Celebrated Lincolnshire playwright Eric Chappell dies aged 88

In what was possibly his final interview, Mr Chappell, who lived in Barrowby, told Lincolnshire World’s Rachel Armitage what drove his desire to write.

“I was working for the electricity board in Hinckley and I wrote some truly awful novels,” he recalls, “Then one day, I was in my mid 30s and decided to write a play and it became The Banana Box.”

This turned out to be the first of Eric’s 200 TV comedy scripts and 25 plays Eric, with The Banana Box debuting at the Leicester Phoenix theatre and going on to star in the London West End.The Banana Box ended up inspiring Bafta award-winning TV comedy Rising Damp, starring Leonard Rossite and Frances De La Tour, which also won the Evening Standard Film award for Best Comedy.

“Leonard was quite insistent on being creative with his performance and he worked me very hard,” Eric remembers, “But he was brilliant to work with.”

Other famous Eric Chappell plays include Home to Roost – which starred John Thaw – Duty Free and Only When I Laugh, with James Bowlam, Peter Bowles and Richard Wilson.

St Peter’s Hill Players in Grantham are performing one of his plays – Wife After Death, which starred legendary actor Tom Conti in 2013 – on May 5, 6 and 7 (tickets are available here).