<P> Rising Damp is a British sitcom produced by Yorkshire Television for ITV . ITV originally broadcast the programme from 2 September 1974 until 9 May 1978 . It was adapted for television by Eric Chappell from his 1971 stage play The Banana Box (retained as the working title early in the series). The series was the highest - ranking ITV sitcom in BBC's 100 Best Sitcoms poll of 2004 . </P> <P> The show was recorded entirely before a studio audience at The Leeds Studios of Yorkshire Television in Leeds, West Yorkshire and featured no scenes shot on location . </P> <P> Rising Damp starred Leonard Rossiter, Frances de la Tour, Richard Beckinsale and Don Warrington . Rossiter played Rupert Rigsby (originally Rooksby in the stage play), the miserly, seedy, and ludicrously self - regarding landlord of a run - down Victorian townhouse who rents out his shabby bedsits to a variety of tenants . Beckinsale played Alan Moore, a long - haired, naive, good - natured and amiable medical student who occupies the top room . Frances de la Tour played Ruth Jones, a fey, whimsical spinster and college administrator who rents another room, with whom Rigsby is in love and to whom he proposes in the last episode . </P> <P> In the pilot episode, a new tenant arrives . Philip 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 . </P>

What was the name of rigsby's cat