''Citizen James'' is a

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

sitcom A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...

that ran for three series between 24 November 1960 and 23 November 1962. The show featured comedian and actor

Sid James Sidney James (born Solomon Joel Cohen; 8 May 1913 – 26 April 1976) was a South African–British actor and comedian whose career encompassed radio, television, stage and screen. Noted for his distinctive laugh, he was best known for numerou ...

and

Sydney Tafler Sydney Tafler (31 July 1916 – 8 November 1979) was an English actor who after having started his career on stage, was best remembered for numerous appearances in films and television from the 1940s to the 1970s. Personal life Tafler was bor ...

with

Bill Kerr William Henry Kerr (10 June 1922 – 28 August 2014) was a British and Australian actor, comedian and vaudevillian. Born in South Africa, he started his career as a child actor in Australia, before emigrating to Britain after the Second World W ...

and

Liz Fraser Elizabeth Joan Winch (14 August 1930 – 6 September 2018), known professionally as Liz Fraser, was a British film actress, best known for being cast in provocative comedy roles. Early life Fraser was born in Southwark, London. Her year of b ...

appearing in early episodes. It was initially written by the

comedy Comedy is a genre of dramatic works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. Origins Comedy originated in ancient Greec ...

writing team of Galton and Simpson, who based the characters very much on the "Sidney Balmoral James" and "William Montmorency Beaumont Kerr" roles that they had played in ''

Hancock's Half Hour ''Hancock's Half Hour'' was a BBC radio comedy, and later television comedy series, broadcast from 1954 to 1961 and written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson. The radio series starred Tony Hancock, with Sidney James, Bill Kerr and,at various ...

''. The first series was set around 'Charlie's Nosh Bar', a cafe in

Soho SoHo, short for "South of Houston Street, Houston Street", is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Since the 1970s, the neighborhood has been the location of many artists' lofts and art galleries, art installations such as The Wall ...

, and centred on Sid's

get-rich-quick scheme A get-rich-quick scheme is a plan to obtain high rates of return for a small investment. Most schemes create an impression that participants can obtain this high rate of return with little risk, skill, effort, or time. The term "get rich qui ...

s. He is helped by "Billy the Kerr" and quite often frustrated by the local

bookmaker A bookmaker, bookie, or turf accountant is an organization or a person that accepts and pays out bets on sporting and other events at agreed-upon odds In probability theory, odds provide a measure of the probability of a particular outco ...

Albert Welshman (Tafler). Liz Fraser played Sid's long-suffering girlfriend who has been waiting for seven years for Sid to set the date. Changes were made to the format after the first series. Sid James' character was changed to be something of a people's champion, campaigning for social justice. Bill Kerr and Liz Fraser departed and Sidney Tafler played a different character: Charlie Davenport. The location switched from Soho to Sid and Charlie sharing a house. Later episodes were written by then '' Morecambe & Wise'' writers Dick Hills and Sid Green. Despite not being written by Galton and Simpson, the sets and familiar supporting cast gave these last two series a recognisable ''Hancock'' feeling to the proceedings.

Episodes

Like many BBC series of this time, episodes were not necessarily retained (see

Wiping Wipe or wiping may refer to: Hygiene * Toilet paper or wet wipes, or their use Arts and media * Wipe (transition), a gradual transition in film editing * Wipe curtain, a kind of theater curtain * ''Wipe'' or ''Screenwipe'', a television series ...

). Only eleven episodes from the three series are known to still exist.

Series 1 (1960)

Series 2 (1961)

Series 3 (1962)

DVD

The then-surviving episodes, comprising the complete Series One, and two episodes each from Series Two and Series Three, were released as a collection by Acorn Media UK in February 2012. A further episode, the sixth episode of series three, was subsequently found in a store room of Monaco Television, by Philip Morris.

References

External links

*
''Citizen James''
at the

BBC Online BBC Online, formerly known as BBCi, is the BBC's online service. It is a large network of websites including such high-profile sites as BBC News and BBC Sport, Sport, the on-demand video and radio services branded BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds, t ...

Comedy Guide * *
''Citizen James''
at British TV Resources {{Galton and Simpson 1960 British television series debuts 1962 British television series endings 1960s British sitcoms BBC television sitcoms Lost BBC episodes Television series created by Ray Galton Television series created by Alan Simpson (scriptwriter)