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38-444: Carry On Columbus is a 1992 British comedy film directed by Gerald Thomas and starring Jim Dale , Bernard Cribbins , Maureen Lipman , Peter Richardson and many other British comic actors. It was written by Dave Freeman and John Antrobus . It was the 31st and final release in the Carry On film series (1958–1992), a belated entry following 1978's Carry On Emmannuelle . It

76-450: A "flaccid, feeble comeback effort" and a "wretched and pathetic attempt which is singularly unfunny". However, Carry On Columbus took more money at the UK box office (£1,667,249) than the two other Columbus films released in 1992, Christopher Columbus: The Discovery and 1492: Conquest of Paradise , although all three films flopped. Carry On Columbus was also shot on a much lower budget than

114-582: A "pretty" puppet play being performed in Covent Garden, London . The various episodes of Punch and Judy are dominated by the anarchic clowning of Mr. Punch. Satire has been a major feature of comedy in the British Isles for centuries. The pictorial satire of William Hogarth was a precursor to the development of political cartoons in 18th-century England. The medium developed under the direction of James Gillray from London, who has been referred to as

152-510: A Clue (1972–), and The News Quiz (1977–), which often broadcast a dozen of so episodes a year. Following the success of Hancock's Half Hour and Steptoe and Son , sitcoms became a part of some television schedules. The BBC has generally been dominant in television comedy , but the commercial stations have also had some successes. Other formats have also been popular, such as with sketch shows , stand-up comedy , impressionists , and puppet shows . Notable satirical comedies are

190-507: A cinema showing. The BFI also distributes archival and cultural cinema to other venues – each year to more than 800 venues all across the UK, as well as to a substantial number of overseas venues. The BFI offers a range of education initiatives, in particular to support the teaching of film and media studies in schools. In late 2012, the BFI received money from the Department for Education to create

228-544: A form of sketch comedy without dialogue in the 1890s, and Chaplin and Laurel were among the young comedians who worked for him as part of "Fred Karno's Army". Radio comedy in Britain has been almost exclusively the preserve of the BBC . In the 1940s and 1950s, variety dominated the schedules, and popular series included It's That Man Again and Much Binding in the Marsh . In the 1950s,

266-495: A marionette to a hand puppet, and he became, really, a spirit of Britain - a subversive maverick who defies authority, a kind of puppet equivalent to our political cartoons." — Punch and Judy showman Glyn Edwards British comedy history is measured in centuries. Shakespeare incorporated many chase scenes and beatings into his comedies, such as in his play The Comedy of Errors . Punch and Judy made their first recorded appearance in Britain in 1662, when Samuel Pepys noted

304-530: A range of industry figures. The delayed redevelopment of the National Film Theatre finally took place in 2007, creating in the rebranded "BFI Southbank" new education spaces, a contemporary art gallery dedicated to the moving image (the BFI Gallery ), and a pioneering mediatheque which for the first time enabled the public to gain access, free of charge, to some of the otherwise inaccessible treasures in

342-517: A variety of niche and art films. The institute was founded in 1933. Despite its foundation resulting from a recommendation in a report on Film in National Life , at that time the institute was a private company, though it has received public money throughout its history. This came from the Privy Council and Treasury until 1965, and from the various culture departments since then. The institute

380-604: Is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, distribution, and education. It is sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport , and partially funded under the British Film Institute Act 1949 . The BFI was established in 1933 to encourage

418-528: Is being supported by the Department for Education in England who have committed £1m per annum funding from April 2012 and 31 March 2015. It is also funded through the National Lottery , Creative Scotland and Northern Ireland Screen . On 29 November 2016, the BFI announced that over 100,000 television programmes are to be digitised before the video tapes, which currently have an estimated five-to-six-year shelf life, become unusable. The BFI aims to make sure that

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456-460: The BBC , including The Lost World of Mitchell & Kenyon , The Lost World of Friese-Greene and The Lost World of Tibet . The BFI has also produced contemporary artists' moving image work, most notably through the programme of the BFI Gallery , which was located at BFI Southbank from March 2007 to March 2011. The programme of the gallery resulted in several new commissions by leading artists, including projects which engaged directly with

494-512: The BFI Film & TV Database and Summary of Information on Film and Television (SIFT), which are databases of credits, synopses and other information about film and television productions. SIFT has a collection of about 7 million still frames from film and television. The BFI has co-produced a number of television series featuring footage from the BFI National Archive, in partnership with

532-644: The BFI Production Board . The institute received a royal charter in 1983. This was updated in 2000, and in the same year the newly established UK Film Council took responsibility for providing the BFI's annual grant-in-aid (government subsidy). As an independent registered charity, the BFI is regulated by the Charity Commission and the Privy Council. In 1988, the BFI opened the London Museum of

570-812: The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport . The BFI operates with three sources of income. The largest is public money allocated by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport . For the year 2021–22, the BFI received £74.31m from the DCMS as Grant-in-Aid funding. The second largest source is commercial activity such as receipts from ticket sales at BFI Southbank or the BFI London IMAX theatre (£5m in 2007), sales of DVDs, etc. Thirdly, grants and sponsorship of around £5m are obtained from various sources, including National Lottery funding grants, private sponsors and through donations ( J. Paul Getty, Jr. , who died in 2003, left

608-459: The Silk Road , sends his best spy, Fatima, to wreck the trip... Main series regulars present are Jim Dale (in his eleventh Carry On ), Peter Gilmore (also in his eleventh), Bernard Cribbins (in his third), Leslie Phillips (in his fourth), Jon Pertwee (in his fourth) and June Whitfield (also in her fourth). The only actor to bridge the gap between Carry On Columbus and the previous entry

646-461: The 1960s series That Was The Week That Was , the 1980s series Not the Nine O'Clock News , and ITV 's puppet show Spitting Image . The show of the 1980s and early 1990s, Spitting Image , was a satire of politics, entertainment, sport, and British culture of the era, and at its peak, it was watched by 15 million people. British satire has also gone over into quiz shows ; popular examples include

684-530: The BBC was running Hancock's Half Hour starring Tony Hancock . Hancock's Half Hour was later transferred to television. One of the notable radio shows was the double entendre -laden Round the Horne (1965–1968), a sequel to the earlier series Beyond Our Ken , which ran from 1959 to 1964. Later radio shows made use of the panel game format, including the long-running Just a Minute (1967–), I'm Sorry I Haven't

722-632: The BFI Film Academy Network for young people aged between 16 and 25. A residential scheme is held at the NFTS every year. The BFI runs the annual London Film Festival along with BFI Flare: London LGBT Film Festival and the youth-orientated Future Film Festival . The BFI publishes the monthly Sight & Sound magazine, as well as films on Blu-ray , DVD and books. It runs the BFI National Library (a reference library), and maintains

760-640: The BFI National Archive facilities in Hertfordshire and Warwickshire. During 2009, the UK Film Council persuaded the government that there should only be one main public-funded body for film, and that body should be the UKFC, while the BFI should be abolished. In 2010, the government announced that there would be a single body for film. Despite intensive lobbying (including, controversially, using public funding to pay public relations agencies to put its case forward),

798-595: The BFI National Archive, among which are Patrick Keiller 's 'The City of the Future', Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard 's 'RadioMania: An Abandoned Work' and Deimantas Narkevicious' 'Into the Unknown'. The Gallery also initiated projects by film-makers such as Michael Snow , Apichatpong Weerasethakul , Jane and Louise Wilson and John Akomfrah . The BFI also operates a streaming service called BFI Player. This streaming service offers

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836-417: The BFI a legacy of around £1m in his will). The BFI is also the distributor for all Lottery funds for film (in 2011–12 this amounted to c.£25m). As well as its work on film, the BFI also devotes a large amount of its time to the preservation and study of British television programming and its history. In 2000, it published a high-profile list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes , as voted for by

874-585: The Moving Image (MOMI) on the South Bank . MOMI was acclaimed internationally and set new standards for education through entertainment, but it did not receive the high levels of continuing investment that might have enabled it to keep pace with technological developments and ever-rising audience expectations. The museum was "temporarily" closed in 1999 when the BFI stated that it would be re-sited. This did not happen, and MOMI's closure became permanent in 2002 when it

912-573: The National Film & Television Archive. The mediatheque has proved to be the most successful element of this redevelopment, and there are plans to roll out a network of them across the UK. An announcement of a £25 million capital investment in the Strategy for UK Screen Heritage was made by Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport at the opening night of the 2007 London Film Festival. The bulk of this money paid for long overdue development of

950-447: The UKFC failed to persuade the government that it should have that role and, instead, the BFI took over most of the UKFC's functions and funding from 1 April 2011, with the UKFC being subsequently abolished. Since then, the BFI has been responsible for all Lottery funding for film—originally in excess of £25m p.a., and currently in excess of £40m p.a. The BFI Film Academy forms part of the BFI's overall 5–19 Education Scheme. The programme

988-607: The collection is British material but it also features internationally significant holdings from around the world. The Archive also collects films which feature key British actors and the work of British directors. The BFI runs the BFI Southbank (formerly the National Film Theatre (NFT)) and the BFI IMAX cinema, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London. The IMAX has

1026-430: The development of the arts of film, television and the moving image throughout the United Kingdom, to promote their use as a record of contemporary life and manners, to promote education about film, television and the moving image generally, and their impact on society, to promote access to and appreciation of the widest possible range of British and world cinema and to establish, care for and develop collections reflecting

1064-599: The father of the political cartoon. In early 19th-century England, pantomime acquired its present form, which includes slapstick comedy and featured the first mainstream clown, Joseph Grimaldi , while comedy routines also featured heavily in British music hall theatre which became popular in the 1850s. British comedians who honed their skills at pantomime and music hall sketches include Charlie Chaplin , Stan Laurel , George Formby , and Dan Leno . The English music hall comedian and theatre impresario Fred Karno developed

1102-458: The largest cinema screen in the UK and shows popular recent releases and short films showcasing its technology, which includes IMAX 70mm screenings, IMAX 3D screenings and 11,600 watts of digital surround sound. BFI Southbank (the National Film Theatre screens and the Studio) shows films from all over the world, particularly critically acclaimed historical and specialised films that may not otherwise get

1140-495: The moving image history and heritage of the United Kingdom. The BFI maintains the world's largest film archive , the BFI National Archive , previously called National Film Library (1935–1955), National Film Archive (1955–1992), and National Film and Television Archive (1993–2006). The archive contains more than 50,000 fiction films, over 100,000 non-fiction titles, and around 625,000 television programmes. The majority of

1178-452: The news quiz Have I Got News for You , 8 out of 10 cats , and Shooting Stars . In the 1980s, alternative comedy was spearheaded by Ben Elton and The Comic Strip group, which included Alexei Sayle , Rik Mayall , and French and Saunders . The 1990s and 2000s also have those that have used editing , surreal humour , and cultural references to great effect. British Film Institute The British Film Institute ( BFI )

Carry On Columbus - Misplaced Pages Continue

1216-814: The other two films, a budget of £2.5 million compared to the other two budgets of $ 45 million and $ 47 million respectively. In a 2004 poll of British film actors, technicians, writers and directors on British cinema, Carry On Columbus was voted the worst British film ever made. In a 2018 retrospective on the series, the British Film Institute named Carry On Columbus as one of the series' five worst films, alongside Carry On Girls (1973), Carry on England (1976), That's Carry On! (1977), and Carry On Emmannuelle (1978). British comedy "[Pulcinella] went down particularly well with Restoration British audiences, fun-starved after years of Puritanism . We soon changed Punch's name, transformed him from

1254-601: Was Jack Douglas , making his eighth appearance in the series. Original Carry On performer Frankie Howerd was signed up to appear, but he died shortly before he was due to film his role. His part as the King of Spain was offered to original series regular Bernard Bresslaw , who turned it down. Leslie Phillips eventually took on the role, playing opposite June Whitfield as the Queen, a role turned down by both Joan Sims and Barbara Windsor . Veteran Carry On performer Kenneth Connor

1292-573: Was decided to redevelop the South Bank site. This redevelopment was itself then further delayed. The BFI is currently managed on a day-to-day basis by its chief executive, Ben Roberts. Supreme decision-making authority rests with a chair and a board of up to 15 governors. The current chair is Jay Hunt , a television executive, who took up the post in February 2024. Governors, including the Chair, are appointed by

1330-451: Was offered the role of the Duke of Costa Brava but he turned it down, saying "I want to be remembered as a Carry On star, not a Carry On bit-player". The producers managed to persuade a number of alternative comedians such as Peter Richardson , Alexei Sayle , Rik Mayall , Julian Clary and Nigel Planer (all of whom except Clary are from The Comic Strip ) to appear in the film. This

1368-571: Was produced to coincide with the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus ' arrival in the Americas. Christopher Columbus believes he can find an alternative route to the far East and persuades King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain to finance his expedition. But the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire , who makes a great deal of money through taxing the merchants who have to pass through his country on

1406-679: Was restructured following the Radcliffe Report of 1948, which recommended that it should concentrate on developing the appreciation of filmic art, rather than creating film itself. Thus control of educational film production passed to the National Committee for Visual Aids in Education and the British Film Academy assumed control for promoting production. From 1952 to 2000, the BFI provided funding for new and experimental film-makers via

1444-510: Was the last film that Gerald Thomas directed, as he died on 9 November 1993. The film was shot between 21 April and 27 May 1992 with interior shooting at Pinewood Studios , Buckinghamshire and location shooting at Frensham Common . The latter location was previously used nearly 30 years earlier for the similarly nautical Carry On Jack . The film was panned by critics. Michael Dwyer in The Irish Times described Carry on Columbus as

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