Eric Chappell (born 1933, Grantham, Lincolnshire) is an English comedy writer who wrote and co-wrote a number of the UK's biggest sitcom hits during the 1970s, '80s, and '90s. His successes include The Squirrels, Rising Damp, Only When I Laugh, The Bounder, Duty Free, Singles, Haggard and Home to Roost.He also wrote the stage plays The Banana Box (later turned into the sitcom Rising Damp), Only When I Laugh (based on the earlier sitcom), Natural Causes, Theft and Dead Reckoning.