Sid James, Carry On Darkly

Another part of the 1998 Channel 4 documentary "Carry On Darkly".
... Posted the whole programme by request, in 6 parts. ;-)

[@tourkarmfah]

Here's the truth. Solomon Joel Cohen was from Newcastle, Natal, in South Africa. Johannesburg has nothing to do with Newcastle. He was a women's hairstylist but got into acting in the South African army. He later didn't hide at all that he was from South Africa, he would often mention it and frequently went back to visit. He liked the horses as a way to let off steam and fell in love with Barbara Windsor - that is not a crime is it? He didn't hide it from his wife, he went to great lengths to express why it had happened. He was NOT a dirty womanizer, he was a quiet gentle person that was very much aware of the kids he had had in South Africa. He could get annoyed at something wasting his time or delaying a take but not violent. The character he created was the opposite of the real Sid James. The name James was a name his father had adopted for himself, there is no mystery or "darkness" to his life. Sid was extremely well liked and as human as all of us. The boxing "legend" was that he felt he had to make an excuse for his looks... Quite sad. "Former boxer" did the trick. He did what most people don't... He got off his arse and used what he had... Stupid shows like this trying to dish up cow shit on people. FAIL.

[@marcel911]

Sid James was a legend. I've liked him since Hancock's Half Hour.

[@jamesbishop8948]

Sid James the Best actor in the Carry on films brilliant

[@WhatInTheDeepestShadeOfFeck]

Kenneth Williams was better

[@EdVanMeyer]

Sid was Carry on. For all his faults, he gave us years of laughs.

[@andywright3450]

Class act sid was

[@julierobson3162]

I'm a great fan of side James. He was a legend and he will never be forgotten.just like all other carry on my way home legends that have all passed away.may they all rest in peace as the carry on my way home films will always make me laugh. R.I. p to the cast of the carry on my way home team

[@johnbeck9]

I spoke to a bloke in Aus called George who was a hotel owner in Jersey in the 1970's. Sid was a regular over in Jersey and was a riot around the bar, telling jokes and getting on the piss before he would head off with a new chick back for a jocky ride. I guess he is the last of a dying breed.

[@deadzombie4477]

mac morrison You got that right.....he is and always will be a legend....this is shit and I find it disrespectful.

[@lynryall1317]

Thank god

[@richardgoffin-lecar1951]

He was a true legend. Okay, so he had some nasty faults - who doesn't, in one form or another. He was a great comedic character, and any film that he was in was going to be good for a laugh. RIP Sid!

[@Syklonus]

Who doesn't? Try saying that to a women who's had the crap beaten out them by their husband. "It's ok love, everyone's got faults". You are a piece of shit mate!

[@stephenroney6490]

22 years is now 42 years. I wonder how many teens in the street would recognise him now? God knows the last time any carry on film has been shown on any major channel?

[@fattwat1]

Idiot they are always on the television take itv for instance

[@solcutta3661]

I don't think kids would know him now. Someone should test this on the street

[@petergreen2552]

ITV 3 show loads of them. There'll be a whole day of them on for Christmas,with quite a lot of editing which ruins them. Leave the boobs,bums and knob gags alone!

[@OfficiallySanctionedKATG]

In the uk, At least 5 carry on films are on itv3 and even itv2 every month, and on itv about once a month. Bbc show the odd few every now and then but itv own the rights to broadcast the majority of them. Then, they are shown in other countries cinstantly, in America alone all the movies are shown in rotation on some cable channels, BBC America shows these movies quite regularly too. They get shown in many foreign language countries, they are dubbed in to every language. So basically they are on TV all the time.

[@petergreen2552]

@@OfficiallySanctionedKATG Rightly so.too. They might not be cinematic classics but are still enjoyable for what they are_ Good old fashioned seaside postcard humour

[@stuartmacinnes8992]

I dont know why but I just love Sid James ...........we compare ourselves now as we get older to Sid in a humorous way as we look at ladies lol .

[@Motty1066]

“Face like a dissipated walnut”

[@MrDavey2010]

Sid James was a one-off. He was a terrific actor. We all have our dark sides when all's said and done.

[@jessiepulis8927]

Rest in sid James your movies where best Jessie Pulis

[@MsFullheart]

his hard life is written all over his face!

[@iseeolly9959]

He lead a charmed life.

[@graemefarquharson465]

It's all down to Gene's which determine the way you look. Yeah, drinking doesn't really help

[@121Swaleskid]

yak yak yak! ta for uploading :)

[@stephenroney6490]

It's a shame that people's private lives are raked over by the gutter press. Including this programme. Let him rest in peace.

[@lynryall1317]

Oh dear dear, so abuse, children who never acknowledged by their dad. Shame on you

[@williamfisher5749]

Legend

[@mycallard]

I agree with you.They've took these four men and tried to make them look bad,but like you say,they're just the same as most people.

[@Syklonus]

Sorry mate, I'm not an alcoholic wife beater.

[@3replybiz]

Around the late 1990s Channel 4 stared to become a little bit sordid and unfair to the late subjects of this type of documentary. Around this time there were lots of people at Ch4 who thought that they knew how to make an original and gritty documentary, when the best they could do was make what is known as a pull-together from material that already existed, write a voice-over script to tie it all together and hence it is a lot of rubbish. There is not a single person in TV today who can make any kind of documetary without VO to paper over the fact that their material does not tell its own story or work at all well.

[@chrisevans5259]

Comedy genius, flawed yes, he wasn't perfect ...but who is! Nearly everybody have skeletons in their cupboards that we are not proud of, .....But he's an absolute Carry-on legend, and the films still leave me in tears laughing to this day....great films in a great era for Comedy.

[@Syklonus]

Dude, just stop right there. I love the Carry on films too and that includes on-screen Sid, but you are actively defending a wife beater and that's not cool. It's perfectly ok to separate the art from the artist and enjoy his work, but don't be a piece of shit by trying to brush off his horrid crimes by saying that no one is perfect.

[@lynryall1317]

@@Syklonus thank you xx in those time still in 2021 were brushed under the carpet ...you are so right.

[@treasurehunteruk9718]

Sid James reminds me of Alan Sugar in these pics. Cockney accent, Jewish etc.

[@rockie0708]

Omg thank you. I was watching this thinking he looks so familiar to somebody today. He really does look like him. Lol

[@graemefarquharson465]

"You're fired, Ha ha ha".

[@gordontaylor5373]

@@graemefarquharson465 Yeah, you could actually imagine that!

[@mutinyonthekitkat]

The best ladies hairdresser in Johannesburg.

[@cotterj99]

I am beginning to realise there is must more to Sid then I first thought. Such a great documentary.

[@blackhand8903]

Sadly.....very sadly people from this era are all but gone,when syd was born up until probably is late 30s times we’re very hard and produced qualities in people that will never be seen again. God help the future

[@ppuh6tfrz646]

Sid was a woman beater... Yet there isn't a single personal account in this documentary to support this. The only personal accounts say that he was a gambler - so what?? The only other accounts I've heard about Sid were from Carry On co-stars who said that he was a lovely man, very professional and a pleasure to work with. Leave the man alone and let him rest in peace.

[@stephenroney6490]

Stephen Fry at 2.15 saying that James was a ladies man, not immune to feminine charms. With a slight tweak we could say the same for Fry. "He was a 'laddies" man, not immune to "effeminate" charms.

[@jackbrown4130]

God bless you Sid

[@lynryall1317]

No if there is a god he won't

[@craighicksartwork]

A lot of severe accusations in here. Are they all proven...?

[@lordbucko]

he lived his life his way so what..

[@theonlyantony]

In the days when if you wanted a grotesque you had to have a real grotesque.

[@QuorkEx]

I think they're stretching things *enormously* to include Frankie Howerd as one of the 4 men most associated with the Carry On films, since he only did 2. Their problem was that you couldn't really dish up much dirt on the likes of Jim Dale, Bernard Bresslaw, Peter Butterworth or Kenneth Connor.

[@chrissturgess4323]

So many comedians have dark private lives.. can’t abide hitting a lady though..

[@nakedmambo]

"Battered colonial look".

[@diddymuck]

and they say the kids in bristol are sharp as a pistol

[@shamteal8614]

Nasty smear documentary with heresy comments mostly by people who didn't know him made worse by the poster repeating parts of the video over and over again.

[@graemefarquharson465]

Apparently, Sid James and Tony Hancock didn't get along and that's why he probably left Hancocks half hour

[@chubbylilloser85]

i take all this with a pinch of salt. Most of these people putting him down have never even met him, they have talked to people who know people who know james -_-. He may have been an arse hole, but like i say.i take this with a pinch of salt. There were also doc son ch4 that were proven to have fake info noteabley the peter and dud one. A story of how 'bad' a much loved celeb is sells better than a 'He was a nice guy. '

[@MsMrReason]

Alan Sugar

[@debcutler2013]

Sid James, a top notch hairstyalist? LOL

[@tourkarmfah]

+Misanthrope Extraordinaire Yes, a naturally talented one.

[@fraseredk7433]

Had a sister in Bulaway

[@fattwat1]

Typical channel 4 programme pull people apart that are no longer with us

[@Syklonus]

What? He was a womaniser and a wife beater. That's not pulling someone apart, that's reporting facts.

[@fattwat1]

@@Syklonus so you believe everything these type of programmes say would they have said most of this if he was still alive I repeat this is a typical channel 4 show because they always pull people apart in these shows not just sid James Even channel 5 have started doing so similar shows rip people apart when they can't defend themselves because they are dead some people will say anything if you wave a big enough cheque in front of them

[@pantarei8382]

A violent hair dresser?? Seems very unlikely

[@davedogge2280]

it sounds counter to his profession. If it had ever got out then he would have no customers. hmmm

[@loucazin543]

1:16 bullshit. Solomon Joel Cohen. Get the man’s name right. Cliff Goodwin is his biographer??!?!

[@henguspod3899]

never heard storys sid hit women, i hope its not true

[@ericgeorge5483]

Fascinating documentary. I had no idea sid was a woman beater though.

[@ayrshireman1314]

he wasn't.

[@ericgeorge5483]

@@ayrshireman1314 Not according to this documentary.

[@ayrshireman1314]

This was a widely criticised muckraking doc from CH4 from the late 90s, as other posters have said, CH4 did a load of these in the late 90s. In fact I seem to remember a few family members of various stars threatening legal action (as the families of Harry H Corbett and Wilfred Brambell successfully did a few years later on CH4s discredited Steptoe doc). I have read every Carry On book and at least two Sid biographies. Both of the latter didn't shy away from his obsession with Babs Windsor, his gambling, drinking. BUT there was no accusation whatsoever of beating women bar this doc. In fact everyone says he was an old fashioned gentleman despite his cockney persona and wouldn't even allow men to swear in the presence of females, young or old. If they did, he would chuck em out. I repeat my earlier post, a muckraking doc (as they all were) on dead people, all best forgotten. Even CH4 has never repeated them.

[@ericgeorge5483]

@@ayrshireman1314 Even though he wasn't a cockney at all lol

[@ayrshireman1314]

True lol. That persona is so ingrained its hard at first when you find out he wasn't even English, let alone a cockernee.

[@diddymuck]

see: Adam Sandler, Mayor Ed Koch, Barbara Streisand, Harrison Ford

[@graemefarquharson465]

Yeah, they are all Jewish. So, what's your point

[@richardsharpe2966]

I know Sid James came from South Africa but he did not have a strong South African accent like his fellow South African Stratford Johns or Nigel Hawthorne

[@RAMSEYM2402]

what a load of tosh.. some true observances but biographers dont always get it right of theior not official.

[@markt1387]

Not so much a documentary, more a character assassination of Sid. Everyone has their down sides but this goes a bit far.

[@ayrshireman1314]

except its not.

[@iseeolly9959]

He once ran a massage palour in South Africa and installed two way mirrors and charged men to watch the naked women being rubbed..........Stephen Fry thinks that's funny ??

[@iseeolly9959]

@TheMadScotsman mckay .....Okay, I do too mate!

[@serlesweg]

@kevinturvy sounds like the majority of hte human race then !

[@deadzombie4477]

I watched this CRAP when it was first broadcast back in 1998. This is ALL SHIT and I would love to say that to the creators of this utter nonsense!! They creators never knew him....and sadly neither did I.....but I do believe he was a hard worker....a gentleman and a great family man. Its easy to knock someone when they cant answer back and defend themselves.....let the man rest and remember him for the comic and acting genius that he was instead of attacking his memory in the worst kind of way.

[@johnking5174]

Dead Zombie Remember this is the same channel I think that brought us the Steptoe and Son documentary which was full of rubbish and lies.

[@johnking5174]

Dead Zombie John Inman the star of Are You Being Served acted with Sid James in theatre and he said one night he came into John's dressing room and popped open champagne as John Inman was at the height of his fame and Sid said to him "Isn't it great". He never had anything bad to say about John, and I was surprised at people saying he was homophobic, and didn't have a great friendship with Kenneth Williams because Kenny was gay. Well John was more camper than Kenny and was openly gay and Sid had nothing but praise for John and loved that John was successful. Why don't documentaries tell this?

[@deadzombie4477]

John King True true :)

[@ppuh6tfrz646]

8:16 The bad news, Jack, is that you've got absolutely no comic talent. This guy made a career out of twitching. Unbelievable.

[@121Swaleskid]

:O! stalker! :D

[@gerrysmith1782]

What Cap dont watch this

[@blue04mx53]

Why ? why do this kind of "documentary" that basically tells you a series you enjoyed was based on heartache and tears? Oh, and the moment the presenter said, " He literally went into orbit" I literally stopped watching. Only I used the word correctly.

[@opinionday0079]

What a creep.

[@iseeolly9959]

Carry-on films are great....low wages for actors??.....ohh my fucking heart beaks, why did they do them for years and years if the remuneration was that bad?.....bull-shit.

[@gookey9924]

Hi ha ha ha ha ha !

[@leonreaper90]

what's wrong with being a womanizer? I wish I was.....>_> If they couldn't resist Sid's charm then that's their problem.

[@seandoherty1239]

Hahaha o vhey CID was a pissing red Sea pedestrian and a tarts hear dresser.

[@drrottenstien7338]

What a crap video bad mouthing a man who’s not her to defend himself!

[@Syklonus]

So if someone dies then their crimes are just forgotten about?

[@davedogge2280]

It doesn't seem that he was a very nice man and was irresponsible.

[@fraseredk7433]

Bulawayo

[@woohooboy]

Sorry but I never liked Sid James. Granted he had solid comedic timing and could deliver his lines with expertise but his whole persona of the "dirty old man" with the leering grin and the nudge nudge, wink wink double entendre style of humour never held that much appeal for me. Maybe because Sid himself really wasn't acting and his onscreen image was actually an extension of who he was in real life. So it doesn't surprise me to find out that in real life he was a serial womaniser/abuser with a serious gambling problem. That justs added to creepy vibe I already had about him.

[@sn2nd88r7]

woohooboy I was a fan of Sid James and I haven't watched this documentary yet but I have read and heard various opinions.If he was even half in real life what he was on screen then I can't defend that-that wouldn't be a good thing.I mean Peter Butterworth and Kenneth Connor were both learned men,read books etc., nothing like their screen personas(according to the recent doc on ITV).We get so nostalgic about the 1960's/1970's but some of the stuff that's coming out now with some of these celebs....I don't know...

[@sn2nd88r]

+woohooboy I have just seen the C4 programme "It Will Be Alright In the 1970's."There was a clip of a Carry On Laughing TV sketch involving Sid James(Santa Claus) ,Babs Windsor(in School uniform)and Joan Sims(Mum).You would have been horrified!

[@diddymuck]

Jewish???? don't look it.

[@petergreen2552]

Oy vey! What do Jews look like then?

[@henners8910]

Peter Green big noses curly sideburns and beards 😉😂I’m being sarcastic by the way lol

[@graemefarquharson465]

Peter Green from Fleetwood mac was Jewish.

[@drwhatson]

What do you expect? Just another example of rewriting of history to suit today's pathetic woke generation. :-(