Leonard Rossiter: Last News

ICONIC writer Eric Chappell who created sitcoms Rising Damp and Home to Roost has died aged 88. The hit TV show creator won a Bafta in 1978 for Rising Damp which starred Leonard Rossiter and Frances de la tour.

ITV sitcom by Eric Chappell, which came to an end in 1978. Airing for four years, the series was an adaptation of Chappell's stage play The Banana Box. The series followed Rupert Rigsby (played by Leonard Rossiter), the seedy landlord of a run-down townhouse.

British veteran comedy actress Josephine Tewson, who found her biggest success in her sixties starring in one of the 1990s’ biggest TV sitcoms, has died aged 91.

Eric Chappell, writer. Born: 25 September 1933 in Grantham, Lincolnshire. Died: 21 April 2022 in Grantham, Lincolnshire, aged 88For 22 years Eric Chappell beavered away in the offices of the local electricity board in the East Midlands, while spending his spare time writing the novels he would might open the door to fame and fortune only to amass a mountain of “no thank you” letters.

Emmerdale actor Reece Dinsdale shared the news on Twitter, writing: "Just heard that Eric Chappell, the writer of Home To Roost, Rising Damp & many other shows died on Thursday.“Thank you for everything you did for me, Sir… your scripts were a complete joy to play.“Great times! My love & deepest sympathies to his friends and family."Rising Damp aired on ITV between 1974 and 1978 for four series.It was adapted from his stage show The Banana Box, which hit the West End in the early 1970s.And it later became a film, released in 1980, which starred Leonard Rossiter, Frances de la Tour and Don Warrington, among other names.Eric was born in Grantham, Lincolnshire and worked as an auditor for the East Midlands Electricity Board for 22 years, before moving into writing.His writing even ended up in New York, when The Banana Box had a brief run at the Hudson Guild Theatre in the city in 1979. Eric went on to write for shows including The Squirrels, Duty Free, Fiddlers Three and Haggard.Following Reece's initial tweet, others left tributes too.Author Robert Harris said: "Our fathers worked together at a print factory in Grantham and used to swap stories about their sons.

Daily Star's biggest headlines straight to your inbox!In the 1970s TV’s Reggie Perrin tried to escape his humdrum life by faking his own death and leaving his clothes on a beach.But the behaviour of Leonard Rossiter’s hilarious BBC character echoed the strange real-life case of the British Member of Parliament John Stonehouse who pretended to have died off the coast of Miami in Florida.Now two new books by family members are being published with different theories about the truth behind the bizarre episode.Here JAMES MOORE reveals what happened and looks at other infamous cases of people who tried to disappear without a trace.When the wreckage of a red kayak was found off the coast of County Durham in March 2002 it was presumed that prison