Review of Rising Damp

Introduction

This classic 70s sitcom has made it onto DVD. Leonard Rossiter stars as the irascible landlord Rigsby, who pokes his nose into every nook and cranny of his tenants’ lives. His manner is as prejudiced, bigoted and down right rude as the best of them (I’m thinking Basil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers and Alf Garnett in In Sickness and in Health). Hallam gets picked on for being a student, AND for having long hair, Ruth unfortunately gets the amorous attentions of Rigsby, however Ruth is interested in Philip – the new tenant who is a cultured African prince. Rigsby tries to get rid of Philip initially, but Philip is wealthy and the lure of money is greater than his bigoted nature towards coloured people.

This plays excellently to a mid 70s audience when racial prejudice was more ingrained into the white British conscience. Rigsby’s racial insults towards Philip are basically showing him up for the idiot he is, as Philip always comes across as the gentleman. However, some of the statements Rigsby comes out with can seem quite shocking in this post-millenium PC climate.

At the end of the day though, no harm is done and this is perfectly executed, well acted and written British comedy. If only there were sitcoms on today that could compete with this wonderful classic.

Video

The prints are clean and show off the drab, murky walls and lurid wallpaper off a treat. You quite forget how dreadfully awful designs were in the 70s until something like this comes along. So 4:3 then, and enough to show the 70s in all its gory… er glory!

Audio

Mono sound, but what is there comes out clean as a whistle. You will have no trouble with speech intelligibility and that’s where it matters.

Conclusion

You’re either going to love this or hate it. I definitely fall into the former category. I had forgotten how funny these were. Notable standouts are when Rigsby tries to lure Ms Jones by burning a ‘love stick’ in front of her (its actually his wardrobe), and the night out when he tries to impress with his waltzing. Can’t beat it!