Sidney James is one of my favourite
actors of all-time. I’m not going to say I’ve seen everything he has done but I
have seen quite a bit especially when it comes to comedy. Although I didn’t
know who he was, I suppose the first time I ever seen Sid James was in the 1957
Quatermass 2 from Hammer as Jimmy
Hall. Of course what really got my attention was his appearance in both the
radio and television versions of Hancock’s Half Hour. I have said this before,
if you have a chance to check out this series and you like to laugh, seek it
out. Both the TV and radio versions are equally funny though I do think the
radio series may have a bit of the edge because of a fuller regular cast and
with radio, you can go literally anywhere.
Sid James enjoyed a great deal fame
from his role in Hancock’s Half Hour.
Tony Hancock must have thought so too because Tony decided to not have Sid in Hancock’s Half Hour anymore and in 1960
ended their professional relationship. Tony was fearing that the two were
considered a double act whereas Hancock thought of himself as the sole star. Hancock’s Half Hour was written by two
incredibly funny men who have made a big impression on British television. Ray
Galton and Alan Simpson. They would later go on to write another mildly
successful series called Steptoe and Son. When I mean mildly, I
actually mean a massive smash hit. Steptoe
and Son is one of the greatest British television series ever. It’s a shame
that more of it is not available in the US.
So after Hancock’s Half Hour we now have some incredible talent looking to
do something different out of necessity. Sid James was looking for something
else to be in but Galton & Simpson wanted to write something for Sid
because they knew he could carry a series on his own. With such a pedigree of
talent, whatever they did next should be pretty amazing but is it?
The
Race TX: 24/11/60
The series Citizen James is familiar right away since Sid is basically playing
the same character as he did in Hancock’s
Half Hour…..well sort of playing the same character. The character’s name
in Hancock’s Half Hour was Sid
Balmoral James and in Citizen James
his name is Sid Balmoral James which is not to be confused with his real name
Sid James. His real middle name is not Balmoral. So is this the same Sid James
that exists in the Hancock’s Half Hour
universe? Do I need to start writing Hancock’s
Half Hour/Citizen James fanfic?
Sid is playing a character that is
similar to his Hancock’s Half Hour
counterpart. He’s a sort of conman, maybe bends a few rules to try and make
some extra money. In Hancock’s Half Hour,
Sid was basically known as a crook. Here he is less that and more down on his
luck. He doesn’t have any money and often needs money from his fiancé Liz
Frazer played by….Liz Frazer. Are you catching on to how the characters are
named in this series? Just like another character, Bill Kerr played by, you
guessed it, Bill Kerr. Bill was not in the TV version of Hancock’s Half Hour but was a regular in the radio series. You may
also recognize him from the Doctor Who
adventure The Enemy of the World
playing Giles Kent.
Sid is a down on his luck sort of
guy who never has enough money. In fact he often leans on his fiancé Liz for
money. Even to buy the lunch that he is supposed to be treating her with that
day. Probably the same very much in real life, it is hard not to love Sid. He
has such a great charming personality that is consistent in all the roles he
played. Perhaps that is a form of typecasting? But it probably isn’t because
his laugh and personality s so infectious which is probably why Liz stays with
Sid in the series.
The episode starts off with Sid
speaking to the camera (or us) breaking the fourth wall to give us a little bit
of background to what is going on in his life and what this series is about.
Now, I have yet to see all the episodes on this set. Episode Two The Elixir does not start out with Sid
speaking to “us” and that is fine by me. I don’t mind series that have the main
character talk to us. Sometimes that’s the fun in such ways as Renee in ‘Allo! ‘Allo!, Lovejoy or Francis Urquhart
in The House of Cards. Sid talking to the camera somehow doesn’t feel right to
me. So, I’m glad to see it not continue.
At the café Sid, Liz, and Bill
frequent there is word of a Waiter’s race. Waiters from other restaurants and
cafes in the area have their waiters race against each other. The Café that Sid
is in, there is no waiters. The owner basically does everything himself so he
doesn’t have anyone take part. Sid has a stroke of luck. A man walks into the
café who had been a runner. This guy could be a ringer for Sid in this race but
the only problem is that the man is basically an alcoholic. Sid needs to sober
him up and keep him sober so he can win in the race.
Sid stands to win over £4K because
his plan not only includes having this “waiter” work at the café, he will work
there for a week prior pretending he has some kind of walking impediment and
then the day of the race, he would run and beat everybody! Sid stands to make a
killing! The problem is, can he keep guy away from the drink?
The day of the race, Sid has a bet
on the waiter at a hundred to one. The race starts but there is something that
Sid completely forgets about and that is all the waiter’s in the race have to
carry a tray with a bottle of wine on it. The guy Sid has racing is so thirsty
for alcohol, he can’t even wait for the race to be over with before he opens it
up to drink. Needless to say, Sid loses the race.
This episode has all the elements
for success. Obviously that cast is stellar; we have seen them in good things
before and after Citizen James. It
is written by Galton & Simpson who had shown us previously what they could
do with a certain Comedian living in East Cheam at 23 Railway Road Cuttings. It
is produced by Duncan Wood who is known for producing quality stuff like Hancock’s Half Hour and Steptoe and Son. Then, why is this production
so flat? It’s not like the team is doing something outside the boundaries of
these characters. Apart from Liz Frazer, Sid and Bill are playing characters
they have played before. To start with, the script really isn’t that funny. It
raises a smile a little bit but generally isn’t funny or inventive. It feels
like it was an off night for the performers. There are pauses between lines
that make me wonder whether they thought there would be more laughs and were simply
waiting for them?
On a technical note, I am pretty
certain that this series went out live and was telerecorded at the time of
broadcast. Its 1960 so it’s pretty early for video tape. This episode suffers
from what Quatermass II suffered from prior to the
Restoration team getting their hands on it which is about a quarter or less
second of black between each camera switch. Meaning if there is multiple camera
shots in a scene, there is a little bit of back between each shot. It really
annoyed me with the Quatermass II
copies I had prior to the release of the DVD but I didn’t mind it so much here.
I am just happy to see the episode plus there is no such thing as an Acorn
Restoration Team. To take out the black between shots is pretty costly for
something they are probably not going to make much money on anyway.
Even though this episode was flat
to me, I have found from past experience that
usually when I look at two episodes of a series back to back, the second one is
better…..
The
Elixir TX: 01/12/60
This is a better episode. Something
like this would keep me watching more hoping that it will get better with each
episode. This episode features a special elixir that Bill Kerr is making that
should be able to cure what ails you. This supposedly is a recipe that Bill got
from the Aborigines of Australia. Of course the recipe is dodgy at best. The
point of making up a batch of this stuff is so they can bottle it up and sell
it down at the market. This clearly isn’t the first time they had done this
because they have a bit of a clientele.
Down at market, Sid is wearing a
bit of an outlandish sort of doctor costume, just what you would see from a
travelling “doctor” trying to sell his goods to the unsuspecting public. Just
as they may start to make some sales, a policeman comes in to arrest both Sid
and Bill then takes them both down to the station. At the police station, we
see one of the constables to be none other than Bob Todd. Feel free to laugh at
me as I point you to the direction of an article I wrote where I mistook Bob
Todd for Sir Alec Guinness. You can read that right here.
Apparently, the police have been
waiting a while to be able to ring charges up against Sid. This time they might
have him. As they read the charges, Sid has an excuse for each charge. Even the
charge of falsely calling himself a doctor! Except, on the label to the bottle
of the elixir it calls him Dr. Sid! Yet, he eben refutes that saying the D and
R are abbreviations to his name and he points out you can barely see a period
between the D and R on the label!
Sid and Bill are about to be let
out on expensive bail when Liz comes in. I was starting to wonder if Liz was in
the episode at all since we are almost halfway through it and there had been no
sign of her. I know it is comedy and it is from another time but I don’t really
like how Liz is treated in the episode. Don’t get me wrong, Sid is not like
Ralph Cramden who threatened his wife with physical violence on an hourly basis.
Sid is Sid which means he is totally harmless. Sid is not only dependent on Liz
but he uses here too. That just rubs me the wrong way. I know it can be argued
that this is what makes the comedy but I don’t like it. If you add up the
facts, Liz had been waiting 7 years to marry Sid who always finds a way out of
it. She is the only one out of the two of them that has regular employment. She
pays for everything and now is bailing him out of jail?
Just as they all are about to leave
the police station, they get a call from a doctor at a hospital. There is an
elderly woman there who refuses proper medical treatment but insists on having
some of Sid’s miracle elixir. They get Sid down there and we find the old woman
eagerly ready for the elixir. She is played by none other than Patricia Hayes.
She had a long and wonderful career being funny in so many things I have seen
her in. Previous to this role, we would see her on a regular basis on Hancock’s Half Hour as Hancock’s house
keeper Mrs. Cravatte. There was one thing she was in that wasn’t funny at all
but no fault from her. It is this.
Unfortunately even though Sid
helped out with his elixir, he still had to pay the price. Instead of going to
jail for a few days for his crime, he and Bill were forced to drink all of
their stock of this elixir. After one sip, it was so bad Sid runs back to the
court room to demand to be sent to jail. Hilarity!
Although still not to the level of
comedy I would expect from everyone involved, it was miles ahead of The Race. There are some good moments in
the episode such as Bill Kerr finishing making the elixir by kneeling down to
scare away the evil spirits. Bill thought this would only take a couple of
days. I thought it was funny when someone at the market asked if they could get
the elixir on national health.
Watching these episodes, Sid’s
character in this is kind of an early version of Del Boy from Only Fools and Horses. He sells dodgy goods at the market. In The Race, they reference selling women khaki underwear and here
they try to sell the elixir. This role really is suited for Sid yet he comes
across as really selfish. Don’t get me wrong Del Boy is really selfish too but
he also took on a lot of responsibility such as raising his little (taller)
brother Rodney. I know those are for selfish reasons too but Del does have a
heart. In the first two episodes I saw of Citizen
James, I don’t have that connection with Sid. Maybe that just isn’t his
character. Hopefully the other episodes are better.
In the DVD set of this series,
there is some text passages from Galton & Simpson regarding this series. They
comment how Sid didn’t want to be the “top banana” in a series because of all
the responsibility it brings. This was during his days on Hancock’s Half Hour. After getting booted from that show, Galton
& Simpson as well as the BBC wanted to make this series for him as a thank
you for all he put up with but also because they saw talent.
Perhaps it’s ironic that Hancock
kicked out Sid because he felt that he was rivalling his success but in doing
so, he set Sid free. Tony Hancock’s career sustained for a while but he started
to badly go downhill where he ultimately committed suicide in 1968 from an
overdose. After Citizen James, Sid
was a “top banana” appearing on stage, starring in many television series and
of course was in many of the Carry On
films. Sid certainly took those lemons and made some mighty good lemonade.
Next week: Not British television but British film and damn good
British film. I am going to look at the film A Hard Day’s Night starring The Beatles! In the article, I will
make a startling admission!
Have a great week!
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