What is Rising Damp? Links Merchandise
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This is theme 28 in a series of popular desktop themes available
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This web page is my tribute to the classic ITV comedy series
from the 70's Rising Damp
that ranks up there with the best that the BBC has
produced to date and deserves to be honoured here at
for March 1999, the Rising Damp desktop theme celebrates this classic comedy
series by Yorkshire Television which was one of ITV's few quality
comedy hits of the seventies. Originally a stage show called Banana
Box, Rising
Damp is writer, Eric Chappell's
masterly series about the
sneering, jeering landlord "My-y-y God..." Rigsby, played by
Leonard Rossiter, and
his northern seedy boarding house. Almost as an obnoxious
character as the elder Steptoe and Son or Alf Garnett, the arms
folded, eyes rolling Rigsby (dressed always in a sleeveless cardigan) lusted ceaselessly after his one female boarder, spinster
university administrator Miss Jones
played by Frances de la Tour. The two other boarders were an effete medical
student, Alan Moore, played by Richard
Beckinsale and the son
of an African Chieftain, Philip
Smith(!), played by Don Warrington. Always rebuffed in his advances to Miss Jones,
Rigsby would take out his frustrations on his cat, Vienna, or, if Vienna could not be found, on the two
male boarders who coped with the sneering, jeering Rigsby remarkably well.
Of the TV cast, only Richard Beckinsale (other appearances included The Lovers and Porridge), who died during the fourth season of Rising Damp, did not appear in the original play, and
both Rossiter and Frances
de la Tour had distinguished stage careers. An insurance clerk until he was
twenty-seven, Rossiter had achieved notable success in the theatre for
his renditions of Arturo Ui and Richard III. On Television he had
put in a long spell in Z
cars in the sixties
and after Rising Damp appeared in the 1980 film version of the series.
Other appearances included the TV sitcom The Rise and fall of Reginald Perrin. He died during a production of Joe Orton's Loot in 1984.
Rising Damp despite topping the BARB ratings in both 1977
and 1978 had a relatively short life on the small screen due to
the untimely death of actor Richard Beckensale. A total of 28x30 minute episodes were made, aired
during the period 1974-78. Like so many of the popular TV comedies of the day, the inevitable film version was less than memorable.
For me, Rossiter as Rigsby will be remembered for his perfect comic timing in banter with Alan the long haired student. In the opening episode
of Series 1 Alan defended himself by saying "....even Jesus had long hair" to which Rigsby
quickly quips, "... yes but I bet he never had
a hair dryer!"
Links to Rising Damp Web Sites on the Net
Here are a couple of links I have found
relating to this show. If you come across any more please let me
know so that I can add them to the list for subsequent visitors
to explore.
Read all about Rising Damp in Britcomedy Digest
Visit the Rising Damp Web page at TV Comedy Index web site.
buy Rising Damp Videos on-line ....
| Get this Video 
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to Blackstar.co.uk
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Get this Video 
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to Blackstar.co.uk
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Get this Video 
Click to go
to Blackstar.co.uk
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Get this Video 
Click to go
to Blackstar.co.uk
|
The Rising Damp Desktop Theme is my tribute to this classic ITV
comedy series from the seventies. The theme features start-up and
shutdown screens, hi-colour desktop wallpaper, animated cursor
set and new desktop icons. Also included are new windows sounds
taken from the very first episode of this show. Also included is
a full feature screensaver made using Screen Saver Deluxe.
Instructions are provided in a Readme file and the whole theme is
available in a convenient zip file to download.
If you don't have a copy of Microsoft
Plus! help is at hand in the form of Desktop Themes, a
shareware desktop theme manager published by Jonathan Potter at
Left Side Software. Click on 
to get your copy.
The following thumbnails
will give you an idea of the screens used in this theme.
Click here to download the
Rising Damp Desktop Theme Version 1.0 (1.26Mb)
Problems downloading from ?
You can now use
GetRight.Com's downloading Utility GetRight
for Java to download this
desktop theme. Click on the GetRight Download button that follows
to download the Rising Damp Desktop
Theme using GetRight for Java instead of your browsers usual
download tool. Check out my Download Problems page to find out how to use this facility and
for more great tips on how you can improve your downloads using Net
Vampire.
If after successfully downloading the
theme you think it could be improved or has bugs, then please E-Mail your comments and/or suggestions to me. If you
liked this theme please tell future visitors to this web-site - 
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