Robert Lindsay fires warning shot at brewers

Sitcom actor Robert Lindsay has fired a legal warning shot at a micro-brewery – demanding they stop using an image of him as Citizen Smith on its beer.

By The Horns Brewery created the the Wolfie Smith amber ale last year, in honour of the most famous fictional son of Tooting, where the company is based.

Its bottle features a stylised image of Lindsay in character as the suburban Marxist – the role created by Only Fools writer John Sullivan that shot him to fame in the late Seventies.

But the actor, who went on to star My Family, has issued a formal ‘cease and desist’ notice to the brewery, ordering it to stop using the picture or face legal action.

His representatives told the company that Lindsay did not want to be linked with an alcoholic beverage. The actor has previously said that he used to be a heavy drinker, but he fell short of being an alcoholic

Brewer Alex Bull, 28, told the London Evening Standard they would have to change the label as they did not want to face court case, but said: ‘We want to keep the name.’

‘It’s a big shame but we are going to have to get rid of Wolfie Smith’s well-known face, he added.

The bottles are currently shown on the company’s website with a red star over the character’s face.

In complete contrast, comic writer Danny Wallace has created is own beer to promote his new book Who is Tom Ditto?

Tom Ditto IPA has been launched by Truman’s Brewery and Nicholson’s Pubs, which will also promote the book on bearmats. Meanwhile Wallace will do book signings in some of their bars in May.

He said: ‘I have done my best to brew the greatest beer of all time, which I fully intend to enter into the Booker Prize next year.

‘It’s sweet, it’s bitter, it’s golden and like the book its heart is in London and New York. It even features a new experimental hop that they’ve just decided to name Wallex. I feel like David Attenborough discovering a bug.’

Published: 18 Feb 2014