- Talbot Rothwell
Talbot Nelson Conn Rothwell, OBE (
12 November 1916 –28 February 1981 ) was an Englishscreenwriter .Rothwell was born in
Bromley ,Kent ,England . He had a variety of jobs during his early life:town clerk ,police officer , andRoyal Air Force pilot.He was made a
prisoner of war duringWorld War II after being shot down overNorway . It was during this period, while incarcerated inStalag Luft III , that he started to write.Peter Butterworth was in the same camp and the two became firm friends, with Rothwell mostly writing and Butterworth performing for camp concerts. This helped to relieve the boredom of camp life and the noise of the concerts helped covertunnel ling escape efforts.After WWII Rothwell took up writing as his profession, writing scripts for
The Crazy Gang ,Arthur Askey , Ted Ray andTerry-Thomas . By the time he submitted ascreenplay to "Carry On" films producerPeter Rogers , he was already an established screenwriter. This first screenplay was called "Call me a Cab". It went on to be renamed "Carry On Cabby ".Peter Rogers liked Rothwell's writing so much that he asked him to become the "Carry On" staff writer; Rothwell went on to write a further nineteen "Carry On" films.He took the
genre into a more lewd and bawdy direction from that of "Carry On"'s first screenwriter,Norman Hudis , but he was careful never to stray intopornography . He saw the films as a continuation ofmusic hall entertainment,Max Miller being a hero of his.Rothwell also wrote several "Carry On" TV specials for Christmas, and the first series of "
Up Pompeii! " starringFrankie Howerd .Rothwell was awarded the OBE in 1977 for his services to the cinema industry.
In the late 1970s he retired due to a prolonged illness. He spent his final years in
Worthing .External links
*imdb name|id=0745349|name=Talbot Rothwell
* [http://www.thewhippitinn.com Carry On Films at The Whippit Inn]
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