).
  • Matron's name is now "Miss Super".
  • Scrubba becomes "Shaggy".
  • Mr. Bean becomes "Mr. Bab".
  • Dr. Stoppidge's disguise Lady Puddleton becomes "Lady Ugly".
  • Goldie's other Stage Name becomes "Swamp Medi".
• Either/Or Title: Carry On Again Doctor or Where There's a Pill There's a Way or The Bowels Are Ringing or If You Say It's Your Thermometer I'll Have to Believe You, But It's a Funny Place to Put It.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Miss Soaper is mostly just referred to as Matron, similar to most of Hattie Jacques' other Matron characters.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: A facial hairstyle change; Drs. Nookey and Carver both return to England with stubble from their long trips to the Beatific Islands. (Despite being away from civilisation for several months, both have five o'clock shadows like they haven't shaved in three days.)
• Fainting: Dr. Nookey passes out after hearing Gladstone get the football scores via Jungle Drums.
• Faint in Shock: Miss Armitage passes out after Dr. Nookey's towel slips and she sees his privates.
• Fanservice:
  • A soaking wet Dr. Nookey in a towel after being caught in the ladies' shower room.
  • Goldie in her strange heart "bikini".
• Feet-First Introduction: Dr. Nookey's secretary Deirdre is introduced to us as the camera pans up from Dr. Nookey crawling away from a group of women.
• Fictional Document:
  • The Borough County Times, the Weekly Echo and the Weekly Gazette, where the chaos caused by Dr. Nookey is reported in.
  • The Long Hampton Advisor, where Dr. Carver's miraculous escape from the shipwreck off the Beatific Islands is mentioned.
• Fingore: Gladstone briefly gets his finger caught in the mouth of the previous doctor's skeleton.
• Flirtatious Smack on the Ass: Gladstone often gives them to women (mostly his wives), but when he gives one to Matron she is horrified and disgusted at his actions.
• Fly Crazy: Dr. Nookey has trouble with a mosquito in his mosquito net, and after slapping around wildly, he loses his temper and sprays it to death.
• Forceful Kiss: When Goldie reunites with Dr. Nookey, he chases her around his office, before pushing her on the desk and kissing her.
• Four Lines, All Waiting: Expected in a Carry On film.
  • Dr. Carver nursing a crush on Ellen Moore, and trying to desperately flirt and win her (and her money) over.
  • Ellen Moore being thrilled with the service she received after her operation and hoping to join forces with Dr. Carver to set up a private clinic for many of her rich acquaintances, while being paranoid about being the victim of a Gold Digger.
  • Dr. Stoppidge campaigning to get Dr. Nookey fired.
  • The hospital trying to deal with paranoid patient Miss Armitage.
  • Dr. Nookey lusting over Goldie Locks.
  • Goldie Locks hoping to become an actress, and then trying to lose weight in order to be accepted by Hollywood.
• Girls with Moustaches: In the penultimate scene of the film, Dr. Nookey discovers that the reason Gladstone's latest batch of slimming serum looks a bit thicker is that he's replaced it with male hormones, causing the clinic's female patients to start growing full facial hair. In the final scene, when he kisses Goldie after they've just been married, he notes that she hasn't had a particularly close shave that day; she promises she'll shave properly before their first night as a married couple.
• Gold Digger: Dr. Carver courts Mrs. Moore, only because he's hoping she'll fund a private clinic he wants to open.
• Got Me Doing It: Dr. Nookey accidentally calls himself Dr. Cookie, the same name the native porter called him at first, when trying to introduce himself to Gladstone.
• Greed: Dr. Nookey doesn't tell Gladstone how successful he's made him so he can keep paying him in cigarettes and keep his share of the clinic's profits to himself.
• Grievous Bottley Harm: A drunk Dr. Nookey threatens Dr. Carver with a champagne bottle, although he never gets a chance to use it.
• Handbag of Hurt: Goldie whacks Dr. Nookey with her handbag after he gives her a Forceful Kiss.
• Hollywood Pudgy: invoked The movie subtly deconstructs and discusses the trope. Firstly, the scriptwriting implies that Goldie is seen as this when she and Dr. Nookey first meet (the "Bristol's Bouncing Baby Food"; Dr. Nookey claiming when he "can see the connection"), and much later in the story, she arrives as a famous European actress who's been pressured by her agent to lose some weight and she is adamant to do so, even though Dr. Nookey points out that she doesn't need the slimming treatment. Also, when Dr. Stoppidge shows up in his disguise, Dr. Carver has to explain that the treatment on his friend is for "her" top-heavy chest. Perhaps the film implies that this trope is mostly psychological and is much harder for others to notice.
• Horrible Housing: Gladstone's house on the Beatific Islands, which is riddled with woodworm and infested with mosquitoes.
• Hospital Hottie: Dr. Nookey may be a bit lecherous, but he is still seen as highly desirable by some of the female hospital staff, especially Miss Fosdick, and although she doesn't want to move as quickly as he does, Goldie is still interested in him.
• I Drank WHAT?!: After Gladstone seemingly tells him the drink he's just had is made of beetles, Dr. Nookey quickly spits it out.
• I'm a Man; I Can't Help It: According to Dr. Stoppidge, Dr. Nookey has a reputation of perverted behaviour around nurses and female patients, but Dr. Carver thinks he's jealous of Dr. Nookey's popularity. But Dr. Nookey's behaviour in the movie backs up Dr. Stoppidge's comments, such as moaning to staff about not having enough "skirt" around the office, and forcing himself onto Goldie until she smacks him off.
• Impact Silhouette: In one of the film's best-remembered sequences, a drunk Dr. Nookey goes clattering down a staircase on a hospital trolley and is catapulted through a window, leaving a Dr. Nookey-shaped hole in the glass.
• Incredibly Conspicuous Drag: Dr. Stoppidge as Lady Puddleton. While he is convincing enough at first, switching to his usual glasses and adjusting his underwear out in the open ruin any chance he had of being believed to be a woman.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: While being shown around by Gladstone, Dr. Nookey spots a skeleton and asks if it was left by the previous doctor. When Gladstone tells him it was the previous doctor, Dr. Nookey leaves the room, taking two bottles of whiskey and the Queen Victoria jigsaw puzzle.
• Innocent Innuendo: When Dr. Stoppidge tries to get Miss Armitage go to back to bed, his poor choice of words leaves her thinking he's trying to have it off with her:
  Miss Armitage: You're all the same. You're only after one thing.
  Dr. Stoppidge: No, no, that's quite untrue, Miss Armitage. I only want to get you into bed.
• Intoxication Ensues: As part of a ploy to get Dr. Nookey to finally go far enough to get himself struck off, or at least sacked from Long Hampton Hospital, Dr. Stoppidge empties a bottle of pure alcohol into the pitcher of fruit cup Dr. Nookey has procured at the hospital dance. It works; he gets completely soused and makes a huge exhibition of himself, making the front page of several newspapers the next day.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Dr. Stoppidge may despise Dr. Nookey a little too much, however his concerns about Dr. Nookey's unprofessional behaviour are completely justified.
• Jungle Drums: Parodied. The variable rhythm of the Beatific Islands natives' drumming indicates not their mood, but the week's football results.
  Dr. Nookey: Oh, those damn drums! What do they keep pounding like that-
  Gladstone: Sh! Sh! Hang on!
  Dr. Nookey: Gladstone, where are you going? Gladstone? Gladstone, Gladstone-
  Gladstone: Sh! Sh! (Beat) It can't be!
  Dr. Nookey: Wh-wh-what's wrong?
  Gladstone: Manchester United 6... Chelsea 1! Arsenal 5... Wolves nil!
• Laser-Guided Karma: The only reason Gladstone switched Dr. Nookey's serums was because Dr. Nookey tried to fiddle him out of his money. Had Dr. Nookey paid him, Gladstone would've done nothing of the sort.
• Malaproper: Upon his arrival on the Beatific Islands, Dr. Nookey warns the native porter of a "crocogator".
• Male Gaze: When Gladstone leers at Matron, the film gives us a wide shot of Hattie Jacques' rear.
• Meaningful Name: Gladstone Screwer, first and last names.
  • The name "Gladstone" is primarily associated with travel bags, especially ones used by doctors. This film is from a period when one could safely assume that any person seen carrying a Gladstone bag has something to do with the medical profession, which figured into a plot point in an episode of Are You Being Served?.
  • Meanwhile "Screwer" is perfect for a man with several wives and kids.
• Mistaken for Gay: Dr. Stoppidge listens to Drs. Carver and Nookey have a private conversation about courting women, although from what he hears he thinks they are flirting with each other.
• Modesty Towel: Dr. Nookey wears one after getting out of the shower, although he briefly loses it when it gets caught in the washroom door.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The last time Hattie Jacques played the Matron, she was pining after a Dr. Soaper (which itself had a mythology gag to Carry On Doctor that implied her character was the same in both films); in this film, her Matron is called "Miss Soaper".
  • Lots of background music from expository shots of scenes are the same from Carry On Doctor, and at one point, the theme song to Carry On Up the Khyber.
  • The band at the Long Hampton Hospital Dance at one point play the theme to Carry On Cabby, calling it a "General Excuse Me" song. The band also plays "The Magic of Love" from Carry On Spying.
• The Name Is Bond, James Bond: Gladstone gives his name to Matron this way:
  Gladstone: "Screwer"'s the name. Gladstone Screwer.
• No Full Name Given:
  • We don't get to know Henry, Scrubba, or George's last names.
  • The same can be said for Miss Soaper, Miss Fosdick, Miss Armitage, Mr. Pullen, Mrs. Beasley, and Mr. Bean's first names.
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: The script describes Mrs. Moore as having a "carefully cultivated posh accent that slips at moments of stress".
• Out-of-Context Eavesdropping: Dr. Stoppidge stops by Dr. Carver's office, gleefully anticipating he is giving a vicious dressing-down to Dr. Nookey after he caused a meltdown of the hospital's electrical system. Inside, Dr. Carver is, in fact, asking for Dr. Nookey's advice on how to charm Mrs. Moore into funding his private clinic, and when Dr. Stoppidge switches on the intercom outside Dr. Carver's office, this is what he hears until he switches it off in disappointment:
  Dr. Carver: I'm sorry, but I've got to say it - you're the most wonderful person I've ever met! Every time I look into your beautiful eyes, I'm filled with... ecstasy!
  Dr. Nookey: Now hold hands... (Gasps) Ooh, that's good, that's good.
  Dr. Carver: What a lovely little hand you've got!
  Dr. Nookey: Kiss it then! (Kissing sounds) Ooh, that's it! Oh, I adore you!
  Dr. Carver: I adore-
• Potty Failure: Dr. Nookey and Henry try to work out why a patient is shuffling, although their guesses of hemorrhoids and a slipped disc prove wrong when he tells them he thought he was going to pass gas, until he passed something extra...
• Product Placement: While on the Beatific Islands, Dr. Nookey finds that the medical supplies consist entirely of a cabinet full of bottles of Johnnie Walker Red Label Scotch whiskey, recognisable by the square bottles and diagonal labels. This was all the work of Sid James, who worked a deal to get them into the film in exchange for a few cases for himself.
• Pun: When Mrs. Moore says she heard he was a wonderful surgeon, Dr. Carver remarks he is a cut above the rest.
• Punny Name:
  • Dr. Nookey, a slang word for sex. When he returns to Britain and opens a clinic with capital from Ellen Moore, the new institution is called the Moore-Nookey Clinic.
  • Mr. Bean, who's in for a kidney operation:
    Dr. Carver: Ah, this is the new kidney case, I suppose?
    Dr. Stoppidge: Oh yes, sir. Mr. Bean.
    Dr. Carver: Ah, Kidney Bean.
  • Goldie Locks being a play-on-words for Goldilocks.
  • Mrs. Moore is staying at the Berkeley Nursing Home, which shares part of its name with a British word meaning Country Matters.
  • Scrubba, which is not really a name that a woman would want to be called.
  • The script reveals that Elizabeth Knight's character is called Nurse Willing.
• Putting the "Medic" in Comedic: As ever for the medical Carry On films, the doctors are various flavours of quacks and perverts (terrifying at least one patient into discharging himself rather than risking being operated on by the surgical staff), while the patients are assorted hypochondriacs, sex fiends, and basket cases.
• Reaction Shot: Near the end of the montage of scenes of the hospital's electrical system going haywire, there are brief shots of the stunned reactions of Matron, Dr. Stoppidge, and Dr. Carver.
• Really Gets Around: Gladstone starts off with five wives, then marries Miss Fosdick as his sixth, and once at the Moore-Nookey Clinic he chases after Matron, Lady Puddleton, and several other women.
• Sexy Secretary: When Dr. Nookey opens a private practice on Harley Street on his return to England, his secretary, Deirdre (played by series semi-regular Valerie Leon), dresses provocatively and flirts aggressively with him; only his still-lit torch for Goldie keeps him from responding to her advances, appealing as he seems to find the idea.
• She Cleans Up Nicely:
  • The normally dowdy and beige-clad Miss Fosdick dons a pretty pink frock for the Long Hampton Hospital Dance.
    Dr. Carver: Miss Fosdick really... looks quite gay, doesn't she?
  • When Scrubba is introduced to Dr. Nookey, she is quite plump and he finds her unattractive, however after some of Gladstone's serum she is slim and very pleasing to the eye.
• Shirtless Scene: Dr. Nookey's first scene has him step out of the shower with only a towel around his waist.
• Shout-Out:
  • The theme from Steptoe and Son plays when Mr. Pullen goes for his hormone injection.
  • Goldie's Stage Name comes from Goldilocks.
  • The band at the Long Hampton Hospital Dance play the theme to Nurse on Wheels, another film by Peter Rogers and Gerald Thomas that starred a few of the Carry On... Series regulars.
  • The only physical entertainment on the Beatific Islands is a 499-piece (Gladstone lost the 500th down the whatsit) puzzle of Queen Victoria and her family.
  • Gladstone gets the football scores for Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, and Wolves.
• Single-Target Sexuality: Dr. Nookey only has eyes for Goldie and dismisses other women's advances because they will never be as good as her.
• Slipping a Mickey: Dr. Stoppidge spikes a jug of fruit cup with medical alcohol at the Long Hampton Hospital Dance to sucessfully get Dr. Nookey in trouble.
• Sophisticated as Hell: Dr. Frederick Carver, as so often with Kenneth Williams' Carry On characters. After Dr. Nookey's drunken antics at the Long Hampton Hospital Dance, Dr. Carver describes him as "up the alimentary canal without a paddle".^note  Strictly speaking, the alimentary canal includes the oesophagus, stomach, and intestines, but in this context, Dr. Carver clearly means the very end of the intestines.
• Spoonerism: A drunk Dr. Nookey offers Goldie some "japamas"^note  he means pyjamas to wear.
• Stage Name:
  • Goldie Locks. Her real name is Maud Boggins.
  • She later picks up Melody Madder after her time in Italy.
• The Starscream: Dr. Stoppidge happily takes over Dr. Carver's office and position as top surgeon after he goes to the Beatific Islands, much to Dr. Carver's anger.
• Steven Ulysses Perhero: Dr. Carver is certainly an apt name for a surgeon.
• Stuff Blowing Up: When Dr. Nookey tries to show off the X-ray machine to Goldie, it explodes and sends out a shower of sparks. Dr. Nookey tries to fix it via the main fuse, but he trips and rips out several wires which causes it to spray explosive sparks at him. The malfunctions in the fuse box then cause an old lady's headphones to explode while she is wearing them.
• Suddenly Shouting: Matron trying to get Dr. Nookey's attention as he lusts over Goldie:
  Matron: Will you be wanting an X-ray, Doctor?
  Dr. Nookey: Pardon?
  Matron: DO YOU WISH AN X-RAY?!
• Tagline: "Poking their diag'noses' into other people's business".
• Tempting Fate: When Dr. Carver realises he can disguise someone as a woman to infiltrate the Moore-Nookey Clinic, Dr. Stoppidge asks who he'd get to play the woman. Not long after, he is forced to disguise himself as Lady Puddleton.
• Time Skip:
  • After the initial scenes introducing all the hospital staff and Goldie, the film jumps ahead one month to the Long Hampton Hospital Dance.
  • After Dr. Carver promises Mrs. Moore that he'll go to the Beatific Islands himself, the film ahead a further three months to show us how sucessful Dr. Nookey has become at his new clinic.
  • After Gladstone and Dr. Carver confront Dr. Nookey in the climax, the film jumps ahead an unknown amount of time to Dr. Nookey and Goldie's wedding, with Gladstone and Dr. Carver also having been made partners in the Moore-Nookey Clinic.
• Title Theme Drop: A faster-paced version of the film's theme plays when the hospital's electrics begin to go wrong.
• Toilet Humour:
  • In Peter Butterworth's single scene, Dr. Nookey and his colleague Henry guess from his shuffling gait that he has either haemorrhoids or a slipped disc. He says they're both wrong. He thought he was going to break wind... and apparently, he was wrong as well. He proceeds to shuffle uncomfortably to the gents' toilets.
  • When Dr. Nookey's enthusiasm with the X-ray machine causes the hospital's electrical system to fail catastrophically, there is a brief scene in which the patients' bedpan lights are all going off at once, and a flustered nurse is hastily assembling a huge stack of bedpans to carry into the ward.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: While initially Dr. Carver had been on good terms with Dr. Nookey and helped him get out of trouble after his frequent incidents at the hospital, he is out to get him after Dr. Nookey's incompetence forces him to go to the Beatific Islands and lose his chance at getting Mrs. Moore to buy him a private clinic.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Matron becomes much nicer to Dr. Nookey after he gets her a job at his clinic.
• Tyop on the Cover: The back of the 2005 Australian DVD release by Magna Pacific misspells Dr. Stoppidge's name as "Dr. Stoppage" and Talbot Rothwell's first name as "Salbot".
• Undercrank: Played for Laughs in true Carry On fashion:
  • When Mr. Bean escapes the hospital after hearing his kidney stone surgery will be done with a penknife.
  • When various hospital staff rush around trying to keep up with all the electronics going wrong.
  • When Dr. Stoppidge and other members of staff race down the stairs trying to avoid Dr. Nookey speeding through on a trolley.
  • When Dr. Stoppidge (in disguise as Lady Puddleton) walks in on a naked Goldie and rushes out of the room before tripping on the stairs.
• Unsettling Gender-Reveal: When Dr. Stoppidge disguises himself as Lady Puddleton, Gladstone tries to force himself on her, however he soon realises Lady Puddleton is a man and stops in shock.
• Wardrobe Malfunction: Nurse Willing had her knickers exposed when Dr. Nookey accidentally ripped off her skirt in a Deleted Scene.
• Wedding Finale: In the film's final scene, Dr. Nookey and Goldie have just been married at the newly renamed Moore-Nookey Gladstone-Carver Clinic, with the rest of the cast present to wish them well.
• "Which Restroom?" Dilemma: At the beginning of the film, Dr. Nookey accidentally has a shower in the women's washroom and gives Miss Armitage an awful fright.
• Who Would Be Stupid Enough?: When Mrs. Moore tells Dr. Carver that the doctor at the medical mission she established on the Beatific Islands has died and she needs to find a replacement, Dr. Carver says that only someone really stupid would take the job... at which point he spots Dr. Nookey. (Although even Dr. Nookey isn't that stupid; when Dr. Carver offers him the job, he laughs uproariously at the absurdity of the idea).
• Younger Than They Look: When Dr. Carver visits rich patient Ellen Moore, who feels exhilarated after having her appendix removed:
  Mrs. Moore: I feel ten years younger!
  Dr. Carver: Oh, splendid, splendid!
  Mrs. Moore: Be honest now, do I look like a woman of forty?
  Dr. Carver: You really feel as young as that?
  Mrs. Moore: No, that's what I am.

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For other Carry On films about hospitals, see Carry On Nurse, Carry On Doctor and Carry On Matron.

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