The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin

1 9 7 6 - 1 9 7 9  (UK)
21 x 30 minute episodes

This innovative BBC sitcom, The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, had as its central character a man falling headlong into the calamity of mid-life-crisis. The series was also an inspired swipe at middle class England and big business. 

Reginald Iolanthe Perrin had worked in the same boring job with Sunshine Desserts for 20 years. Every day he left his boring Norbitan home, took the same boring train journey, arrived at his boring office (always eleven minutes late), and was greeted by his boring secretary Joan who he dreamed of having an affair with.

His career was going nowhere and he was constantly browbeaten by his overbearing boss CJ, who was forever offering advice beginning with "I didn't get where I am today . . . " until it all became too much for Reggie and he drove himself to the seaside, threw off his clothes and faked his own suicide in order to start a new life.  

Following a spell of wandering around Britain and picking up odd jobs, such as a labourer on a pig farm, Reggie returned to suburbia in the guise of Martin Welbourne, remarried wife Elizabeth, and set up a chain of shops called Grot, which specialized in useless objects. Reggie also employed the ex-staff of the now defunct Sunshine Desserts, including his secretary, CJ, Tony Webster ("Great") and David Harris-Jones ("Super").  But things went too well for Reggie and Grot became a runaway success, steering Reggie straight back into the lifestyle that he had previously resented so much.

At the end of season two, Reggie and the entire cast staged another fake suicide, only to resurface for a third season in which Reggie founded a commune for stressed executives. Now joined by his militaristic  brother-in-law, Jimmy, who would always be on the scrounge for food with the excuse "Sorry, bit of a cock-up on the catering front.' Perrins, as the new company called itself, employed all of Reggie's old cronies once more including an indecipherable Scottish cook by the name of McBlane.

An American version (simply called Reggie) starring former Soap star Richard Mulligan, was broadcast in 1983 by ABC. Inexplicably, the BBC made the series The Legacy of Reginald Perrin in 1996, continuing the story after Reggie had been killed by an advertising hoarding (Leonard Rossiter himself had passed away in 1984), leaving his former colleagues to perform absurd tasks in order to inherit several million pounds from his will. Stripped of its central all-important character the show was doomed to certain failure.

The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin was comedy of the very highest order from a BBC at the pinnacle of its classic comedy output.