this is the last carry on film with its almost intact regular cast and it is the swansong of hattie jacques and sid james . dick turpin ( sid james ) and his gang which includes harriett/harry ( barbara windsor ) and tom " doc " scholl ( peter butterworth ) , terrorise the countryside by staging highway robberies : " stand and deliver ! " owing to the increased occurrence of turpin's robberies , captain desmond fancey of the bow street runners ( kenneth williams ) and his sidekick sergeant jock strapp ( jack douglas ) visit turpin's area of influence to bring him to justice . they are under the express orders of sir roger daley ( bernard bresslaw ) . their intellect does not count for much and when they increasingly become suspicious of reverend flasher aka dick turpin ( sid james ) , whom they confided in earlier , they still cannot believe that the rector has any part in these robberies . however , once they catch harriett and put her in jail , and sir roger daley takes complete charge , it seems that there is no hope for dick turpin . then again , sir roger has assigned the dimwits fancey and jock strapp aswell as the old dithering constable ( kenneth connor ) to keep an eye on their prisoner ! there is no doubt that this is a 'sid james' carry on movie . he excels in double roles ( as in 'carry on- don't lose your head' ) and his performance as flasher and turpin is hilarious . barbara windsor is also funny as harriett the sex mad housemaid and member of the gang , and hattie jacques' small but effective role as the rector's housekeeper martha hoggett is played to perfection . jack douglas plays a milder version of his excruciatingly annoying on-screen persona and kenneth williams is given a rather mundane part . peter butterworth is not allowed to shine in his boring performance as tom , and bernard bresslaw's character appears only briefly in the film . the only notable performance from the support cast comes from joan sims as madame desiree , who is travelling around the country escorting her starlets the 'birds of paradise' and sporting a fake french accent . when her girls and her are robbed by turpin , she is determined to catch him and helps the reverend to find the culprit ! a carry on by the numbers , this movie is only notable for the great performance by sid james in his last carry on movie . the jokes are bluer , the script is poorer ( it is the last script written by talbot rothwell ) , but the music is a marked improvement . although nearly all the regulars appear , they seem to be just going through the motions . none of the high spirits of the earlier films are apparent here . just a selection of crude jokes and repititive double-entendres .
