One of my favourite Carry on films. Yes, it is silly but then all the carry on franchise is silly. Kids love them but don't understand the double entendres, adults love them but don't appreciate the silliness. You kind of grow out of them. This one still has me roaring and using quotes out of it 30 years after I roared at it as a kid. Can't say the same for earlier ones. Windsor Davies and Kenneth Connor make a great team. I think it's a shame that it gets the poor reviews it gets just because the old team, Sid James, Charles Hawtry, Barbara Windsor, Bernard Bresslaw to name a few not in it but in the same respect, I only like James Bond starring Roger Moore because that was my era but my partner prefers Sean Connery because that was his era. Horses for courses I say.

Back in the mid-1970s, as the 'space race' receded in favour of nostalgia, World War Two became a cultural fixation. There were plenty of popular TV shows ('A Family At War', 'Colditz', 'Dad's Army' etcetera) and movies utilising the era, and it made canny sense for the 'Carry On' writers to capitalise on it. As we know by now, that was the only thing about the resultant 'Carry On England' which the makers got right. Back in the franchise's 1960s heyday, it was the cleverly written saucy banter which, along with the notable stock of character actors, remained the abiding pleasure of a good 'Carry On'. Come the more liberal 1970s, their 1960s brand of 'sauciness' began to look quaint and was replaced by a slightly clammy smuttiness, and so the series lost its innocence. Long adrift from that era of cheekiness, the 'Carry On' movies hit the sandbar and became just more examples of dull, embarrassing 1970s British sex comedies. This one has a drastically reduced core of 'regulars', a completely miscast central couple and third-rate banter. That's 'third rate' for the 'Carry Ons', mind. With a steady eye, one is sometimes taken aback with the quality of the writing. Even amidst the most famous entries, there are some prime examples of wince-inducing lame comedy writing. Well, imagine a whole movie made out of just that stuff, and you have the script of 'England'. How bad is it? I bought 'England's Brit-sex-com contemporary 'Confessions of a Pop Performer' the same week and got more laughs out of it. And that wasn't a very good movie, either. Still, if you're a 'Carry On' completist or an appreciator of bad comedies, then you'll have to sit through this at some stage. To be honest, this is the only movie I've reviewed on IMDb which I didn't finish watching. I got about three quarters of the way through and gave up; and from reading the other reviews here it seems I missed nothing. As has been said; a bad thriller easily becomes a comedy, but a bad comedy is no laughing matter. And 'Colditz' was funnier than this.

I have just watched this on DVD - one feels obliged having been given the box set - and yes, it's still terrible. Whilst I would in no way wish to defend it, I would take issue with the following earlier comments:1) Although Sid was a big miss (as were Kenny and Charlie), how would he have improved the film? He wouldn't have improved on Windsor Davies' definitive Sergeant Major, and frankly there wasn't really anything else he could have done. I also think he might well have been losing his edge by then anyway: the performance in Carry On Dick was well below par, in particular contrast to Don't Lose Your Head of which it had many echoes.2) Peter Butterworth's apparent boredom may have been in character: he was after all being bored constantly by the Brigadier's witticisms. He may equally have been bored with the film, one can't really tell.3) Major discovery - THERE IS ACTUALLY A FUNNY LINE. It's well hidden and one has to be a certain demographic (ie over 45 and British) to appreciate it fully. Towards the end, as they are running to the gun, one can just pick out Windsor Davies' encouragement: "Sixpence for every one you shoot down. Two bob if it's a German!" One can imagine that being said in reality at the time.Shame about the preceding 80 minutes though.

The much maligned Carry on England actually contains the germ of a good idea. It shows a mixed group of soldiers – men and women – made to suppress their sexual desires in order to join in the "war effort" and sub-textually sublimate their carnality in martial manoeuvres. In the right hands, this idea could have been an incisive and subversive satire on the mentality of militarism, an amalgamation of Kubrick's two films on a similar theme, Dr Strangelove and Full Metal Jacket. Unfortunately, the makers of this – the 28th Carry On film – didn't have the abilities to fulfil the promise of such a fierce idea. The details and characterisations in the script are lame, the direction is flat & dreary and the performers are, for the most part, completely charmless.Most of the cast are not the regular Carry On team, and most of them shouldn't be in a Carry On. Not only are the likes of Patrick Mower and Judy Geeson profoundly unfunny, they are also curiously dislikeable here. This is unfortunate, as these are the actors playing the put-upon soldiers, whose sexuality and rebellion we should sympathise with; as it is, they are so mean-spirited and without personality that our sympathies lie with the much put-upon martinet Captain S Melly (yes, that's the level of the humour) – played with professionalism if not success by Carry On veteran Kenneth Connor – whose job it is to turn the lusty recruits into fighting machines. He is assisted by Windsor Davies, who is simply recreating his "shut up!" routine from the TV series It Ain't Half Hot Mum and almost giving himself a hernia as he strains to be funny. He gets one or two laughs, which is more than can be said for his co-star in IAHHM Melvyn Hayes, who makes little impression as the aptly named Gunner Shorthouse, or Carry Onners Jack Douglas and Joan Sims, completely wasted in thankless parts. Peter Butterworth gets the most mileage out of his comic reactions to Brigadier Peter Jones (a poor replacement for Kenneth Williams)'s bad jokes.The was some controversy when this was first released in the UK, as it earned itself a 'AA' certificate from the BBFC, meaning that the series' largest audience, - kids - couldn't get in to see the film. The certificate was earned by a few very ribald double entendres and a lot more topless women than we usually see in a Carry On; one scene has almost the entire female section regiment with their knockers out; I say "almost" as they thankfully spared us the sight of a bare breasted Joan Sims.Despite the fine idea underlying the comedy, Carry on England is pretty much the worst of the series, if you discount the truly execrable and barely mentionable Carry on Columbus, which England looks like Shakespeare next to.