Eric Chappell gave frustrated people time to make fools of themselves and actors room to make us care. His comedy is worth returning to, though Rising Damp sometimes needs its performers to rescue a thin line.
Fi1m perspective
In Rising Damp (1974), Leonard Rossiter sets a pace that the rest of the cast can match. Chappell lets him dominate an exchange, but gives the others enough to answer back with. We were touched by these people because their disappointments still hurt after the laughter stopped. There is enough unhappiness here to make us care what happens between the jokes.
His second play, The Banana Box (1970), supplied the premise, characters and setting for Rising Damp. It reached the West End in 1973, before the television series began the following year. Chappell wrote most of his sitcoms as stage plays first, which helps explain his willingness to let people stay in a room and talk. Class distinctions, snobbery and the wish to seem grander than one is gave him plenty for those conversations to work on. The theatrical discipline suited comedy built around extended exchanges.
That reliance on talk also exposes his weakness. Some of the dialogue in Rising Damp is thinner than Rossiter and the ensemble make it sound, with timing doing work that the words ought to have done. A joke can pass at speed without quite earning the laugh. The characters remain worth spending time with, but we occasionally want a stronger line rather than an even brisker delivery.
The later programmes took those conversations elsewhere. Only When I Laugh (1979) used a hospital setting and a cast including Peter Bowles, James Bolam and Richard Wilson. Duty Free (1984), co-written with Jean Warr, moved to a holiday resort, while Home to Roost (1985) put John Thaw and Reece Dinsdale together as father and son. Writing for particular actors remained central to his method.
Start with Rising Damp, and watch how much the other actors contribute when Rossiter is setting the pace. Chappell's habit of writing for performers pays off here, even when they have to help him along. A quieter cast would have a harder evening.
Biography
Eric Chappell was an English television comedy writer and playwright. He worked as an auditor for the East Midlands Electricity Board for 22 years before becoming a full-time writer in 1973.
His play The Banana Box (first staged in 1970) was adapted into the ITV sitcom Rising Damp (1974–1978), which he created and wrote. The series starred Leonard Rossiter as landlord Rigsby and won the BAFTA for Best Situation Comedy in 1978. Chappell also created or wrote other series including The Squirrels (1974–1977), Only When I Laugh (1979–1982), Duty Free (1984–1986) and Home to Roost (1985–1990).
