Rising Damp - Setting

Setting

The exact setting is never made clear. It is perhaps not important because the action very rarely moves outside of the house. All that is specified is that it is in a town or city in the north of England that is home to a redbrick university, following a few references to the fact: the River Humber is mentioned in one episode as is the seaside resort of Cleethorpes, and Alan says he commutes via Yorkshire Traction, a former bus company which operated in South and West Yorkshire, particularly around Barnsley, and when Rigsby purchases a car in the episode ‘Clunk Click’, the registration plate (XCX 885J) shows that the car was registered in Huddersfield. In the episode 'A Body Like Mine', Rigsby tells Alan and Phillip he smashed his television when Leeds United, who he refers to as 'we', were beaten by Bayern Munich in the 1975 European Cup Final. Incidental characters tend to have northern English accents. The show was recorded in Leeds and the setting is generally accepted as being in Yorkshire. The 1980 film version of the series, however, was set in an inner-city district of London.