Rising Damp

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 ...