Film / Carry On Matron

Freddy: What are we looking for?

Sid: Oh, knickers!

Freddy: Here Sid, I found 'em.

— Freddy telling Sid Carter that he's found a pair of Matron's over-sized knickers during their heist.

Carry On Matron is the 23rd film in the Carry On series and was released in 1972. It stars Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, Joan Sims, Hattie Jacques, Bernard Bresslaw, Kenneth Cope, Terry Scott (in his last film in the series), Barbara Windsor, and Kenneth Connor.

Matron focuses on a gang of thieves, led by Sid Carter (James) and including his cohorts Ernie Bragg (Bresslaw) and Freddy (Bill Maynard) trying to steal contraceptive pills from the Finisham Maternity Hospital run by the Hypochondriac Sir Bernard Cutting (Williams). The thieves manage to smuggle in Sid's reluctant son Cyril (Cope) disguised as "Cyrille", a student nurse who shares a room with (and begins to catch feelings for) Nurse Susan Ball (Windsor), who warns Cyrille to look out for the horny Dr. Prodd (Scott), who prowls after nurses. Naturally, Cyrille is planned to be his newest conquest.

Sid's plans to rob the hospital aren't foolproof however, as the no-nonsense Matron (Jacques) begins to gain suspicions over recent developments at the hospital. Sir Bernard then begins to gain feelings for Matron, but making progress at courting her is made difficult by him believing he is turning into a woman before accusing the clueless Dr. Francis A. Goode (Hawtrey) of having an affair with her.

Matron and Sister (Jacki Piper) try to keep the patients happy despite all the shenanigans amongst the staff, but have trouble with expecting couple Mr. and Mrs. Tidey (Connor and Sims), who have been waiting for three weeks for the baby to be born. Mrs. Tidey is treating her stay as a holiday and won't stop binge-eating, while her railway worker husband is left forever racing between his trains and the waiting room.

The final issue with Sid's plans is that Cyril seems unable to keep a low profile, and after becoming a sensation for single-handedly delivering the triplets of film star Jane Darling (Valerie Leon), Sid and his gang have to strike while the iron is hot and don disguises of their own to pull off their heist before it is too late as Hilarity Ensues.

For the other Carry On films that are hospital-based, see Carry On Nurse, Carry On Doctor and Carry On Again Doctor.

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Tropes Included:

• Accidental Misnaming: A Deleted Scene saw Dr. Goode get Mrs. Putzova's name wrong:
  Mrs. Putzova: It's not "Pushover", it's "Putzova". Russian, you know.
• Actor Allusion:
  • Sid James is appropriately cast as the criminal Sid Carter as James had appeared as crooks many times on the big screen in the 40s and 50s. The set-up is particularly similar to the 1959 film Too Many Crooks, in which James had appeared.
  • The plot of the episode of Show Within a Show The Surgeons which Dr. Goode and Matron sit down to watch is lifted from the 1946 film Green for Danger, starring Alastair Sim, Trevor Howard, and was rumoured to be the first film appearance of Hattie Jacques (in an uncredited, voice-only role).
  • Sir Bernard tells Matron to "Stop messin' about" as he courts her, which was an Author Catchphrase commonly used by his actor, Kenneth Williams.
  • Nurse Ball doesn't want to be known as a gangster's Moll. In Real Life, Barbara Windsor was married to gangster Ronnie Knight. She was also acquainted with the notorious Reggie Kray and his brother Charlie.
  • At one point Ernie mutters "I only arsked", which was the Character Catchphrase of his actor Bernard Bresslaw in The Army Game.
• A-Cup Angst: Dr. Prodd finds the rolled-up socks in Cyril (disguised as the female Cyrille) and assumes she's stuffing her bra.
• Alliterative Name: Cyril Carter, and his name when disguised as a nurse Cyrille Carter.
• All Men Are Perverts: Dr. Prodd tries to sleep with every attractive female patient or nurse who turns up at Finisham Maternity Hospital.
• All There in the Script:
  • We don't get to know Ernie's last name, but the back of the DVD in "The Classic Carry On Film Collection" boxset gives it as "Bragg".
  • We don't get to know Mrs. Kemp or Miss Banks' first names in the film, but they are given as "Frances" and "Evelyn" respectively in cast lists.
  • Also Inverted, as Alan Harris' character gets called Dick by the reporter, but cast lists just have him as "Photographer".
• Ambiguously Jewish: Sir Bernard is a worrying hypochondriac and is even nicknamed "the old Rabbi" by Dr. Prodd.
• Apron Matron: Matron, as in the previous medical Carry On films, is physically imposing and a tough, no-nonsense boss to the nursing staff, but she is also very defensive of them, particularly against the lecherous advances of Dr. Prodd.
• As Long as It Sounds Foreign: When disguised as Dr. Zhivago, Sid strings together several different languages:
  Sid: Ah, si. Si. Grathias, mademoiselle. Grathias. Enchanté.
• Attempted Rape: Dr. Prodd tries to flirt with the disguised Cyril throughout the movie, but then just jumps at him when he has the chance. Luckily, Cyril manages to escape unscathed, leaving a disheveled Dr. Prodd to mumble to himself:
  Dr. Prodd: God, what a woman!
• Attractive Bent-Gender: Both Freddy and Ernie are attracted to Cyril as Cyrille and when he arrives at Finisham Maternity Hospital in disguise, he immediately attracts the attention of the lecherous Dr. Prodd, who won't take "no" for an answer:
  Nurse Ball: You know, you're really quite dishy.
  Cyril: I bet you say that to all the female impersonators.
• Baby Talk: Sir Bernard uses some when he misunderstands Matron while flirting with her:
  Matron: Certainly not! It's just that I'm a simple woman with simple tastes and I want to be wooed!
  Sir Bernard: Ooh, you can be as "wude" as you like with me!
• Bait-and-Switch: One of Dr. Prodd's patients, Mrs. Tucker, has previously been to see him to explain that she's not sure if her new 88-year-old husband is able to impregnate her. Dr. Prodd suggested at the time that she take in a lodger nearer to her own age to improve her chances, leading to this exchange:
  Mrs. Tucker: Well it worked. I'm pregnant.
  Dr. Prodd: Really? (Beat) What about your husband?
  Mrs. Tucker: Oh he's tickled pink!
  Dr. Prodd: Oh, that's alright then. (Beat) What about the lodger?
  Mrs. Tucker: Well that's the trouble. She's pregnant too.
• Bathtub Scene: As Sid flees from Cyril's room down the fire escape, he hops through a window and runs past a nurse in the bath. Matron and Cyril race through too, and Cyril lands in the bath when he slips on a bar of soap:
  Sid: Shh! It's alright, don't scream.
  Nurse in Bath: What do you want?
  Sid: Well, that's very nice o' you, but I haven't got the time.
• Bedroom Adultery Scene: When Matron and Dr. Goode are watching The Surgeons in her room together, Sir Bernard comes knocking on the door. Dr. Goode is hidden in the wardrobe as Sir Bernard begins trying to flirt with Matron, but Dr. Goode is discovered when his cigar starts a fire in there.
• Big Eater: Mrs. Tidey is expecting a three-week overdue baby and is in no real hurry to give birth because she sees her stay at Finisham Maternity Hospital as an excuse to gorge herself on a seemingly endless banquet of hospital food:
  Matron: All right Sister, take her to Delivery.
  Sister: Yes Matron.
  Mrs. Tidey: Ooh oh, but, but, but let, let me finish, finish me dinner first.
• Blatant Lies: When Freddy and Sid are caught hiding in Matron's room by Matron and Sir Bernard, Freddy lies that he was looking under the bed for the gas meter, and Sid claims to be in the wardrobe to be checking for woodworm. Sir Bernard and Matron briefly believe them, then give chase the second they realise that they are trespassing.
• Bookends: The film begins and ends with Sid planning a heist while in a car with his gang.
• Bound and Gagged: Dr. Prodd is knocked out, tied up, gagged and left in an ambulance.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: One planned ending for the film had Dr. Goode looking at the camera and saying "I do love happy endings, don't you?".
• Brief Accent Imitation: Sid uses a German accent when disguised as Dr. Zhivago, but uses several different languages in his words when he speaks.
• Brotherhood of Funny Hats: Sir Bernard is about to thrash Dr. Goode over their perceived shared affection for Matron ... until it emerges that they are both members of the Grand Order of Newts (Sir Bernard in the Watford pond, Dr. Goode in the Wapping pond), whereupon they begin reciting the Newts' loyalty oath in unison. Unusually for a fraternal order, a remark of Sir Bernard's to Matron implies that the Newts admit female members.
• Buxom Beauty Standard: When the gang sees Cyril in disguise for the first time, Freddy and Ernie suggest they fill up his chest a bit more but are defied by Sid when he reminds them that the point is for Cyril to go unnoticed:
  Sid: If you make 'em any bigger, everybody's gonna start gawpin', don' they?
• The Cameo: Jack Douglas in one scene as a twitching father playing his usual "Alf Ippititimus" type of character.
• Camera Abuse: When Sir Bernard uses a fire extinguisher to put out the fire in Matron's wardrobe, he sprays foam all over the camera.
• The Caper: Sid and his gang of thieves plan to make their fortune by stealing a shipment of contraceptive pills from Finisham Maternity Hospital to sell abroad. They assume disguises and infiltrate the hospital, but nothing goes according to plan, and they end up being chased through the hospital by a large group of expectant mothers.
• Car Meets House: When Dr. Prodd comes to after being knocked out and Bound and Gagged in an ambulance by Sid's gang before the robbery, he struggles to free himself and accidentally starts the ambulance, which plows through the entrance of Finisham Maternity Hospital and demolishes the reception desk before finally coming to a stop.
• The Casanova:
  • Dr. Prodd chases after anything in a skirt (including the unfortunate Cyril). As his first scene with Nurse Ball demonstrates - she brings him a patient's urine sample, he jokes that she can't tempt him with strong drink, she notes that she said that to him when they first met, he says he'll get her eventually - rebuffing his advances just makes him try harder, and once he's made a sexual conquest (and put a framed photo of the girl in question on his bedroom wall), he moves on to the next one. When we last see him, he is in the background at Sir Bernard and Matron's wedding, chatting up a young nurse.
  • Mr. Darling is seen waving his wife Jane off in the ambulance, and then rushing back into their mansion to join the au pair girl now that they are alone.
• Censor Suds: As Matron and Cyril chase Sid down a fire escape, they pass through a nurse's bathroom. Despite the fact the nurse in the bath is starkers, she has a thick layer of soap on her behind and in the bathtub.
• Character Name Alias: Dr. Zhivago is used by Sid so he can infiltrate Finisham Maternity Hospital.
• Closet Shuffle: When Matron and Dr. Goode try to watch The Surgeons in secret together, Sir Bernard catches them by surprise, so Dr. Goode hides himself in Matron's wardrobe to avoid being seen. This works... until his cigar starts a fire, leading Sir Bernard to find him. Later on in the film during the climactic pill heist, Sir Bernard returns to Matron's room to apologise for jumping to conclusions about her hiding a man in her room, only to discover Freddy hiding under the bed, claiming to be checking the gas meter. Remembering the last time, Sir Bernard then checks the wardrobe, where he and Matron discover Sid, who tries to pass himself off as checking for woodworm.
• Clothing Damage:
  • Cyril has to swap his black lace knickers for men's underwear after he splits them.
  • When Sir Bernard is about to give Dr. Goode a damn good thrashing for being his perceived rival for Matron's affections, his secretary, Evelyn Banks (Patsy Rowlands),^note  Who, incidentally, was playing Kenneth Williams' assistant for the fourth time in the series, after Carry On Again Doctor, Carry On Loving, and Carry On at Your Convenience. tries to get between them. Sir Bernard ends up ripping her dress off in trying to get her out of the way, and she quickly flees the room with what's left of it.
• Cloudcuckoolander:
  • Dr. Goode, as per the norm for a character played by Charles Hawtrey. Upon being introduced, he is seen hypnotizing himself.
  • Ernie has a rather loose grip on reality. When Sid's gang go in for the pill heist, Ernie is disguised as a pregnant woman (his "baby" is really explosives and other burglary equipment) and keeps forgetting that he isn't (and, indeed, biologically cannot be) actually pregnant, asking what happens if he goes into labour while Sid and Freddy are looking for the storeroom key:
    Ernie: It just shows ya the power o' suggestion.
    Sid: What are you talkin' about?
    Ernie: Well, I coulda sworn I felt it kickin' jus' then.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Nurse Ball is quite jealous when she finds out that Cyril had (accidentally) fallen into another nurse's bath.
• Comedic Underwear Exposure:
  • Cyril trips on the stairs and Nurse Ball gets a good view of his boxers.
  • During Sir Bernard and Dr. Goode's fight, Miss Banks gets caught in the middle and loses her dress to reveal her underwear.
• Covered in Gunge: Dr. Goode gets covered in fire extinguisher foam after Sir Bernard attempts to put out the fire in Matron's wardrobe.
• Crying Wolf: Mrs. Tidey has a baby three weeks overdue waiting inside her. She binge-eats while she waits, leading to her calling out that her waters have broke, when it turns out to be wind or indigestion.
• Delusions of Doghood: Dr. Goode calls wife his wife "Hamlet" because she believes herself to be a Great Dane:
  Dr. Goode: As a matter of fact, I was talking to my wife only the other day. "Hamlet", I said... Oh, haha, I call her "Hamlet" coz she thinks she's a Great Dane, isn't it silly?
• Derailed Train of Thought: As Sid, Freddy, and Ernie are looking over the plans for Finisham Maternity Hospital, they fall into a collective case of this trope. When Sid explains that the pills are in the basement of the hospital, Ernie asks where the babies are, and a frustrated Sid tells him they're in the wards. Ernie explains that it's not as obvious as Sid thinks as he was born on the top deck of a Number 73 bus in Brixton High Street. Freddy argues that Number 73 goes from Marble Arch to Putney and Wimbledon, not to Brixton at all, and when Sid tries to get things back on track, he pauses mid-sentence and then says they're both wrong, Number 73 goes to Holloway - and he should know, as his wife did at least one stretch in the women's prison there, and he used to take that bus to visit her.
• Disguised in Drag:
  • Cyril reluctantly dresses up as a student nurse ("Cyrille") to get closer to the medicine cupboard.
  • Ernie takes on the look of Mrs. Foggett, an expectant mother, on the night of the heist.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: As Mrs. Pullitt worries about her baby boy's bent "thing", Mrs. Tidey's sausage breaks in half on her fork as a springy sound effect plays.
• Double Standard: Rape, Male on Male: Cyril, who has infiltrated Finisham Maternity Hospital disguised as a female nurse, is continually pursued by Dr. Prodd, who goes as far as locking "her" in a room, ignoring "her" screams and making "her" aware that he "was a boxing champion at university". Furthermore, the scene turns out like it would be fairly funny even if the victim really were female. ^note Then again, British comedy in the '70s often treated any kind of rape as a joke.
• Dragged into Drag:
  • Cyril is made to dress up as a student nurse, getting him unwanted attention from the randy Dr. Prodd.
  • Ernie is forced to dress up as the pregnant Mrs. Foggett during the hiest.
• Dub Name Change: One of the Hungarian dubs changed Jane Darling to "Jane Enchanted".
• Either/Or Title: Carry On Matron or From Here to Maternity or Familiarity Breeds or Womb at the Top or The Preggers Opera.
• Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": Although she has a name tag that is too small to read, Hattie Jacques' character is only known as Matron.
• Faint in Shock: Dr. Prodd passes out after the ambulance he has been Bound and Gagged in plows through the front of Finisham Maternity Hospital.
• Fauxreigner: During the heist, Sid passes himself off as a foreign doctor - Dr. Zhivago - although he jumps between completely different languages many times a sentence, while giving his accomplice Freddy the alias of "Frederico" (instead of correct Italo-Spanish "Federico").
• Fictional Document: Several of Sir Bernard's books:
  • Metamorphosis - A Study of the Sex Change in Man, which he consults when he believes he's becoming a woman.
  • Sex Techniques, which he uses when he wants to get more intimate with Matron.
  • The Psychology of Jealousy, which he reads after believing Matron is having it off with Dr. Goode.
• Friend in the Black Market: Sid, who intends to sell the contraceptive pills on the black market abroad where they can't be obtained any other way.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus:
  • The author of Metamorphosis - A Study of the Sex Change in Man is shown for a second to be Professor Axel Greese.
  • The Sister is briefly visible on Dr. Prodd's wall of conquests.
• Fun with Acronyms: Dr. Goode's initials are F.A.G. (amusingly enough he was played by the Camp Gay Charles Hawtrey).
• Gasshole: Played With by Mrs. Tidey; she only burps one time in the film, but it's referenced in her first appearance that almost all of her apparent contractions in the last three weeks had turned out to be bouts of gas when they weren't attacks of indigestion. Justified in that she's eating constantly; no wonder she's bloated and gassy.
• Gender Bender: Sir Bernard spends much of the movie worrying he's becoming a woman:
  Sir Bernard: Have you known, of a case, of a man... turning into a woman?
  Dr. Goode: No? But I've heard of one who turned into a one-way street!
• The Ghost: Hamlet Goode, Dr. Goode's wife who thinks she is a Great Dane.
• Going Commando: Sid makes Cyril remove his underwear so as to not spoil his cover as a student nurse again.
• Gratuitous Foreign Language: As part of his cover as Dr. Zhivago, Sid peppers his conversations with foreign words; however, he changes languages every few words, going from German ("jawohl") to Spanish and French ("mademoiselle") to Italian ("arrivederci") in the space of about 15 seconds.
• Hangover Sensitivity: Dr. Prodd is left with one after being accidentally sedated by Cyril during Jane Darling's Maternity Crisis. Nurse Ball delights in yelling and making noise to cause him discomfort.
• Here We Go Again!: After his plan to steal the pills fails miserably; while watching the wedding of Sir Bernard and Matron from a parked car over the road, Sid sets his eyes on a nudist camp where millionaires go to relax, if he can get someone on the inside to gather intel. Freddy and Ernie jump out of the car and run away.
• Honey Trap: When Sid and his gang arrive at Finisham Maternity Hospital in an ambulance to carry out the pill heist, they see Dr. Prodd on duty in the lobby. Cyril, still in drag as a nurse, goes in and leads him to believe that he will give him the night of passion he has been seeking since they first met as a way of making up for the Shot in the Ass incident the previous night. The lecherous Dr. Prodd follows Cyril outside, whereupon he is shanghaied and Bound and Gagged to the steering wheel of the ambulance.
• Hospital Hottie:
  • Nurse Ball, as is typical for a Barbara Windsor role in a Carry On, is the object of attraction for numerous male characters. Dr. Prodd has been trying, unsuccessfully, to seduce her since she began working at Finisham Maternity Hospital, while Cyril is also fascinated by her, but is so determined to keep up his disguise as a female nurse that he flees the room when she begins undressing. His restraint is part of what ultimately attracts her to him as well.
  • Cyril when disguised as Cyrille manages to become Dr. Prodd's newest target and catches the eye of Freddy and Ernie, despite the fact they knew he was a man the whole time.
• How Do You Say: Sid says this when looking for the delivery room while pretending to be the foreign Dr. Zhivago:
  Sid: I-I think we are lost. We are look for the um... how you say? Removal room? No?
• Hypno Pendulum: Dr. Goode is seen hypnotizing himself before being walked in on by Sir Bernard.
• Hypochondriac: Sir Bernard, whose face is always in a medical book, wondering what's wrong with him. At one point, he believes he's turning into a woman.
• I Know Karate: When trying to force himself onto the disguised Cyril, Dr. Prodd warns him that she shouldn't think about trying to retaliate his advances because he learnt how to box in university.
• Imaginary Love Triangle: Sir Bernard is in love with Matron, but believes she's been having secret trysts with Dr. Goode, although in reality they were only meeting up to watch TV together.
• I'm a Man; I Can't Help It: Ernie teases Cyril over being chosen to be the woman, and makes suggestive comments about women's underwear and clothing. He dismisses Sid's death glares with this point.
• Incredibly Conspicuous Drag:
  • Cyril is forced to become Cyrille as part of Sid's hiest. Despite a lack of proper femininity, he manages to get away with it for the most part.
  • Ernie disguises himself as Mrs. Foggett on the heist. Even though he is giant in stature and has a terrible make up job, he even manages to trick himself that he is an expectant mother at first.
• I Need to Go Iron My Dog: When Sid and Freddy are searching Matron's bedroom for the key to the storeroom where the contraceptive pills are kept, they hear Sir Bernard knock at the door, and they both hide. Eventually Matron herself returns, and as she and Sir Bernard sit on her bed, they hear Freddy screaming beneath it. He rolls out and, as he is dressed in a worker's uniform, he excuses himself by claiming that gas meters are kept in the strangest places sometimes. Having previously found Dr. Goode in Matron's wardrobe, an irate Sir Bernard opens the wardrobe again to find Sid, who knocks on the side of the wardrobe and tells Matron it definitely has woodworm, and he leaves with a promise to send her an estimate. Sir Bernard and Matron are so shocked that, at first, they accept these obvious lies, but when the shock wears off, they chase after the thieves.
• Instant Sedation: Cyril accidentally injects a hypodermic into Dr. Prodd's ass, which knocks him unconscious almost immediately.
• Landing in Someone's Bathtub: While Cyril is chasing after Sid and Matron, the three enter a nurse's bathroom through the window. Sid and Matron make it out ok, but Cyril steps on a bar of soap and falls backwards into the bath and on top of a naked nurse.
• Last-Name Basis: Mrs. Tidey is only ever known by that name, although that makes sense given she's in a hospital and being something all of a difficult patient who treats the whole affair as a holiday cum free all-you-can-eat banquet.
• Like Father, Like Son: Sid Carter and his son Cyril are both thieves, though Cyril is anxious to go straight and has even had a job offer at an insurance company. But, as Sid never tires of reminding him, he promised his mother on her deathbed many years earlier that he would follow in his father's footsteps.
• Like Father, Unlike Son: Cyril knows that his dad's business ways are illegal and hopes to pursue a career in insurance, which is why Sid constantly uses Cyril's mother's deathbed as emotional blackmail to get him to do what he wants.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: The stern Reasonable Authority Figure Matron and neurotic hypochondriac Sir Bernard are a romantic version of this trope. There's also the Matron and mild-mannered Cloudcuckoolander Dr. Goode, who are the platonic version, although Sir Bernard starts off thinking otherwise.
• Maternity Crisis: Jane Darling, a film star, has to give birth to triplets on the way to Finisham Maternity Hospital. This wouldn't be a problem, aside from the fact that Dr. Prodd had accidentally been Shot in the Ass with a hypodermic and sedated, leaving Student Nurse Cyrille (not even a real nurse, but a gangster in disguise) to deliver her triplets. Luckily, the birth is a success and makes the front page.
• Meaningful Name: Dr. Prodd, because he prods attractive patients and nurses.
• Mistaken for Cheating: After catching him in Matron's room at night, Sir Bernard believes that Dr. Goode has been having it off with her, despite the fact he has a wife of his own.
• Missing Mom: Cyril's mum, Gertie, died when he was six.
• Moll: When finding out that Cyril is really the son of a gangster, Nurse Ball threatens that he should try to sabotage the plan if he wants to be her boyfriend because she doesn't want to end up as this trope.^note This creates a Reality Subtext because Barbara Windsor made headlines in the media from The '60s to The '80s for her marriage to Ronnie Knight, a notorious British criminal and nightclub owner.
• Mistaken for Gay: When Sid looks for Cyril, he walks in on two nurses making out and leaves the room looking flustered, unaware that Cyril Disguised in Drag as one of the nurses.
• Mysterious Middle Initial: We never find out what Dr. Goode's "A" stands for.
• Mythology Gag: Among the photos on Dr. Prodd's wall of sexual conquests are publicity stills of Jacki Piper as June in Carry On Up the Jungle, Fenella Fielding as Valeria Watt in Carry On Screaming!, Shakira Baksh as Scrubba and Yutte Stensgaard as the trolley nurse in Carry On Again Doctor, Dilys Laye as Mavis Winkle in Carry On Doctor, Alexandra Dane as Emily in Carry On Loving, and Elizabeth Knight as Jane in Carry On Camping.
• Naked Freak-Out: Miss Banks' dress gets accidentally ripped off by Sir Bernard during his fight with Dr. Goode and so she screams and flees the room
• Nasal Trauma: During one of Mrs. Tidey's false alarms, Mr. Tidey races into Finisham Maternity Hospital and trips, skidding along the floor and banging his nose into the reception desk.
• Newspaper-Thin Disguise: Sid's gang hide behind newspapers in the waiting room when trying to escape Finisham Maternity Hospital.
• No Full Name Given:
  • We don't get to know Freddy, Arthur, Dick or Madge's last names.
  • The same can be said for Mr. and Mrs. Tidey, Dr. Prodd, Mrs. Jenkins, Miss Smethurst, Mrs. Tucker, Dr. Pearson, Miss Willing, Mr. Darling, Mrs. Pullitt and Mr. Grant's first names.
• One Last Job: Cyril vows the pill heist will be his last criminal action for Sid's gang before he goes straight.
• One-Steve Limit:
  • Ernie is the name of the member of Sid's gang played by Bernard Bresslaw, and one of Sir Bernard's books was written by a man named Ernest Steward.
  • Dr. Goode's first name is Francis, and cast lists reveal that Mrs. Kemp's first name is the very similar Frances.
• Only Sane Employee: Matron and Sister are the only two at Finisham Maternity Hospital who manage to remain professional throughout the film. Sir Bernard is a Hypochondriac, Dr. Prodd is a lecher, Dr. Goode is a Cloudcuckoolander, Nurse Ball is too much of a flirt and Cyrille is just a gangster trying to scope out the hospital.
• Out-of-Context Eavesdropping:
  • Matron listens at Cyrille's (Cyril's alias when Disguised in Drag) and hears Sid telling Cyril to take his pants off. Matron is horrified and demands Cyrille open the door so she can save her from the believed pervert.
  • Sir Bernard watches Matron chase Sid across the car park from his window and gets the wrong idea:
    Matron: Come back! I want you!
    Sir Bernard: By God! She's a sex maniac!
• Panicky Expectant Father: Mr. Tidey, who at one point sends himself skidding across the floor when he rushes into Finisham Maternity Hospital on news of a possible childbirth.
• Posthumous Character: Gertie, the wife of Sid and mother of Cyril.
• Potty Failure: Miss Willing's baby urinates while being held by Sir Bernard:
  Miss Willing: Again? That's the fifth this morning. He must 'ave a leak.
  Sir Bernard: I think he's just had one.
• Punny Name:
  • Finisham Maternity Hospital. For bonus points the wards are called Bunn and Oven.
  • One of the books read by Sir Bernard was written by a Professor Axel Greese.
  • Dr. F.A. Goode, played by Charles Hawtrey who was gay in real life.
  • A nurse cut from the final film was called Rose Knightley.
• Putting the "Medic" in Comedic: The film revolves around a heist being planned in a maternity hospital and milks the concept for all its worth, such as the climax seeing the gangsters being chased through the hospital by a group of pregnant women.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Out of all the staff of Finisham Maternity Hospital, the Matron is the closest thing to an Only Sane Employee, trying to deal with troublesome patients and coworkers. Although she ends up in the middle of an Imaginary Love Triangle with her boss Bernard and Dr. Goode.
• Rhymes on a Dime:
  • Dr. Prodd when he flirts with Nurse Ball:
    Dr. Prodd: 'Pon my soul, if it ain't Nurse Ball. The fairest flower of them all.
  • Dr. Goode defending himself when Sir Bernard accuses him of having it off with Matron:
    Dr. Goode: We've never had so much of an ounce of a bounce!
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In the final scene, Sid's gang are watching Sir Bernard and Matron's wedding from Sid's car over the road. Since the contraceptive pill robbery was thwarted, Freddy and Ernie ask what their next job will be. Sid explains that he's read about a millionaire's nudist camp, and he needs someone on the inside to gather information. Freddy and Ernie jump out of the car and run off up the road as Sid yells after them.
• Seinfeldian Conversation: When Ernie, Sid and Freddy are coming up with a plan to rob Finisham Maternity Hospital, Ernie mentions how his mother gave birth to him on top of a Number 73 bus, bang in the middle of Brixton high street. They begin arguing over which buses go where.
• Shot in the Ass: As in Carry On Doctor, that's "shot" as in "injection". In the ambulance with expecting mother and film star Jane Darling, a panicked Cyril accidentally injects Dr. Prodd in the backside with a dose of sedative when he fumbles around for painkillers.
• Shout-Out:
  • Mrs. Kemp wonders if Sir Bernard's ever read Gone with the Wind.
  • The twitching father uses the phone to call the Guinness Book of Records after his wife's birth.
  • Sid sarcastically suggests entering Cyril in Miss World.
  • After hearing glass break, Sir Bernard tells Matron to remember what happened to the skipper, referencing the Bawdy Song "Good Ship Venus".
  • Sid uses Dr. Zhivago as an alias when robbing Finisham Maternity Hospital.
  • Sid calls Cyril "a proper little Florence the Nightingale".
• Shout-Out to Shakespeare: Dr. Goode's wife's name is Hamlet.
• Show Within a Show: Matron and Dr. Goode meet once a week in secret to watch the glossy TV drama The Surgeons.
• A Simple Plan: Sid cases Finisham Maternity Hospital to plan the heist of contraceptive pills, but when he attracts too much attention from the nursing staff, he decides Cyril should go undercover as a nurse so that he can get a plan of the hospital and find out where the pills are kept. Simple, as long as Cyril keeps a low profile. However, the elastic on his underwear breaks, and he accidentally goes into the Gents' toilet to fix it, where Dr. Prodd finds "Cyrille" and targets "her" as his next sexual conquest. Though Cyril is able to use this to his advantage to get the information Sid and his gang need, Dr. Prodd is then called out on an emergency to deliver film star Jane Darling's premature baby, and grabs Cyril as the first available nurse when he happens to walk by. Cyril accidentally injects Dr. Prodd with a sedative and is forced to perform the delivery (of triplets no less) himself in the back of the ambulance, an event captured by reporters and photographers for multiple newspapers. Sid has to move the heist forward as a result, but the rushed planning once again means the thieves attract too much attention, and the doors are locked before they can escape, resulting in an entire hospital of pregnant women, doctors, and nurses chasing after them.
• Slippery Skid: Cyril steps on a bar of soap and slips backward into a nurse's bath.
• Speak in Unison: Sir Bernard and Dr. Goode do so when they recite the motto of the Grand Order of Newts, while Miss Banks watches on in confusion:
  Sir Bernard/Dr. Goode: We swear to uphold the noble code of the Grand Order of Newts-
• Steven Ulysses Perhero: Sir Bernard Cutting, fitting for the head surgeon.
• Strong Family Resemblance: When disguised as Cyrille, Cyril reminds Sid of Cyril's mother and his wife Gertie.
• Stuff Blowing Up: Sid blows up the door to the basement storeroom where the pills are kept. This explosion also manages to finally induce labour for Mrs. Tidey as a bonus.
• Suddenly Shouting: Sir Bernard when trying to prove he isn't turning into a woman:
  Matron: Oh, I nearly forgot. Your mail.
  Sir Bernard: Yes, I am and I can prove it! D'you hear?! PROVE IT!
• Tagline: "The Carry On team serve up another 'prescription' of hilarious comedy!!!".
• Take That!: The reliability (or lack thereof) of the British railway system has always been a popular target for British comedy, and this film provides a good example in a conversation between Mr. Tidey (a railway porter) and Matron:^note  Amusingly, Hattie Jacques later did a TV ad for British Rail in which she made a smooth, comfortable journey by train while Formula One driver Jackie Stewart made the same journey by car and got held up in traffic, couldn't find a parking spot, etc.
  Mr. Tidey: We'd soon be in a right old mess, wouldn't we, if we ran the railways like that.
  Matron: I was under the impression that you did.
• Tap on the Head: Sid knocks Dr. Prodd out before he and the gang enter Finisham Maternity Hospital, but Dr. Prodd still wakes up in time to crash the ambulance he was left in into the front of the hospital.
• Tempting Fate: As Sid's gang race through Finisham Maternity Hospital, they narrowly miss Mr. Tidey who laughs at them for missing him, only to get bowled over by the pregnant women chasing after them.
• That Came Out Wrong: When Sir Bernard knocks Dr. Goode and Matron's alibi for not having sex (they were watching TV) by mentioning the set wasn't even on, Dr. Goode interrupts saying they had it (the set) off before Sir Bernard arrived. Unfortunately, "having it off" is British slang for sex, which angers Sir Bernard even more.
• The Teetotaler: Cyril pretends to never drink or smoke in an effort to get out of spending the night with Dr. Prodd.
• Trash Landing: When escaping from the Finisham Maternity Hospital staff and patients, Sid and his gang climb into a chute that slides them into a bin full of used nappies:
  Sid: Dirty nappies! Eurgh!
• Tuckerization: One of the books that Sir Bernard consults is The Psychology of Jealousy by Ernest Steward, this being an in joke as he was the director of photography.
• Undercrank: Played for Laughs in the final scene as Freddy and Ernie jump out of Sid's car and dash off down the road.
• Verbal Backspace:
  • Dr. Prodd tells a patient, Mrs. Smethurst, that he has good news for her: ^note In Britain in 1972, there was still a strong negative stigma attached to having children out of wedlock.
    Dr. Prodd: Name, please?
    Miss Smethurst: "Smethurst".
    Dr. Prodd: Oh, yes, I have some good news for you, Mrs. Smethurst.
    Miss Smethurst: Miss Smethurst.
    Dr. Prodd: Oh. (Beat) In that case, I have some bad news for you, Miss Smethurst.
  • Matron does so on the phone:
    Matron: Hello, Tingle here- Matron here.
• Villain Protagonist: Sid's gang are portrayed as the heroes, even though they plan to do drug dealing abroad with stolen contraceptive pills.
• Wardrobe Malfunction: Miss Banks' dress is accidentally ripped off by Sir Bernard as he attempts to fight Dr. Goode, who cowers and uses her as a human shield.
• Wedding Finale: In the film's final sequence, Sir Bernard Cutting and Matron have just been married.
• "Which Restroom?" Dilemma: When Cyril arrives at Finisham Maternity Hospital dressed as a female nurse, the elastic on his underwear breaks, and he asks Mrs. Kemp the receptionist for a safety pin to repair it. However, he forgets that he's disguised as a woman and goes into the gents' toilet to make the necessary adjustment; Dr. Prodd finds "her" in there and initially thinks he's walked into the ladies' toilet by mistake.
• White Sheep: Sid Carter is a career criminal, and his late wife Gertie is implied to have been the same (Sid reveals she spent time in HM Prison Holloway), meaning Cyril has been expected by both parents to follow in their footsteps. However, he doesn't have the stomach for a life outside the law, and has successfully applied for a job in insurance. Sid persuades him to make the contraceptive pill theft his One Last Job.

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