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ERIC CHAPPELL, the dramatist and screenwriter who has died aged 88, contributed to something of a golden age of ITV situation comedy in the 1970s and 1980s, enjoying his most enduring success with Rising Damp, starring Leonard Rossiter as the stingy, seedy, sneering, prying, cardigan-clad landlord Rigsby - along with a string of other hits, among them Only When I Laugh, Duty Free and Home to Roost.
Derived from Chappell's first play The Banana Box, Rising Damp ran for four seasons from 1974 to 1978 and was set in a Leeds boarding-house populated by an outstanding ensemble cast as the tenants.
Chief among them was Frances de la Tour, already a veteran of the Royal Shakespeare Company, as "Miss (Ruth) Jones", the object of Rigsby's Uriah Heepish attempts at courtship who, in a deft subversion of sitcom expectations, is sometimes quiveringly receptive ("I don't know if it's the light, Mr Rigsby, but you look strangely fascinating this evening"). The Daily Telegraph critic Eric Shorter was intrigued by Miss Jones's "angular, gawky and toothy charms".
Then there was Richard Beckinsale as the medical student Alan, an innocent, likeable Lefty; and Don Warrington's cool, self-aware Philip, also a student (of town planning), who responds to Rigsby's casual racial prejudice by claiming to be the son of an African prince.
All three are better educated and more socially sophisticated than Rigsby (though Miss Jones is riddled with self-doubt and suppressed desire) and this disparity fuels his insecurities, which he masks with sardonic barbs, little Englander attitudes, snobbishness, and self-aggrandising - as, for example, when he makes embellished reference to his wartime service.
It was said that Rossiter's delivery of his lines was often so quickfire that Chappell had to write in additional dialogue to fill out the running time.
One of Rigsby's most contentious aspects is his bigotry: Rossiter himself said the character made "Alf Garnett look like...