No Laughing Matter: How I Carried On

Norman Hudis, born 1922 started as a junior reporter and joined the RAF in the Second World War. Towards the end of his five-and-a-half years' service, he was on the editorial staff of the Cairo-based Air Force News and traveling, as the war's youngest war correspondent, the length and breadth of the Middle East. Post-war, aiming to become a playwright, he had a modest success with his first effort, Here is the News - enough for Pinewood Studios to offer him a screenwriting contract. Then he went freelance as a prolific writer of B movies. Hudis-scripted, low-budget The Tommy Steele Story was a million-pound box-office success and Hudis was then offered a long-term contract by its producer Peter Rogers. With director Gerald Thomas at the helm, the Carry On production trio was complete, for the three of them went on to film Carry On Sergeant and five others, including the archetypal Carry On Nurse - top British box-office film of its year. Following the huge Carry On success, he moved to America in response to offers. There, he has written for The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Marcus Welby, Simon and Simon, Baretta (Mystery Writers of America Edgar Allan Poe Award), The Story of Esther (three awards), Hawaii Five-O, and Cannon, amongst others. Hudis now works for producers in both countries.