David Nobbs

Reggie Perrin rides again

The much-loved Reggie Perrin, having fallen and risen, rises again - with Martin Clunes in the role made famous by Leonard Rossiter. The Independent joins the cast and writers on set.

Writer David Nobbs explains

The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin was a massive success for writer David Nobbs in the 1970s. He explains why it is back from the dead.

It does not say much about broadcasters' confidence in new writing when they fall back on reviving something tried and tested. There seems to be a lot of this about at the moment. It has just been confirmed by the BBC that Martin Clunes is going to recreate the classic lead role made famous in the seventies by Leonard Rossiter, in a remake of The Fall And Rise Of Reginald Perrin. It will now be called simply Perrin and no doubt there will be lots of headlines about Reggie behaving very badly.

Clunes is always good value and quality writer Simon Nye is working on it with Reggie's creator David Nobbs, which sounds good. The only thing that worries me is that we have slightly been here before with The Legacy of Reginald Perrin, the 1996 series that, unlike the forthcoming version gathered together original cast members, but like the forthcoming version, lacked the real star, Leonard Rossiter, due to Rossiter being dead. Which is a bit like Hamlet without Hamlet.

The strange afterlife of Reginald Perrin

A character whose initials spell RIP was always destined more for death than resurrection but Reginald Iolanthe Perrin is to rise again, with Martin Clunes stepping into the shoes that Leonard Rossiter left on the beach when he faked his own demise in the David Nobbs comedy that ran on BBC1 from 1976-1979.

What do you look for in a workmate? A talent for footie? A nice little bum? Or access to a never-ending supply of biscuits? Fortunately for Rod Millet, he's got all three, which makes him a shoo-in for the post of assistant curator at a bijou gallery known as The Maltby Collection. Unfortunately for Rod Millet, on the very day that he starts work, the powers-that-be decide the museum must close.

Rod's colleagues immediately set about finding themselves comfy billets elsewhere - but the new boy decides to fight for the institution's survival ...

David Nobbs's sitcom stars Julian Rhind-Tutt as the biscuity idealist, Rachel Atkins as his smouldering boss, and Geoffrey Palmer as the self-centred museum director.

The best thing about Fairly Secret Army was the trailer, a not uncommon state of affairs. In this Truscott (Geoffrey Palmer) listed his natural enemies, and the language turned into a cascading stream of consciousness, all spume and spary and the occasional lunatic salmon leaping joyously