Rising Damp Smith (Don Warrington) is a planning student who claims to be the son of an African Chief. As a black man, he brings out the ill-informed fears and knee-jerk suspicions of Rigsby. However, the landlord quickly accepts his new tenant and henceforth regards him with a wary respect... wary because of Philip's intelligence and smooth manners, and especially because Miss Jones finds herself attracted to the handsome sophisticate. Of these four principal actors, only Beckinsale was a new recruit - the others had all played their roles in the original stage play. In the first series, there was another tenant
Rising Damp the show. The complete series has been released on Region 2 DVD and Acorn Media is releasing it on region 1 DVD in North America as well (see below). The series was repeated on Channel 4 between 1998 and 2004 until ITV3 was launched. On screen episode titles have been added to the DVD versions of series 1 & 2, the episode titles on series 3 & 4 are however original. The complete scripts for the series have been published as "Rising Damp: The Complete Scripts" by Eric Chappell; edited by Richard Webber. London: Granada Media, 2002. This collection does