In the 1950s, the first film vehicles of Norman Wisdom that were initially popularized on television would lend a stream of comedies that balanced slapstick with sentimentality. The Carry-On series commenced officially in 1958 with the release of Carry On Sargent, this was a take on British institutions - the hospitals, the police, schools from a decidedly low-brow perspective. The earlier Doctor in the House (1954) would introduce audiences to a clutch of highly enthusiastic medical students wearing the brightly checkered shirts and V-neck pullovers that were then considered the uniform of youth. Dirk Bogarde, the brightest and best of Rank's company stars would garner newfound popularity in the role of Simon Sparrow.
But soon film producers were made to realize that there were other kinds of youth in Britain - the people who frequented the contemporaneous espresso bars and jazz clubs with either formed skiffle groups or stormed the cinemas brave enough to exhibit the American film Rock Around The Clock in 1956 with Bill Haley and his trusted Comets. In the latter half of the Fifties, the smooth pattern of British life was finally receiving a few jolts. Young people now had enough buying power to demand their own entertainment. Film and television and record producers began to fall over themselves attempting to provide it. Television's 6.5 Special was hurried to the screen in 1958 with its contemporary delights like Lonnie Donegan and Don Lang and his Frantic Five.
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| Carry On Didn't Keep Calm |
In other areas Britain was being stirred up for the better. In 1956 occurred the political debacle of the Suez crisis. There was also the first performance in London's Royal Court Theatre of John Osborne's seminal Look Back In Anger which ensued instant notoriety through the fired-up tirades of its central character Jimmy Porter. Journalists were dubbing Osborne and other suddenly popular authors the 'Angry Young Men.'