The Legacy of Reginald Perrin
| The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin | |
|---|---|
Cover of the DVD release of the 1st Series
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| Created by | David Nobbs |
| Starring |
Leonard Rossiter Pauline Yates John Barron Sue Nicholls Geoffrey Palmer Trevor Adams Bruce Bould Tim Preece (series 1–2) Leslie Schofield (series 3) Theresa Watson (series 3) 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 |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC1 |
| Original release | 8 September 1976 – 24 January 1979 |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows |
Reggie Reggie Perrin |
| The Legacy of Reginald Perrin | |
|---|---|
Title card
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| Created by | David Nobbs |
| Starring |
Pauline Yates John Barron Sue Nicholls Geoffrey Palmer Bruce Bould Tim Preece Sally-Jane Spencer John Horsley Theresa Watson Patricia Hodge Michael Fenton Stevens |
| 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 |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC |
| Original release | 1996 |
The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin is a series of novels that were 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, Reginald "Reggie" Perrin, who is driven to bizarre behaviour by the pointlessness of his job at Sunshine Desserts. The sitcom proved to be a subversion of others of the era, which were often based on bland middle-class suburban family life.
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 (The Return of Reginald Perrin [1977] and The Better World of Reginald Perrin [1978]) were written by Nobbs with the express goal of being adapted into the second and third television series, respectively; Rossiter did not want to take the series forward unless it continued to be grounded in novels.
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.
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 still retains the replacement title.
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; "escaped puma at Chessington North" being one of the least) 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.
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