Another article about Tooting was published in the same edition in the Sunday times. 

Statue Protest? No, It’s a Citizen’s arrest

The police weren’t always so relaxed about attacks on statues, the actor Robert Lindsay, who played the Tooting revolutionary ”Wolfie” Smith in the 1970’s sitcom Citizen Smith, recalls one episode in which he had to climb up the statue of Edward Vll and decorate it with it with Che Guevara-style beret. “For the scene, the film crew were on the roof of a shop, out of site,” Lindsay remembers. “Two passing coppers came over and dragged me down.” And thus, ended the revolution.
 
The reason I have posted this on this forum for two reasons: -
 
Firstly, The comedy was based in Tooting, and “Wolfie,” was always seen wearing his black and white scarf. Unfortunately, Citizen Smith was a Fulham supporter!
 
Secondly As all you locals know, the statue stands close to Tooting Broadway tube station. In the 1950’s a slight, balding and non-descript middle age guy, always dressed in a jacket and tie, would stand next to the statue, playing his violin. Basically, he was a busker, and would stand in the rush hour and at other times, playing with his flat cap placed on the ground waiting for donations.
 
During those days I would stand at sandy Lane, near the halfway line, and in the front of the terrace banking opposite the old wooden stand.  Often, I would look at the back of terracing to see how large the crowd would be, and often recognised a familiar face, which I could not place. Then one day it dawned on me, this was the fiddle player from Tooting Broadway.  He certainly knew how to spend his hard-earned cash. He was just one of the many characters around the club during those heady years.