Citizen James | |
---|---|
Genre | Comedy |
Starring | Sid James Sydney Tafler Alec Bregonzi Bill Kerr Liz Fraser |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language | English |
No. of series | 3 |
No. of episodes | 32 (21 missing) |
Original release | |
Network | BBC TV |
Release | 24 November 1960 – 23 November 1962 |
Citizen James is a BBC sitcom that ran for three series between 24 November 1960 and 23 November 1962. The show featured comedian and actor Sid James and Sydney Tafler with Bill Kerr and Liz Fraser appearing in early episodes. It was initially written by the comedy 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 .
The first series was set around 'Charlie's Nosh Bar', a cafe in Soho, and centred on Sid's get-rich-quick schemes. He is helped by "Billy the Kerr" and quite often frustrated by the local bookmaker 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. [1]
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.
Like many BBC series of this time, episodes were not necessarily retained (see Wiping). Only eleven episodes from the three series are known to still exist.
No. overall | No. in series | Title | Archival Status | Original air date | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | "The Race" | Exists | 24 November 1960 | |
Out of money, Sid hits on an idea to fix a "waiter's race" by use of a ringer. | |||||
2 | 2 | "The Elixir" | Exists | 1 December 1960 | |
Sid and Bill try their hand in the snake-oil business, selling "Dr." Sidney James's Magical Elixir. | |||||
3 | 3 | "The Money" | Exists | 8 December 1960 | |
Liz entrusts £300 to Sid to take to the Bank, but Sid and Bill soon find themselves parted from the money by Albert. | |||||
4 | 4 | "The Rivals" | Exists | 15 December 1960 | |
Albert has a wager with Sid that he can get a date with Sid's fiancée. And at 10-1, Sid can't resist the odds. | |||||
5 | 5 | "The Raffle" | Exists | 22 December 1960 | |
Sid and Bill have to organise a raffle to replace the 'Nosh Bar' Christmas money which went on Sid's gambling debts. | |||||
6 | 6 | "The Brand Image" | Exists | 29 December 1960 | |
Sid and Bill try their hand at selling cigarettes but need an actor to help launch their new brand. |
No. overall | No. in series | Title | Archival Status | Original air date | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
7 | 1 | "The Lamp" | Missing | 2 October 1961 | |
TBC. | |||||
8 | 2 | "Crusty Bread" | Exists | 9 October 1961 | |
Sid and Charlie set out to find why the old style crusty bread loaves have disappeared. Why aren't they baked any more if people still want them? | |||||
9 | 3 | "Kids" | Missing | 16 October 1961 | |
TBC. | |||||
10 | 4 | "The Handbag" | Missing | 23 October 1961 | |
TBC. | |||||
11 | 5 | "The Football Team" | Missing | 30 October 1961 | |
TBC. | |||||
12 | 6 | "The Hotel" | Missing | 6 November 1961 | |
TBC. | |||||
13 | 7 | "Insurance" | Missing | 13 November 1961 | |
TBC. | |||||
14 | 8 | "Sit-Down" | Missing | 20 November 1961 | |
TBC. | |||||
15 | 9 | "The Rally" | Missing | 27 November 1961 | |
TBC. | |||||
16 | 10 | "The Pensioner" | Missing | 4 December 1961 | |
TBC. | |||||
17 | 11 | "Teenagers" | Exists | 11 December 1961 | |
Sid and Charlie go rushing across the country to stop a young couple on their way to Gretna Green. | |||||
18 | 12 | "Washing Day" | Missing | 18 December 1961 | |
TBC. | |||||
19 | 13 | "Christmas Day" | Missing | 25 December 1961 | |
TBC. |
No. overall | No. in series | Title | Archival Status | Original air date | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
20 | 1 | "The Hospital" | Missing | 31 August 1962 | |
TBC. | |||||
21 | 2 | "The Play's the Thing" | Missing | 7 September 1962 | |
TBC. | |||||
22 | 3 | "The Tennis Ball" | Missing | 14 September 1962 | |
TBC. | |||||
23 | 4 | "It's Not Cricket" | Missing | 21 September 1962 | |
TBC. | |||||
24 | 5 | "The Reporter" | Missing | 28 September 1962 | |
TBC. | |||||
25 | 6 | "The Day Out" | Exists | 5 October 1962 | |
Sid and Charlie are in Whitsea for a day-trip, but find in difficult to find a space in a overcrowded beach. | |||||
26 | 7 | "The Transistor" | Missing | 12 October 1962 | |
TBC. | |||||
27 | 8 | "The Old People's Outing" | Missing | 19 October 1962 | |
TBC. | |||||
28 | 9 | "A Perfect Friendship?" | Missing | 26 October 1962 | |
TBC. | |||||
29 | 10 | "The Watchdog" | Exists | 2 November 1962 | |
After catching a burgular in his living room, Sid purchases a guard dog after the Police fail to notice his concerns. | |||||
30 | 11 | "The Librarian" | Missing | 9 November 1962 | |
TBC. | |||||
31 | 12 | "The Tube Station" | Missing | 16 November 1962 | |
TBC. | |||||
32 | 13 | "The Jury" | Exists | 23 November 1962 | |
Sid and Charlie are on jury duty. Sid enrages the other members from preventing a unanimous decision when he's not convinced about the evidence. |
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. [2] [3] [4]
Sidney James was a South African-British actor and comedian whose career encompassed radio, television, stage and screen. Noted for his distinct dirty laugh, he was best known for numerous roles in the Carry On film series.
Anthony John Hancock was an English comedian and actor.
A British sitcom or a Britcom is a situational comedy programme produced for British television.
Steptoe and Son is a British sitcom written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson about a father-and-son rag-and-bone business in 26a Oil Drum Lane, a fictional street in Shepherd's Bush, London. Four series were broadcast by the BBC in black and white from 1962 to 1965, followed by a second run from 1970 to 1974 in colour. The lead roles were played by Wilfrid Brambell and Harry H. Corbett. The theme tune, "Old Ned", was composed by Ron Grainer. The series was voted 15th in a 2004 poll by the BBC to find Britain's Best Sitcom. It was remade in the United States as Sanford and Son, in Sweden as Albert & Herbert, in the Netherlands as Stiefbeen en zoon, in Portugal as Camilo & Filho, and in South Africa as Snetherswaite and Son. Two film adaptations of the series were released in cinemas, Steptoe and Son (1972) and Steptoe and Son Ride Again (1973).
Galton and Simpson were a British comedy scriptwriting duo, who wrote for radio, television and film, consisting of Ray Galton OBE and Alan Simpson OBE. They are best known for their work with comedian Tony Hancock on radio and television between 1954 and 1961 and their long-running television situation comedy, Steptoe and Son, eight series of which were aired between 1962 and 1974, they had an association lasting 60 years.
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 series starred Tony Hancock, with Sidney James; the radio version also co-starred, at various times, Moira Lister, Andrée Melly, Hattie Jacques, Bill Kerr and Kenneth Williams. The final television series, renamed simply Hancock, starred Hancock alone.
Comedy Playhouse is a long-running British anthology series of one-off unrelated sitcoms that aired for 128 episodes from 1961 to 1975. Many episodes later graduated to their own series, including Steptoe and Son, Meet the Wife, Till Death Us Do Part, All Gas and Gaiters, Up Pompeii!, Not in Front of the Children, Me Mammy, That's Your Funeral, The Liver Birds, Are You Being Served? and particularly Last of the Summer Wine, which is the world's longest running sitcom, having run from January 1973 to August 2010. In all, 27 sitcoms started from a pilot in the Comedy Playhouse strand.
Elizabeth Joan Winch, known professionally as Liz Fraser, was a British film actress, best known for being cast in provocative comedy roles.
Wilfred Duncan Wood was a British comedy producer, director and writer, who has been described as "the founding father of the British TV sitcom".
Alan Francis Simpson was an English scriptwriter, best known for the Galton and Simpson comedy writing partnership with Ray Galton. Together they devised and wrote the BBC sitcom Hancock's Half Hour (1954–1961), the first two series of Comedy Playhouse (1961–1963), and Steptoe and Son (1962–1974).
Richard Michael Hills and Sidney Green, informally known as Sid Green and Dick Hills, were a British partnership of television comedy writers, at their highest profile during the 1960s.
Sydney Tafler 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.
The Morecambe & Wise Show is a comedy sketch show originally broadcast by BBC Television and the third TV series by English comedy double-act Morecambe and Wise. It began airing in 1968 on BBC2, specifically because it was then the only channel broadcasting in colour, following the duo's move to the BBC from ATV, where they had made Two of a Kind since 1961.
"Twelve Angry Men" is an episode of the BBC television situation comedy programme Hancock's Half Hour, starring Tony Hancock and featuring Sid James, and first broadcast on 16 October 1959. Written by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson, the title is retrospectively applied; the episodes were not originally identified separately.
Christmas Night with the Stars is a television show broadcast each Christmas night by the BBC from 1958 to 1972. The show was hosted each year by a leading star of BBC TV and featured specially-made short seasonal editions of the previous year's most successful BBC sitcoms and light entertainment programmes. Most of the variety segments no longer exist in accordance with the BBC's practice of discarding programmes at the time.
Diane Morgan is an English actress, comedian, television presenter, and writer. She is best known for playing Philomena Cunk on the review programme Charlie Brooker's Weekly Wipe (2013–2020) and in the mockumentary series Cunk on Britain (2018) and Cunk on Earth (2022). She played Kath in the Netflix dark comedy series After Life (2019–2022). Since 2016, Morgan has played Liz on the BBC Two sitcom Motherland. She also writes and stars in the BBC Two comedy series Mandy (2019–present).
Taxi! was a BBC television comedy-drama series transmitted in 1963 and 1964.
Paul Merton in Galton and Simpson's... is a British comedy television show that ran from 26 January 1996 to 21 October 1997. It stars Paul Merton, re-performing a number of classic comedy scripts written by the duo Galton and Simpson, including some originally written for Tony Hancock. The programme was produced by Central Independent Television for ITV, and aired for 15 episodes in two series.
Educated Evans is a British comedy television series which aired on the BBC in 24 episodes between 2 October 1957 and 24 June 1958. It is based on the 1924 novel Educated Evans by Edgar Wallace, about a racing tipster. The story had previously been made into a 1936 film Educated Evans. The title role was played by Charlie Chester, whose comedic style was similar to that of Max Miller who had starred in the earlier film. Jack Melford starred as his antagonist, Detective Sergeant Miller.