Original cast-member Richard Beckinsale died before the film could go before the cameras; consequently his medical student character Alan Moore was rewritten as Christopher Strauli's art student John. At the time Strauli was a well-known face on British screens from his regular role in another Eric Chappell sitcom from Yorkshire Television, Only When I Laugh (1979). Strauli was encouraged by Leonard Rossiter to play his character as the original actor would have; however the young actor (who had been at RADA with Beckinsale) felt uncomfortable with this suggestion as his contemporary had died only relatively recently. He would recall the part as an extremely unhappy one for him, despite the affability of the director and of the rest of the cast, but reasoned his strained relationship with Rossiter feeling unsettled by him replacing the much-missed Beckinsale.
The film is essentially an opening-up of creator Eric Chappell's original 1971 stage-play "The Banana Box".
When Joseph McGrath directed Rising Damp (1980), he had never seen a single episode of the original TV series and so he had no idea that the script recycled scenes and skits from the series. He thought it was all original material and so shot it in his own style rather than imitating the series.
Director Joseph McGrath had previously worked with Leonard Rossiter on the sitcom The Losers (1978).