Peter Rogers (20 February 1914 – 14 April 2009) was an English film producer. He is best known for creating the ''Carry On'' series of films.

Life and career

Rogers began his career as a journalist for his local paper, before graduating to scriptwriting religious informational films. He progressed to film production, working with director

Gerald Thomas Gerald Thomas (10 December 1920 – 9 November 1993) was an English film director best known for the long-running ''Carry On (franchise), ''Carry On'' series'' of British film comedies. Early life Born in Kingston upon Hull, Hull, East Riding ...

, the first work being a production for the

Children's Film Foundation The Children's Film Foundation (CFF) is a non-profit organisation which makes films and other media for children in the United Kingdom. Originally it made films to be shown as part of children's Saturday morning matinée cinema programming. Th ...

. Rogers is best known as producer of the ''Carry On'' series of British comedy films, beginning with '' Carry On Sergeant'' in 1958. There were 31 films in all. Rogers had also been linked with a further instalment, ''Carry On London'', which has been in pre-production for several years, but since his death seems unlikely to be made. The majority of Rogers' work, including all the ''Carry On'' films, were made at Pinewood Studios in Iver Heath,

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (, abbreviated ''Bucks'') is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-east, Hertfordshir ...

, England. His other credits included '' Appointment with Venus'' starring David Niven, and '' Time Lock'' in which

Sean Connery Sir Thomas Sean Connery (25 August 1930 – 31 October 2020) was a Scottish actor. He was the first actor to Portrayal of James Bond in film, portray the fictional British secret agent James Bond (literary character), James Bond in motion pic ...

made one of his earliest film appearances. Rogers' other production ventures include the television series ''

Ivanhoe ''Ivanhoe: A Romance'' ( ) by Walter Scott is a historical novel published in three volumes, in December 1819, as one of the Waverley novels. It marked a shift away from Scott's prior practice of setting stories in Scotland and in the more ...

'' with Roger Moore and the film adaptation of the long-running

sitcom A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...

'' Bless This House'' with ''Carry On'' regular Sid James. His wife was the film producer Betty Box, responsible for the '' Doctor'' series of films. Peter and Betty lived for many years at a large home in

Beaconsfield Beaconsfield ( ) is a market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England, northwest of central London and southeast of Aylesbury. Three other towns are within : Gerrards Cross, Amersham and High Wycombe. The ...

, "Drummers Yar

that had been purchased from the actor

Dirk Bogarde Sir Dirk Bogarde (born Derek Jules Gaspard Ulric Niven van den Bogaerde; 28 March 1921 – 8 May 1999) was an English actor, novelist and screenwriter. Initially a matinée idol in films such as ''Doctor in the House (film), Doctor in the Hous ...

. He was godfather to Donald Sinden's youngest son Marc Sinden. Peter Rogers was described as "perfect for Anglo-Amalgamated, with his strong work ethic and desire to keep costs down" and was "the Golden Goose" for that studio, making a number of other comedies outside the Carry On series, plus one serious drama '' This Is My Street''. However Nat Cohen fired him from Anglo in 1966, forcing Rogers to move over to Rank. An authorised biography, ''Mr Carry On: The Life and Work of Peter Rogers'' (BBC) by Morris Bright and Robert Ross (author of ''The Carry On Companion'' and the ''Monty Python Encyclopaedia'') was published in 2000, with extensive input from Rogers. It attempted to defend him against charges that he exploited the cast of the ''Carry On'' films, by paying the lead actors an unchanged £5,000 per film, from the first in 1958 to the penultimate movie in 1978. Rogers attended the 50th

anniversary An anniversary is the date on which an event took place or an institution was founded. Most countries celebrate national anniversaries, typically called national days. These could be the List of national independence days, date of independen ...

of the ''Carry On'' films held at Pinewood Studios in March 2008. He died on 14 April 2009, having been ill for several months.

References

External links

*
What a Carry On

''

Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was foun ...

'', 15 April 2009
Obituary
''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'', 16 April 2009 {{DEFAULTSORT:Rogers, Peter 1914 births 2009 deaths English film producers People educated at King's School, Rochester People from Rochester, Kent 20th-century English businesspeople