It’s hard to laugh at something too immediate. The surest sign that something serious has finished is when you can laugh at it. The end of the British Empire, which started with the partition of India in 1947 but increased rapidly in the 1960s as the African colonies disappeared, was immortalised in the very best Carry On film ever made. Set in India under the Raj but clearly filmed in Pinewood, Up The Khyber starring Sid James as Sir Sidney Ruff-Diamond and Kenneth Williams as the Khasi of Kalibar is a glorious parody of every imperial film ever made with its upstanding British heroes and mad/stupid/villainous natives.