The first Carry On film in the popular series concerns a new platoon of soldiers entering National Service. If Sergeant Grimshaw treats them nicely rather than with hostility, will they all turn out as perfect recruits? He has £50 riding on it.

For a first film, Carry On Sergeant is very self-assured and very funny. It’s true that the formula that the later films struck upon hasn’t been established yet, but this isn’t a hindrance here. The ending is something I don’t associate with the later films. It’s poignant and extremely heartwarming.

Whilst we have some of the regular cast members here who we all know and love (Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, Hattie Jacques), there are cast members who would star in this film alone- William Hartnell, (a few years before he would play the first Doctor Who) and Bob Monkhouse. The cast are uniformly brilliant and all deliver their comedy chops fantastically.

We also have the genius Carry On character names. Hawtrey’s character is called Golightly. The hypochondriac recruit has the surname Strong. Although these aren’t a patch on Dr Tinkle.

In fact, the antics here reminded me of Kenneth Williams’ anecdotes about his army days regarding men who really weren’t destined to be soldiers.

Carry On Sergeant is a brilliant first film and a fantastic piece of British pop culture that has aged like a fine wine (or should that be milk stout).

4 out of 5 stars