This is surely one of the most popular "Carry Ons", a spoof on the notoriously expensive CLEOPATRA (1963) and was in fact shot on abandoned sets built in London for that film! The cast is in top form here – Sidney James is Marc Antony, Kenneth Williams Julius Caesar, Joan Sims is Calpurnia (Caesar's wife), Charles Hatwrey Seneca (philosopher and Sims' father); Kenneth Connor (as Hengist Pod, the inventor of a square wheel and who eventually does a stint as Caesar's 'invincible' bodyguard) and Jim Dale are featured as early Britons; Amanda Barrie – who had previously appeared in CARRY ON CABBY (1963) – makes for a delightful Cleopatra.

Though emerging to be somewhat patchy considering its reputation, there are some undeniably uproarious moments throughout – the Roman soldier throwing a shield at Dale during a scuffle and hitting Connor squarely in the face; the famous carpet-rolling scene introducing Cleopatra in the 1963 Hollywood epic being directly lampooned here by having the Egyptian queen roll under a table replenished with food and spilling its contents onto herself and the floor; untrue to history, Antony connives with Cleopatra to murder Caesar and become Emperor himself – she suggests using a poisonous asp and hands him one from a basket, which he mistakes for a local delicacy and promptly bites off its head! Talbot Rothwell's script also includes a running gag involving the famous "Friends, Romans, Countrymen" Shakespearean speech, as well as an in-joke wherein a couple of traders merge their business – to be known from then on as "Marcus & Spencius"!

Coming hot on the heels of the bloated, hugely expensive Elizabeth Taylor Cleopatra, the Carry On team put their own unique spin on the Julius Caesar / Cleopatra / Mark Antony triangle, intermingled with the exploits of two enslaved Britons.

The Carry Ons were made on a shoestring budget which, in this case, is made to look much larger and more effective than it was: there are some terrific colourful costumes and sets.

But it's all about the cast and script, of course. The script is the usual mixture of knockabout farce and smutty innuendo, seasoned with a batch of anachronistic gags, not to mention the iconic "Infamy! Infamy! They've all got it in for me!" And the cast are, as usual, great, being joined by Amanda Barrie as a cartoony and cute Cleopatra in which one can see the seeds of Miranda Richardson's Blackadder 2 Queenie.

This is huge fun.

A series of films carried on, with perpetual double entendre, loved to finger an organ, unleash melons to gorge on, baps, flaps, jugs, bazookas went ding dong.

Though it's not quite so funny today, Fanny plays with her balls in new ways, Dick's choppers been cut, Kitty's curtains are shut, the clams gone from splayed to being spayed.