Francis Bigger, a notorious charlatan who tours the country lecturing on the subject of mind over matter, slips off the platform in the middle of his performance and ends up in hospital under the care of Dr Tinkle. The hospital is about to enter a period of total chaos.
A largely overpowering Frankie Howerd heads the cast for this slightly revamped version of "Carry On Nurse" (1959) as the crooked preacher who ends up in hospital after a posterior altercation leaves him a bit bruised. When he gets to the hospital - where everything happens under the watchful gaze of the portrait of "Sir Lancelot Spratt" - he alights on "Roper" (Sid James) and "Barron" (Charles Hawtrey) and encounters the ruthless matron (Hattie Jacques). She resurrects her established partnership with Kenneth Williams' doctor - this time he's called "Tinkle" and the scene is now set for some fairly standard fayre of mischief and mayhem. Jim Dale features a little too frequently for me - I found his efforts just too busy and frenetic - as the bumbling "Dr. Kilmore" who is the apple in the eye of the nurses, especially "Miss Clarke" (Anita Harris) and so the seeds of romance are sewn. It's all a bit same old, same old, this comedy - but the last twenty minutes or so give them all a chance to shine as revenge is taken and Williams, in particular, gets a little more than he bargained for. It's quickly paced and there is plenty of innuendo but here I found the script a bit more akin to the traditional films - less smut and more fun. A power struggle with anaesthetics - what's not to like?