CHRISTMAS SPECIAL:

FOR THE MAN WHO HAS EVERYTHING

Rehearsals: 14^th – 17^th December 1975 at The Sulgrave Boys Club, 287 Goldhawk Road, London, W12

1:30pm – 5:30pm

Walk-Through: 18^th December 1975 at Yorkshire Television Centre, Leeds

Recorded: 19^th December 1975 at Yorkshire Television Centre, Studio 4, Leeds

Broadcast: Friday 7:45pm 26^th December 1975 

CAST

Leonard Rossiter – Rigsby

Richard Beckinsale – Alan

Don Warrington – Philip

Gay Rose – Brenda

Larry Martyn – Fred

Elizabeth Adare – Lucy

Helen Fraser – Gwen

CREW

Creator/Writer – Eric Chappell

Producer/Director – Ronnie Baxter

Designer – Colin Pigott

Music – Dennis Wilson

Casting – James Ligatt

Floor Manager – Mike Purcell

Stage Manager – Olive Simpson

Production Asst – Evelyn Hirschstein

Lighting – Peter Squires

Cameras – Colin Philpott

Sound – Ian Hughes

Vision Mixer – Jackie O’Gorman

Tech Supervisor – Mike Wilkinson

Wardrobe – Brenda Fox

Make-up – Viv Locklin

Prop Buyer – Gil Procter

Scenes – Jim Slade

Call Boy – Tim Dowd

Warm-up – Felix Bowness

Episode Review

It’s a bleak Boxing Day in bed-sitter land for a lowdown landlord and his luckless lodgers in another outbreak of…RISING DAMP

Rigsby hates the Season of Goodwill, probably because he so seldom has any! The only thing he likes about Christmas is the carol singers – and that’s only because he enjoys heating up pennies for them.

His philosophy is that it’s just the same as any other time, only everyone’s on the scrounge. And that goes for milkman, Fred, and postwoman, Gwen, too when they pay him a Boxing Day call.

This year it’s an even bleaker than usual Boxing Day in bed-sitter land for tight fisted, unpopular Rigsby. He’s had to have Christmas dinner by himself and is sitting all alone and feeling sorry for himself.

Even Vienna is unfriendly, the cat’s feeling out of sorts with the world in general, and his master in particular, because Fred’s failed to deliver the double cream.

But when lodgers Alan, Philip and Brenda return unexpectedly from spending Christmas away from the boardinghouse, prospects do look a little brighter for Rigsby.

Everyone knows that even Scrooge had a change of heart when a little kindness melted his heart of stone. So what about Rigsby? No chance…at least, not willingly. As Alan pouts it:

“If Rigsby had been the landlord of that inn at Bethlehem, Mary and Joseph wouldn’t even have got the stable…”

Alternative Review Boxing Day, 1976:

Television’s disreputable landlord, Rigsby, has been having a particularly bleak Yuletide; he’s had to have Christmas dinner by himself and by Boxing Day he is sitting all alone and feeling sorry for himself.

Even when postwoman Gwen calls on him, Rigsby’s attempt to bring a little seasonal cheer into his – and, he hopes, Gwen’s life, he fails miserably. In fact, he registers a miss with the Miss under the mistletoe! The only reaction he gets from Gwen is one of shock!

Alternate Review:

Television’s disreputable landlord, Rigsby, has been having a particularly bleak Yuletide; he’s had to have Christmas dinner by himself and by Boxing Day he is sitting all alone and feeling sorry for himself.

Even when postwoman Gwen calls on him, Rigsby’s attempt to bring a little seasonal cheer into his – and, he hopes, Gwen’s life, he fails miserably. In fact, he registers a miss with the Miss under the mistletoe! The only reaction he gets from Gwen is one of shock! Phil and Alan are back in the chance that Rigsby’s gone to his brother’s for Christmas ad each of them’s bought their very own Christmas cracker in the form of Brenda and Lucy. Rigsby hasn’t been left out though, he’s got some bath salts and a bottle of jungle juice. He doesn’t seem to realise that it’s the though that counts, mind you if you were given African Violet bath salts the thought would worry you!

Interesting to note:

• Production# 2804
• Boxing Day at 7.45pm, opposite the 1970 film The Railway Children
• ‘For The Man Who Has Everything’ – not in Top 20 viewing figures

Did you know?

• Seen for the first time in the series, the tradesman’s entrance adjoining the set of Rigsby’s flat, reached by descending a flight of steps, is shown. A backdrop was used to suggest a view of the surrounding buildings.
• A postmistress uniform from YTV’s costume department was hired for Helen Fraser.
• Elizabeth Adare makes a guest appearance as Lucy, Philip’s girlfriend, a role she had previously played in the 1973 stage production of ‘The Banana Box’. The character’s slightly abrasive and forthright personality in the stage play  was softened for her TV performance.
• Although mentioned at the beginning of the episode, Vienna does not appear in this episode – two mews were ‘fed in’ at the beginning to establish his presence. We also hear a distraught Vienna ‘fed in’ when Rigsby aims at kick at him whilst departing Brenda’s room in the second half.
• The end credits were superimposed partly over the closing scene of the story, and partly over the “RISING DAMP” caption slide.

Dressing Rooms:-

Leonard Rossiter #12

Richard Beckinsale #11

Don Warrington #8

Gay Rose #6

Larry Martyn #7

Elizabeth Adare #5

Helen Fraser #10

‘For the Man Who Has Everything’ brought to a close the second series. The series would return on April 12^th 1977 with ‘That’s My Boy’.