Tuesday 29 December 2015

309 Citizen Smith



First  viewed :  3  November  1977

From  quiet  beginnings  this  John  Sullivan  sitcom  became  must-see  TV  and , unlike  one  of  his  other  creations,  left  you wanting  more  when  it  finished.

Citizen  Smith   was  first  tried  out  as  a  pilot  episode  in  the  Comedy  Special  strand  in  1976  which  I  never  saw  but  I  caught  the  first  episode  proper  when  it  replaced  Happy  Ever  After  in  the  post-Top  of  the  Pops  slot.    

Wolfie  Smith  ( Robert  Lindsay ) is  an  unemployed  layabout  who  imagines  that  he  is  destined  to  lead  a  popular  uprising  through  his  Tooting  Popular  Front   which  currently  has  a  membership  of  four, himself  , religion-sampling  brother  Ken  ( Mike  Grady ) , sex-crazed  but  timid  Tucker  ( Bruce  Milan )  and  brainless  thug  Speed ( George  Sweeney ) .  Wolfie  is  supported  by  his  sensible  girlfriend   Shirley  ( Cheryl  Hall, Lindsay's  real-life  wife  at  the  time  )  whose  father  Charles  Johnson ( Peter  Vaughan )   is  appalled  by  him  while  his  scatter-brained  wife  Florence  ( Hilda  Braid ) is  secretly  rather  fond  of  him. The  TPF's  headquarters  is  the  local  pub  which  is  also  frequented  by  crocodilian  local  underworld  chief  Harry  Fenning  ( Stephen  Grief ).  Wolfie's  attempts  to  bring  the  revolution  on  always  come  to  grief  through  his  ineptitude  or  self-delusion.

Over  the  four  series  there  were  some  cast  changes. Peter  Vaughan  left  at  the  end  of  the  series  2  to  be  replaced  by  Tony  Steedman  who  was  inferior  but  then  anyone  would  be. Hall  also  left  at  that  point  with  the  character  moving  to  Spain  which  was  a  major  plus. She  was  an  attractive  presence  but  Shirley  acted  as  a  brake  on  Wolfie's  schemes  and  the  storylines  got  much  more  entertaining  once  she'd  gone.  Grief  left  at  the  end  of  series  3  to  be  replaced   by  the  charmless  Ronnie  Lynch  ( David  Garfield ). I  missed  Harry  but  Ronnie's  wife  Mandy's  attraction  to  Wolfie  did  lead  to  some  interesting  developments.

I  watched  Citizen  Smith  with  as  much  relief  as   amusement  initially. Thanks  to  my  mum's  indoctrination  my  biggest  fear  for  the  future  was  the  possible  coming  to  power  of  one  Anthony  Wedgewood  Benn. Benn was  the  hypocritcal  aristocrat*  who  would  establish  a  Marxist  dictatorship  under  himself  at  the  first  opportunity  and  deny  me  the  comforting  prospect  of  rising  above  the  bullies  at  school  in  later  life. While  others  at  the  time  fretted  about  nuclear  war  I  feared  the  challenge  to  the  meritocratic  order. So  Citizen  Smith   was  something  of  a  comfort  blanket  to  me, dissecting  the  hypocrisy  and  absurdity  of  the  British  left  and  perhaps , by  exposing  it  to  ridicule,  reduce its  chances  of  coming  to  power.

There  were  many  highlights  of  the  series. The  best  episode  came  at  the  end  of  series  3  when   the  TPF's  acquired  a  tank  and  stormed  an  empty  Commons,  this  coming  after  the  destruction  of  the  Johnsons'  garden  gnomes  by  machine  gun  fire. The  best  individual  moment  came  when  Ken  converted  to  Hare  Krishna  and  started   chanting  it  out  loud  in  the  pub  and  then  Tucker  started  harmonising  with  "Harry  Fenning !  Harry  Fenning!  "  as  the  gangster  approached.

As  I  said  above,   the  series  went  out  on  a  high  in  Easter  1980  when  Wolfie  had  to  leave  town  because  Ronnie  caught  him  in  bed  with  Mandy. Lindsay  wanted  to  take  on  more  serious  roles . I  missed  the  one-off  Christmas  special  that  year (  the  storyline  was  set  before  Wolfie's  departure )  because  I  was  staying  at  Mankinholes  Youth  Hostel  that  night .I  long  mourned  it  and  watched  the  series  again  when  repeated  in  1992  though  I  was  inevitably  disappointed  that  the  most  memorable  scenes  were  still  the  best  ones  and  what  came  in  between  was  humdrum.

In  September   this  year   Lindsay  expressed  his  support  for  reviving  the  series  in  the  light  of  Jeremy  Corbyn's  victory  but  quickly  backtracked  when  he  realised  how  opposed  the  now-deceased  Sullivan's  family  were  to  the  idea.

* Benn's   aristocratic  background  was   wildly  exaggerated by  the  press . His  grandfather  was  middle  class  and  his  father  was  ennobled  for  political  services  during  the  war. However  it  was  true  that  he  was  a  wealthy  man  who  sent  his  children  to  public  school.

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