Bemuddlement: The Henry McGee Connecton - Television - Rising Damp "The Perfect Gentleman" Rigsby (L, Leonard Rossiter), Seymour (C, Henry McGee) and Philip (R, Don Warrington), in the Rising Damp episode "The Perfect Gentleman" In a plot that bears a resemblance to the "Fawlty Towers" episode "A Touch of Class", Henry plays "Seymour" an apparently sophisticated, wealthy and business astute member of high society, who decides to lodge in Rupert Rigsby's (Leonard Rossiter) lodgings. Rigsby is completely in awe of his new tenant, allowing him many liberties that he would let his more permanent lodgers to get away with. Rigsby even ends up cleaning Seymour's shoes Alan Moore (Richard Beckinsale) and Philip Smith (Don Warrington) are immediately suspicious of Seymour and when Philip's wallet goes missing they suspect Seymour. On confronting Seymour, they search him and find nothing, not surprising since he has planted the wallet on Alan, which they discover when they all search each other. Rigsby's purse then goes missing.

Of course Alan is suspect, but Philip proves his friends innocence when he catches Seymour in the act of stealing Rigsby's money belt. The Museum of Broadcast Communications - Encyclopedia of Television - Rising Damp RISING DAMP British Situation Comedy Rising Damp, the classic Yorkshire Television situation comedy series set in a run-down northern boarding house, was originally screened on ITV between 1974 and 1978 and has continued to be revived on British television at regular intervals ever since, always attracting large audiences (many of whom were no doubt lodgers at one time or another in similarly seedy houses). Created by writer Ernie Chappell, the series depicted the comic misadventures and machinations of Rupert Rigsby, the embittered down-at-heel landlord who constantly spied on the usually very innocent private lives of an assortment of long-suffering tenants. The success of Rising Damp depended largely upon the considerable comic talent of its star, Leonard Rossiter, who played the snooping and sneering Rigsby. Rossiter had first demonstrated his impeccable coming timing in the same role (though under the name Rooksby) in the one-off stage play Banana Box, from which the television series was derived.

Rossiter rapidly stamped his mark upon the money-grubbing, lecherous, manneristic landlord, making him at once repulsive, vulnerable, paranoid, irrepressible, ignorant, cunning, and above all hilarious. Sharing his inmost fears and suspicions with his cat Vienna, he skulked about the ill-kempt house, bursting in on tenants when he thought (almost always mistakenly) that he would catch them in flagrante and impotently plotting how to seduce university administrator Miss Jones, the frustrated spinster who was the reluctant object of his desire. Rigsby's appalling disrespect for the privacy of his lodgers and his irrepressible inquisitiveness was the moving force behind the storylines, bringing together the various supporting characters who otherwise mostly cut lonely and inadequate, even tragic, figures. The supporting cast was in fact very strong, with Miss Jones played in highly individualistic style by the respected stage actress Frances de la Tour, the confused, naive medical student Alan played by an ingenuous but appealing Richard Beckinsale, and Philip, the proud but smug son of an African tribal chief, played by Don Warrington. Only Beckinsale had not appeared in the original stage play.

Other lodgers later in the series were Brenda (Gay Rose) and Spooner (Derek Newark). The frustrations and petty humiliations constantly suffered by the various characters, coupled with their dingy surroundings, could easily have made the series a melancholy affair, but the deft humour of the scripts married to the inventiveness and expertise of the performers kept the tone light, if somewhat hysterical at times, and enabled the writers to explore Rigsby's various prejudices (concerning sex, race, students, and anything unfamiliar) without causing offence. In this respect, the series was reminiscent of the techniques employed in Steptoe and Son and by Johnny Speight and Warren Mitchell in the "Alf Garnett" series, though here there was less emphasis on invective and more on deliberately farcical comedy. One occasion on which the series did come unstuck was when fun was had at the expense of an apparently fictional election candidate named Pendry, who was described as crooked and homosexual--unfortunately there was a real Labour member of parliament of the same name and Yorkshire Television was obliged to pay substantial damages for defamation as a result.

The success of the television series led to a film version in 1980, but this met with mixed response, lacking the conciseness and sharpness of the television series and also lacking the presence of Beckinsale, who had tragically died of a heart attack at the age of 31 the previous year. Rossiter himself went on to star in the equally popular series The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin before his own premature death from heart failure in 1984. -David Pickering LeonardRossiter.com: Rigsby Online - Story of Rising Damp - The TV Series See Main Biographies page for appearances and biographies. Rupert Rigsby played by Leonard Rossiter Landlord of the boarding house. Extremely prejudiced, especially toward students and blacks (examples of both of which reside in his home). Married (Veronica, during wartime, and on pain of death by her father's shotgun), but now separated. Has a shoplifting brother, Ron, in Accrington. Wears one set of clothes: holey green cardigan, minus most buttons, shiny grey trousers, worn red slippers (but still has his demob suit, minus its pockets' linings).

Participation in World War II sketchy at best. Has tendency to embellish war stories. Dislikes children (after receiving a singed beard while playing Santa one Christmas). Has barred any romance in the house (probably based on jealousy). Lusts after Ruth Jones, a tenant and spinster. Only companion is Vienna, his flea-bitten cat. Ruth Jones played by Frances de la Tour Tenant of the boarding house. University administrator, responsible for the accommodation of students.Thirty-something spinster with few previous beaus (one being a policeman who always wore his uniform, hence the need to keep swinging their arms to show they weren't handcuffed together). Has brought a womanly touch to the dingy lodgings (eg. blue water in the toilet) and never complains about her room (unlike the other tenants). Continually rebuffs Rigsby's advances. Lusts after black student tenant Philip Smith, but eventually falls in love with and moves out to live with librarian Desmond, but returns after it doesn't work out. Eventually accepts Rigsby's hand in marriage but gets cold feet before the service. Alan Moore played by Richard Beckinsale Tenant of the boarding house. Medical student at the local university.

A kind, gentle sort of chap, with boyish good looks, which have, nevertheless, resulted in a noticeable absence of girlfriends, despite his boasting to the contrary. Still very much under his parents' wings (he goes home at the weekends), he is rather cowardly and gullible, but enjoys playing tricks on Rigsby with his room-mate Philip Smith. Graduates as a doctor and leaves the house. Philip Smith played by Don Warrington Tenant of the boarding house. Town and country planning student at the local university. Alleges he is from Africa and has ten wives. A black, well-spoken, well-dressed gentleman, with tribal makrs and a long history of girlfriends, much to the annoyance of room-mate Alan. Is lusted after by Miss Jones, much to the annoyance of Rigsby. Has no interest in Miss Jones, much to the annoyance of Miss Jones. Is often the butt of Rigsby's racist, bigoted comments. The Series Series One was broadcast from December 13th 1974 to January 17th 1975, and was an immediate success. It was a personal triumph for Leonard Rossiter, his first sitcom role.

Each week, viewers learned more and more about each of the characters. Rigsby would go to even greater lengths to win affection from Miss Jones, while being victim to Alan and Philip's pranks. Rigsby would carry around his overweight, slothful cat Vienna (which Leonard hated off-set. Although a cat-lover, he used to complain that Vienna smelled awful), barging into the boys' room without knocking, trying to catch them 'up to something', which they never were. Mocking Philip, his race and his culture, while trying to be a father-figure to Alan, Rigsby came over as cold, pretentious and chauvinistic, but at the same time vulnerable, a sad, lonely figure of a man who longed for love and happiness in his twilight years. As Eric Chappell says: "Rigsby wanted to be part of their lives, which became irritating for them...

and he was always coming through doors without knocking, saying he had right of access - which really meant access to their lives, not just their rooms." The first series of any sitcom is much concerned with establishing the characters and their lives, and Eric displayed this very well in the scripts, which often drew on the script from The Banana Box. We learn that Rigsby did marry, a battle-axe called Veronica, but he was 'elated' when she left him. He was a soldier in World War Two, and would get out his mementoes or relate one of his yarns at the slightest mention of the war. Leonard once said of Rigsby: "I knew people like this. I've sat in pubs with them." And Don Warrington concurs: "I think he really caught something about the English in Rigsby - a sort of emotional incontinence which one can see in pubs. The one who knows it all and actually knows nothing. He got that brilliantly." The second series ran from November 7th until December 19th 1975, and saw further development of the characters.

In Episode Four (' Moonlight & Roses '), Miss Jones is swept off her feet by a librarian named Desmond (played by Robin Parkinson), and her departure rocks Rigsby's world - until Alan installs artists' nude model Brenda (played by Gay Rose) into the vacant room. A conman (Henry McGee) plays on Rigsby's gullibility to take his money (' The Perfect Gentleman '), and the tenants have the last laugh when he tries to convince them that the house is haunted by a 'grey lady' (' Things That Go Bump In The Night '). Although ending on December 19th, the series appeared to continue for another week when a Boxing Day special was broadcast on December 26th entitled ' For The Man Who Has Everything ', which sees Rigsby spending Christmas alone, opening his own Christmas card, and hoping he will catch someone under the mistletoe. The boys return home early for some yuletide romancing, thinking Rigsby is spending the festive season away.

A delay in the writing of episodes caused conflict with theatre commitments for Frances, resulting in her being written out of the episodes The Perfect Gentleman , The Last Of The Big Spenders , Things That Go Bump In The Night and the Christmas special For The Man Who Has Everything . Rising Damp was absent from British screens for the whole of 1976 (except for repeats). This was due to Leonard's contract with the BBC filming The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin . But Rising Damp returned for a third series on April 12th 1977. Babies (' That's My Boy '), snakes (' Fawcett's Python '), a gay playwright (' Stage Struck ') and a hypochondriac (' Suddenly At Home ') all descend on 'Bleak House' for another seven episodes of brilliantly-written and even more brilliantly-acted sitcom fun. Frances de la Tour returned as Miss Jones, and Peter Bowles, Derek Francis, Ann Beach and Roger Brierley were among the guest stars for Series Three which ran until May 24th. By now, Richard Beckinsale had another successful series under his belt, Porridge, with Ronnie Barker.

And Leonard had created another character of sitcom legend, over on BBC1. For those who had never seen Leonard on stage, the appearance of such disparate characters as Rigsby and Reginald Perrin gave the viewing public the opinion that theatre critics had long- known: that Leonard Rossiter was a fantastically versatile actor, hugely-talented, committing staggering energy and vitality to both performances on both channels. "I have never known such energy and such pace", recalls Eric Chappell. "He could speak quicker than most people, and he could think about three different things at the same time, which was useful! He'd be remembering his lines, watching the set and the actors, and watching where the cameras were. He was really in control." Another year was to pass before Rising Damp's fourth and final series was aired. It featured just six episodes instead of the usual seven, for the simple reason that YTV forgot to commission a seventh! (Eric's scripts for Rising Damp were commissioned individually). The series ran from April 4th to May 9th 1978, and saw some of the funniest episodes of all, and commanding massive audience figures of over 18 million.

Richard Beckinsale had left to pursue theatre commitments and the series' director Ronnie Baxter had left to direct In Loving Memory, so Vernon Lawrence took over the directorship. Nevertheless, the fourth series lost none of its quality: ' Great Expectations ' co-starred Andrew Sachs and Gretchen Franklin in a family inheritance tale that goes sour, but turns out for the best in the end. In 'Pink Carnations', a desperate Rigsby places an ad in a lonely-hearts column, only to have it answered by Miss Jones. And in the final episode, Rigsby finally proposes to Miss Jones, who accepts. Sadly, she stands him up at the church, only to find that Rigsby had gone to the wrong church anyway. And so Rising Damp, one of the greatest sitcoms of all time, came to an end. It had won itself a BAFTA for Best Comedy, rocketed Leonard Rossiter to stardom and the comedy Hall of Fame, and it had served as a springboard for the writer Eric Chappell, who went on to write other classic situation comedies including Singles, The Bounder, Haggard, Home To Roost, Duty Free and Only When I Laugh.

The perfection of the scripts, the massive talents of the actors involved, and the timelessness of the stories and settings ensure Rising Damp is as popular today as it has always been. LeonardRossiter.com: Rigsby Online - Main Cast Biographies Leonard Rossiter ~ Richard Beckinsale ~ Frances de la Tour ~ Don Warrington Leonard Rossiter played boarding house landlord Rooksby in the original play The Banana Box and Rupert Rigsby in all 28 episodes of the TV series and The Movie . Leonard Rossiter was born on October 21st, 1926 in Liverpool. Unable to afford to go to university, he worked in an insurance office until he was 27, when he joined Preston repertory company and made his professional stage debut in The Gay Dog. After Preston, he starred in productions at Wolverhampton, Salisbury and The Old Vic Company at Bristol's Theatre Royal.

In 1962 he made his first big-screen appearance in A Kind of Loving, followed by other films throughout the 1960s, including Billy Liar, King Rat and 2001: A Space Odyssey, and TV appearances such as Z Cars, The Avengers and Steptoe and Son. His portrayal of Adolf Hitler in the 1969 play The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui made him a West End star. His roles as Rigsby in Rising Damp and the title role in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin made him a household name, and his Cinzano commercials with Joan Collins were comic masterpieces. A keen sportsman, he excelled in squash, tennis and football. He was also a connoisseur of fine wines. His busy career came to a tragically premature end on October 5th 1984, just sixteen days short of his 58th birthday. During a performance of Joe Orton's play Loot, Leonard suffered a heart attack in his dressing room. He was married to actress Gillian Raine and had a daughter, Camilla. See Leonard Rossiter.com for a vastly-expanded biography and a complete, illustrated career guide.

Remembering Rising Damp: - "...Very, very rarely - only on about two occasions - have I thought 'Ah, this gives me all the things that I can do really well'. One of them was Rising Damp..." - "I recognised a lot of things Eric [Chappell] wrote, coming from the North - I come from Liverpool. Of being very jealous about the young people of today regarding sex and so on. That's very Rigsby, but I recognise it from when I grew up." - "Of course, the difficulty with comedy series, as I think most people realise, is that the first two are often quite good and then they begin to tail off afterwards. And I reckon that Eric was capable of writing at least six good scripts, so I did the first series without any qualms. The difficulty came afterwards in doing the second series, as to whether Eric could keep up the standard he had set himself, and I asked him before we did them if he would be able to write them, and he said "I didn't know I could write the first six!"." - "I knew people like this [Rigsby].

I've sat in pubs with them." - (On The Movie) "I was approached and was delighted to play Rigsby again. It is the funniest character I have everplayed. Eric Chappell is a marvellous writer. Anyhow, as we will never make another series, generations will be able to enjoy it. It's not the sot of film to date." Notable Credits: Theatre - Semi-Detached (Fred Midway), The Banana Box (Rupert Rigsby), The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (Arturo Ui), The Immortal Haydon (Haydon), The Strange Case of Martin Richter (Martin Richter), The Rules of the Game (Leone Gala). TV - Rising Damp (Rupert Rigsby), The Fall And Rise Of Reginald Perrin (Reginald Iolanthe Perrin), BBC3, I Tell You It's Burt Reynolds (Leonard), The Losers (Sydney Foskett), Z Cars (Det. Insp. Bamber), Tripper's Day (Norman Tripper), Play For Today, Pygmalion Smith (Smithy).

Film - A Kind Of Loving (Whymper), Billy Liar (Mr. Shadrack), This Sporting Life (Phillips), Oliver! (Mr. Sowerberry), King Rat (Col. McCoy), 2001:A Space Odyssey (Andre Smyslov), Water (Sir Malcolm Leveridge), Barry Lyndon (Capt. Quin), Le Petomane (Monsieur Pujol). Frances de la Tour played spinster college administrator Ruth Jones in the London performances of the original play The Banana Box , 24 of the 28 episodes of the TV series and The Movie . A delay in the writing of episodes caused conflict with theatre commitments for Frances, resulting in her being written out of the episodes The Perfect Gentleman , The Last Of The Big Spenders , Things That Go Bump In The Night and the Christmas special For The Man Who Has Everything . Frances de la Tour was born in Bovingdon, Hertfordshire on 30th July 1944.

After graduating from The Drama Centre, she joined the RSC (Royal Shakespeare Company) in 1965, but left after six years, dissatisfied with the "limited casting" she was constantly offered, including 'The Bumpkin' in As You Like It. She was determined to perform in more demanding, challenging roles - she once played the lead role (ie. a male) in Hamlet! By the early 1970s, Frances had appeared in a number of films, such as Every Home Should Have One and Our Miss Fred, but she still concentrated on developing her acting style on stage. On 17th May 1973, Frances took over the role of Ruth Jones in Eric Chappell's play The Banana Box at the Hampstead Theatre Club in London (the role was previously played by Heather Canning, Janet Michael and Rosemary Leach). By the time the play ended its run on 24th July at The Apollo theatre, plans were already afoot to bring the story to television, and Frances was to continue in her role as Miss Jones.

The series bought her fame, but also an unwanted, typecast label of "that woman who played Miss Jones", which annoys her to this day. And with reason, for Frances de la Tour is no "one-hit wonder". She has appeared in a seemingly endless number of plays across the UK and on Broadway, and the number of awards she has won for her roles proves not only that the RSC never saw her true worth, but also that she is now without doubt one of this country's finest theatre actresses. These awards include Olivier Award for Best Actress (for Josie in A Moon For The Misbegotten) and both the Evening Standard Best Actress award and Society of West End Theatres Best Actress award (for Stephanie in Duet For One, a play written for her by former partner Tom Kempinski). She continued her TV and movie roles during this time, including films such as To The Devil A Daughter, The Time Bandits and Rising Damp: The Movie (for which she received the Best Actress award from the Evening Standard), in addition to raising her son Josh and daughter Tamasin.

Her television appearances have included Flickers, two series of the sitcom A Kind Of Living (in which she played opposite Richard Griffiths and Tim Healy as an unemployed mother of an unnamed baby, referred to only as Og), Downwardly Mobile and Dennis Potter's futuristic Cold Lazarus. She was introduced to a new generation of viewers when appearing as Madame Maxime in two Harry Potter films, as well as Aunt Imogene in Tim Burton's retelling of Alice In Wonderland. In 2013 Frances returned to the sitcom genre in ITV's comedy Vicious, opposite Sir Derek Jacobi and Sir Ian McKellern. Remembering Rising Damp: - "...I was brought up a little like her [Miss Jones] - she has middle-class values and these were instilled into me when I was young - but there the similarity ends...I was able to draw upon my own background experience in creating her." - "Leonard was one of the great farce actors of all time. He was nervous, vulnerable, a slave-driver, no more punishable to others than he was to himself in his drive for perfection.

And we all got the giggles on numerous occasions." - "We laughed a lot on set, but comedy is a serious business and Leonard took it particularly seriously, and rightly so." - "Miss Jones was the most underwritten part, and it got better because of Frances. In the end, as I got to know the character and actress better, I was able to feed her the lines she could use so perfectly, especially with the quaint coyness she adopted...I'm very pleased with how she [Miss Jones] turned out, largely because of Frances." - Eric Chappell. - (On The Movie) "...But when the film finishes I won't be sorry. I have enjoyed the part but five years is long enough. The film is like the icing on a good cake. And it's nice to go out with a bang and not a whimper." - "she is one of the most under-rated actresses in Britain. If she was workng in the States she would be in huge demand." - Joe McGrath, direct Rising Damp: The Movie.

Notable Credits: Theatre - Hamlet (The Prince); A Moon For The Misbegotten (Josie); Duet For One (Stephanie); A Midsummer Night's Dream (Helena); Small Craft Warnings (Violet); Antony and Cleopatra (Cleopatra). TV - Rising Damp (Ruth Jones); Flickers (Maud Cole); A Kind of Living (Carol Beazley); Cold Lazarus (Emma Porlock). Film - Rising Damp (Ruth Jones); Strike It Rich (Mrs. deVere); The Cherry Orchard (Charlotte Ivanovna). Links: IMDB - Article & Interview Don Warrington MBE played Town and Country Planning student Philip Smith in all but the Leicester performances of the original play The Banana Box , all 28 episodes of the TV series , and a medical student in The Movie . Don Warrington was born on the Caribbean island of Trinidad on May 23rd 1952. His father was the politician Basil Kydd. He moved with his family to England when he was five years old, and settled in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne.

One of very few black families in the North East at the time, he had the nickname 'The Pele Kid' at school. With a theatrical interest since his childhood, Don left school and started work at Newcastle's Playhouse Theatre, where he worked his way up to ASM (assistant stage manager). Determined to become a full-time actor, he moved to London in 1969 where he trained at The Drama Centre for three years. This helped him land a part in the controversial play Hair, with which he toured Europe in 1972. The following year was to be Don's breakthrough as an actor. As well as roles at Lincoln Rep. including Measure For Measure, Erpingham Camp and A Taste Of Honey, he also landed the part of the black student Philip Smith in Eric Chappell's play The Banana Box. When the play became a TV series, it was Don who again got the part, his first television role, for which he was paid £150 per episode to begin with, an amount he now describes as "a fabulous sum back then". It was to become his most famous.

Many other TV roles were to follow for Don, including three series of the female cops drama C.A.T.S Eyes, To Play The King and The Arabian Nights. The movie version of Rising Damp in 1980 (in which Philip revealed he was from Croydon and not an African chief with ten wives) was Don's first big-screen role, and he has since appeared in other films including Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet, Babymother and Lighthouse. Don Warrington has continued to return to his first love - the theatre, with major parts in Macbeth, Julius Caesar, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Ear, Nose and Throat. He can also be seen in commercials on TV for the coffee company Kenco. He lives in Shepherd's Bush, London with his wife of 20 years. They have two children: Jake and Archie. Don was awarded the MBE in the 2008 Queen's Birthday Honours. He was recently a contestant on BBC celebrity dancing show Strictly Come Dancing . Remembering Rising Damp: - "Len was always very concerned about the fact that comedy is about what happens between people.

It's not about a close-up here or a close-up there - it's the relationship. And that's what we worked at - that if we found the relationship, then it would be funny." - "Whoever came into contact with him [Richard] was immediately put at ease, and that was vital in Rising Damp. And Len really loved Richard, he thought he was wonderful. Whatever mood Len was in, Richard would come in and his mood would change - which was great for everybody." - "The effort that he [Len] put into those shows was phenomenal. At the end of it sometimes the man was absolutely exhausted. The passion that was there was frightening..." - "He [Len] was amazed at how successful Rising Damp was. He'd spent years doing these incredibly difficult parts, and then this part comes along which was as easy as falling off a log for him, and it makes him into a gigantic star." - "...He was learning the trade as he went along, and the pure fact that he came into the show and survived says much for his guts and determination." "One of his strengths was the ability to play an upper-crust, well-bred gentleman, which helped enormously.

Don played a rather aloof man who was world-weary, qualities which we wanted." - Eric Chappell. - (On The Movie) "I shall be sorry to see the end of Philip... I started with the play The Banana Box and have been with it ever since. Philip's comedy was that he was more English than the English and yet black - a difficult part - it could so easily have been caricatured. I have a lot to thank Philip for." - "I have only good memories of Rising Damp although they are, of course, old memories. As it was my first television I had nothing with which to compare the experience. It was a steep learning curve for me." Notable Credits: Theatre - Julius Caesar; Hamlet; Dispatches; Dutchman; Streamers; Alterations; Caesar and Cleopatra; The Passion; Ear, Nose and Throat; Hair; A Taste Of Honey; The Banana Box; Eldorado. TV - Rising Damp; C.A.T.S. Eyes; To Play The King; Doctor Who; Crown Court; Red Dwarf; Fairly Secret Army; The XYY Man; Lovejoy; Backup; Trial and Retribution; Manchild.

Film - Rising Damp; Camping; Hamlet; Babymother; Lighthouse; Black XXX-mas; The Last Giraffe. Rising Damp Rising Damp (price: 65p) The blurb on the back: Remember Rigsby, the meanest landlord on earth? And his unrequited passion for Miss Jones, the faded English rose? She, unfortunately, was hung up on Philip, the dashingly handsome African who shared the boarding house attic with medical student Alan - and a skeleton! Between whiles, Rigsby's tenants included Spooner, an all-in wrestler with very natty tastes in the clothes line, Brenda who removed her clothes and bared her chest to art students, and a con-man called Seymour! All these improbable characters, their antics under the roof of their 'home-sweet-home' and a hilarious lot more is here in RISING DAMP . Having been rude elsewhere about Citizen Smith and Steptoe & Son , let me point out straight away that Rising Damp is still a fantastic bit of comedy writing.

You know the TV show, of course: the great Leonard Rossiter playing Rigsby, one of the finest comic creations of the modern world, a man for whom achieving entry to the lower middle-class was a life well spent, a man who will always believe that nature's NCOs should run society. He lets out rooms in his house to people he either despises, fears or fancies, anxious above all else that they should all be assigned a place on the social ladder so he knows where he stands - very near the bottom rung, as it happens. The only bit that hasn't survived the passage of time is the character of Philip, the Nigerian-born medical student who shares a room with Alan (played by Richard Beckinsale). Unfortunately the show ran from 1974-78 when casual racism was a feature of British TV, and Philip bears the traces of the period. That's badly phrased and needs clarification. It's not that Eric Chappell - the genius who created the series - was casually racist.

Race was certainly a key element in the class-obsessions of the show, but Rigsby's racism was a much more subtle, carefully observed trait than that of Alf Garnett - his key concern was not to appear racist, even when he was being. Rigsby knew where the line was drawn in terms of social acceptance and he was anxious not to overstep it. The problem was actually the direction given to Don Warrington, who played Philip, and brought to the role the full noble, stoic, dignified Sidney Poitier treatment, but still couldn't avoid being an object of action rather than an actor. The fact that this was a TV issue is demonstrated by this novelisation of the series, which shows Philip in a much stronger light. Am I over-agonizing about this, in a white liberal kind of way? If so, it's only because everything else is so perfect. This book is one of the few of its kind that is an absolute joy.

Whether it works if you've never seen the TV series, I don't know (if you haven't seen it, shame on you - buy the videos), but if you can visualize Rossiter then try Rigsby's reflexions on the RAF in the Battle of Britain: 'Most of them were public school, born to it, born leaders. All that rugby and flicking each other with wet towels. Mind you, we didn't let that foppish manner fool us. Underneath they had nerves of steel; even if they did get into their Spitfires with Teddy-bears under their arms. Don't underestimate them - the Luftwaffe made that mistake.' (p.56) Or him explaining why the workers won't want to unite with students, if Alan's a typical example of studenthood: 'You've never had a pair of overalls on in your life. You won't get anyone linking arms with you. Not in those trousers. I can just see you linking arms with a six foot steel worker. Swopping your cucumber sandwiches for his three inch jam butties. Offering him a glass of red wine and a whiff of your after shave.

He wouldn't know what to make of you.' (p.136) This is the true inheritor of the legacy of Tony Hancock , higher praise than which is impossible. Curiously this paperback treatment is written by Tony Warren, better known as the creator of Coronation Street. What he's doing here, I have no idea, but he's too good a writer to obscure Chappell & Rossiter. Rising Damp trivia: The series started as a stage play titled The Banana Box which featured Wilfred Brambell as the landlord, and Paul Jones ( Paul Jones !) in the Richard Beckinsale role. It really wouldn't have worked... Tony Warren Rising Damp At New Victoria Theatre Woking - News - ATG Tickets There's some Rising Damp at the New Victoria Theatre, Woking this July! Posted: 31 May 2013 The classic ITV hit comedy of the 70s, Rising Damp is brought vividly to life on stage in a brand new production written by Eric Chappell and directed by original cast member Don Warrington coming to the New Victoria Theatre, Woking from Mon 1 - Sat 6 July.

Set in a run-down Victorian house, the show follows Rupert Rigsby and his variety of tenants who rent out his shabby bedsits in arguably the seediest boarding house that England has to offer. His unluckly tenants include Ruth Jones, an administrator at the university, Alan, a medical student, and Philip, who is studying town and country planning. Between them, Alan and Philip are the focus and foil of the majority of Rigsby’s many prejudices, usually at the expense of his dignity and standing in the eyes of Miss Jones with whom he is hopelessly and pathetically in love. Brought to the stage by the same producers who revived Victoria Wood’s dinnerladies and BBC’s Bird of a Feather, the production has the writing talents of Eric Chappell who took up full time writing in 1973 after his first stage play, The Banana Box, was produced at the Apollo Theatre, London. The play later inspired the classic TV comedy Rising Damp, winner of the BAFTA award for best situation comedy. In 1979 Eric's screen version won the Evening Standard Film award for best comedy.

Other television successes include The Squirrels, The Bounder, Home to Roost (all of which won PYE TV awards), Only When I Laugh, Duty Free, Singles, Fiddlers Three and Haggard. Don Warrington is best known for having played the part of Philip Smith in Rising Damp alongside Leonard Rossiter and Richard Beckinsale. Don has starred in many television series including Red Dwarf, The Crouches and the BBC drama Casualty. He has performed with the National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Bristol Old Vic and has recently toured in the role Hoke Coleburn in the award-winning production of Alfred Uhry’s Driving Miss Daisy. As soon as this tour of Rising Damp opens he starts filming the third series of BBC TV’s Death in Paradise which will air later this year. Don was also in the sixth series of Strictly Come Dancing and partnered Lilia Kopylova. Don’t miss your chance to enjoy an evening of nostalgia and laughs! Don Warrington: 'I can be angry. I can want to kill' | Stage | The Guardian Theatre Don Warrington: 'I can be angry.

I can want to kill' He’s done everything from Rising Damp to All My Sons and Holby. But now Don Warrington is facing the biggest challenge of his career: playing Lear. He talks about becoming a Geordie, wanting to be Brando – and why England has never felt like home Don Warrington: Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian Sunday 10 January 2016 10.00 EST Last modified on Monday 11 January 2016 06.27 EST Share on Messenger Close Don Warrington is remembering crying in London’s Old Vic when he was a drama student. “I hadn’t seen much Shakespeare. I didn’t know anything about anything really.” On stage was Eric Porter as King Lear. “I sat there and I thought, ‘That miserable old git,’ but he was breaking my heart.” Nearly half a century later, Warrington is to play the heartbreaking old git in a production directed by Michael Buffong, artistic director of Talawa , Britain’s leading black theatre company. As we chat over samosas and deep-fried okra in an Indian restaurant, Warrington looks serene and sartorially elegant.

But nearly everything he says speaks of his trepidation about taking on the role. I can feel my blood pressure rising. At the time it seemed crazy to say no. Now I wonder if I'm just crazy “The nicest thing about any job is being offered it,” he says. “Then the reality begins to dawn. Suddenly we have dates! I can feel my blood pressure rising.” He was offered the part after his critically hailed performance in Arthur Miller’s All My Sons at Manchester’s Royal Exchange two years ago. “At the time it seemed crazy to say no. Now I wonder if I’m just crazy.” He and Buffong recently went to see Simon Russell Beale play Lear at the National. “I thought ‘Is this for me?’ Those are big shoes...” He won’t be drawn on whether playing Lear is a bigger challenge than Strictly Come Dancing in 2008 (he went out in week five after losing a dance-off with Heather Small) but both clearly put him out of his comfort zone. Pinterest Don Warrington Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian Warrington is only 63 and Lear, he points out, is supposed to be 80.

Did he wonder what they were thinking when they cast him? “I always feel, ‘What were they thinking?’ In this case, though, I don’t think it’s a matter of age, because lots of young actors have played him. Paul Scofield was in his 40s. The energy it requires is not necessarily an old man’s energy. I’m not an old man.” Warrington has previous played disempowered, ageing men. He made his well-received directorial debut at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds with Mustapha Matura’s Rum and Coca Cola , a comedy about the three times winner of Trinidad’s coveted Calypso King crown reduced to busking on beaches. And two years ago, he was Joe Keller in Arthur Miller’s All My Sons , an industrialist whose firm was accused of knowingly supplying faulty aircraft parts to the military during the second world war. Let’s not forget either Warrington’s turn on BBC2’s Grumpy Old Men. You’ve long been in training to play Lear, I tell him. “You see none of this has occurred to me! He [Keller] was king of his castle or he wanted to be. But he had committed a sin.

You could say that Lear commits a sin in that he does a very stupid thing – giving his kingdom away as a test to his children. “The big question is why does he do it? And I don’t know the answer to that yet. Maybe he’s got Alzheimer’s – which makes him speak to us now because it’s what most of us dread. And then why does he insist his daughters say they love him as a condition for getting their share of his kingdom? He’s putting himself in a position where they might say, ‘We don’t love you, you’re a fucking old tyrant’.” Does any of it resonate as a father of two sons? “Am I an old tyrant? Well, you’d have to ask my family about that. I’m sure they’ll have a whole variety of opinions. No, I don’t think so. He’s not me but he can be some of me. I can be angry, I can want to kill people.” Pinterest Don Warrington in All My Sons at the Royal Exchange, Manchester, in 2013.

Photograph: Jonathan Keenan Don Warrington was born in Trinidad , and might still be there but for the fact that his father, Basil Kydd, a local politician, died suddenly aged 48 in 1958 when Don was six. His mother, Shirley, decided to make a new life in England. It took three weeks to cross the Atlantic. “England was a real disappointment if I’m honest. It was painted in the colonies as this beautiful, golden, bright place and it was absolutely the opposite.” In Newcastle, he and his brother were the only black kids in school: “I got called rude names but I’d stand up for myself. I became a Geordie and got nicknamed the Young Pele because I was good at football. The teachers were worse. One teacher thought he should stop me being left handed and asked if I’d learned to write up a tree.” Being uprooted from his birthplace has given him a lifelong sense of loss. “My mother’s generation had protection their children didn’t have because they were adults when they left. We didn’t have a map, we had to make a new one, a new map of how to exist.” So that’s what he did.

“I saw On the Waterfront and wanted to be Marlon Brando. I thought I looked like him and I wanted to be just like that.” Pinterest Rising Damp: Frances de la Tour, Leonard Rossiter and Don Warrington in the much-loved sitcom, 1978. Photograph: ITV / Rex Features Aged 17, he got his first job at Flora Robson Playhouse as an assistant stage manager, then moved to London to train at the Drama Centre. Soon after graduation he landed the role of town planning student Philip Smith in Eric Chappell’s play The Banana Box. By this stage, he had discovered there was another actor called Don Williams (he used his mother’s maiden name) – and so named himself after Newcastle’s Warrington Road, where he was raised. In The Banana Box, he starred opposite seedy landlord Rupert Rigsby played by Leonard Rossiter. When Chappell adapted his play as the TV sitcom Rising Damp in 1974, the two men reprised their roles, and Warrington became one of the most prominent black actors on British TV. At the time, Eric Chappell’s sitcom was a departure.

In the 1970s there were scarcely any black performers on television. This was the era in which Lenny Henry performed with the Black and White Minstrels and Rudolf T Walker was called “sambo” by Jack Smethurst in Love Thy Neighbour. Warrington’s role was a breakthrough because Smith was enviable rather than ridiculous. Indeed, Smith was everything the landlord wanted to be – suave, well spoken and, most importantly, desirable to fellow tenant Miss Jones. “I knew the world of Rising Damp because I grew up surrounded by white people and was used to prejudice,” Warrington says now. “But I never expected it to catch fire like that.” If Warrington hasn’t quite emerged from the long shadow cast by the sitcom, it’s not for want of trying. His TV credits include, C.A.T.S Eyes, Morse, New Street Law, Trial and Retribution, Manchild, Holby City, Casualty and Doctor Who. On stage he has worked a great deal with Talawa, and has also starred in two fine National Theatre productions of plays by Kwame Kwei-Armah, Elmina’s Kitchen and Statement of Regret .

He has been one face of Kenco coffee in TV ads, but let’s not hold that against him. In 2008, he was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for his services to drama. I didn't go back to Trinidad for a long time. When I did, I remembered tastes, smells … my senses carried that memory Are you glad your mother brought you to England? “That’s a tricky one. I can’t honestly say that I feel that. Because that journey she made with her children has had the most profound effect. I wonder what I left behind.” Do you go back to Trinidad to find out? “I didn’t for a long time, I didn’t want to because I was scared about what it would do. When I did, I remembered things – tastes, smells. So at a very basic level, the body had carried that sense memory.” He has a sister who remained in Trinidad. “When I see her I recognise something in her I would like to be. I feel a kind of loss, which is her absolute sense of knowing the ground on which she stands.” You don’t feel that in England? “I don’t.

Until we can all believe that England is ours, until we can feel part of the fabric, we will feel this slight distance between us and where we live. There will always be another place that is home.” Don Warrington: Rigsby's a racist - but that's not the real issue - Telegraph Theatre Don Warrington: Rigsby's a racist - but that's not the real issue Don Warrington, star of the TV show Rising Damp, chats to Dominic Cavendish about directing the stage version, and about fame and racism in Britain. Don Warrington will direct the return of Rising Damp. Photo: Martin Pope Follow When Don Warrington got a call asking him whether he wanted to direct Rising Damp on stage – exactly 40 years after he himself starred in the stage-play that resulted in one of the best-loved sitcoms of all time – he laughed. “This came as a complete surprise,” he explains, sitting in the rehearsal rooms at London’s Menier Chocolate Factory , amid a mock-up of the boarding-house that helped both define the show and sum up the grotty, ungentrified Seventies.

“I was on tour with Driving Miss Daisy, and my agent rang to say there was an offer for me to direct Rising Damp. The idea just made me burst out laughing. There’s a neatness about it. I can see that. I asked my agent to read the script – she later rang back and said, 'I spent 90 happy minutes laughing away.' I thought, OK – then it must be alright. So I decided to say yes.” It’s impossible to overstate how unfussed Warrington seems to be about Rising Damp being reborn, with himself – one of the enduringly popular show’s four principal actors (two of whom, of course, are long dead) – at the helm. “I don’t know whether there’s an appetite out there for it,” he admits, and even adds: “I said to myself 'Would I go and see it?’ I wouldn’t.

I just wouldn’t.” In conversation, he displays the same leisurely, lordly, amused, well-spoken manner that, in character as Philip Smith, a student of Town and Country Planning and the supposed son of an African Chief, so used to wind up Leonard Rossiter’s Rupert Risgby, as the ever-angst, sardonic landlord flailed around in a miasma of suspicion, jealousy and toe-curling bigotry. Related Articles James Graham: 'It was like Parliament on acid' 15 May 2013 Warrington, shortly to turn 61, first tried his hand at directing at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in 2010. His interest in this project is a pragmatic one. “I took the view: if it’s a bus I’ll get on it – and see where it goes. I enjoy directing – this was an opportunity and I’ve given it no more significance than that,” he drawls. “The show was a long time ago and it doesn’t exist in the same way for me as it does for other people. It’s ever-present on TV .

It’s not ever-present in my life.” Even though he’s bringing no possessive claim to the piece – which hasn’t only been authorised but authored too by Rising Damp’s surviving creator Eric Chappell – using elements of the originating stage-play, The Banana Box, with gratings from the TV series – he’s not so offhand as to be outright dismissive. If you ask him to name his favourite episode or scene, he can’t oblige. He remembers certain lines – but that’s because he thinks they’re broadly memorable. He has no trace of interest in interposing the way he or the original cast approached things for this reheated version – the actors, including Cornelius Macarthy as Philip and Stephen Chapman as Rigsby, are being given carte blanche to make the roles work afresh on their own terms. And yet he has robust opinions about the cultural context, and significance, of the show itself – and holds strong memories of the TV recordings. Rising Damp (1974-1978) was ground-breaking in using comedy to explore the dynamic between a white man and black man and exposing attitudes to race and prejudice.

That was implicit in the title of Chappell’s breakthrough play The Banana Box, which derived from a comment made in a debate about the entitlement of non-British-born residents to call themselves British: “If a cat has kittens in a banana box, what do you get – kittens or bananas?” Born in Trinidad but brought to England by his mother in early childhood – his father, the politician Basil Kydd, remained behind and died in 1958 – he grew up in Newcastle. He remembers the attitudes of the time. “I knew the world the show describes. I grew up being one black person among lots of white people. I was used to prejudice. It happened. I quickly learnt how to become part of where I was. I think you have to confront the fact that Rigsby’s views were the views that were commonly held and they may still be for all I know by a lot of people,” he continues.

“People not much older than me have told me when they came to this country that they were seriously asked questions like, 'Do you still have a tail?’ “In a way, it was done with a kind of naivety – it was just stunning ignorance – and if you had said, 'This is an outrageous thing to ask me', they would have been very upset.” Rigsby’s comments do, he avers, stray into pure racism: “He’s a racist, there’s no question about it – but that’s not the real issue.” It’s the character interplay that counts and why this period-specific sitcom has stood the test of time: “What helped was the dispelling of a myth, and the myth was about black people. If you present something which is the opposite of that myth you begin to undermine it. I think that’s where Rising Damp helped.

The difficulty for Rigsby lies in observing somebody who is exactly who he would like to be – apart from the fact that he is black – and that’s very confusing for him.” Warrington was first cast as Philip when the play was revived on tour in 1973, having had an earlier tryout in Leicester, in which Wilfrid Brambell starred as Rigsby (then called “Rooksby”); it went to the West End for a short spell but it was because the production had been caught earlier on tour in Newcastle by the then Head of Light Entertainment at Yorkshire Television, John Duncan, that it made the leap to the small-screen. When that happened, the primary emotion Warrington recalls is one of high anxiety, not unbounded enjoyment. “It was my first job on television. What I remember is not the execution but the state I was in, the terror of doing it – of recording on a Friday night in front of a live studio audience, and the sense of responsibility to the other actors.” He still sees Frances de la Tour, who played the immortal Miss Jones, and unhesitatingly praises her as “a great actress”.

He holds Rossiter in similarly high esteem, recalling his fastidious attention to detail rather than any of his oft-reputed tetchiness. (“He would be rigorous but he was very generous to me.”) And he believes Richard Beckinsale (medical student Alan) was on his way to greatness too, before he died of a heart attack in 1979, aged just 31: “It was an incredible shock – at that age you don’t think about death.” Warrington has clearly negotiated difficult patches of career unemployment since Rising Damp – his CV is an interesting jumble of minor and major stage credits, sudden reappearances on TV (he has recently featured on ads for Kenco, and has a supporting role in the exotic BBC crime series Death in Paradise). The success of the show didn’t open many of the right kind of doors – and he admits he failed to recognise some that were. “I wasn’t terribly interested in fame. There was stuff that came that meant I could have built on that sort of success, but I didn’t do it because stupidly I thought, 'There’s another world out there’.

"I was looking for legitimacy – but I’ve found that legitimacy doesn’t come that way.” Still, having married, had two sons, both of whom are following in his footsteps into acting, he’s doing pretty OK, as it is. Later this year he will star in a “black” version of Arthur Miller’s All My Sons for Talawa Theatre at the Manchester Royal Exchange. And before that he’ll be heading off to the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe to film a new series of Death in Paradise. “I’d feel ridiculous saying that I have it tough. I’ll be on the beach out there, in the sun. That’s really not a grind, is it?” Rising Damp is on at the Blackpool Grand until May 18. Tickets: 01253 290111; blackpoolgrand.co.uk.

Full tour details: risingdampontour.com Article ITV hit comedy Rising Damp comes to the The Lowry directed by Don Warrington Mon 27 May - Sat 1 June Press Night Tue 28 May, 7.30pm Eric Chappell’s BAFTA winning comedy Rising Damp is brought to the stage in a new production from the Comedy Theatre Company, producers of the stage version of Birds of a Feather which enjoyed a successful run at The Lowry last year, directed by original cast member Don Warrington. The original ITV television comedy series Rising Damp ran between 1974 and 1978. Set in a run-down Victorian house Rising Damp follows Rupert Rigsby and his variety of tenants who rent out his shabby bedsits in arguably the seediest boarding house that England has to offer. His unlucky tenants include Ruth Jones, an administrator at the university, Alan, a medical student, and Philip, who is studying town and country planning. Between them, Alan and Philip are the focus and foil of the majority of Rigsby’s many prejudices, usually at the expense of his dignity and standing in the eyes of Miss Jones with whom he is hopelessly and pathetically in love.

GOODNIGHT VIENNA! The Lowry are searching for a Mancunian Moggy with a taste for fame to star in a feline photo shoot as Rigsby’s black and white furry friend Vienna. Click here for more details: Don Warrington is best known for having played the part of Philip Smith in Rising Damp alongside Leonard Rossiter and Richard Beckinsale. Don has starred in many television series including Red Dwarf, The Crouches and the BBC drama Casualty. He has performed with the National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Bristol Old Vic and has recently toured in the role Hoke Coleburn in the award-winning production of Alfred Uhry’s Driving Miss Daisy. As soon as this tour of Rising Damp opens he starts filming the third series of BBC TV’s Death in Paradise which will air later this year. Don was also in the sixth series of Strictly Come Dancing and partnered Lilia Kopylova.

Listings Information Mon 27 May – Sat 1 June Times 7.30pm, Wed & Sat 2pm Tickets £16 - £22 Concessions £2 off except Fri & Sat 7.30pm Lyric Theatre Don Warrington Don Warrington was born in Trinidad and trained at The Drama Centre, London. Film credits include Voodoo Magic, The Glass Man, Gurinder Chadha’s film It’s a Wonderful Afterlife, Land of the Blind, Whatever Happened to Harold Smith, Black Xxxmas, Tube Tales, The Lighthouse, Eight and A Half Women, The Seventh Scroll, Babymother and Hamlet. Theatre credits include Driving Miss Daisy UK No 1 Tour, A Statement of Regret and The Mysteries for the Royal National Theatre, Elmina’s Kitchen in the West End and The Merchant of Venice for the Birmingham Repertory Theatre.

Television credits include Death In Paradise, Lewis, This Is Jinsy, Waking The Dead, Going Postal, Casualty, Law & Order, Diamond Geezer for YTV, New Street Law, Doctor Who, The Crouches, London and Manchild for the BBC, All Star Comedy Show for ITV, Trial and Retribution for La Plante productions for ITV, The Aramando Iannucci Show for Talkback Productions, Arabian Knights for Hallmark Productions, Backup for the BBC and The Professional Tusk Force for David Whickes Television. He is best known for his role as ‘Phil’ in the hit comedy series Rising Damp for ITV Television. As a director, Don’s credits include Rum And Coca Cola for The West Yorkshire Playhouse and The Coloured Museum for Talawa Theatre Company at The V & A.

Question: Who played the role of Philip Smith in TV's "Rising Damp"?
Answer: Don Warrington