The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin
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| The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin | |
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| Genre | Comedy |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Creator(s) | David Nobbs |
| Starring | Leonard Rossiter Pauline Yates John Barron Sue Nicholls Geoffrey Palmer Trevor Adams Bruce Bould Tim Preece Sally-Jane Spencer John Horsley |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original channel | BBC |
| Original run | 1976–1979 |
| No. of episodes | 21 |
The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin is a novel and British sitcom starring Leonard Rossiter in the title role. Both book and TV series were written by David Nobbs, and the screenplay for the first series was adapted by Nobbs from the novel, though certain subplots in the novel were considered too dark or risqué for television and toned down or omitted from the TV series.
The original three series, all of the same name, were broadcast between 1976 and 1979; a fourth, The Legacy of Reginald Perrin, also written by Nobbs, followed in 1996.
The plot hinges on the mid-life crisis experienced by Perrin as he becomes desperate to escape his dreary life. He lives in a suburb of south London called Climthorpe and commutes each workday to Sunshine Desserts where he works as a sales executive. Each morning he gives a different excuse for his lateness [1], these excuses becoming increasingly bizarre throughout the first two series, reflecting the decline of both British Rail and his own mental health. (Likewise, more and more letters disappear from Sunshine Desserts' office sign.) He constantly daydreams in a Walter Mitty style and part of the narrative demonstrates what the voices in his head are saying. Although he appears to love his wife, he fantasises about running away with his secretary, Joan Greengross, and doesn't care about the consequences of his actions at work.
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[edit] The Show's Background and Influence
At the end of the first series he fakes his own suicide by leaving his clothes on a beach in Dorset and running into the sea. (While this was coincidentally similar to a stunt pulled at around the same time by maverick MP John Stonehouse, neither was inspired by the other: the novel was written before Stonehouse's faked suicide in June 1974 but not published until 1975. The phrase "do a Reggie Perrin" did enter the vernacular, however, no doubt assisted by the media circus that surrounded the Stonehouse affair.)
The series also introduced a number of catchphrases that have entered popular culture in the UK, including Perrin's reflexive apology for a late arrival at the office, his boss CJ's "I didn't get where I am today ..."; the fawning junior executives David and Tony with their alternating "Great/Super"; and Perrin's brother-in-law Jimmy, an army officer with no grasp of organisation or leadership, coming round for a bite to eat due to a "bit of a cock-up on the catering front".
Although mainly produced on video and shot on studio sets, the series also incorporated innovative elements of surreal escapism through the use of film inserts, most notably during the numerous scenes in which, whenever his dreaded mother-in-law is mentioned, Reggie involuntarily visualises a huge hippopotamus trotting along. (This is the same technique used to illustrate the dreams and reveries of the characters in the American TV medical comedy series Scrubs.)
Occasionally characters would chorus each other exactly, another surreal tone, which was done skilfully enough to make it work comedically without affecting the vérité of the show.
[edit] Series Summaries
The first series was based on Nobbs' novel The Death of Reginald Perrin, which was retitled The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin to tie in with the TV series and retains its new title to this day.
In the second series, he remarries his wife and they build a retail business ("Grot") which sells useless items, hoping that it will be an interesting failure. Instead, the useless items are snapped up as novelties: Grot becomes a runaway success, and Reggie ends up employing all the staff from Sunshine Desserts, including his former boss, CJ. This causes the Perrins to fall into the same boredom that Reggie had suffered before, so at the end of the second series they fake a joint suicide. This series was novelised as The Return of Reginald Perrin.
In the third series, novelised as The Better World of Reginald Perrin, Reggie and his wife open a therapy centre for bored middle-aged people. Although still very funny, it lacked the energy that the first two series had contained, and the ending saw Reggie come pretty much full circle, back where he started. He is rehired by CJ's brother FJ at Amalgamated Aerosols, with CJ himself as Reggie's supervisor. The final scene sees him contemplating another trip to the beach for another possible faked suicide. In 1982, as part of a show called The Funny Side of Christmas, there was a short, festive sketch featuring the regular cast crowding Reggie's house. The sketch appears to be set during Reggie's crisis and is out of synchronisation with the other episodes.
The fourth series, made long after Leonard Rossiter's death, shows the effect of Reggie's legacy: a fortune left to his friends and family but with strange conditions attached. This was largely seen as a failure by viewers, because time had moved on and the loss of Leonard Rossiter as the main character removed any affection for the series. Both book and series were titled The Legacy of Reginald Perrin.
A US version of the series was produced in 1983 as Reggie, with ex-Soap actor Richard Mulligan replacing Rossiter in the lead role.
[edit] Cast
- Reginald Iolanthe Perrin: Leonard Rossiter
- Elizabeth Perrin, his wife: Pauline Yates
- Joan Greengross, his secretary: Sue Nicholls
- CJ, his boss: John Barron (CJ is fond of pompous statements beginning "I didn't get where I am today by ..." – except when Reggie becomes his boss, whereupon he says "I didn't get where you are today by ..."; also "Neither Mrs CJ nor I have ever...")
- David Harris-Jones, 'Yes man': Bruce Bould
- Tony Webster, 'Yes man': Trevor Adams
- Mark Perrin, their son: David Warwick (Series One only)
- Linda Patterson, their daughter: Sally-Jane Spencer
- Tom Patterson, her husband: Tim Preece (first two series and fourth series) and Leslie Schofield (third series) (Catchphrase: "I'm not a ... person.")
- Jimmy, Elizabeth's brother: Geoffrey Palmer
- Doc Morrissey, company doctor at Sunshine Desserts: John Horsley
- Seamus Finnegan, Irish Labourer with a genius for management: Derry Power (Series Two and Three only)
- Kenny McBlane, Scottish Chef at Perrin's: Joseph Brady (Series Three only)
- Prue Harris-Jones, wife of David Harris-Jones: Theresa Watson (Series Three and Four only)
[edit] See also
- Fairly Secret Army - Series featuring Geoffrey Palmer in a similar role to that of Jimmy and written by David Nobbs.
[edit] External links
