CONDUCT a survey to name the best known Carry On stars, and Sid James, Kenneth Williams and Barbara Windsor would come top of the vox pops.

Terry Johnson's study of stardust, lust and rust picks up the story when the Carry On cameras stop rolling and the carrying-on begins in the lives of lecherous Sid, fastidious Kenneth and gregarious Babs.

The Royal National Theatre premiere won the 1998 Olivier Award for Best Comedy, and now Harrogate Theatre presents the Yorkshire premiere of Johnson's bittersweet homage to a British institution and its iconic lead personalities.

The play's title comes from four Carry On films filmed between 1964 and 1978 (although Emmanuelle was in fact made after Dick), and Johnson charts the friendships, heartaches, love affairs and complex relationships of the protagonists amid the rise, decline and fall of the Carry On franchise in those 14 years.

Johnson weaves cheeky Carry On slapstick and familiar costumes into his off camera drama - even replicating Barbara's flyaway yellow bra scene from Carry On Camping - and the nostalgia is enhanced by original film footage and credits on a screen.

Yet that is the side salad. The meat is the world behind closed doors, in this case the doors of Sid James's luxurious caravan with its bed, loo and shower as a ready resource for farce. This is not so much a caravan of love, but love and war, a place where Michael N Harbour's boozing, gambling, womanising Sid rubs up against Stephen Williams's vain, self-obsessed, caustic Kenneth and becomes fixated with Zo Oakes's voluptuous, good-time, candid Babs.

Johnson throws a dresser (Suzy Bloom), wannabe actress (Helen Anderson-Lee) and Ronnie Knight's heavy (Pete Dunwell) into this lion's den of buffed and bruised egos, crippling doubts and comic crossfire, as he digs beneath the laughter that lives on beyond the Carry On grave to convey the tears and fears of three clowns and their relationship with the world around them.

Let's hope word of mouth will spread quickly that the play is a tragicomic gem - a night of Carry On and the carrion - and the playing of Hannah Chissick's cast is top notch, full of character rather than mere caricature.

Box office: 01423 502116.

Updated: 11:04 Wednesday, September 08, 2004