Cheryl Hall, actress who played Shirley to her husband Robert Lindsay’s Wolfie in Citizen Smith Telegraph ObituariesSun, August 16, 2026 at 5:05 AM UTC 0 Cheryl Hall in 1973: she was one of Britain’s busiest young screen actresses in the 1970s ITV/Shutterstock Cheryl Hall, the actress, who has died aged 76, starred opposite her husband Robert Lindsay in the hit 1970s BBC sitcom Citizen Smith; but although she remained forever associated in the public mind with the Tooting Popular Front, in reality she went on to be leader of the Labour faction of Kent County Council and a Labour candidate in t...
Cheryl Hall, actress who played Shirley to her husband Robert Lindsay’s Wolfie in Citizen Smith
Telegraph ObituariesSun, August 16, 2026 at 5:05 AM UTC
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Cheryl Hall in 1973: she was one of Britain’s busiest young screen actresses in the 1970s - ITV/Shutterstock
Cheryl Hall, the actress, who has died aged 76, starred opposite her husband Robert Lindsay in the hit 1970s BBC sitcom Citizen Smith; but although she remained forever associated in the public mind with the Tooting Popular Front, in reality she went on to be leader of the Labour faction of Kent County Council and a Labour candidate in the 1997 general election.
Blonde and expressive with something of the look of a naughty cherub, Cheryl Hall was one of Britain’s busiest young screen actresses in the 1970s, with a particular flair for comedy.
She had a starring role in Terence Frisby’s ITV sitcom Lucky Feller (1976), as a woman repeatedly thwarted in her desperate attempts to consummate her relationship with her hapless fiancé (David Jason) in order to cover up the fact that she might be pregnant by his brother (Peter Armitage).
Following supporting parts in the comedy movies The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins (1971), Rentadick (1972) and No Sex Please, We’re British (1973), she had a leading role in Martin Campbell’s film Three for All (1975), as one of a trio of untrusting women pursuing their boyfriends – members of a pop group called Billy Beethoven – as they tour Spain. At Cheryl Hall’s instigation, Campbell auditioned Robert Lindsay, her boyfriend at the time, and he was cast as the drummer.
Cheryl Hall as Kath with David Jason as Shorty in Lucky Feller, 1976 - ITV/Shutterstock
Although Three for All boasted Diana Dors and Showaddywaddy among the supporting cast, it was tepidly received and did not launch Cheryl Hall on an enduring movie career. But, as she recalled, the picture marked a turning point in her life: “Bob [Lindsay] asked me to marry him twice while we were filming and the third time I accepted because I thought it would be a good excuse for a party. I lived to regret it.”
They were married in 1974, notwithstanding the groom’s father telling him he was “making the biggest mistake of your life” as they entered the church. They went on to act together again in John Sullivan’s Citizen Smith (1977-80): Lindsay played the loud-mouthed would-be revolutionary “Wolfie” Smith, the self-styled leader of the Tooting Popular Front whose rallying cry “Power to the People!” became a national catchphrase, and Cheryl Hall was Shirley, his sceptical, long-suffering girlfriend.
Working together did little to halt the deterioration of their marriage, however. “It was a nightmare,” Lindsay wrote in his autobiography. “It led to all sorts of dramas being played out on the set in front of the cast and crew. It was excruciating.”
Cheryl Hall left the programme halfway through its four-year run to travel alone around Sri Lanka. She and Lindsay were reconciled on her return in the hope of starting a family, but she went back on the pill when she was offered an 18-month stint with the Royal Shakespeare Company. She “wasn’t devastated” when Lindsay left her for the actress Diana Weston in 1980.
In her view the legacy of Citizen Smith was to have sown the seeds of her later political career: “There were lots of references to Karl Marx and I began reading all his works.”
The cast of Citizen Smith in 1977: l-r, Peter Vaughan as Mr Johnson, Tony Millan as Tucker, Cheryl Hall as Shirley Johnson, Robert Lindsay as Wolfie, Mike Grady as Ken and Hilda Braid as Mrs Johnson - Allstar Picture Library Limited/Alamy
Cheryl Georgette Hall was born on July 23 1950 and brought up in Bethnal Green, east London. Her father, George Hall, was a cabinet maker, and her mother Lilian, née Cole, was a civil servant.After Coborn School, Cheryl attended the Corona Academy of Stage Training. She first came to prominence as an actress at 21 when she gave what The Times judged “a peach of a performance” in Barry Reckord’s play of comprehensive school life, Skyvers (Royal Court and Roundhouse, 1971). In the same year she caught the eye as a clippie in an episode of On the Buses.
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In the 1970s she appeared in popular television series including The Fenn Street Gang, Callan, Sykes, Z Cars, Bless This House, The Sweeney, Crown Court and Dixon of Dock Green. Although her audition for the role of the Doctor Who companion Jo Grant was unsuccessful, she was compensated with a decent role as Shirna, the bespangled assistant of the cosmic carnival showman Vorg (Leslie Dwyer) in one of the best serials to feature Jon Pertwee’s Doctor, “Carnival of Monsters” (1973).
With Martin Shaw in the 1972 series The Villains - ITV/Shutterstock
Before she met Robert Lindsay, in the early 1970s Cheryl Hall was the live-in girlfriend of Robin Askwith, the cut-price Don Juan of the saucy Confessions movies. After three years together, Askwith recalled in his memoirs, he confessed that he had developed a passion for one of his co-stars, Sally Geeson: “Cheryl, rather than talking it through in a meaningful way, decided to go for the marble clock pushed into my face option, which left me with a black eye and several stitches. The clock was undamaged and still keeps excellent time.”
After divorcing Robert Lindsay, Cheryl Hall married Bob Potter, a record producer, in 1985; they had two sons. The marriage ended in 1989 after she had been treated for uterine cancer: “He was wonderful throughout the time I had cancer, but I think it took its toll,” she told The Daily Mail in 1997.
Cheryl Hall, second left, filming No Sex Please, We’re British (1973) with Valerie Leon, Ronnie Corbett, Susan Penhaligon and Beryl Reid - Ronald Fortune/ANL/Shutterstock
After finishing treatment, she was cast as one of Dirty Den’s mistresses in EastEnders: “The last thing I wanted to be doing so soon after having cancer was to be jumping into bed with Leslie Grantham, but I think it helped take my mind off what I had been through.” She also had a regular role in the 1980s in The Bill, as Sadie, the favourite barmaid and confidante of DS Ted Roach (Tony Scannell).
Later on she appeared in Poirot, As Time Goes By, Inspector Morse, Casualty and Silent Witness, but much of her later life was devoted to local politics. In the Kent County Council elections of 1993, she became the first Labour candidate to win Ramsgate South, with a majority of 700. Her victory, she admitted, owed much to the recognition factor, with the BBC having happened to repeat Citizen Smith shortly beforehand.
In Ramsgate during the 1997 general election campaign - Clive Limpkin/Daily Mail/Shutterstock
She threw herself into her council work, writing a forthright regular column for Kent Today and eventually becoming Labour leader. “Some of the older Tory council members are a bit sniffy about me but I think that’s got as much to do with the fact that I’m a woman as an actress,” she noted.
In the 1997 general election she stood as the Labour candidate for Canterbury, claiming that she was more representative of the average voter than most politicians: “I know what it’s like not to have a meal because there is a gas bill to pay.” However, she lost to the incumbent Conservative, Julian Brazier. She lost her council seat in 2001.
Cheryl Hall is survived by her two sons.
Cheryl Hall, born July 23 1950, died August 9 2026
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Published: August 16, 2026 at 09:36AM on Source: RED MAG
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