Rising Damp Series 1

"It starred Leonard Rossiter, Frances de la Tour, Richard Beckinsale and Don Warrington. Rossiter played Rupert Rigsby (originally Rooksby in the stage play), a miserly, seedy landlord of a run-down town house who rented rooms out. Beckinsale played Alan George Moore, a long-haired, naive medical student who occupied the top room; and de la Tour was Miss Ruth Jones, a fey, whimsical spinster who rented another room and with whom Rigsby was in love and in the last episode proposed to.



In the pilot episode, a new tenant moved in. He was Philip Smith, played by Warrington, who claimed to be the son of an African chief. As a black man, he brought out the fears and suspicions of the bigoted Rigsby. The landlord soon accepted his new tenant and was later wary of him because Miss Jones was attracted to him. Of these four principal actors, only Beckinsale was a new recruit - the others had all played their roles in the stage play.



Other tenants occasionally lived at the house but never became permanent residents; often they would appear in just one episode. The series is in the British comedy tradition of having failure as a key underlying theme, each of the characters having lives of quiet desperation.



The series was the highest-ranking ITV sitcom on the 100 Best Sitcoms poll run in 2004 by the BBC, and Rigsby is considered one of British comedy's great characters.



Frances de la Tour temporarily left the series in 1975 due to theatre commitments, and was 'replaced' by occasional other tenants. She returned for the final two series. A feature film was made in 1980, consisting of a messy plot which recycled scripts from the series and a certain amount of viewer (and actor) discomfort because Beckinsale's early death the year before had left a sizeable gap. His place, though not his actual character, was taken by actor Christopher Strauli. The film's theme song is not especially memorable, but does feature lyrics by Chappell. Released as a 7" single, it featured dialogue between Rigsby and Miss Jones on the B-side.



In the movie, Philip is revealed not to be a chief's son after all, and to be from Croydon rather than Africa, adopting his false persona in order to start a new life and gain some respect. When Rigsby finds out, he refuses to believe Philip doesn't come from Africa and continues to pretend he does.



As of 2007 the series is still frequently repeated on UK terrestrial and satellite channels (though sometimes with noticeable cuts[citation needed], possibly due to some of the material being perceived as racist) and the complete series has been released on Region 2 DVD. The most recent DVD release also includes the film version, since Carlton had acquired the rights to the film, and through the mergers of the various ITV companies Granada Television subsequently acquired the rights to both the Carlton and Yorkshire Television archives.



Unfortunately for fans, many of the TV episodes only exist in the form of copies with grainy pictures and badly distorted sound, the original master tapes apparently having been wiped. Labour MP Tom Pendry also won a libel action against the programme when it portrayed a Labour candidate with the same surname in an unflattering light; his name is crudely edited out of the broadcast version when it is repeated." --- Wikipedia