Citizen Smith
Encyclopedia
Citizen Smith is a British television sitcom. The show was written by John Sullivan
John Sullivan (writer)
John Richard Thomas Sullivan OBE was an English television scriptwriter responsible for several popular British sitcoms, including Only Fools and Horses, Citizen Smith and Just Good Friends....

, who later wrote Only Fools and Horses
Only Fools and Horses
Only Fools and Horses is a British sitcom, created and written by John Sullivan. Seven series were originally broadcast on BBC One in the United Kingdom between 1981 and 1991, with sporadic Christmas specials until 2003...

. The pilot was transmitted on 12 April 1977 in the Comedy Special series of one-off plays, and the series proper ran from 3 November 1977 to 31 December 1980.

Citizen Smith starred Robert Lindsay
Robert Lindsay (actor)
Robert Lindsay is an English actor who is best known for his television work, especially his roles of Wolfie Smith in Citizen Smith, Michael Murray in G.B.H., Captain Sir Edward Pellew in Hornblower and Ben Harper in My Family which has been on television screens since 2000.-Early life:Lindsay was...

 as "Wolfie" Smith, a young Marxist  "urban guerrilla" living in Tooting
Tooting
Tooting is a district in south London, England, located in the London Borough of Wandsworth. It is situated south south-west of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.-History:...

, South London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, who is attempting to emulate his hero Che Guevara
Che Guevara
Ernesto "Che" Guevara , commonly known as el Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist...

. Wolfie is the self-proclaimed leader of the revolutionary Tooting Popular Front (the TPF, merely a small bunch of his friends), the goals of which are "Power to the People" and "Freedom for Tooting". In reality, he is an unemployed dreamer and petty criminal whose plans fall through because of laziness and disorganisation.

Cast

  • Robert Lindsay
    Robert Lindsay (actor)
    Robert Lindsay is an English actor who is best known for his television work, especially his roles of Wolfie Smith in Citizen Smith, Michael Murray in G.B.H., Captain Sir Edward Pellew in Hornblower and Ben Harper in My Family which has been on television screens since 2000.-Early life:Lindsay was...

     – Wolfie Smith
  • Mike Grady – Ken Mills
  • Cheryl Hall
    Cheryl Hall
    Cheryl Hall is a British actress.She is best known for playing the role of Shirley, the girlfriend of Wolfie Smith in the British sitcom Citizen Smith....

     – Shirley Johnson (Series 1 & 2 - 1979 Special)
  • Hilda Braid
    Hilda Braid
    Hilda Braid was an English actress who had a long career on British television and became well known in her later years for playing Victoria "Nana" Moon in the BBC One soap opera EastEnders....

     – Florence Johnson (Shirley’s Mother)
  • Artro Morris – Charles Johnson (Shirley’s Father) (Pilot Episode)
  • Peter Vaughan
    Peter Vaughan
    Peter Vaughan is an English character actor, known for many supporting roles in a variety of British film and television productions. He has worked extensively on the stage, becoming known for roles such as police inspectors, Soviet agents and similar parts...

     – Charles Johnson (Shirley’s Father) (Series 1 & 2 - 1979 Special)
  • Tony Steedman
    Tony Steedman
    Tony Steedman was an English character actor, perhaps best known for his role as Socrates in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure....

     – Charles Johnson (Shirley’s Father) (Series 3 – 1980 Christmas Special)
  • Tony Millan – Tucker
  • George Sweeney
    George Sweeney (actor)
    George Sweeney is a British film and television actor who commenced his acting career in the 1970s.Sweeney has numerous television credits, including Z-Cars , Rumpole of the Bailey , Dixon of Dock Green , Softly, Softly , The New Avengers , The Sweeney , Return...

     – Speed
  • Stephen Greif
    Stephen Greif
    Stephen Greif is an award-winning English actor.His television appearances include Waking the Dead , Spooks , Mistresses 2 , He Kills Coppers , Holby City , The Last Days of Pompeii as Sporus, Judge John Deed , Space Race , EastEnders , The Bill and...

     – Harry Fenning (Series 1–3)
  • David Garfield – Ronnie Lynch (Series 4 & 1980 Christmas Special)
  • Susie Baker - Mandy Lynch (Series 4 & 1980 Christmas Special)
  • Anna Nygh - Desiree (Speed's girlfriend) (Series 1-2)

History

John Sullivan
John Sullivan (writer)
John Richard Thomas Sullivan OBE was an English television scriptwriter responsible for several popular British sitcoms, including Only Fools and Horses, Citizen Smith and Just Good Friends....

 became a scenery shifter at the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 because of his desire to write a sitcom outline he had called Citizen Smith; fearing rejection if he sent the idea in, he decided it would be better to get a job, any job, at the BBC, learn more about the business and then meet someone who would actually take notice of his as yet unwritten script. After he approached producer Dennis Main Wilson
Dennis Main Wilson
Dennis Main Wilson was a British producer of radio and television programmes, mainly for the BBC.-Biography:...

, the first Citizen Smith script was written. Main Wilson loved the script and saw the potential for a series and it was put in to production almost immediately as a Pilot for Comedy Special - a showcase for new talent which had succeeded Comedy Playhouse
Comedy Playhouse
Comedy Playhouse was a long-running British anthology series of one-off unrelated sitcoms that aired for 120 episodes from 1961 to 1975. Many episodes later graduated to their own series, including Steptoe and Son, Till Death Us Do Part, All Gas and Gaiters, The Liver Birds, Are You Being Served?...

- under the title Citizen Smith. The pilot was a success, and four series and a Christmas special were produced between 1977 and 1980.

Some sources erroneously name the pilot as "A Roof Over My Head", which was actually the title of the previous week's Comedy Special, written by Barry Took
Barry Took
Barry Took was an English comedian, writer and television presenter. He is best remembered in the UK for his weekly role as presenter of Points of View, a BBC TV programme in which viewers' letters criticising or praising the BBC were broadcast...

 (which also led to a series).

Series 1

From episode three, "Abide with Me", Wolfie lives, with his religious friend Ken, in a flat in the house of his girlfriend's family - Shirley (played by Cheryl Hall, then Lindsay's wife), her kindly but vague mother, Florence who mistakenly calls Wolfie "Foxy" and her authoritarian and conservative father, Charlie, who disapproves of Smith's lifestyle and refers to him as a "flaming yeti" or "Chairman Mao
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...

". Shirley considers herself engaged to Wolfie on account of a fake crocodile tooth necklace he gave her after she was asked when they would get engaged.

Other regular characters in the series were the other urban guerrillas: Tucker, married to the ever pregnant, but never seen June, Speed, the TPF's Warlord, and his girlfriend Desiree, and local gangster Harry Fenning (played by Stephen Greif
Stephen Greif
Stephen Greif is an award-winning English actor.His television appearances include Waking the Dead , Spooks , Mistresses 2 , He Kills Coppers , Holby City , The Last Days of Pompeii as Sporus, Judge John Deed , Space Race , EastEnders , The Bill and...

), who refers to Wolfie as "Trotsky". Wolfie and the TPF frequented Harry's pub 'The Vigilante' and were at times menaced by Harry's hired muscle Floyd and Cyril (played by Dana Michie and Barry Hayes), who are referred to by Florence as Mr Fenning's "foster children".

Series 2

The opening titles of each episode of series 1 & 2 always began in the same way with Wolfie emerging from Tooting Broadway tube station
Tooting Broadway tube station
Tooting Broadway is a London Underground station in Tooting, South London. The station is on the Northern Line, between and stations. It is located on the corner of Tooting High Street and Mitcham Road...

, then with a shot of Wolfie kicking a can across a bridge until he is in close up, accompanied by a stirring rendition of the socialist anthem The Red Flag
The Red Flag
The Red Flag is a protest song associated with left-wing politics, in particular with socialism. It is the semi-official anthem of the British Labour Party, sung at the end of conference. It is the official anthem of the Irish Labour Party and sung at the close of national conference.-History:The...

. They always ended with him shouting "Power to the People" in a comedic context, for example, waking a sleeping baby and then being belted around the head by its irate mother, or causing various vehicles, including a milk float to crash, exit Wolfie sheepishly. This was altered from Series 3, in place of the shots of Wolfie on the bridge, the other cast members were now credited individually; their names were accompanied with an onscreen clip of them, rather than just the list of names that had been used before, and the reactions to Wolfie's shout were dropped entirely. Series 4 had an entirely new title sequence which began with Tucker's van driving past Tooting Broadway Tube Station with 'The Revolution is Back' painted on it. The rest of the credits were backed by clips from the last episode of series three "The Glorious Day" and now we only hear Wolfie's shout. Series two consisted of six episodes, however due to industrial action at the BBC on 22 December 1978, one episode ("Spanish Fly") had to be rescheduled as a Special in August 1979.

Series 3

"The Glorious Day", which Wolfie had always been plotting, came at the end of the third series, in an episode of the same name, in which the Tooting Popular Front 'liberate' a Scorpion tank and use it to invade the Houses of Parliament
Palace of Westminster
The Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament or Westminster Palace, is the meeting place of the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom—the House of Lords and the House of Commons...

, only to find the place empty due to a Parliamentary recess. This episode also came as a joy to all those who loathe garden gnomes. During the TPF's 'annual manoeuvres' on Salisbury Plain
Salisbury Plain
Salisbury Plain is a chalk plateau in central southern England covering . It is part of the Southern England Chalk Formation and largely lies within the county of Wiltshire, with a little in Hampshire. The plain is famous for its rich archaeology, including Stonehenge, one of England's best known...

, Wolfie, Ken, Tucker and Speed decide to camp down after an evening of heavy drinking, unbeknown to them that they are in the middle of a military live firing area. During the night, the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...

 hold an exercise, and the Scorpion is 'abandoned' by its crew after being declared "knocked out" by a "landmine" during a training exercise. Upon discovery by Wolfie and his comrades, Wolfie comes up with his revolutionary plan. Speed states that he learned to drive a Scorpion during his time in the Territorial Army, at which point the lads steal it and drive it back to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

.

On return, they hide it in Charlie Johnson's garage. Charlie comes home from work and opens the garage door to park his car. Curious as to the purpose of the Scorpion parked amongst the garden tools, he climbs down inside and accidentally steps on the machine-gun fire button. The result is that their neat garden is raked with heavy machine-gun fire, narrowly missing his wife Florence who is hanging out the washing but with the resultant annihilation of their garden gnomes. This episode also includes a new song from John Sullivan and sung by Robert Lindsay - "We are the TPF. We are the People." Series three consisted of seven episodes.

Series 4

The series began with Wolfie and co being paroled, a brief flirtation at being pop stars on the back of their 'fame' ended in disaster. While the TPF have been away, a new gangster Ronnie Lynch has usurped Fenning's position in Tooting including his old pub. Wolfie hates him more than he did Fenning and after various run-ins with Lynch (who constantly refers to Wolfie as "Wally"), the series was concluded in the penultimate episode, with Wolfie fleeing Tooting to escape a £6,000 contract put on his head by Ronnie Lynch after Lynch had caught Wolfie in his wife Mandy's bedroom. Closing with a shot mirroring the opening credits, we see Wolfie entering Tooting Broadway Underground Station. Series four consisted of seven episodes and a Christmas Special, "Buon Natale", in which Wolfie and Ken ride to Rimini
Rimini
Rimini is a medium-sized city of 142,579 inhabitants in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, and capital city of the Province of Rimini. It is located on the Adriatic Sea, on the coast between the rivers Marecchia and Ausa...

 on Wolfie's Lambretta
Lambretta
Lambretta can refer to:* Lambretta, a petrol-powered scooter made by Innocenti* Lambretta , a clothing brand* Lambretta , a Swedish rock band* The Lambrettas, a British mod revival band...

 to visit Shirley for the festive period. This episode was shown after the series officially ended, but is set before the events of the last episode.

Episodes

The first episode aired on 12 April 1977. This episode was a pilot. Over the next four years a further four series and a Christmas Special would be aired. This would total thirty episodes. The last episode aired on 31 December 1980. There is a mythical episode called "Right to Work" which appears in some inaccurate episode guides, the episode "Working Class Hero" opens with Wolfie involved in a 'Right to Work' protest, this is where the confusion arises from.

The entire series was repeated on BBC One in 1992/1993. The series has also been re-run on satellite channels UKGold/UKTV Drama
UKTV Drama
Alibi is a digital television channel broadcasting in the United Kingdom and Ireland, as part of the UKTV network of channels. The channel launched on 1 November 1997 and relaunched in it's current format on 7 October 2008...

,and is currently running on G.O.L.D. Though one episode has never been repeated - 'A Story For Christmas' from 1977. All the episodes have been released on DVD in either the first or second boxset. John Sullivan
John Sullivan (writer)
John Richard Thomas Sullivan OBE was an English television scriptwriter responsible for several popular British sitcoms, including Only Fools and Horses, Citizen Smith and Just Good Friends....

 wrote all of the episodes and all episodes starred Robert Lindsay
Robert Lindsay (actor)
Robert Lindsay is an English actor who is best known for his television work, especially his roles of Wolfie Smith in Citizen Smith, Michael Murray in G.B.H., Captain Sir Edward Pellew in Hornblower and Ben Harper in My Family which has been on television screens since 2000.-Early life:Lindsay was...

 as Wolfie.

Novel

Citizen Smith, a novelisation of the first series written by Christopher Kenworthy, was published by Universal books, London in 1978. (192 pages for 75p).

DVD release

Playback has released two DVD volumes of Citizen Smith each with two series. Series one and two were released in 2003 (this did include the Pilot.) followed by series three and four in 2003. However, due to contractual reasons some soundtrack re-edits have been made to replace Beatles music tracks with stock music in a few episodes. Only two episodes have actually been cut, "Changes" - Tucker & Wolfie miming to the Beatles tracks "Till There Was You" (and Tuckers line "I think they like us.") and "Help!" have been cut from the Tucker serenading June scene, and "Prisoners" - a short scene of Wolfie singing along to the Beatles track "She Loves You", which comes in between the shot of Speed throwing stones at Wolfie's window and the shot of the window breaking, has also been cut.

Cinema Club
2 Entertain
2 Entertain is a British video and music publisher, formed by the merger of BBC Video and Video Collection International in 2004....

 have bought the rights to the series and are re-releasing all four series in a complete collection boxed set by 2012.
DVD Release date
The Complete Series 1 & 2 (3 discs) 3 March 2003
The Complete Series 3 & 4 (3 discs) 2 June 2003
The Complete Series 1 to 4 (6 discs) TBA 2012

External links

Comedy Guide
  • Citizen Smith at British TV Resources
  • Popular Front / Citizen Smith Citizen Smith fan site
  • Citizen Smith at Wikia
    Wikia
    Wikia is a free web hosting service for wikis . It is normally free of charge for readers and editors, deriving most of its income from advertising, and publishes all user-provided text under copyleft licenses. Wikia hosts several hundred thousand wikis using the open-source wiki software MediaWiki...

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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