Citizen James: Story, Cast and Series Facts

Story and premise

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.

The first series was set around 'Charlie's Nosh Bar', a cafe in Soho, and centred on Sid'sget-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.

Series details

• Title: Citizen James
• Format: Scripted
• Language: English
• Genres: Comedy
• Premiere date: 1960-11-24
• Final broadcast date listed: 1962-11-23
• Status in TVmaze: Ended
• Network listed by TVmaze: BBC One
• Network country: United Kingdom
• Typical episode runtime: 30 minutes
• TVMaze ID: 11261
• TVDB ID: 74235

Cast and credited roles

• Sid James — Sidney Balmoral James
• Sydney Tafler — Charlie Davenport

Seasons in the TVmaze catalogue

• Season 1: premiered 1960-11-24; final listed air date 1960-12-29; episode order: 6.
• Season 2: premiered 1961-10-02; final listed air date 1961-12-25; episode order: 13.
• Season 3: premiered 1962-08-31; final listed air date 1962-11-23; episode order: 13.

Source and licence

Adapted from Citizen James on TVmaze. The synopsis is reproduced as plain text; catalogue facts, cast and season records are selected and reformatted. This adapted text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, following the TVmaze API licence. Network and web-channel credits identify the service listed in this source; they do not establish current streaming availability.