Trivia / Carry On Abroad

• Billing Displacement: Despite playing such small roles, Jack Douglas and Patsy Rowlands are added to the list of stars on the original VHS release as they had more prominent roles in other films in the series.
• California Doubling: Every actor expected to go to Spain to film most of the movie, but Pinewood Studios turned their car park into a holiday resort.
• Completely Different Title:
  • Belgium: Looking for the Sun Abroad.
  • Denmark: What a Holiday.
  • France: The Mad Island.
  • Germany: A Totally Crazy Holiday.
  • Hungary: Continue Abroad!.
  • Italy: Girls in the Room.
  • Portugal: With Way Goes... In the Swamp!.
  • Turkish: Crazy Hotel.
• Cowboy BeBop at His Computer:
  • The blurb on the back of the Australian VHS release claims Elsbels is located on the Costa Plonka, which wasn't the setting for this film, but rather Are You Being Served? (the 1977 movie, not the series).
  • The book The Carry On Films by Steven Gerrard at one point incorrectly calls Sid James and Barbara Windsor's characters "Sid" and "Babs", which weren't their character names in this film (Vic and Sadie), but their names in Carry On Camping.
• Creator Backlash: Kenneth Williams thought the film was stale and wrote so in his diaries:
  Pinewood at 7.40. The first day, for me, of Carry On Abroad. If you’d told me in '58 that I’d still be coming out to Pinewood to make these films I'd have said you were mad. Though it was the first day, there was an air of staleness over everything. A feeling of 'I have been here before' and I thought the acting standard was rather bad throughout.
• Creator's Favourite Episode: This was June Whitfield's favourite of the four Carry On films she had appeared in.
• The Danza:
  • Bernard Bresslaw as Brother Bernard.
  • Kenneth Williams and Charles Hawtrey originally played characters named Kenneth Stuart-Farquhar and Charles Makepeace.
• Deleted Role:
  • Charles Makepeace, Lady Joan Baugham, her 17-year-old son and the old captain never made it past the initial treatment, while Mr. and Mrs. Sockett stuck around for a few drafts before being dropped.
  • Bill Maynard filmed scenes as Mr. Fiddler, the lecherous owner of Wundatours Limited. However, despite his scenes with Kenneth Williams, Patsy Rowlands and Gail Grainger being filmed, over-running on the final print dictated Maynard's entire performance be cut from the released film.
  • Terry Scott had a cameo as an irate customer that was cut. It would have been his last film in the series.
  • Lindsay Marsh was cast as a hostess but had her only scene cut from the script just before filming. She still received her salary for her time.
• Deleted Scene:
  • A shot of the Elsbels package holiday advertisement, boasting the £17 inclusive price.
  • There were more scenes of Mr. Farquhar and Miss Plunkett at the Wundatours office, which the removal of saw most of Patsy Rowlands' performance lost, as well as all of Bill Maynard and Terry Scott's.
  • The scene of the holidaymakers boarding the coach lost a line from Stanley to Vic:
    Stanley: You wouldn't happen to have a spare bottle of bromide, would you? You see, the jogging of the coach excites my wife.
  • One scene was filmed at Gatwick Airport, London but it was removed from the final film.
  • The first night's dinner sequence saw a segment (poorly) removed, as evidenced by how Pepe disappears from the shot and Mr. Farquhar appears out of nowhere.
  • The BBFC made several cuts to scenes to remove things they didn't approve of:
    • The scene of Rob accusing Nicholas of being with Lily lost several lines.
    • Stanley's line "I'm going to tear off all your clothes, throw you on the bed..." when he finally gets to have it off with Evelyn was removed.
    • Vic and Cora's exchange of "He's pissed again", and "He can't be, he's just had a leak" in reference to Pepe warning about the flooding was taken out.
• DVD Commentary: With Carry On historian Robert Ross talking to Sally Geeson (Lily Dickey), Carol Hawkins (Marge Mace), John Clive (Rob Tweet) and David Kernan (Nicholas Phipps).
• Edited for Syndication:
  • The panning shot of Sadie's bottom in the shower, Vic pulling off Sadie's top, and the Chief of Police sticking up two fingers to Mr. Farquhar are all cut out when shown on British TV.
  • The film is cut down to 82 minutes when shown on ITV.
  • When aired over the Easter holidays in 2023, the "I tried it once and didn't like it" scene had the gag butchered by the removal of the set-up to the joke (Vic asking Evelyn if she smokes).
• Fake Brit: The South African-born Sid James plays the British Vic Flange.
• Fake Nationality: Peter Butterworth, Hattie Jacques, Ray Brooks, Alan Curtis, Hugh Futcher, Gertan Klauber, Brian Osborne, and Olga Lowe as Spaniards.
• Gay Panic: In the initial story treatment, Rob and Nicholas (then known as "Cyril") were supposed to be boyfriends and to constantly be holding each other's hands. However, the censors didn't approve and so as the script was revised, it was changed so that while the pair were still boyfriends, Nicholas would end up falling in love with Lily. As filming began, more scenes were dropped from the script, while others were cut in the editing process, causing the final film to present Rob as Nicholas' Gay Best Friend with a crush, while Nicholas was seemingly unaware of Rob's feelings towards him.
• Harpo Does Something Funny: Kenneth Williams' dialogue when Mr. Farquhar yells out to the holidaymakers to ignore the downpour was all ad-libbed. Gerald Thomas told him to imagine he was a captain, braving the elements during a storm.
• Hostility on the Set: Kenneth Williams refused to speak to David Kernan throughout the shoot. Kernan recalled in 2003:
  He ignored me completely during the entire six weeks of filming. Even afterwards when I got chummy with Hattie, who would invite me every year for Christmas Day and Kenneth was always there and he still never spoke to me. He totally ignored me and then to my complete surprise, he wrote some very sweet things about me in his diaries.
• Irony as She Is Cast: David Kernan (a gay man) plays Nicholas, a straight man, who is pined for by his Gay Best Friend, Rob, played by John Clive (a straight man).
• Orphaned Reference:
  • At the Palace Hotel bar, Bert tells Vic about how he heard that Sadie killed her second husband with rat poison. Said conversation was from a part of the script on an airplane that was cut before filming.
  • During the Carnival Night party, Mr. Farquhar panics and tells Miss Plunkett everything depends on the report that gets filed after the holiday ends. This came from a Deleted Scene where Mr. Farquhar's boss Mr. Fiddler warns him that one more unsuccessful holiday would have him fired, and also explains why Mr. Farquhar is now working for Vic and Cora after the Time Skip.
• Promoted Fangirl: Sally Geeson admits she had been a fan of the older Carry On series, with Carry On Nurse as her favourite film and Charles Hawtrey as her favourite actor.
• Prop Recycling: The striped blazer that Stanley wears on the beach was one worn by Kenneth Williams in Carry On Camping.
• Reality Subtext: Charles Hawtrey plays a camp, neurotic, alcoholic Mummy's Boy. Which was pretty much what he was in Real Life. Screenwriter Talbot Rothwell was deliberately satirising his life.
• Referenced by...: Morrissey used clips from the film in the music video for "Everyday Is Like Sunday".
• Refitted for Sequel: The whole concept of Gertan Klauber playing a native selling naughty postcards to a disgusted Brit (in this film Kenneth Williams as Mr. Farquhar), was first used in a Deleted Scene from Follow That Camel (with Jim Dale as Bo West).
• Throw It In!:
  • Brian Osborne improvised his "drinky, drinky" line and caught Sid James off guard when he said it. After that incident, that became Osborne's nickname amongst the crew.
  • David Kernan, Sally Geeson, Jimmy Logan, and Joan Sims quite noticeably fall over as the holidaymakers dash through a collapsing hotel corridor.
• Underage Casting: Amelia Bayntun appears in her fifth and final Carry On film as the mother of Charles Hawtrey. She was actually five years younger than Hawtrey.
• Viewer Name Confusion: The DVD subtitles accidentally use "Tweed" for Rob's surname, even though his surname is actually "Tweet".
• What Could Have Been:
  • The initial story treatment had many changes:
    • Cora's name was originally Clara.
    • Elsbels was supposed to be on the Costa Bomm.
    • Stuart Farquhar's name was shortened from the original Kenneth Stuart-Farquhar.
    • Eustace Tuttle wasn't in the script and Charles Hawtrey originally played Charles Makepeace, an old-fashioned solicitor.
    • There was a character named Lady Joan Baugham who was travelling with her 17-year-old son. She was described as "down on her uppers" while spending the entire holiday scrounging off the others.
    • Nicholas' name was originally Cyril, and he and Rob were to constantly be holding each other's hands.
    • The captain of the flight to Spain was an old man who made all the passengers sit at the back to counterbalance the weight.
    • On the return flight the plane was to crash into the sea, leaving the holidaymakers to jump onto a raft and be rescued by a ferry.
  • A later draft had less differences:
    • Vic and Cora's pub was named The Bull and Bush.
    • Lily and Marge were both seventeen and Marge was plump rather than thin.
    • The draft included a pair of newlyweds called Mr. and Mrs. Sockett, who were virtually inseparable throughout the early pages of the script before arriving at the Palace Hotel and taking part in a sped-up scene where they rush to have it off.
  • A sequence of the excited holidaymakers on the plane was cut from the script just before filming began to avoid having to build a new set. Lindsay Marsh was hired to play a hostess, but she was only paid instead of being used. Notable parts from this cut segment include:
    • Cora trying to get over her fear of flying.
    • Vic being sick in the toilets.
    • Mr. Farquhar missing Miss Plunkett's obvious flirting.
    • Brother Bernard retrieving Marge's handbag for her.
    • Evelyn insisting on a separate room from Stanley at the hotel.
    • Stanley pinching the hostess' bottom.
    • Mr. Tuttle showing Bert one of his clients in a girlie mag.
    • Rob telling Nicholas of the one time he had been out with a girl.
    • Sadie lying to Bert that she had accidentally killed her husband with rat poison.
  • Madeline Smith proved popular with the crew after appearing in Carry On Matron, so Peter Rogers asked her to come back in this film as Lily, but she had to decline due to work commitments. The part later went to Sally Geeson at the suggestion of Sid James, who had worked with her on Bless This House.
  • Carol Hawkins wasn't originally intended to play Marge, but she sent a letter and photo explaining she'd be willing to work on a Carry On and got herself the part.
  • Valerie Leon was intended for the part of Moira Plunkett, but it eventually went to Gail Grainger.
  • Julian Holloway recalled in 2018 that he had been asked to return for either this film or Carry On Girls (he couldn't remember which one), but turned it down.
  • An earlier version of the "Lovely day for it" scene lacked the innuendo, and instead had Miss Dobbs take a more serious tone to set up the cut subplot of Mr. Farquhar facing the sack if he led another subpar package holiday.
  • The censors disproved of Rob's "ankle bracelet" line and tried to have it cut, but ultimately it remained in the film.
• Word of Dante: The Wikipedia page for the film gives Lily and Marge the surnames "Maggs" and "Dawes". Despite the film giving them the surnames of "Dickey" and "Mace", the former two are more commonly used.

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