| The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin | |
|---|---|
Cover of the DVD release of the 1st Series |
|
| Format | Comedy |
| Created by | David Nobbs |
| Starring | Leonard Rossiter Pauline Yates John Barron Sue Nicholls Geoffrey Palmer Trevor Adams Bruce Bould Tim Preece Sally-Jane Spencer John Horsley |
| Theme music composer | Ronnie Hazlehurst |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| No. of episodes | 21 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | John Howard Davies (Pilot only), Gareth Gwenlan |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | BBC |
| Original run | 1976 – 1979 |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows | Reggie Perrin |
The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin is a series of novels which developed into a British sitcom starring Leonard Rossiter in the title role. Both the books and television series were written by David Nobbs, and the screenplay for the first series was adapted by Nobbs from the novel, though subplots in the novel were considered too dark or risqué for television and toned down or omitted, an example being the relationship between Perrin's daughter and his brother-in-law.
The story concerns a middle-aged middle manager, Reggie Perrin, who is driven to bizarre behaviour by the pointlessness of his job at Sunshine Desserts.
The first novel in the series, The Death of Reginald Perrin, was published in 1975, with later editions retitled to match the title of the television series. Subsequent novels reversed the process, being adapted from the television series, and published as The Return of Reginald Perrin (1977, based on the 2nd television series), and The Better World of Reginald Perrin (1978, based on the 3rd television series).
The original three television 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.
Contents |
The first series was based on Nobbs's novel The Death of Reginald Perrin, retitled The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin to tie in with the television series. It retains its new title to this day.
Reginald Iolanthe Perrin is suffering a mid-life crisis, and tries to escape his dreary life. He lives at 12 Coleridge Close, part of the "Poets Estate" in a south London suburb called Climthorpe, a development different from those around it only by having the streets named after famous poets. He commutes to Sunshine Desserts where he works as a sales executive. Each morning he is 11 minutes late (this increased to 17 then 22 minutes with subsequent series) yet each morning he gives a different excuse. These become increasingly bizarre ("defective junction box, New Malden" being one of the more plausible ones) reflecting the decline of both British Rail and his own mental health. He enters the office building under the "Sunshine Desserts" sign, which, as the series progresses, loses more and more letters.
"Reggie", as he is known, daydreams in Walter Mitty style. Part of the narrative demonstrates what voices in his head are saying. Although he appears to love his wife, he fantasises about his secretary, Joan Greengross. As his behaviour becomes more erratic, he is unable to dictate letters without uttering words like "breast". Far from being offended, Joan welcomes the attention, adjusting her posture to show her figure.
The endless marketing campaigns for bizarre products, satirised in reports from the product research department, combine with Reggie's relations with his oppressive boss "CJ" and his yes-man subordinates to drive him over the edge. Ceasing to care about the consequences, he dictates offensive and condescending replies to customers.
At home things are no better. Despite his warm relationship with his wife Elizabeth he suffers from impotence. As pressures at work build, relations with his dysfunctional relatives deteriorate, especially with his incompetent brother-in-law Jimmy and son-in-law Tom, a man whose "political correctness" emphasises his pomposity. After a few reckless acts, including getting out of his car in the lion enclosure at a safari park, Reggie fakes his suicide by leaving clothes and personal effects on a beach. Before this he sends CJ an anonymous threat containing the words "blood will flow", dumping loganberry essence into a stream while CJ is angling. CJ collapses and the company doctor, Doc Morrisey, pronounces him dead. CJ opens one eye and says, "You're fired!"
Assuming disguises, Reggie encounters more of the banal and pompous side of life. Only as a buck-toothed farm labourer does he find fulfilment working in a sewage park and looking after pigs. Missing his wife, he assumes the identity of Martin Wellbourne, returned from South America, and visits her. He realises he loves her still. Elizabeth, seeing through his disguise, is happy to have him back.
In the second series (novelised as The Return of Reginald Perrin), Reggie is tired of being Martin Wellbourne and wants to be Reggie again. He reveals his true identity to his family (though his wife and daughter already knew). When CJ learns from Doc Morrissey that he is Reggie, he sacks them both.
Elizabeth goes out to work at Sunshine Desserts and Reggie returns to the pig farm; but they are both sacked after Reggie’s employer learns of his faked suicide and Elizabeth sends a rude letter telling the truth about Sunshine's products.
Reggie then opens a shop called Grot, where he sells useless products like square hoops, round dice and Tom's wine (made from sprouts, nettles and the like), hoping it will be an interesting failure. However, the products are snapped up as novelties, and Grot becomes a huge success. Reggie relapses into alienation and tries to destroy Grot from within by hiring incompetents, but this backfires as they all display unsuspected talents. Reggie finally resolves to disappear again, this time accompanied by Elizabeth.
In the third series (novelized as The Better World of Reginald Perrin), after seeing two men arguing pointlessly in a post office, Reggie and his wife open a community called Perrins for the middle-aged middle class, designed to help them become ‘better, happier people’. The project is a success until a group of people who have fallen afoul of the ‘Perrins Peace Keeping Force’ trash the place.
Reggie is then hired by CJ’s brother FJ at Amalgamated Aerosols, working directly under CJ. Reggie instantly returns to his eccentric ways, however, and the final scene shows him contemplating another trip to the Dorset coast.
In 1982, as part of The Funny Side of Christmas, a short sketch featured 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 Legacy of Reginald Perrin | |
|---|---|
Title card |
|
| Format | Comedy |
| Created by | David Nobbs |
| Starring | Pauline Yates John Barron Sue Nicholls Geoffrey Palmer Bruce Bould Tim Preece Sally-Jane Spencer John Horsley Theresa Watson |
| Theme music composer | Ronnie Hazlehurst |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| No. of episodes | 7 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Gareth Gwenlan |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | BBC |
| Original run | 1996 – 1996 |
This followup series, made long after Leonard Rossiter's death, shows Reggie's legacy: a fortune left to friends and family but with strange conditions. This was seen as a failure by viewers, because the loss of Leonard Rossiter removed some affection for the series and despite a lead man in Geoffrey Palmer, the series lacked a central character. Both book and series were titled The Legacy of Reginald Perrin.
A short-lived U.S. version was produced and broadcast on ABC in 1983 as Reggie, with Richard Mulligan in the title role.
Martin Clunes starred in a 2009 revival of the series, titled simply Reggie Perrin. The supporting cast were Fay Ripley, Wendy Craig, Geoffrey Whitehead, Neil Stuke and Lucy Liemann. The series was written by Simon Nye and original series creator David Nobbs.[1] This began transmission on 24 April 2009.
At the end of the first series he fakes suicide by leaving his clothes on a beach in Dorset and running into the sea. (While this was coincidentally similar to John Stonehouse MP, neither was inspired by the other: the novel was written before Stonehouse's faked suicide in November 1974 but not published until 1975. The phrase "do a Reggie Perrin" did enter the vernacular, however, assisted by the Stonehouse affair.)
The series introduced catchphrases that entered popular culture in the UK, including Perrin's reflexive apology for a late arrival at the office, his boss C.J.'s "I didn't get where I am today ..."; the fawning junior executives Tony Webster and David Harris-Jones with their alternating "great/super"; and Perrin's brother-in-law Major Jimmy Anderson, an army officer with no grasp of organisation or leadership, coming to eat because of a "bit of a cock-up on the catering front" (caused in the original novel by his wife's alcoholism).
The first series included the character of Mark Perrin, Reggie's son, played by David Warrick. However, David Nobbs felt he diverted the comedy from Reggie, so he was written out by going on tour with a theatre group in Africa.[2]
Although mainly produced on video and shot on studio sets, the series also incorporated innovative surreal escapism through film inserts, notably during scenes in which, whenever his mother-in-law is mentioned, Reggie visualises a hippopotamus trotting along.
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.
Writer David Nobbs went on to create the Channel 4 comedy series Fairly Secret Army, whose lead character, Harry, was inspired, if not directly related to, the Perrin character of Jimmy, and played by the same actor.
| DVD title | Country of release | Region | Date of Release | DVD company | Catalog number | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Fall And Rise Of Reginald Perrin – The Complete 1st Series | UK | 0 (PAL) | October 21, 2002 | Second Sight Films | 2NDVD 3042 | Now out of print |
| The Fall And Rise Of Reginald Perrin – The Complete 2nd Series | UK | 0 (PAL) | October 21, 2002 | Second Sight Films | 2NDVD 3048 | Now out of print |
| The Fall And Rise Of Reginald Perrin – The Complete 3rd Series | UK | 0 (PAL) | May 19, 2003 | Second Sight Films | 2NDVD 3049 | Now out of print |
| The Fall And Rise Of Reginald Perrin – The Complete Collection | UK | 0 (PAL) | October 6, 2003 | Second Sight Films | 2NDVD 3062 | 3-disc box set of all 3 series. Now out of print |
| The Fall And Rise Of Reginald Perrin – The Complete Collection | UK | 2 | April 27, 2009 | 2 Entertain | 5 Disc set of all 3 series, Legacy and The Funny Side of Christmas | |
| The Fall And Rise Of Reginald Perrin – The Complete Series | USA | 1 | May 12, 2009 | E1 Entertainment | 4 Disc set of all 3 series, and The Funny Side of Christmas |
Exterior views of the Perrin residence – 12 Coleridge Close, in the fictional suburb Climthorpe – were shot at 6 Beaufort Close, Ealing, W5. Reggie's walk to work was shot on the corner of Audley Road and The Ridings and on the corner of Ashbourne Close. All three roads are within about 100 metres of one another.
Many exterior scenes were filmed at sites in Cheltenham including Eldorado Road and the Beehive public house.[3]
The Sunshine Desserts office building is at 32–36 Telford Way, Acton.
Reggie's faked suicide, which formed part of the title sequence, occurred at Burton Freshwater Beach, Burton Bradstock, Dorset.[4]
The first episode begins with commuters making their way to Norbiton railway station in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames. The name of the station is clearly shown although Perrin's residence is in Climthorpe. The morning train's constant lateness in the earlier series is usually blamed on incidents at actual stations along the railway from Norbiton and Kingston to Waterloo.