When Don Warrington landed his first role in a new comedy called Rising Damp, the young actor found himself working alongside some impressive acting heavyweights.

“I don’t think any of us had any idea how big it would be,” says Don. “It was very well written and the characters were well defined. Its great good fortune was the combination of these characters and the casting.

“Leonard Rossiter was a great actor, Frances de la Tour is a great actress and Richard Beckinsale would have been a great actor. I was young. They came to it with great experience of comedy, and I learned a lot from working with them.

“Leonard Rossiter was intense but he taught me about comedy.”

Don, now 62, played Philip Smith, a new tenant who arrives at Rigsby’s shabby boarding house in the pilot episode of the much-loved show, voted the best of all ITV’s sitcoms.

A design and planning student who claims to be the son of an African chief, Philip brings out Rigsby’s ill-informed suspicions, but the miserly landlord is also intimidated by his tenant’s intelligence, smooth manners and sophisticated banter. And it isn’t long before Philip attracts the attention of Miss Jones, a spinster renting a neighbouring room, and the object of Rigby’s unrequited love.

“Philip was all the things black people weren’t supposed to be at that time,” says Don. “In the end Philip was who Rigsby wanted to be.”

Rising Damp, by Eric Chappell, ran on ITV from 1974 to 1978. Set in a rundown Victorian house in a university town, it follows Rupert Rigsby and the tenants living in his seedy bedsits.

While Ruth Jones is Rigsby’s object of desire, Philip and scruffy medical student Alan are the focus and foil of much of his prejudices, usually at the expense of his own dignity.

Now Don has returned to Rising Damp; directing a stage version which comes to Bradford next month. “It goes back to the original play, that’s the spine of it,” says Don. “It’s a comedy about pretence – Rigsby pretends to be educated and aristocratic, all the things he wants to be.

“The script is still strong and it stands up on its own as a piece of theatre. I’ve told the cast I’m not interested in them doing impressions.”

While he appears to be fond of his role in the show, it is clear that Don has moved on, enjoying a career that goes way beyond Rising Damp. “The association doesn’t really exist for me because it was such a long time ago,” he says. “The past is another country. I’ve been busy doing many other things since then.”

Born in Trinidad, Don’s television roles include Red Dwarf, The Crouches and Waking the Dead. On stage he has performed with the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company, and recently toured in an award-winning production of Driving Miss Daisy.

He competed on Strictly Come Dancing in 2008 and is shortly due to start filming the third series of BBC1’s Death in Paradise in the Caribbean.

In 2010 he made his directorial debut with Rum and Coca Cola at the West Yorkshire Playhouse.

*Rising Damp runs at the Alhambra from July 9 to 13. For tickets ring (01274) 432000.