Citizen Smith was a popular British television sitcom
08 November 2009 | Machine Wrench | Max
The show was written by John Sullivan, who went on later to write Only Fools and Horses. The show ran from 12 April 1977 to 4 July 1980.
Sullivan was a scenery shifter at the BBC, and wrote a script after deciding he could do better than some of the scriptwriters whose works he was helping to produce. After approaching producer Dennis Main Wilson, a one-off episode “Roof Over My Head” was produced for Comedy Special (a showcase for new talent which had succeeded Comedy Playhouse). The pilot was a success, and four series and a Christmas special were produced between 1977 and 1980.
Citizen Smith starred Robert Lindsay as “Wolfie” Smith, a young Marxist urban revolutionary living in Tooting, South London, who is attempting to emulate his hero Che Guevara. Wolfie is the self-proclaimed leader of the Tooting Popular Front (in reality 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 due to laziness and disorganisation.
