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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