Citizen James

Citizen James
Genre	Comedy
Starring	Sid James Sydney Tafler Alec Bregonzi Bill Kerr
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 (1960-11-24) – 23 November 1962 (1962-11-23)

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 "Bill Kerr, the dim-witted Australian" 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 and Wise writers Sid Green and Dick Hills.

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.

Episodes

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.

Episodes

Episode	Broadcast	Title	Synopsis
Series 1
1	Thursday 24th November 1960	The Race	Out of money, Sid hits on an idea to fix a "waiter's race" by use of a ringer.
2	Thursday 1st December 1960	The Elixir	Sid and Bill try their hand in the snake-oil business, selling "Dr." Sidney James's Magical Elixir.
3	Thursday 8th December 1960	The Raffle	Sid and Bill have to organise a raffle to replace the 'Nosh Bar' Christmas money which went on Sid's gambling debts.
4	Thursday 15th December 1960	The Money	Liz entrusts £300 to Sid to take to the Bank, but Sid and Bill soon find themselves parted from the money by Albert.
5	Thursday 22nd December 1960	The Brand Image	Sid and Bill try their hand at selling cigarettes but need an actor to help launch their new brand.
6	Thursday 29th December 1960	The Rivals	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.
Series 2
1	Monday 2nd October 1961	The Lamp	Sid and Charlie find themselves in a new set of awkward circumstances. It's probably their own fault.
2	Monday 9th October 1961	Crusty Bread	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?
3	Monday 16th October 1961	Episode Three
4	Monday 23rd October 1961	Episode Four
5	Monday 30th October 1961	Episode Five
6	Monday 6th November 1961	Episode Six
7	Monday 13th November 1961	Episode Seven
8	Monday 20th November 1961	Episode Eight
9	Monday 27th November 1961	Episode Nine
10	Monday 4th December 1961	Episode Ten
11	Monday 11th December 1961	Teenagers	Sid and Charlie go rushing across the country to stop a young couple on their way to Gretna Green.
12	Monday 18th December 1961	Episode Twelve
13	Sunday 25th December 1960	Episode Thirteen
Series 3
1	Friday 31 August 1962	The Hospital (missing)
2	Friday 7 September 1962	The Play's The Thing (missing)
3	Friday 14 September 1962	The Tennis Ball (missing)
4	Friday 21 September 1962	It's Not Cricket (missing)
5	Friday 28 September 1962	The Reporter (missing)
6	Friday 5 October 1962	The Day Out	Sid and Charlie head to Whitsea for the day for a bit of sea air, but are soon caught out on a very busy beach.
7	Friday 12 October 1962	The Transistor (missing)
8	Friday 19 October 1962	The Old People's Outing (missing)
9	Friday 26 October 1962	A Perfect Friendship? (missing)
10	Friday 2 November 1962	The Watchdog	Finding a burglar in their house the boys take security for the street into their own hands, so Sid buys a dog.
11	Friday 9 November 1962	The Librarian (missing)
12	Friday 16 November 1962	The Tube Station (missing)
13	Friday 23 November 1962	The Jury	The boys are on jury duty, Sid is hoping for major case, but gets a drink-driving case. However that doesn't stop him investigating.

DVD

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.

External links

• Citizen James at BBC Online
• Citizen James at the BBC Online Comedy Guide
• Citizen James at British Comedy Guide
• Citizen James at IMDb
• Citizen James at British TV Resources