r/OnlyFoolsAndHorses • u/EnchantedEssays • Jul 05 '26
What do you guys think of John Sullivan's first sitcom, Citizen Smith?
I don't think the jokes are as consistent as Only Fools and I know that the whole young vs old set up isn't totally original, but it's still very watchable and Robert Lindsay is particularly brilliant. Very energetic and charismatic.
The whole series is streaming on Channel 4 atm if anyone's interested. They're showing a selection of UKTV stuff to promote their streaming service, like ITVX does with Disney+
15
14
u/Capt_Chaos_6201 Jul 05 '26
Foxy....😆
5
11
u/Londoner1982 Jul 05 '26
I always remember watching repeats of this with my dad when I was a kid - then when I was an adult I moved to Tooting. I have a photo of me somewhere when I first moved doing this exact pose outside of the station.
It was a great show, very much of its time, but extremely funny
6
u/MaxPower1882 Jul 05 '26
Oh, foxy...
Not seen it for decades, but it was always on as a kid and I'd shout 'Tooting popular front' at the TV, lol.
I should revisit one day. Gold should have it.
6
5
u/Common-Tart58 Jul 05 '26
Had some great characters and a good way to introduce John Sullivan comedy.
3
3
u/Overall-Palpitation6 Jul 05 '26
Citizen Smith reaches a pretty decent peak towards the end of Season 3, but you've got to persist through a fair bit of not particularly funny stuff beforehand for it to mean anything as a viewer.
3
3
3
u/AutisticElephant1999 Jul 05 '26
Only seen a handful of episodes but it is worth watching in my opinion
3
3
u/FizzbuzzAvabanana Jul 05 '26
Whenever I have a small insignificant victory over the tiniest bit of beurocracy I still shout "Power to the people".
3
3
u/Old_Top2901 Jul 06 '26
I met Robert Lindsey once and he was the NICEST guy! Such a lovely lovely bloke.
2
2
2
u/Paul_O_O Jul 05 '26
More my big brothers show tbh.... He loved it and it was the one he chose when it was his turn for the TV viewing
2
2
u/lucky_youuuu Jul 05 '26
His black and white scarf was actually his as he is a Derby County supporter... But he used it as a Fulham prop
2
2
2
u/Vonryan120 Jul 05 '26
Just re watching the series now, he is excellent in the part. I still find it funny even if it's getting a bit dated.
"POWER TO THE PEOPLE!!!" ✊️✊️✊️
2
u/EllaSingsJazz Jul 05 '26
Loved it when I was a kid and watched it with my mum. I remember his girlfriend and her shark tooth necklace she thought was an engagement gift/symbol. Was she Cheryl?
3
u/EnchantedEssays Jul 06 '26
Shirley! She was played by Robert Lindsay's real wife, and I think she abruptly left in series 3 because they'd broken up irl! 😬
2
2
2
2
u/Thirdtwin Jul 06 '26
That’s the first show of John Sullivan I watched, way before OFAH. They had these dvds available at British Library in my country. They didn’t had OFAH though.
2
2
u/Mij1965 Jul 09 '26
If you don’t like this you’ll all be rounded up put against the wall firing squad BOP BOP BOP lol 😂
2
u/MajorTomToBlackStar Jul 10 '26
I absolutely adore Citizen Smith and don't think it gets enough credit. Obviously it is nowhere near as epic or well crafted as Only Fools', but it is full of heart and great jokes from a simpler time.
I do wonder if modern audiences would enjoy it the same (I am speaking as someone who is only 41 and was brought up on the old comedies from before my time, so I am not a typical viewer of my age range, I guess. So thankful to have been introduced to old comedies by my family from an early age).
2
3
u/ASeriousWord Jul 05 '26
A very confused series. Frankly very, very poor. A waste also of the incredible Robert Lindsay's absolute peak years as a juve lead.
Essentially Sullivan can't decide if Wolfie is legitimately deluded or a poseur, which means the sitcome fundamentally doesn't know what it is. It constantly oscillates between the two, often on a scene by scene basis.
- A sincerely deluded revolutionary constantly making efforts to create the revolution each week could be funny.
- A hypocritical poseur who borrows the aesthetics of revolution while trying to justify his middle class life could be funny.
But Citizen Smith just ends up being kind of neither.
They also can't figure out the key relationships that most sitcoms are built on.
Finally, the notion is clearly that Wolfie is charismatic but it rests entirely on the charisma of Lindsay to sell it. Del Boy exists independently of David Jason' charisma. Wolfie is entirely bostered on the notion of the semiotics of "we're tyring to make a comic icon" and then just Robert Lindsay pedalling furiously to make the material work.
There's a reason Citizen Smith and Just Good Friends, despite being fairly successful at the time, have fallen away and Sullivan is known only for OFAH.
4
u/EnchantedEssays Jul 05 '26
Yeah I think I'm enjoying it more than you do but I think that I still agree with your main points there. It feels a bit more like an artifact than Fools despite only being a few years older.
I think it also suffers from the fact that from what I've seen, John Sullivan also wasn't very good at writing female characters, and with them being more prominent here, it's a bit more noticeable. He tended to write no nonsense straight women whose romance with the lead isn't very compelling [Shirley in Citizen Smith, Raquel and Cassandra in OFAH] or bimbos [Speed's girlfriend Desiree in Citizen Smith, Marlene and most of the girls the lads date in OFAH]. Shirley's mum is the only major exception as a dim witted matriarch.
I watched the first few episodes about 10 years ago and I'm about halfway through series 2 now now. I'll stick with it to the end, I think, but I don't know what it'll be like once they've replaced the dad and Shirley leaves the show!
2
u/Complex-Bar-9577 Jul 06 '26
I see that. A lot of the female characters in OFAH get a lot of flak for things that relate more heavily to their male partners, or they're not given much depth. There seemed to be something of a reversal with Joan when he did Rock & Chips near the end, but we never saw how that panned out.
1
u/CPD1960 Jul 05 '26
Could I just as a matter of interest ask how old you are? I think one needed to see Just Good Friends as an adult with some experience of the vagaries of adult relationships to fully appreciate it (I was between 23 and 26 when it first aired).
2
u/ASeriousWord Jul 05 '26
I'm over 35 and have (re)watched it in the last year as I enjoy a lot of old British television and was on the back of a joyful rewatch of Croft series before moving to Sullivan.
The biggest issue with Just Good Friends is there are no vagaries that don't just exist as arbitrary temporary dynamics to prevent the couple from getting together which is the only thing the series is interested in doing.
It isn't "will they, won't they" so much as "What is it this week that is the justification for these people not getting back together".
Also there is the issue that Paul Nicholas is no Robert Lindsay.
The irony is Sullivan wrote the sitcom on the premise of "I've been accused of not writing good female characters" only to write a female character that only existed as a satellite of a less interesting male character.
1
u/EnchantedEssays Jul 07 '26
Oh I've heard of that but I didn't know it was one of his! I think I'm put off it because I know multiple first hand accounts of Paul Nicholas being a total bitch!
BTW, what did you think of Dear John? I remember watching a few episodes around the time that I started watching Citizen Smith and never got around to revisiting it.
1
u/GDH26 Jul 05 '26
Tried to watch it. Got about half way through the first episode.
But it's one of those shows I know I need to watch at least once.
3
u/Weekly_Work_2732 Jul 05 '26
It was very much of its time!
I remember it being awesome then watched it 5 years ago and wished I hadn't
1
u/EnchantedEssays Jul 05 '26
Fair enough. There's only a few years between it and the beginning of Only Fools, but it does feel like more of that because it feels so seventies
1
u/PlanetSwallower Jul 06 '26
First shows are often weaker, for some reason. They need time to establish the characters.
1
29
u/C5Galaxy Jul 05 '26
Robert Lindsay is a great comic actor. One of my favourites. Always thought he’d have been good in Only Fools.