Rising Damp

- Season 4

(1978)

Lorna and Robin are a young couple who come to stay and Ruth tells Rigsby they are newly-weds. He gives them presents but withdraws them when he finds out they are just living together. They explain that Lorna's stern father disapprove of Robin so - in the absence of Alan - Ruth and Philip ask the father round to discuss things. Due to a misunderstanding he is horrified to think that Rigsby might be his daughter's boyfriend and goes for him, switching his anger to Philip who comes in to rescue Rigsby. Rigsby explains that Philip would not want Lorna as he already has ...

Gwyn, a fundamentalist Welsh preacher who abstains from everything and spends much of his time praying or hymn-singing, moves in. He talks Ruth out of going on a dirty weekend with Rigsby because it would be immoral and has some success in converting Rigsby to the faith. However, when Ruth gets excited as he explains to her a passionate extract from the bible and throws herself at him, he moves out.

A solicitor comes to tell Rigsby that an uncle has left him fifty thousand pounds - on condition he can prove he is married. Since Rigsby parted from his actual wife Veronica years ago and she moved away, he persuades Ruth to pose as his 'wife' when the uncle's widow, Aunt Maud, comes to check on his marital status. To confuse matters the real Veronica also shows up but, since he does have a wife, he is allowed to inherit the money. Unfortunately it is all eaten up by his uncle's unpaid taxes.

By coincidence Rigsby and Ruth answer the personal ad each has placed in the local paper and meet at the same hotel, both wearing pink carnations for identification purposes. Then a bridal party arrives for a reception and, as both bride and groom are also sporting a pink carnation, this leads to confusion as both get mistaken for the blind date. When the bride's mother comes to sort things out Rigsby is horrified to think that she might be the person he has arranged to meet and insults her before getting thrown out, still unaware that Ruth was his real blind date.

New lodger Ambrose claims to be a hypnotist and proves it by mesmerising Rigsby into regressing to his childhood - and undressing - in front of Ruth. To make things up to Rigsby, Ambrose hypnotises him into adopting a smooth persona to woo Ruth but she is not impressed. After Ruth has pretended to be hypnotised and chased after Rigsby for a joke, he decides he will do the same to her but the pretence is unmasked when she sticks a hat-pin in his bottom.

After his divorce from Veronica comes through Rigsby proposes to Ruth - who accepts. His shifty brother Ron turns up to be the best man and Ruth's upper-crust mother initially mistakes him for the groom as he looks very smart. She does not believe that Ruth should marry Rigsby and tries to talk her out of it but seemingly in vain. On the day of the wedding the Rigsby brothers go to the wrong church and by the time they locate the right one the wedding party has gone home. He confesses this to Ruth, who admits that she had cold feet about their wedding and never went ...