Educated at Bristol and London, he studied to be a doctor. During the war he served with the Royal Sussex Regiment in Europe and the Middle East. On being demobbed he joined the film industry as an assistant editor at Denham Studios working on October Man (1947) and Hamlet (1948) then as 1st assistant editor on Madness of the Heart. When he became director and worked on the Carry on films he always had a tight shooting schedule which never exceeded 6 weeks. Despite this he had a great sense of fun often playing tricks on the cast such as filling Joan Sims' glass with gin instead of water in Carry on Regardless and hosing down the beauty contestants in Carry on Girls when they were only expecting a damping down from sprinklers.