Trivia / Carry On at Your Convenience

• Acting for Two:
  • Tina Hart plays an usherette and a dancer.
  • An extra plays both a man in the cinema and a factory worker.
• Author's Saving Throw: Sid James playing a family man much like his role in Bless This House was to make up for criticisms of his character in Carry On Henry being too much of a Dirty Old Man.
• Box Office Bomb: Budget, unknown. Box office, £220,000. This was the first real flop in the series. A big factor was its portrayal of the working class as lazy and stupid, which alienated its working class fanbase, who boycotted the film.
• Completely Different Title:
  • Germany: It's Crazy - A Strike Rarely Comes Alone.
  • Hungary: Carry On as You Please!/Continue When it Suits You!.
  • Poland: How do You Make Your Bed.
  • Portugal: The Rebels of Pipe.
• Cowboy Be Bop At His Computer:
  • The book Carry On Uncensored incorrectly claims that Jim Dale returned for this film for the first time since Carry On Again Doctor. In reality, Dale wouldn't star in another Carry On until Carry On Columbus, 21 years after At Your Convenience came out.
  • The book The Complete A–Z of Everything Carry On incorrectly claims that the Deleted Role of Mr. Allcock was played by Bill Maynard. In reality, Mr. Allcock was played by Terry Scott, and Maynard plays Fred Moore.
• Creator Backlash:
  • Joan Sims revealed in her autobiography that she wasn't keen on this film.
  • Zig-zagged by Peter Rogers, who pointed to the Winter of Discontent later in the decade, along with the heavy curtailing of union power during Margaret Thatcher's premiership, that the film's message was right all along. However, he admitted that said message was delivered poorly, and that they had seriously miscalculated the film's tone.
  • Talbot Rothwell shared Rogers' sentiments, feeling that the screenplay was rushed - he was working on Carry On Henry and the film adaptation of Up Pompeii at the same time - and not one of his better efforts, and that the political message was far too heavy-handed.
  • Richard O'Callaghan saw the film a few years after it was released and was embarrassed by it.
    I saw the film about three or four years after we made it and I personally was very embarrassed by what I was doing. It was all so right wing and presenting the unionists as complete asses. I crept out of the cinema hoping nobody recognised me - fortunately they didn't.
  • Julian Holloway later admitted he wasn't remotely proud of his involvement with any of the Carry On films.
• The Danza:
  • Sid James as Sid Plummer.
  • Charles Hawtrey as Charles Coote.
  • Bernard Bresslaw as Bernie Hulke.
• Deleted Role:
  • Terry Scott was set to appear as a trade unionist named Mr. Allcock and would've received ninth billing. His scene was filmed, but never made post-production. Gerald Thomas wrote to Scott about the cutting of his entire performance in the film by writing in a personal note to him:
    ...this is in no way any reflection on you or your performance but the film finished 50 minutes over length and we felt rather than cut your sequence down so that you were only on the screen for a flash it would be kinder to remove the entire scene as really it had no effect one way or the other on the story, such as it is.
  • Bill Pertwee appeared as the Whippet Inn manager but his scenes were cut from the final film.
  • Jan Rossini had one scene as a "Hoop-la Girl" on the pier but was cut from the film.
  • Philip Stone as Mr. Bulstrode.
  • Alec Bregonzi as a beach photographer, alongside a happy couple (Alexandra Dane and Douglas Ridley in Uncredited Roles) he was taking photos of.
• Deleted Scene:
  • A full ten-minute scene about Lewis, Mr. Boggs, Sid, Vic, and Mr. Allcock doing union negotiations in the boardroom was cut when the film ran too long.
  • BBFC cuts saw the losses of the lines "All the time it's prick, prick, prick" (followed by "So all the girls say") and "I hope the other arm is doing something as well".
  • When Agatha and Mrs. Spragg peer out of their windows, one of Mrs. Spragg's lines is noticeably cut out as her mouth can be seen moving to start and end the line.
  • The Whippit Inn sequence lost Lewis accidentally ripping off a bunny waitress' skirt and the owner intruding on the fracas.
  • Mr. Bulstrode (the bank manager) refusing to loan £15,000 to Mr. Boggs.
  • The scene where Mr. Boggs tells the workers that they should all go enjoy the pier was cut down, as Mr. Boggs' dialogue cuts out suddenly and his mouth can still be seen moving as the scene fades out.
  • A short scene of Bernie and his popsy mucking about in the Hall of Mirrors, with the popsy trying to improve her bust in one of the mirrors.
  • A saucy pier scene with Jan Rossini's cut hoop-la girl where Mr. Coote throws a ring onto her breasts.
  • A scene where a Vic takes pictures of Bernie and his popsy in a photo cutout stand.
  • In total there was an extra fifty minutes left on the cutting room floor.
• DVD Commentary: With Carry On historian Robert Ross talking to Jacki Piper (Myrtle Plummer) and Richard O'Callaghan (Lewis Boggs).
• Edited for Syndication: ITV airings make minor edits to bad language.
• Fake Brit: The South African-born Sid James plays the British Sid Plummer.
• Hostility on the Set:
  • Patsy Rowlands recalled on the DVD Commentary for Carry On Behind that Kenneth Williams didn't like Renée Houston.
  • Williams also clashed with Hugh Futcher during the filming in Brighton, as he believed that others on the set found him funnier. Once, after Futcher told a funny story, Williams walked up to him, pinched his cheek, and told him "You will remember I'm the funny one, dear, won't you?".
• Looping Lines: When Lewis beats up Vic on the ghost train, Vic's pained cries come from later in the film when Agatha spanks him.
• Orphaned Reference:
  • Mr. Boggs complaining about the bank refusing to give him a loan was intended to come after a scene of him meeting Mr. Bulstrode, the bank manager.
  • When the workers arrive at Palace Pier, Vic points out the Hall of Mirrors, although no one enters it. However, there was a Deleted Scene where Bernie takes his popsy inside and she tries to make her breasts look bigger in the mirrors.
• Prop Recycling: The bronze statues of a woman holding a clock flanking W.C. Boggs's fireplace came from The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes.
• Reality Subtext: Sid James is The Gambling Addict, just like he was in Real Life.
• Recycled Set: Vic Spanner's house was the Baker Street set that had originally been built for the recently produced film The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes.
• Throw It In!: Kenneth Cope improvised the "lovely pair of canteens" line.
• Uncredited Role:
  • Amelia Bayntun as Mrs. Spragg.
  • Julian Holloway as Roger.
  • Alexandra Dane and Douglas Ridley would have had one as a happy couple getting their picture taken on the pier, but their scene was cut.
• Underage Casting: Kenneth Williams played Richard O'Callaghan's father despite being fourteen years older than him.
• What Could Have Been:
  • When Carry On Loving was still in cinemas, Carry On Comrade was announced as the 21st Carry On before Carry On Henry usurped its spot.
  • The role of Agatha Spanner was nearly recast due to Renée Houston suffering from an illness.
  • The BBFC tried to cut the entire sequence where Lewis tells Mr. Boggs he married Myrtle, but Peter Rogers managed to convince them to keep it in.
  • The Deleted Role of the beach photographer was intended to have been played by Ronnie Brody, but he was released from his contract, and replaced by Alec Bregonzi.
  • The final scene of the film was originally Vic meeting the new canteen girl, and everything after that was tacked on at the last minute. Additionally, Vic's final line "Carry on working" was absent from the final draft of the script.
• Working Title:
  • The movie was originally called Carry On Comrade, as well as Carry On Working. The former title was supposedly too communist for the trade unions (the left-wing people that organised the strikes for the workers), and the latter title was seen as too obvious ^note the production teams at Pinewood Studios were right-wing supporters, so saw trade unions strikes as being ungrateful and lazy; the title would've shown who they were definitely supporting but managed to be salvaged as the last line of the movie.
  • Carry On Round the Bend was considered, then used in America.

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