Rising Damp his wife. Seedy and furtive, Rigsby has poor interpersonal skills. His professed love of Miss Jones is mostly sexual. She rejects him due to him being married, until his marriage ends and Miss Jones accepts his proposal. As he pries and spies upon his tenants, Rigsby often carries Vienna, his large, fluffy, black-and-white tomcat. Rigsby's amiable pet, and confidant, is so named because - as Rigsby tells it - when he goes to put him out on a cold dark night, if there is another set of eyes out there, then it's Good Night, Vienna. Ruth Jones (Frances de la
Rising Damp 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. The landlord of the house, Rupert Rigsby (Leonard Rossiter) is dour, interfering and tight fisted. He has strong right wing views which are adopted without morals or reason. For example, in the film adaptation he states that hanging should be reinstated but this time in public. Rigsby is an old fashioned colonial type with prejudiced views. He is suspicious of anything beyond his parochial sphere of interest