Carry On Doctor | 1967
Something about pompous doctors, nubile nurses and bedpans suits the Carry Ons a treat – though people who are not familiar with the series will be flummoxed by the daffodil references.
The disappointingly named ‘Borough County Hospital’ (they hadn’t got the whole silly name thing down yet) is Maidenhead Town Hall, St Ives Road in Maidenhead, a town on the River Thames, in Berkshire, west of London – and, importantly, not far from Pinewood Studios.
Two years later, its town hall returned as ‘Long Hampton Hospital’ (now that’s more like it) in Carry On Again Doctor.
The run-down looking village hall, where Francis Bigger (Frankie Howerd) is giving his lecture on mind over matter, looks like the kind of place that would have been long since demolished. It was the Masonic Hall in Uxbridge, to the east, and equally close to the Studios.
The Hall was used by the Masons until the mid-Nineties, when they moved to new premises. Rather than being demolished, it was converted into flats. The entrance seen in the film is bricked up, and it’s also gained a low wall, but it’s still plainly recognisable on New Windsor Road at Hows Road.
The ‘nurses’ home’, where Nurse May (Barbara Windsor) causes a panic when she tries to sunbathe on the roof, and which appears to be directly opposite the hospital, can be found in London’s Bayswater, behind Lancaster Gate tube station. It’s 21-22 Westbourne Street, W2.
Rather than being opposite a hospital, the building is opposite the Lancaster London Hotel – where Charlie Croker (Michael Caine) celebrated his release from Wormwood Scrubs prison with a bevy of ‘dolly birds’ at the beginning of The Italian Job.
