"I was looking for someone to make a fourth at bridge",an exasperated Eric Pohlman splutters to Sid James after Kenneth Connor has performed a death - defying leap a la Richard Hannay from a speeding train crossing the Forth Bridge.This is just one of a series of misunderstandings that force Sid's "Helping Hands Ltd"to the verge of extinction,only to be rescued at the last minute by their own serendipitous incompetence whilst working for the sublime Stanley Unwin whose career was brief but ecstatic for the former schoolmaster. Apart from a distinctly unfunny Patrick Cargill in a pre Leslie Phillips Leslie Phillips role,"Carry on Regardless" is inoffensive to all but the most po - faced amongst us.There is lots of good old British cheek of course,but it's innocent enough and nicely played. Like Dorian Gray,the series grew more raddled as time progressed,but fifty years ago when the censor's pencil hanged Damoclese - like over the theatre and the cinema,it was much more of an achievement to slip in a few iffy gags into a "Carry On" than it later became to show full frontal nudity then rape and buggery on stage and screen - to no good purpose in my opinion. Not one of the most typical "Carry On"s,"Regardless" finds the genre approaching the crossroads at which point it got progressively better or progressively worst according to individual taste.It is not the beginning of the but it is the end of the beginning.

This outing sees the Carry On team working in a temping agency called Helping Hands which is run by Sid James; there isn't a plot to speak of they just go out to a series of jobs which leads each of them in to amusing situations; Kenneth Williams has to take a chimpanzee for a walk, Joan Sims gets rather drunk at a wine tasting, Liz Frazer ends up modelling underwear for a man who is actually wanting them to give to his wife and Charles Hawtrey has to be a second at a boxing match but ends up in the ring himself! There are plenty of other jobs they are sent to and when it seems they have exhausted the idea of sending them on jobs they are qualified for an accident at the office means everybody gets sent to jobs they are not qualified for.I don't think this is one of the best known in the series but it had more laughs than I had expected; the regulars perform well in their roles although that isn't too surprising as they usually play similar characters. Stanley Unwin who played the difficult to understand landlord makes a fun guest appearance; it is difficult to describe how he talks; it sounds like English but the way he twists the works makes it delightfully difficult to understand. If you enjoyed other early Carry On films I'm sure you will enjoy this; there are plenty of laughs and it isn't too rude for youngsters to watch.

Carry On Regardless is an entertaining film in my mind, but it is not among the best for me, not like Cleo, Up the Khyber and Screaming. There is a complete surfeit of story, the film feels more like a handful of sketches, and Stanley Unwin I found more irritating than funny. However, the gags are funny constantly, with Kenneth Williams baby-sitting a chimp and Joan Sims getting hammered the highlights. The film is well directed, has a snappy script and looks nice too. The acting, other than Unwin, I have little to complain about. Kenneth Connor gives one of my favourite Carry On performances of his, and while he could have done with more to do Charles Hawtrey is good as well. Sid James seems to having a lot of fun, and Esma Cannon simpers superbly, while Kenneth Williams and Joan Sims come off best. Overall, a fun entry that entertains even with an uneven story. 8/10 Bethany Cox

With work sparse in England, the labour exchanges have become almost a social club with so many men hanging around without joy. It is in this environment that Bert Handy spots an opening for a firm carrying out any odd-jobs on request and thus the "Helping Hands Agency" is born. Recruiting a gang of odds and sods, Bert quickly finds that there are all manner of jobs out there to be done that don't fit anywhere. However can his men all cope with the sheer range of jobs thrown at them? About 10 minutes into this film I started to realise that this had no plot. At regular intervals from then on this view was reinforced as the film just became a series of sketches using the odd-job company as a frame for setting each one up. This sounds like a criticism because it is but surprisingly it was not a real problem because the sketches are mostly pretty funny and the amusement they make up for the total lack of any actual narrative drive. The sketches mostly stand alone but are not that contrived or forced – only the mixed up jobs part is a little forced; the wine tasting, the translated argument, the home improvement show and others are all consistently amusing even if none of them had me rolling in the aisles.The cast all take to the sketch format with their comedy background. James has the least role since he has to act as the glue holding the funny bits together but he does get some laughs and he is rarely less than interesting and amusing. Connor, Williams and Hawtrey all do the characters they had done in the previous four films – all of them are funny and they do well in their various sketches. Owen joins the male cast in a minor role while Sims and Fraser are stuck with "pretty young girl" roles which minimise their comic impact a little bit. Support from Jacques, Hickson, Cannon, Alexander and others is good and they make the film feel fuller than it would have done with only the main roles filled with well known faces.Overall on the surface of things this is a plot less mess that has no rhyme or reason to it; however it does set up a series of sketches that are mostly pretty amusing. It won't be remember as fondly as the later Carry On films that produced laughs with a fuller plot and costumes but it is still an enjoyable film that shows how good the group were as comics. Not quite what you think of when you think Carry On but an entertaining collection of sketches nonetheless.