What???!!! No, please! This question is causing my head to overheat...Well, I suppose my answer is - the sheer brilliance of the Rigsby character, the fact it was a proper sitcom, the fantastic set and Chappell's clever plotlines definitely get Rising Damp the vote over Perrin from me. Beckinsale also a big factor - ITV3 showed one of the very best RD episodes yesterday - Things That Go Bump In The Night, Beckinsale was nearly as good as Rossiter, and you can see why Rossiter and Barker rated him so highly. I'd still put Perrin as one of the 20 best Britcoms ever made tho.

People have mentioned the great Cinzano adds but who else saw the classic short film The Waterloo Bridge Handicap? (still not on any DVD compilation, it seems!) One of the funniest and cleverest little films I've seen and its star - the one and only L Rossiter (in a sort of Perrinesque role). Brilliant.

Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ December 18 2009, 12:18 PM GMT

People have mentioned the great Cinzano adds but who else saw the classic short film The Waterloo Bridge Handicap? (still not on any DVD compilaation, it seems!) One of the funniest and cleverest little films I've seen and it's star - the one and only L Rossiter (in a sort of Perrinesque role). Brilliant.

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Is that the one where they have a kind of Walking to work race or something?

The very one. About 25 mins long and it's a scream. That was one of the reasons why it always paid you to get to the pictures early in the 70s and 80s, because they put so many good pre-feature shorts on. Most of them I remember more than the main movie.

Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ December 18 2009, 12:18 PM GMT

but who else saw the classic short film The Waterloo Bridge Handicap? (

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*puts hand up*

Also worth checking out his portrayal of the legendary French music hall star, Le Petomane.

Yes that was another of his great roles. What a legend that man was.

Quote: Griff @ December 18 2009, 12:30 PM GMT

He wasn't very funny in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

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Yet oddly it was still more amusing than Tripper's Day.

He was funny in Barry Lyndon. Check out the dance bit.

What was he like in Oliver can't recall him in that

Quote: peter gazzard @ December 18 2009, 1:52 PM GMT

What was he like in Oliver can't recall him in that

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Excellent, sinister and funny. Superbly cast film.

Quote: Timbo @ December 18 2009, 1:54 PM GMT

Excellent, sinister and funny. Superbly cast film.

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He played Mr Sowerberry, a role that was originally performed in the stage version by Barry Humphries, IIRC?

Of course, another highlight of his career was doing one of the voices in the cartoon series 'The Perishers'.

Rising Damp, definitely. Both were great, but Rigsby was slightly better.

The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin was the best for me. Rising Damp was truly superb, and the actors were magnificent. It was a simple, blatant comedy series, whereas the Reginald Perrin series had much more depth, regarding social situations, society and the personal angst people really did feel in their work places etc. It amazes me now, watching the original Reginald Perrin series, how close to reality it actually is, from the crazy ideas and conversations people have in order to set up a commune to walking off and creating a new identity.

Tripper's Day!

I watched an episode of Tripper's Day- awful stuff.