Citizen Smith

"POWER TO THE PEOPLE!"

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), whose goals 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.

Citizen Smith is a British television sitcom. The show was written by John Sullivan, who later wrote Only Fools and Horses. The pilot was transmitted on 12 April 1977 in the Comedy Special series of one-off plays, and the series proper ran from 3 November 1977 to 31 December 1980.

A novelisation was published in 1978.


 * British Brevity: While Citizen Smith got four seasons, season one comprised only nine episodes; season two, five episodes, and the last two, seven each.
 * Couch Gag: During the first season; the opening credits featured Wolfie Smith delivering his "Power to the People' salute in various places with disastrous results
 * My Name Is Not Durwood: Other than his girlfriend and Ken, very few people seemed inclined to call Wolfie Smith by his chosen first name; he was 'Smithy' to the rest of the Tooting Popular Front, 'The Yeti' to his future father-in-law, 'Foxy' to his terminally confused mother-in-law, and 'Trotsky' to the local villain, Harry Fenning.
 * The Other Darrin: Wolfie's girlfriend's father was played by three different actors throughout the series; Artro Morris in the pilot, Peter Vaughan in the first two series and Tony Steedman in the third and fourth series.
 * Serious Business: Everything.
 * Tank Goodness: Smith gets a hold a Scorpion AFV in one episode and attempts to storm Westminster.