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Best Actress | 1981 | Frances de la
Best Actor For and | 1981 | Denholm
Best Comedy | 1981
Best Actor | 1981 | Denholm
Original cast-member Richard Beckinsale died before the film could go before the cameras; consequently his medical student character Alan Moore was rewritten as Christopher Strauli's art student John. At the time Strauli was a well-known face on British screens from his regular role in another Eric Chappell sitcom from Yorkshire Television, Only When I Laugh (1979). Strauli was encouraged by Leonard Rossiter to play his character as the original actor would have; however the young actor (who had been at RADA with Beckinsale) felt uncomfortable with this suggestion as his contemporary had died only relatively recently. He would recall the part as an extremely unhappy one for him, despite the affability of the director and of the rest of the cast, but reasoned his strained relationship with Rossiter feeling unsettled by him replacing the much-missed Beckinsale.
The film is essentially an opening-up of creator Eric Chappell's original 1971 stage-play "The Banana Box".
When Joseph McGrath directed Rising Damp (1980), he had never seen a single episode of the original TV series and so he had no idea that the script recycled scenes and skits from the series. He thought it was all original material and so shot it in his own style rather than imitating the series.
Leonard Rossiter reportedly hated the original script and convinced the producers to instead use a selection of existing scenes and skits from the previous television series.
The film uses many plotlines and scenes from the series, such as Seymour, the conman from Rising Damp: The Perfect Gentleman (1975), which was extended so that he has a fling with Miss Jones. Other memorable TV scenes which were used in the film were the boxing match from Rising Damp: A Body Like Mine (1975), the green tablets and wood burning from Rising Damp: Charisma (1974), John's girlfriend's father on the warpath from Rising Damp: The Permissive Society (1975) and Rigsby taking Ruth for a spin in his sports car from Rising Damp: Clunk Click (1977).
"[Rigsby and Miss Jones are at a restaurant] Miss Ruth Jones: I must say, I do like this place. Do you come here often? Rigsby: Oh yes. It's one of my old bachelor haunts. Miss Ruth Jones: I thought you were married? Rigsby: In name only, Miss Jones. It was a long time ago. At the end of the war - VJ night. She surrendered the same day as Japan. We resumed hostilities a week later. Miss Ruth Jones: You make your marriage sound like a war! Rigsby: Oh, it was, Miss Jones. Long periods of boredom followed by short bursts of violence. We should never have got married. There was only one woman I really liked in those days - Greer Garson. I saw all her films. Her and Walter Pidgeon. Miss Ruth Jones: Did your wife remind you Greer Garson? Rigsby: No, no... She looked more like Walter Pidgeon, actually."
"Rigsby: Permissive society? There's no such thing. I should know I've looked for it."
