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RISING DAMP THE MOVIE

Acorn Media US / Region 1 / Released January 2008

Featuring Leonard Rossiter, Frances DeLa Tour, Don Warrington, Christopher Strauli, Denholm Elliott

Back in the 1970's (before the extended Christmas Special TV episode put a stop to it) movie versions of UK shows (especially comedies) were all the rage, everything from Man About the House to Love Thy Neighbour and On The Buses had a big screen outing, coming at the tail end of these was one of the best of them.

Rising Damp has the benefit of being written by its creator Eric Chappell and starring one of Britains best ever and best loved actors Leonard Rossiter; Chappell chooses to re-work much of the opening original episode of the show for his big screen version, after all Rising Damp had started out life as a theatre piece called The Banana Box so it could easily stand being feature length.

Rossiter is the penny pinching landlord (Rigsby) of a run down, gone to seed, boarding house, he has a mad crush on Miss Jones (De La Tour), one of his tenants, however she is more interested in medical student Philip (Warrington) who also happens to be an African prince, one of the other tenants Seymour (the fantastic Denholm Elliott) also has his eyes one Miss Jones mainly because he thinks she has money; This is all pretty entertaining the cast of course making the thing even more delicious, the only downside would have to be the loss of the late great Richard Beckinsale who had died of a heart attack in his early thirties whilst making the sitcom Bloomers the year before, his striking off of Rigsby is much missed here, Christopher Strauli was drafted in to play an equally naive student but he seems somewhat out of place and not as naive as Beckinsale's Alan.

A must for fans of the series then, extras include the original movie trailer, photo gallery and cast filmographies.

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For more info on this release visit Acorn Media



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