Don Warrington plays down his involvement with classic ITV sitcom Rising Damp as the former star talks to Steve Pratt about directing a stage version

STAGE versions of old TV sitcoms often feature one or two of the original actors. The new theatre version of 1970s comedy classic Rising Damp takes a different route. Don Warrington, who starred in the stage play that inspired the series, steps out of the action to direct the show.

The Trinidad-born politician’s son, who grew up in the North-East, joined the project relatively late in the day after the show had been cast. He was touring in Driving Miss Daisy when the offer to direct was made. “I got a call and they said would I like to do it?,” he recalls.

“And I thought and I laughed. It seemed odd. Then I thought some more and said why not? I have never directed something like this before. So I thought I’d have a go.”

It appears he’s not the only Geordie connection with the TV series, which began life as a stage play by Eric Chappell called The Banana Box. This toured briefly before a short run in London, and on the date in Newcastle was seen by Yorkshire TV light entertainment head John Duncan, who saw its potential as a sitcom.

The play had had a chequered history. A rehearsed reading in 1970 led to a production in 1971 with Steptoe and Son star Wilfred Brambell as the main character Rooksby, a bigoted and lecherous landlord.

IT took another two years before the play was put on again and this time Leonard Rossiter, who was unable to play the lead through other commitments first time round, took the role of Rooksby. The name proved a problem and was changed to Rigsby after a Mr Rooksby from Scarborough complained when Rossiter, in an interview, coupled that name with Hitler’s.

Chappell, so the story goes, needed to find a replacement name at short notice and turned to the telephone directory to find one.

Rossiter, Warrington and Frances de la Tour from the cast of the short tour and London run went on to appear in the TV sitcom.

Richard Beckinsale, who was having success in TV’s The Lovers, became the fourth regular cast member.

Taking a break from rehearsals for the tour (which is coming to Darlington Civic Theatre) Warrington explains that this stage version goes back to the original play The Banana Box and that Chappell has “added bits from the television series”.

Playing student Philip Smith, an African prince who finds himself as one of Rigsby’s lodgers, was Warrington’s first job out of drama school. But he wouldn’t say he’s revisiting the series by directing the stage show.

“It’s a completely different way of looking at it because acting and directing are worlds apart,” he says.

“Rising Damp wasn’t in my life at all now.

I don’t watch it. It’s like a new challenge. I have bits of memory about it, but it was 35 years ago.

“I’m approaching it like I would anything else. The difference here is that I arrived quite late on, so there are certain things I have been given which are nothing to do with me.”

Surely the actor playing the part Warrington must be affected being directed by the actor who originally played the part.

“He seems blissfully unaware of it, which has to be to his benefit,” says Warrington.

“I try to make this play live in its own right. That’s the best you can do. People come to see a piece of work that’s good and that’s what I’m trying to make it.”

If past stage shows taken from TV sitcoms are anything to go by, the cast will need to tread a fine line between impersonations of familiar characters and making them believable in their own right. Have the cast gone back to look at the TV series? “I have given them no instructions at all. It’s up to them. I just try to make what I do live.”

The play hasn’t dated for the simple reason it’s a period piece and is being produced as such. He didn’t miss acting when he made his directing debut in Leeds. “That’s the most extraordinary thing – I didn’t want to do the acting at all. Whatever I am doing is what I want to do,” he says.

Once he’s finished directing Rising Damp, Warrington will be heading back to the Caribbean to film another series of Death In Paradise, the BBC1 crime drama series about a British policeman assigned to work on a Caribbean island. Warrington plays the island’s police commissioner.

The series has been increasingly successful with viewers. Was it a surprise it’s done so well. “I expect nothing. You do it and see what happens,” he says. “There’s no predicting what these things are going to do. But it’s an enjoyable series to make. Very nice location, very nice people.

“Hopefully, I’ll be able to get back and see how the tour is doing. I imagine I am going quite soon but not before we open Rising Damp.”

  • Rising Damp: Darlington Civic Theatre, May 21-25. Box Office: 01325- 486555 and darlingtoncivic.co.uk  
  • Other classic British sitcoms that have found success on stage in recent years include Yes, Prime Minister, which has just completed its third West End run, Dad’s Army, Faulty Towers, Steptoe and Son, Birds of a Feather and dinnerladies.

The last two were also presented by Rising Damp’s producer, The Comedy Theatre Company