Martin Clunes

Martin Clunes is the best thing about this ambitious revival of a great sitcom. What made Leonard Rossiter's suburban middle-manager so loveable in the 1970s original was the way he combined hangdog disillusion with a sense of mischief, and Clunes hits the same notes. But he's a bigger, taller actor: where Rossiter was the little man caught up in the system, Clunes seems to have outgrown it.

Today's Reggie works not at Sunshine Desserts but next door at Groomtech, where he's in charge of developing a ten-blade disposable razor. He has a gormless secretary, two breathless (and unfunny) underlings and an overbearing, CJ-ish boss called Chris, who at one point does say, "I didn't get where I am today..." The trouble is, office egomania has evolved since the days of CJ, in ways that Peep Show and The Office have mocked brilliantly.

Against the likes of them, this seems like a blunt instrument. It has good moments (Reggie's suggestion for a playground: "Put in a rifle range - kid's love that"). But like Reggie's commuter trains, it's faltering, unreliable and a bit behind the times.

The modern-day adaptation of the classic 1970s sitcom The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin begins tonight, with Martin Clunes in the title role. He brings a very different, cuddlier character to the manic Perrin that Leonard Rossiter played. There's far less of the real angst that defined the original.

There must be plenty of people who question the sense in reviving a sitcom so closely associated with Leonard Rossiter. But if you come to it fresh and don't make comparisons, Reggie Perrin has plenty going for it. For one thing, the story of a man being driven slowly insane in a mind-numbingly tedious job ought to be timeless - or, at least, it seemed timeless until the financial crisis made us pathetically grateful to have any job at all. It also features a strong cast led by Martin Clunes, and much of it is a lot funnier than most run-of-the-mill sitcoms. But comedy has moved on.

You'd have to be very brave or very foolish to tackle a remake of classic 1970s sitcom The Fall And Rise Of Reginald Perrin. As this was written by the novel's author David Nobbs together with Men Behaving Badly creator Simon Nye, it's definitely a gamble worth taking.

It helps that Martin Clunes, who has the unenviable task of stepping into Leonard Rossiter's shoes as the downtrodden office man, looks nothing like the 70s star. Viewers who remember the original will be preoccupied with making comparisons. So what else is different?

Modernisation means that even Reggie's fantasy life must be politically correct - so no more hippo fantasies. And as his boss Chris Jackson, Neil Stuke has a the difficult job of measuring up to John Barron's masterful CJ.

What is strange is the fanciful excuses Reggie used to give each morning for why he was late now sound exactly like announcements commuters hear every day. "Wrong kind of passenger at South Norwood?" Why not?

Martin Clunes is a first-rate comedy actor, but also a very courageous one if he's willing to tackle a character created by comic genius Leonard Rossiter. Yet although Clunes lacks Rossiter's manic edge, nobody does grumpy curmudgeon better and there are other differences in the series that augur well, not least that Perrin creator David Nobbs has co-written this series with Men Behaving Badly creator Simon Nye, who understands Clunes' talent well.

Characters like Wendy Craig's Marion, Reggie's disapproving mum, are refreshingly new and there's promise in the casting of Fay Ripley as Perrin's wife and Geoffrey Whitehead as her father.

Martin Clunes on playing Reggie Perrin

Martin Clunes talks about why he doesn't care what critics and 'pedants' think of his portrayal of a 21st-century Reggie Perrin.

Martin Clunes takes on Reggie Perrin

Thirty years later, Martin Clunes replaces Leonard Rossiter as the sitcom drone in the throes of a mid-life crisis. The Times reports from the set.

Martin Clunes Interview

Martin Clunes says his own life could not be more different from the unhappy salesman desperate to escape his dull life.

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 Telegraph joins the cast and writers on set.

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.