In August 1958 a black and white film costing £73,000 (£1.6 million in today’s money) launched a cinema brand that spawned 31 movies and turned a dozen or so actors into comedy stars. Made cheaply — but not always cheerfully when it came to actors’ pay — the Carry Ons were the industry’s equivalent of the cheeky postcard, offering double entendres (“Are you going to Fircombe?”) while gently poking fun at British society.

Sid James in Carry On at Your Convenience ITV/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK

Whether our first taste of Carry On was from a TV repeat on a wet bank holiday or from a video store bargain bin, who could imagine them without Kenneth Williams and Sid James, or the brassy Barbara Windsor, matronly Hattie Jacques and Joan Sims, or a roll call of bumbling fools