Rising Damp is a British sitcom, written by Eric Chappell and produced by Yorkshire Television for ITV, which was originally broadcast from 2 September 1974 until 9 May 1978.

[3] Rising Damp starred Leonard Rossiter, Frances de la Tour, Richard Beckinsale and Don Warrington.

Beckinsale played Alan Moore, a long-haired, naive, good-natured and amiable medical student who occupies the top room.

Frances de la Tour played Ruth Jones, a fey, whimsical spinster and college administrator who rents another room, is approaching middle age, and with whom Rigsby is in love.

Alan is a medical student with a somewhat plodding intellect, socially inept and who remains a virgin throughout much of the series, despite appearing to be in his mid 20s.

Philip, by contrast, is a relatively learned and emotionally intelligent man, who responds to Rigsby's ignorance with a kind of ironic complicity, as expressed through lies reminiscing about his African life full of magic, violence and sexual promiscuity, often resulting in Rigsby making a fool of himself through his gullible willingness to believe these stories.

While Rigsby tries to flirt with the upper classes, when they invariably reject him, he distances himself, declaring himself to be a "self-made man" and calling the prospective Conservative candidate an "upper-class twit" after he refers to Rigbsy's lodging house as the "unacceptable face of capitalism" and accuses Rigsby of having cheated at billiards in the local Conservative club.

As he pries and spies upon his tenants, Rigsby often carries Vienna, his large, fluffy, long-haired, black-and-white tomcat.

Rigsby was known by his surname only for almost the entirety of Rising Damp; his first name (Rupert) was revealed in the third episode of the fourth series.

Several members of Rigsby's family - his estranged wife Veronica (Avis Bunnage), his Aunt Maud (Gretchen Franklin) and his shifty brother Ron - make guest appearances in the fourth series.

A college administrator and well-educated, she is a dauntless romantic; like Rigsby, Miss Jones has pretensions, believing herself to be a sophisticated aesthete worthy of more satisfaction from her life.

However, Miss Jones openly desires Philip, frequently cooking for him and inviting his company in her room, much to the annoyance and frustration of Rigsby.

Unfortunately for her, this interest is not reciprocated although she finds solace in Philip's superior intellect and good manners, and the two appear to be friends.

[1] Warrington commented in Britain's 50 Best Sitcoms on Channel 4, that this fact was planned to be a plot development in the TV series, but the death of Richard Beckinsale meant this was not possible.

As Richard Beckinsale had died the year before, Christopher Strauli was cast as a new character, art student John.

Philip is revealed not to be a chief's son from Africa, but from Croydon, adopting his false persona to start a new life and gain respect.

During the 2016 Easter holiday, the entire series and film were shown on ITV3, accompanied by a brand new two-part documentary, Rising Damp Forever, featuring cast and crew recollections on the making of the show.

[11][12] In November 2020, all four series of the show were made available for streaming in the U.K., U.S., and Canada via the online digital subscription service BritBox.

What followed was a desperate search in the loft amongst piles of mildewed papers until I found them.… The scripts were written in feverish haste by someone who didn’t really know what he was doing, and who was finding things out as he went along.

"[16] In 2005, as part of ITV's 50th anniversary celebration, Rising Damp was one of six shows chosen to be represented on a Royal Mail postage stamp.

Older houses, such as depicted in the show, were built without damp-proof courses or with a barrier material that is liable to failure.

In the British climate, water infiltration of structures is a common problem, particularly in older houses without a basement or cellar and those constructed before the commonplace use of a damp course.

In extreme cases, salt leached out of the wall forms crystals on the surface of the plaster as the water evaporates.