Carry On Laughing which - by contrast - are broadcast regularly on British television. It is also considered much less successful at transferring the established formula to the small screen than the "Carry On Christmas specials". The series was conceived after the departures of two long-serving "Carry On" contributors: writer Talbot Rothwell and actor Charles Hawtrey. Furthermore, Kenneth Williams declined to appear in the series. Other "Carry On" regulars only appeared in a minority of episodes: Sid James in only the first four, Hattie Jacques in only one; and Bernard Bresslaw appeared only in the second series. In the absence of Rothwell, other
Carry On series on screen and stage sole producer and director respectively. They mostly employed the same crew and a regular group of actors. The main cast predominantly featured Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Charles Hawtrey, Joan Sims, Kenneth Connor, Peter Butterworth, Hattie Jacques, Terry Scott, Bernard Bresslaw, Barbara Windsor, Jack Douglas and Jim Dale. The "Carry On"s comprise the largest number of films of any British series and, next to the "James Bond" films, are the second-longest continually-running UK film series (with a fourteen-year hiatus between 1978 and 1992). Between 1958 and 1992, there were seven writers, principally Norman Hudis (1958–62) and Talbot Rothwell (1963–74). The films