''Citizen Smith'' is a British television sitcom written by John Sullivan, first broadcast from 1977 to 1980. It starred Robert Lindsay as Walter Henry "Wolfie" Smith, a young

Marxist Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialecti ...

"urban guerrilla" in

Tooting Tooting is a district in South London, forming part of the London Borough of Wandsworth and partly in the London Borough of Merton. It is located south south-west of Charing Cross. History Tooting has been settled since pre-Saxon times. Th ...

, south

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, who is attempting to emulate his hero

Che Guevara Ernesto Che Guevara (; 14 June 1928The date of birth recorded on /upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Ernesto_Guevara_Acta_de_Nacimiento.jpg his birth certificatewas 14 June 1928, although one tertiary source, (Julia Constenla, quoted ...

. Wolfie is a reference to the Irish revolutionary

Wolfe Tone Theobald Wolfe Tone, posthumously known as Wolfe Tone ( ga, Bhulbh Teón; 20 June 176319 November 1798), was a leading Irish revolutionary figure and one of the founding members in Belfast and Dublin of the United Irishmen, a republican socie ...

, who used the pseudonym "Citizen Smith" in order to evade capture by the British. 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". Wolfie dresses in a stereotypical fashion for rebellious students of the period: logoed T-shirt, denim jeans and Afghan coat. He supports Fulham F. C. and occasionally wears a Fulham scarf. He rides a scooter and spends most of the time at his girlfriend's house, which means he constantly clashes with her parents.

Cast

* Robert Lindsay as Walter Henry "Wolfie" Smith * Mike Grady as Ken Mills * George Sweeney as Speed (Anthony "Speed" King) *

Tony Millan Anthony Millan, known professionally as Tony Millan, is a British character actor and television comedy scriptwriter. Millan appeared in numerous roles, predominantly in sitcoms and drama series on British television throughout the 1980s and 1990s ...

as Tucker * Cheryl Hall as Shirley Johnson ''(series 1–2)'' * Hilda Braid as Florence Johnson, Shirley's mother * Artro Morris as Charles Johnson, Shirley's father ''(pilot episode)'' *

Peter Vaughan Peter Vaughan (born Peter Ewart Ohm; 4 April 1923 – 6 December 2016) was an English character actor known for many supporting roles in British film and television productions. He also acted extensively on the stage. He is perhaps best known ...

as Charlie Johnson, Shirley's father ''(series 1–2)'' * Tony Steedman as Charlie Johnson, Shirley's father ''(series 3–4; 1980 Christmas special)'' * Stephen Greif as Harry Fenning ''(series 1–3)'' *

David Garfield David Garfield (September 27, 1956 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American keyboardist, songwriter, and record producer. He has recorded with Smokey Robinson, Cher, Larry Carlton, Steve Lukather, Spinal Tap, George Benson, The Manhattan Transfer ...

as Ronnie Lynch ''(series 4; 1980 Christmas special)'' *

Susie Baker Susie is a female name that can be a diminutive form of Susan, Susanne, Suzanne, Susannah, Susanna or Susana. Susie may refer to: Songs * "Susie Q" (song), a 1957 song by Dale Hawkins, covered by Creedence Clearwater Revival (1968) *"Wake U ...

as Mandy Lynch ''(series 4; 1980 Christmas special)'' *

Anna Nygh Anna may refer to: People Surname and given name * Anna (name) Mononym * Anna the Prophetess, in the Gospel of Luke * Anna (wife of Artabasdos) (fl. 715–773) * Anna (daughter of Boris I) (9th–10th century) * Anna (Anisia) (fl. 1218 to 1221) ...

as Desiree, Speed's girlfriend ''(series 1–2)'' *

John Tordoff John Tordoff (born 11 September 1938 in Rochester, Kent) is an English actor and artist. Early life His father was Sidney Tordoff, a sheet metal worker and his mother Hilda (née Bartram). He also has a sister named Helen Tordoff. His early y ...

as policeman, Brian Tofkin ''(series 3-4)''

History

John Sullivan became a scenery shifter at the BBC in 1974 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, the first ''Citizen Smith'' script was written. Main Wilson loved the script, and saw the potential for a series; it was put into production almost immediately as a pilot for ''Comedy Special'' — a showcase for new talent, which had succeeded '' Comedy Playhouse'' — under the title ''Citizen Smith''. The pilot was a success, and four series and a

Christmas special Christmas themes have long been an inspiration to artists and writers. A prominent aspect of Christian media, the topic first appeared in in literature and Christmas music. Filmmakers have picked up on this wealth of material, with both adaptatio ...

were produced between 1977 and 1980. It has been claimed that the "Tooting Popular Front" — fictionally based near to writer John Sullivan's childhood home of

Balham Balham () is an area in south London, England, mostly within the London Borough of Wandsworth with small parts within the neighbouring London Borough of Lambeth. The area has been settled since Saxon times and appears in the Domesday Book as B ...

— was partly inspired by a real-life fellow-

South London South London is the southern part of London, England, south of the River Thames. The region consists of the boroughs, in whole or in part, of Bexley, Bromley, Croydon, Greenwich, Kingston, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Richmond, Southwark, Sut ...

far-left group, the

Brixton Brixton is a district in south London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Brixton experienced a rapid rise in population during the 19th cent ...

-based Workers' Institute of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought. The group's activities were reported in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ( ...

'' diary of April 1977, the same month the pilot episode of ''Citizen Smith'' was broadcast.

Opening titles

The opening titles of each episode of the first two series always began with Wolfie emerging from Tooting Broadway Underground station, followed by a shot of him kicking a can across a bridge until he is in close up, accompanied by a background rendition of the socialist anthem '' The Red Flag''. They always ended with him shouting "Power to the People", resulting in awkward consequences such as waking a sleeping baby or causing a vehicle to crash. From the third series, the shots of Wolfie on the bridge were replaced with on-screen clips of other cast members and their names, rather than just the list of names that had been used previously, and the reactions to Wolfie's shout were dropped entirely. Series 4 had a 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 Wolfie's shout is heard but he is not seen.

Plot

Series 1

From episode three, "Abide with Me", Wolfie Smith ( Robert Lindsay) lives, with his religious, teetotal friend Ken Mills ( Mike Grady), in a flat in the house of his girlfriend's family — Shirley Johnson ( Cheryl Hall, at the time Lindsay's wife); her affable but naïve mother, Florence, who mistakenly calls Wolfie "Foxy"; and her strict,

right-wing Right-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that view certain social orders and Social stratification, hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this pos ...

father, Charlie, who disapproves of Smith's lifestyle and refers to him as a "flaming

yeti The Yeti ()"Yeti"
''

Chairman Mao Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...

". Shirley considers herself engaged to Wolfie, on account of a fake

crocodile Crocodiles (family Crocodylidae) or true crocodiles are large semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. The term crocodile is sometimes used even more loosely to include all extant me ...

tooth necklace he gave her after she was asked when they would get engaged. Other regular characters in the series are 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 publican Harry Fenning (played by Stephen Greif), who refers to Wolfie as "

Trotsky Lev Davidovich Bronstein. ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky; uk, link= no, Лев Давидович Троцький; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trotskij'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky''. (), was a Russian M ...

". Wolfie and the TPF frequent Harry's pub, The Vigilante, and are 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". The closest Wolfie comes to legitimate political office is contesting the Tooting North constituency as the TPF candidate at a parliamentary by-election, whose election night declaration is televised; however, he gains only six votes, losing to the

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

candidate David West. He and the gang attempt to kidnap the new MP from a victory celebration, only to mistakenly capture Harry Fenning (who was leaving the Conservative Club during the occasion) instead (Episode 6 - "The Hostage").

Series 2

Series two consists of six episodes; however, owing 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, comes 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 The Palace of Westminster serves as the meeting place for both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Informally known as the Houses of Parliament, the Palace lies on the north ban ...

, only to find the place empty, owing to a parliamentary recess. During the TPF's "annual manoeuvres" on

Salisbury Plain Salisbury Plain is a chalk plateau in the south western part of central southern England covering . It is part of a system of chalk downlands throughout eastern and southern England formed by the rocks of the Chalk Group and largely lies wit ...

, Wolfie, Ken, Tucker and Speed decide to camp down after an evening of heavy drinking; unbeknownst to them, they are in the middle of a military live firing area. During the night, the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurkha ...

hold an exercise, and the Scorpion is "abandoned" by its crew after being declared "knocked out" by a "landmine" during a training exercise. When Wolfie and his comrades discover this, 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 group steal it and drive it back to

. On returning, 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, and annihilating 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 consists of seven episodes.

Series 4

The series began with Wolfie and company 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, Wolfie is seen entering Tooting Broadway tube station. Series four consisted of seven episodes and a Christmas special, "Buon Natale", in which Wolfie and Ken ride to

Rimini Rimini ( , ; rgn, Rémin; la, Ariminum) is a city in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy and capital city of the Province of Rimini. It sprawls along the Adriatic Sea, on the coast between the rivers Marecchia (the ancient ''Ariminu ...

on Wolfie's Lambretta to visit Shirley for the festive period, only to find that she has become romantically involved with an Italian named Paolo. This episode was shown after the series officially ended, but is set before the events of the last episode.

Notes

*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 (which also led to a series). *In the penultimate episode, Wolfie's full name was revealed as Walter Henry Smith –

W H Smith WHSmith (also written WH Smith, and known colloquially as Smith's and formerly as W. H. Smith & Son) is a British retailer, headquartered in Swindon, England, which operates a chain of high street, railway station, airport, port, hospital and ...

. *Early episodes state that there are six members of the Tooting Popular Front, but only four appear onscreen. In series 3 Wolfie says that two founder members have left the TPF: Dave the Nose (the TPF's Foreign Secretary) has emigrated, and Reg X (a Black Panther) is playing second oil drum in a steel band at Butlins. *In the 1980 Christmas special, the Italianate village of

Portmeirion Portmeirion is a tourist village in Gwynedd, North Wales. It was designed and built by Sir Clough Williams-Ellis between 1925 and 1975 in the style of an Italian village, and is now owned by a charitable trust. The village is located in the co ...

North Wales North Wales ( cy, Gogledd Cymru) is a regions of Wales, region of Wales, encompassing its northernmost areas. It borders Mid Wales to the south, England to the east, and the Irish Sea to the north and west. The area is highly mountainous and rural, ...

stood in for

, with other locations in the vicinity used for other parts of their journey across Europe. *The 1980 Christmas special featured

the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

' song "

Here Comes the Sun "Here Comes the Sun" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1969 album ''Abbey Road''. It was written by George Harrison and is one of his best-known compositions. Harrison wrote the song in early 1969 at the country house o ...

", which has been replaced on subsequent DVD releases, owing to licensing issues. *In the original television broadcast of the episode, "Working Class Hero" the music that accompanies Wolfie's commute on his first day at work is "Carry That Weight" from the Beatles' ''

Abbey Road ''Abbey Road'' is the eleventh studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. It is the last album the group started recording, although '' Let It Be'' was the last album completed before the band's break-up in April 1970. It was mostly ...

'' album. This too was substituted on the DVD issue, with a nondescript jazz tune. *The end title theme was written by John Sullivan and sung by Robert Lindsay, and is called "The Glorious Day".

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 were aired, totalling thirty episodes. The last episode aired on 31 December 1980. There is a mythical episode called "Right to Work" which appears in some episode guides; the confusion may arise from the episode "Working Class Hero", which opens with Wolfie involved in a "right to work" protest. The entire series was repeated on BBC1 in 1992–1993. The series has also been re-run on satellite channels UKGold/

UKTV Drama Alibi is a British pay television channel that was launched on 1 November 1997 as UK Arena. It was renamed UK Drama in 2000, and then UKTV Drama in 2004, and assumed its current name on 7 October 2008. History The channel originally launched ...

and on

Gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...

, though one episode has never been repeated – "A Story For Christmas" from 1977. All the episodes have been released on DVD.

Novel

Citizen Smith ''Citizen Smith'' is a British television sitcom written by John Sullivan, first broadcast from 1977 to 1980. It starred Robert Lindsay as Walter Henry "Wolfie" Smith, a young Marxist "urban guerrilla" in Tooting, south London, who is attempti ...

'', a novelisation of the first series written by Christopher Kenworthy, was published by Universal books, London in 1978.

Mooted revival

In 2015, Lindsay was reported as saying he was very keen to reprise the role of Wolfie Smith, particularly with the rise of

Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialis ...

. However, it was also reported that the family of the by then deceased Sullivan, who own the rights, did not want to bring it back.

Home media

Playback released two DVD volumes of ''Citizen Smith'', each with two series. Series one and two (including the pilot) were released in 2003 followed by series three and four later that year. Only two episodes have actually been cut: "Changes" – where Tucker and Wolfie miming to the Beatles tracks "Till There Was You" (and Tucker's line "I think they like us.") and "Help!" have been cut from the scene where Tucker serenades June; and "Prisoners" – where 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 bought the rights to the series, and later released all four series in a complete series set on 17 July 2017.

References

* Steve Clark ''The Only Fools and Horses Story'', pp26–28, , first published 1998, * Mark Lewisohn ''Radio Times Guide to TV Comedy'', (''A Roof Over My Head'', p172, 658.) , reprinted 2003. * Universal/Playback DVD Series 1/2 and Series 3/4. 2003.

Notes

External links

* * Comedy Guide * * * *
''Citizen Smith''
at British TV Resources {{John Sullivan (writer) 1977 British television series debuts 1980 British television series endings 1970s British sitcoms 1980s British sitcoms BBC television sitcoms English-language television shows Television shows set in London Tooting Television shows adapted into novels