[go: up one dir, main page]

    Release calendarTop 250 moviesMost popular moviesBrowse movies by genreTop box officeShowtimes & ticketsMovie newsIndia movie spotlight
    What's on TV & streamingTop 250 TV showsMost popular TV showsBrowse TV shows by genreTV news
    What to watchLatest trailersIMDb OriginalsIMDb PicksIMDb SpotlightFamily entertainment guideIMDb Podcasts
    OscarsEmmysSan Diego Comic-ConSummer Watch GuideToronto Int'l Film FestivalIMDb Stars to WatchSTARmeter AwardsAwards CentralFestival CentralAll events
    Born todayMost popular celebsCelebrity news
    Help centerContributor zonePolls
For industry professionals
  • Language
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
Watchlist
Sign in
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
Use app
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
IMDbPro

Cor, Blimey!

  • TV Movie
  • 2000
  • 1h 48m
IMDb RATING
7.6/10
461
YOUR RATING
Adam Godley, Geoffrey Hutchings, Samantha Spiro, and Hugh Walters in Cor, Blimey! (2000)
DramaRomance

Dramatisation of the love affair between Sidney James and Barbara Windsor, played out against the backdrop of the 'Carry On' films during the 1960s and 1970s.Dramatisation of the love affair between Sidney James and Barbara Windsor, played out against the backdrop of the 'Carry On' films during the 1960s and 1970s.Dramatisation of the love affair between Sidney James and Barbara Windsor, played out against the backdrop of the 'Carry On' films during the 1960s and 1970s.

  • Director
    • Terry Johnson
  • Writer
    • Terry Johnson
  • Stars
    • Jacqueline Defferary
    • Geoffrey Hutchings
    • David McAlister
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.6/10
    461
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Terry Johnson
    • Writer
      • Terry Johnson
    • Stars
      • Jacqueline Defferary
      • Geoffrey Hutchings
      • David McAlister
    • 15User reviews
    • 2Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Photos1

    View Poster

    Top cast32

    Edit
    Jacqueline Defferary
    • Sally
    Geoffrey Hutchings
    Geoffrey Hutchings
    • Sid James
    David McAlister
    David McAlister
    • Gerald Thomas
    Jason Round
    • Clapper Loader
    Adam Godley
    Adam Godley
    • Kenneth Williams
    Steve Speirs
    Steve Speirs
    • Bernard Bresslaw
    Hugh Walters
    Hugh Walters
    • Charles Hawtrey
    Samantha Spiro
    Samantha Spiro
    • Barbara Windsor
    Alan Barnes
    • First Assistant Director
    Maria Charles
    Maria Charles
    • Charlie's Mum
    Chrissie Cotterill
    • Joan Sims
    Louise Delamere
    Louise Delamere
    • Imogen
    Alice Bailey Johnson
    • Alice
    Derek Howard
    • Kenneth Connor
    Richard Vanstone
    • Alf
    Kenneth MacDonald
    Kenneth MacDonald
    • Eddie
    Hetty Baynes
    Hetty Baynes
    • Maggie
    Joanne Zorian
    Joanne Zorian
    • Continuity
    • Director
      • Terry Johnson
    • Writer
      • Terry Johnson
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews15

    7.6461
    1
    2
    3
    4
    5
    6
    7
    8
    9
    10

    Featured reviews

    7lori1974

    Oooo Errr Mrs

    I really enjoyed this film, and whether it is truth or fiction, it's a good watch as the cast selection is brilliant. It does portray some of the darker aspects of both James' and Williams' persona's but who's to say they weren't like that. The previous comment states that Sid was a loving husband, the film never says he wasn't, in fact the film states on more than one occasion that he does love his wife, but that doesn't mean he was faithful.

    I love 'Carry On' films and have done since I was little and since Sid James died when I was 2, I don't remember any media about him or Barbara Windsor or Kenneth Williams. I don't know if this is truth or dirt-digging but that's no reason to write it off, and it's a good watch especially for the actors playing the roles so well.
    8Lejink

    Carry on remorseless

    Almost every bit as saucy, bawdy and occasionally seedy as the "Carry On" movies themselves, this warts and all encapsulation of the doomed relationship between older man Sid James and bright young thing Barbara Windsor provided captivating entertainment. Commencing brightly and convincingly with some cute camera perspective tricks, perhaps demonstrating the illusory and ultimately false world of entertainment and entertainers, the story contains just about the right mix of drama, pathos and humour throughout, helped by convincing portrayals of almost all the leading players, themselves so familiar to a generation of us who can still hardly turn on the TV here without one of the series beaming out at you (my personal favourite? - "Carry on Cowboy"!).

    Although concentrating naturally on the James/Windsor axis, (to the exclusion of both protagonists' spouses), the third side of their love triangle turns out surprisingly to be the acerbic, extrovert but ultimately self-loathing Kenneth Williams, acting as a lightning-rod to James' adulterous excesses (which seemed to extend to bedding every available young female on set) and comforting-board to Windsor as she agonises whether to give in firstly to his physical desire and then later emotional need for her. It's impossible of course to know the full extent of the emotional complexities of this troubled group of actors, besides the accurate extensions of their obvious on-screen personas, but given that Ms Windsor was on board here as a consultant and contributed a cameo piece as herself, I'm prepared to accept what I saw as true-to-life.

    One or two James fans might demur at his portrayal as a serial philanderer but I still found his lovable rogue depiction sympathetic. The acting is universally excellent, all the leads capturing the trademark vocal and physical characteristics of their precedents (as indeed is the case with minor characters too) and it was fun to see accurate on-set recreations of famous "Carry On" scenes, including Windor's famous bikini-bursting scene from "Carry on Camping". The dialogue throughout was natural and seemed to me wholly in character, with many witty aphorisms especially, as you'd expect, from the Kenneth Williams character.

    All in all, a convincing insight into the lives and far from starry lifestyles of UK national acting treasures and a worthy celebration of a long-standing British cinematic institution.
    10iandbaldwin

    Almost as good as a real Carry On

    We know that many of the actors in the long running Carry On series had personal problems - perhaps this is why they were so funny and we laughed with them not at them. This film could have only been made by people with a deep affection for the Carry On films and the actors involved. Don't expect an air brushing of history to pretend all the Carry On actors were perfect. Also this is only an interpretation of the events and characters and does not purport to be autobiographical. It is both very funny and also very sad - the two masks of comedy and tragedy. The impersonations are extremely good. The fact that Barbara Windsor was willing to take part must at least indicate approval from one Carry On cast member.
    8tigon

    Still 'Carrying On' after all these years...

    The British public's love affair with the 'Carry On' movies continues with this triumphant re-telling of actress Barbara Windsor's ill-fated romance with her comedy co-star Sidney James.

    The film covers the period 1964-1978 and is based on Terry Johnson's hugely successful 1998 stage-play "Cleo, Camping, Emmanuelle and Dick", now nicely opened up for the big screen. Utilising many of the play's original actors, including Samantha Spiro, Geoff Hutchings and Adam Godley, 'Cor Blimey!' is a real treat for any self-respecting 'Carry On' fan. In particular, Spiro excels as the younger Babs Windsor. She is uncannily accurate in looks, mannerisms and voice, so much so that when the real Windsor appears as herself in the final scene, the join between the two actresses is hardly noticeable.

    Hutchings and Godley are also perfectly cast as Sid James and Kenneth Williams respectively, but viewers expecting just laughs will be a little disappointed. Aside from the leads, Williams is portrayed as a lonely unfulfilled hypochondriac and Charles Hawtrey (played by Hugh Walters) as an alcoholic mother's boy.

    Always moving and sensitively acted, 'Cor Blimey!' is a touching but extremely engaging and enjoyable film. Many fans will be left with tears in their eyes by the end. Several factual inaccuracies aside, this is top notch entertainment, no messing about! Highly recommended.
    6alice liddell

    Carry on Middle England.

    The opening half of this film dramatising the affair between two of Britain's best and best-loved comedians, Sid James and Barbara Windsor, is a wonderful marriage of form and content, and a lesson to anyone who dares to make period dramas. From the cheeky title and CARRY ON-style credits, we know we're in for a treat that will not betray its subjects with deadly respectability.

    This half is filmed like a CARRY ON, with the central romance between Sid and Babs diffused by innuendo-laden bits of business featuring Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey et al. There is one stunning shot at the beginning where the vast Roman ampitheatre through which a soldier walks is revealed to be a tiny model, pointing to the themes of reality and appearance that will be the film's theme, as well as the economic reality of these films' production.

    Sid's life in this half is played like a CARRY ON farce, full of repetition, coitus interruptus, double entendres, comedy gangsters and buxom ladies locked in bathrooms. The general verdict on CARRY ONs is that they are an assembly line churning out shoddy products of ever decreasing quality, concerned only with adolescent titillation (this is not my view - HENRY and CLEO at least are great films, while KHYBER is the greatest of all British satires, and the equal of Bunuel); so treating the lives of these people who must subsume their own personalities in their screen personae (even the sex scene is mediated through cinematic apparatus), locked in an evermore limiting labyrinth of personal need and public status is true at least to public perception (behind which, presumably, the filmmakers wish to delve).

    The lines and jokes are fruity and excellent, the sets deliciously gaudy, the re-enactments priceless, the chronology a little wobbly, the acting a triumph (Samantha Spiro as Babs is so winning and moving she makes me totally reevaluate a figure I'd previously considered fairly margainal), but, best of all, it shows that farce, and especially CARRY ONs, have an emotional basis denied by its detractors.

    The screenwriter doesn't quite believe it either though, and this fertile approach is soon abandoned as the film gets more serious, tragic, and it seeks an appropriate mode to express this, fixing on a fatal melange of social realism and middle-class Rattiganisms (so as not to alienate the film's prime-time audience). The subversion of genre that was the first half (and subverting genre and its conservative functions was what CARRY ONs were all about) becomes a conventional biopic, robbing the subjects of their breezy singularity.

    Yes it's all very sad and desparing and tragic, yes the recreation of a shabby 70s Britain at the fag-end of both the entertainment industry and British society itself is expertly realised, but so is Merchant Ivory. There are lines of dialogue, which, without irony, could have come straight from an Alan Bennett parody. The despair of Williams is frequently alluded to, but to anyone unfamiliar with his story somewhat obscured.

    The hilarious parody of Burton and Taylor that characterises Sid and Babs' early relationship becomes sadly literal as we go on. You certainly wouldn't know why these cheaply-made music hall quickies remain astonishingly popular and vibrant today, while their more respectable peers lie in cobwebbed vaults. After such a fun start, then, a bit of a shame.

    More like this

    Eric & Ernie
    8.0
    Eric & Ernie
    Kenneth Williams: Fantabulosa!
    7.3
    Kenneth Williams: Fantabulosa!
    Babs
    6.3
    Babs
    L'homme que je suis
    7.9
    L'homme que je suis
    Hancock & Joan
    7.1
    Hancock & Joan
    La Marieuse électronique
    5.9
    La Marieuse électronique
    The Curse of Steptoe
    7.6
    The Curse of Steptoe
    Never the Twain
    6.6
    Never the Twain
    Les cinglés à la maternité
    6.2
    Les cinglés à la maternité
    Carry on Girls
    5.8
    Carry on Girls
    Agent secret 00.0H contre docteur Crow
    6.2
    Agent secret 00.0H contre docteur Crow
    Harold Shipman: Doctor Death
    6.9
    Harold Shipman: Doctor Death

    Related interests

    Mahershala Ali and Alex R. Hibbert in Moonlight (2016)
    Drama
    Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca (1942)
    Romance

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      At one point Kenneth Williams asks "Oh, what's the bloody point?" of his fellow actors. That was the last line Williams wrote in his diary before he died from an overdose of barbiturates.
    • Goofs
      In the excerpt from Carry on Henry (1971), Bernard Bresslaw appears as Cardinal Wolsey, a part played in the film by Terry Scott.
    • Quotes

      Barbara Windsor: I think heaven's being left alone with a Steinbeck in the edit suite. You sit in front of your life and you're allowed to re-edit it. Cut the rotten bits, loop the sex, montage the good moments. Live it over and over, a bit better every time. And eventually, make it perfect.

    • Connections
      References Un thermomètre pour le colonel (1959)

    Top picks

    Sign in to rate and Watchlist for personalized recommendations
    Sign in

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • April 24, 2000 (United Kingdom)
    • Country of origin
      • United Kingdom
    • Language
      • English
    • Filming locations
      • New Wimbledon Theatre, The Broadway, Wimbledon, London, England, UK(Exterior)
    • Production company
      • Company Television
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 1h 48m(108 min)
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Stereo
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.78 : 1

    Contribute to this page

    Suggest an edit or add missing content
    • Learn more about contributing
    Edit page

    More to explore

    Recently viewed

    Please enable browser cookies to use this feature. Learn more.
    Get the IMDb App
    Sign in for more accessSign in for more access
    Follow IMDb on social
    Get the IMDb App
    For Android and iOS
    Get the IMDb App
    • Help
    • Site Index
    • IMDbPro
    • Box Office Mojo
    • License IMDb Data
    • Press Room
    • Advertising
    • Jobs
    • Conditions of Use
    • Privacy Policy
    • Your Ads Privacy Choices
    IMDb, an Amazon company

    © 1990-2025 by IMDb.com, Inc.