Rising Damp was and still is pure class, no matter how many re-runs they give it. As a schoolkid in the 70s, I had a neighbour who looked like Rigsby, although he was much cleaner and had a nicer house. As you can guess, that was the nickname we gave him.
At 19, I moved into a bedsit, and you would have expected Rigsby to come walking in at any minute.
Have always loved Rising Damp...Leonard Rossiter as Rigsby was just genius, and captured the character perfectly, the roll of his eyes or that sly smile,a very comic/tragic sitcom in tone I thought, but so funny,and the way he creeped around Ms Jones, another brilliant character, so too Richard Beckinsale and 'Philip', they all gelled together so well, could imagine it being a real shared house.
Quote: Aaron @ January 13 2011, 2:13 PM GMT
You truly are a curio amongst men!
What is your favourite spin off film then Aaron?
I'm not sure, but Rising Damp certainly would not be 'up there'.
Was it Eric Chappel's intent, from the very start, to have Phillip as an Englishman posing as an African prince? Or did he only decide this once the TV series had ended?
Ah! There was me thinking they'd ruined the universe of the TV series with the film.
Think Rising Damp along with George and Mildred, were the final sitcoms to be filmed, unless you count the feature length Last Of The Summer Wine episodes in the 1980s.
League of Gentlemen? And soon we'll have The Inbetweeners.
Quote: peter gazzard @ January 13 2011, 10:56 PM GMTThink Rising Damp along with George and Mildred, were the final sitcoms to be filmed, unless you count the feature length Last Of The Summer Wine episodes in the 1980s.
Which you shouldn't, because they weren't films.
The Mr Bean films are more recent, but then they're not quite sitcom in the same way.
Quote: Aaron @ January 14 2011, 12:15 AM GMTWhich you shouldn't, because they weren't films.
The Mr Bean films are more recent, but then they're not quite sitcom in the same way.
Well they were TV films but not released at cinemas
Quote: Aaron @ January 14 2011, 12:15 AM GMTWhich you shouldn't, because they weren't films.
Well, they were in a sense. Depends on your criteria. Since they were made entirely on film, and completely differently from usual, I'd say they *were* films 
.
And jolly good they were too in the main, arguably with a much higher quality rate than the ones released in cinemas in the 1970s.
This sub-genre includes 3 Last of the Summer Wines (in 1983, '85 and '87), 1 Just Good Friends (in 1984), at least a couple of Only Fools ("To Hull and Back" and "Miami Twice" Part 2) and One Foot in the Algarve.
For me, they come under the banner of "feature-length special". A film is a cinema-released production, not just an extra-long, special episode, in my book.
Still one of my favourite sitcoms. Only Blackadder and Fawlty Towers come higher for me.
Leonard Rossiter was just a great sitcom actor, and having Richard Beckinsale in the cast as well was icing on the cake. Though the cast all round was brilliant.
My favourite episode is probably the one where Rigsby and Miss Jones meet for a 'blind date', and it gets confusing when a wedding party turn up.
The Rising Damp episode I loved best of all was the one with the young couple renting one of Rigsby's rooms. When the girl's father turns up, and mistakes Rigsby as the boyfriend, and starts rucking him, only to be pulled away by Phillip, and then by the others when he's about to bash Phillip.
It's difficult to decide between this and the one where an angry father confronts Alan with a love letter, and Rigsby chucks him out. Also the episode where Rigsby is left out of a "cocktail party" Alan is holding in the attic flat to impress a posh girlfriend and her mother. Rigsby gatecrashes, and you can guess the rest!
I'd say the episode with Henry McGee as the conman Seymour is my favourite episode, prefer it to the Fawlty episode 'A Touch Of Class' also broadcast originally in 1975.
