The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin
- TV Series
- 1976–1979
- 30m
This 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.This 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.This 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.
- Nominated for 7 BAFTA Awards
- 7 nominations total
Featured reviews
And then recite the lines to my friends who'd missed the two seasons that aired.
PERRIN was possibly the first series to use seemingly unconnected visuals to illustrate a character's state of mind, a trick later used in series like DREAM ON and ALLIE McBEAL.
I'm still struck by the role the surf plays in PERRIN as a place to dump old cares, worries, and lives in exchange for new lives. The final sequence of the second season has also stayed with me-- Reggie and his wife go to the beach to assume new lives, then discover an entire beach full of people doing the same thing. Reggie smiles and says "Look Elizabeth, it's catching." In the past 20 years, when things looked bleak, I'd think of finding my way to that beach....
That the series is finally on videotape is fantastic. That there is a third season I never knew about is beyond words!!!!
What average Joe suffering through the daily grind does not have a bit of Reggie Perrin hidden inside, boiling and bubbling just under the surface?
Reginald Perrin is perhaps the most thoughtful character ever seen in a comedy series. He is a deep and complex man.
Supporting characters each have an unforgettable "trademark" (for lack of a better term)... Sometimes direct, sometimes symbolic -- the creator of Reggie Perrin effortlessly distills the essence of real life oddities.
Brilliant and funny. On the whole, this is the only British comedy I put ahead of MONTY PYTHON and FAWLTY TOWERS. Reginald Perrin is worthy of such a supreme compliment. A sitcom Masterpiece. All else is just Grot.
Comedy-City, Arizona! Super! Great!
Reggie was quite different to the many other TV comedies of the seventies in the fact that the programme (adapted from the writer's novels) continued the story in a 'serial' fashion which was that of middle-aged, rebel, Reginald Perrin, who suffers a breakdown with hillarious results and resorts to faking his own death. This all happens in the first series but i'm sure that many laughs beyond Reggie's original six misadventures.
This was one of my favorite Britcoms, although I haven't seen it in quite a while. Having two great Britcom actors: Leonard Rossiter ("Rising Damp") and Geoffrey Palmer ("Butterflies"), this series was bound to be a winner. Rossiter, of course, as the title character, really is almost a one-man show with everyone else supporting him rather than having major roles. When Perrin, talking to himself after his failed (or, some would say, faked) suicide attempt, realizes he cannot go back home, and decides that he will use, as his new name, the first thing he sees as he looks over a fence, then realizes that "cow pat" would NOT be a good name, one knows that the series is just getting started, and will really take off from there.
PLEASE make this available on DVD!
Write or call:
BBC Worldwide Americas 747 3rd Avenue 6th floor NY, NY 10017 USA Tel: 001 212 705 9300 Fax: 001 212 888 0576
It's available in the UK, I just think they don't realize what a fan base there is here in the US. I just re-read both "The Fall and Rise of" and "The Return of" for the hundredth time, but I'd give anything to own the series.
Did you know
- TriviaReal-life Labour MP (Member of Parliament) John Stonehouse faked his own suicide in exactly the same way as Reginald Perrin - in the summer of 1974 he left his clothes on a beach in Miami and disappeared. However this was pure coincidence: David Nobbs wrote his novel "The Death of Reginald Perrin" early in 1974, before Stonehouse disappeared (so Nobbs couldn't have based the novel on Stonehouse's disappearance) but the novel wasn't published until 1975, after the MP vanished (so Stonehouse couldn't have got ideas for his disappearance by reading the novel). It became known as "Doing a Reggie", a phrase Nobbs remained unhappy about.
- GoofsThe view out of the Perrins' living room window of other houses opposite their own is a photograph printed on a backcloth. This cloth can often be seen waving back and forth.
- Quotes
[Jimmy is explaining to Reggie what kinds of people his secret army will be against]
Jimmy Anderson: Wreckers of law and order. Communists, Maoists, Trotskyists, neo-Trotskyists, crypto-Trotskyists, union leaders, Communist union leaders, atheists, agnostics, long-haired weirdos, short-haired weirdos, vandals, hooligans, football supporters, namby-pamby probation officers, rapists, papists, papist rapists, foreign surgeons - headshrinkers, who ought to be locked up, Wedgwood Benn, keg bitter, punk rock, glue-sniffers, "Play For Today", Clive Jenkins, Roy Jenkins, Up Jenkins, up everybody's, Chinese restaurants - why do you think Windsor Castle is ringed with Chinese restaurants?
Reginald Perrin: You realise the sort of people you're going to attract, don't you, Jimmy? Thugs, bully-boys, psychopaths, sacked policemen, security guards, sacked security guards, racialists, Paki-bashers, queer-bashers, Chink-bashers, anybody-bashers, rear Admirals, queer admirals, Vice Admirals, fascists, neo-fascists, crypto-fascists, loyalists, neo-loyalists, crypto-loyalists.
Jimmy Anderson: Do you think so? I thought recruitment might be difficult.
- ConnectionsFeatured in 'Oh, Miss Jones!': The Very Best of Leonard Rossiter (1996)
- How many seasons does The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin have?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Language
- Also known as
- Caída y auge de Reginald Perrin
- Filming locations
- 19 Eldorado Crescent, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England, UK(as Perrins Community - Series 3)
- See more company credits at IMDbPro