Rising Damp TV Series Wikia

Rising Damp is a British sitcom produced by Yorkshire Television for ITV. ITV originally broadcast the programme from 1974 until 1978. It was adapted for television by Eric Chappell from his well-received 1971 stage play The Banana Box (retained as the working title early in the series).

Basic premise
Rising Damp starred Leonard Rossiter, Frances de la Tour, Richard Beckinsale and Don Warrington. Rossiter played Rupert Rigsby (originally Rooksby in the stage play): the miserly, seedy, and ludicrously self-regarding landlord of a run-down Victorian town house who rents out his shabby bedsits to a variety of tenants. Beckinsale played Alan Guy Moore, a long-haired, naive, good-natured and amiable medical student who occupies the top room. Frances de la Tour was Miss Ruth Jones: a fey, whimsical spinster and college administrator who rents another room, with whom Rigsby is in love.

In the pilot episode, a new tenant arrives. Philip Smith (Don Warrington) is a planning student who claims to be the son of an African Chief. As a black man, he brings out the ill-informed fears and knee-jerk suspicions of Rigsby. However, the landlord quickly accepts his new tenant and henceforth regards him with a wary respect... wary because of Philip's intelligence and smooth manners, and especially because Miss Jones finds herself attracted to the handsome sophisticate.

Setting
The setting is a rundown Victorian townhouse let out as bedsits in Yorkshire. The exact setting is not explicitly stated although it is implied to be Leeds; through references to Leeds United, Yorkshire Rider, the M62 and the Corn Exchange.

Featured Article
Rigsby

The landlord of the house, Rupert Rigsby (Leonard Rossiter) is dour, interfering and tight fisted.