page_title: The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin
section_title: Background and influence
hierarchical_section_title: The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin / Background and influence
caption_attribution_description: English: Nobbs' Retreat; the Coach and Horses dressed as Sunshine Desserts shortly after Reggie Perrin's writer David Nobbs death. The pub is usually the Coach and Horses on West Park in Harrogate, North Yorkshire. Taken on the afternoon of Tuesday the 1st of September 2015.
context_page_description: The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin is a British sitcom starring Leonard Rossiter in the title role. It is based on a series of novels written by David Nobbs. It was produced from 1976 to 1979. He adapted the screenplay for the first series from the novel. Some of its subplots were considered too dark or risqué for television and were toned down or omitted.
  The story concerns a middle-aged middle manager, Reginald "Reggie" Perrin, who reveals himself in the first series to be aged 46, 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. Later editions were retitled to match the title of the television series. The Return of Reginald Perrin [1977] and The Better World of Reginald Perrin [1978] were written by Nobbs to be adapted for the second and third television series; Rossiter did not want to take the series forward unless it continued to be grounded in novels.
context_section_description: At the end of the first series Reggie fakes suicide by leaving his clothes on a beach in Dorset and running into the sea. Coincidentally, John Stonehouse MP faked his own death in this manner shortly before the book was published, although 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 Warwick. 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.
  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.
  Writer David Nobbs went on to create the Channel 4 comedy series Fairly Secret Army, whose lead character, Harry, was inspired by, if not directly related to, the Perrin character of Jimmy, and also played by Geoffrey Palmer.
caption: A pub in Harrogate, North Yorkshire dressed as Sunshine Desserts following writer David Nobbs' death.
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