British Comedy Guide
British Comedy Guide

Reggie Perrin returning to the BBC

ExclusiveTuesday 20th September 2022, 11:35am by Jay Richardson

Yes, Prime Minister. Jim Hacker (David Haig)

The BBC is bringing Reggie Perrin back from the dead once again, British Comedy Guide can exclusively reveal.

Two hour-long episodes of The Fall And Rise Of Reginald Perrin, starring The Thin Blue Line's David Haig as the frustrated fantasist, were recorded earlier this month for Radio 4 and are set to air on November 13th and 20th.

Co-starring Pip Torrens (Up The Women, The Lenny Henry Show) as CJ, Selina Griffiths (The Larkins, Benidorm) as Elizabeth, Amelia Bullmore (Brass Eye, Big Train) as Joan and Thomas Arnold as Jimmy, the two-parter has been adapted by Jon Canter from David Nobbs's original 1975 novel.

Canter, who has written for Lenny Henry, Richard Wilson, Fry & Laurie and Arabella Weir among others, feels that Nobbs's "melancholic" novel has been unfairly overshadowed by the classic BBC television version starring Leonard Rossiter, calling it "an extraordinary book".

"You don't know what tone is going to come next" he told British Comedy Guide. "Farcical? Bleak? Existential? Political?"

A previous television revival, featuring Martin Clunes in the title role, aired on BBC One for two series in 2009 and 2010. Written by Men Behaving Badly creator Simon Nye with Nobbs, it co-starred Fay Ripley, Wendy Craig, Geoffrey Whitehead, Neil Stuke and Lucy Liemann and received a lukewarm critical reception, suffering by comparison with the earlier Rossiter adaptation.

"Along with millions I'm sure, I remember the opening credits" says Carter, who deliberately didn't revisit the first television series beforehand. "John Barron as CJ, Geoffrey Palmer as Jimmy, Pauline Yates as Elizabeth, with that very 1970s pretty and long-suffering wife aura. And, of course, Leonard Rossiter with his astonishingly rapid delivery.

"And the catchphrases. Despite there being a bit of a cock-up on the memory front, I didn't get where I am today without recalling those things."

The Fall And Rise Of Reginald Perrin. Reginald Perrin (Leonard Rossiter). Copyright: BBC

Canter was approached to adapt the novel by producer-director Sally Avens (Little Lifetimes by Jenny Eclair, Subterranean Homesick Blues). The pair had previously collaborated on the Radio 4 sitcom Boswell's Lives, in which Miles Jupp played biographer James Boswell meeting various eminent celebrities throughout history, and the 2019 comedy play I'm Dying To Help, starring Tony Robinson and Haydn Gwynne.

"She knows I love writing about men in crisis" he explains.

Avens asked him to remain "true to the novel, which is melancholic, nostalgic, poetic, farcical and state-of-the-nation. And, this being radio, I felt free to use Reggie's narration as a way to convey the poetry and the melancholy in particular.

"Of course I've included the catchphrases because I knew that listeners would feel cheated if I didn't. And they'd be right, because the catchphrases feature in the novel too. But David Haig is very different from Leonard Rossiter. The yearning and the sadness he brings to it are all his own. And when he's manic, he's manic in his own way. No one could do mania like Rossiter, so he doesn't."

What Canter appreciated most about Nobbs's writing, "more than anything, is his desire to entertain ... it seems he'd never let an opportunity pass to make people laugh". He cites an incident in which Nobbs had a medical emergency in an Indian restaurant. As he was being carried out on a stretcher by paramedics, he told fellow diners: "Whatever you do, don't have the prawn jalfrezi".

Still, he hasn't been slavish in his devotion to Nobbs's story, updating it for the 21st century and excising aspects such as the novel's incestuous relationship between Jimmy and Linda, his niece.

"I thought short and hard about cutting it, then I did" he explains. "It's not just the incestuous nature of the relationship that was problematic. The relationship itself took the focus away from Reggie's mid-life crisis. I felt we could only have one mid-life crisis, so it had to be Reggie's.

He's also "minimised" the mother-in-law hippopotamus jokes.

"In fact, at Sally Avens's suggestion, the mother-in-law has hardly any lines" he notes. "It's astonishing how much you have to cut when adapting a book for the radio - even when you have two one-hour episodes to play with - and she felt that the mother-in-law jokes were predictable and, of course, offensive to women. And not just sexist either. They're hippopotamist. Those wonderful creatures deserve respect."

Jon Canter

Despite having written three of his own, The Fall And Rise Of Reginald Perrin is Canter's first novel adaptation.

"A big challenge was making sure that listeners could follow the plot, since Reggie takes on so many different personae after he 'dies' - from an aristocrat, to an Italian, to a gardener, to the Reggie-adjacent Martin Wellbourne" he points out. "So I've used a lot of narration, frequently verbatim, which of course works far better on radio than it does on television or film.

"The biggest challenge was keeping to the through-line of Reggie's Fall and Rise. Making sure that each scene set up the next. Keeping a grip. Because in a novel, you can riff. You can spend a page sounding off about a theme that's close to your heart. But in a radio drama, that just dilutes the tension."

The recordings were "a joy" he recalls. "I loved watching David Haig at work, he's a very physical radio actor, acting out every line, his arms go everywhere."

Canter is hopeful that he'll be asked to adapt Nobbs's three other Perrin novels. "All someone has to do is ask. In return, I'll say that I can't do it immediately, even if I can, in order to make myself seem in demand."

Perrin still resonates as a character, he reckons, because "Reggie is a character going through a mid-life crisis, and there as many mid-life crises today as there were in 1975 and, doubtless, 1875. Who doesn't think, in their forties, that they're living the wrong life?

"Then there's a theme even bigger than the mid-life crisis. Maybe you can call it the 'life crisis'. What if I could live somebody else's life? Wouldn't that be a simple way to obliterate many of my problems? I wouldn't have 'my' problems if I were no longer 'me' ..."

The Fall And Rise Of Reginald Perrin - Book 1

The Fall And Rise Of Reginald Perrin - Book 1
By David Nobbs

Reginald Iolanthe Perrin, the creation of comedy genius David Nobbs, is surely one of the best-loved comedy heroes of our time - in both literature and television.

So it is with great pride that Audible presents Reggie's escapades in digital audio for the very first time: we invite you to join him, and the memorable supporting characters who help him along the way, on one man's quest to avoid an everyday existence.

Reginald Perrin is sick to death with selling exotic ices at Sunshine Desserts. He's fed up with his boss C.J. who delights in making his life hell. And he's had enough of his eager young assistants who think everything is 'super'. So begins Reggie's battle against consumerism. Driven to desperation by the rat race and the unpunctuality of Britain's trains, Reggie's small eccentricities escalate to the extreme. Until, finally, he leaves behind the unacceptable face of capitalism altogether. Driven off in a motorised jelly, and creating the world's biggest loganberry slick on his way, he dumps his clothes on a Dorset beach and sets off for new adventures...

First published: Monday 16th September 2013

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  • Published: Thursday 29th July 1976
  • Publisher: Penguin Books
  • Pages: 288
  • Catalogue: 9780140042023

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The Return Of Reginald Perrin - Book 2

The Return Of Reginald Perrin - Book 2
By David Nobbs

Reginald Iolanthe Perrin, the creation of comedy genius David Nobbs, is surely one of the best-loved comedy heroes of our time - in both literature and television. So it is with great pride that Audible presents Reggie's escapades in digital audio for the very first time: we invite you to join him, and the memorable supporting characters who help him along the way, on one man's quest to avoid an everyday existence.

This hilarious sequel to The Fall And Rise Of Reginald Perrin follows his absurd trials and tribulations as he finds himself swept to fame and fortune. After stints in various jobs, Reggie decides to open a shop, called Grot, which proudly announces that everything sold in it is useless.

To Reggie's astonishment, the thing becomes a huge success, with strings of Grot shops throughout Europe. He tries to destroy the monster that he has created, but monsters are not easily defeated.

First published: Monday 23rd September 2013

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  • Published: Thursday 29th September 1977
  • Publisher: Penguin Books
  • Pages: 272
  • Catalogue: 9780140046687

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The Better World Of Reginald Perrin - Book 3

The Better World Of Reginald Perrin - Book 3
By David Nobbs

Reginald Iolanthe Perrin, the creation of comedy genius David Nobbs, is surely one of the best-loved comedy heroes of our time - in both literature and television. So it is with great pride that Audible presents Reggie's escapades in digital audio for the very first time: we invite you to join him, and the memorable supporting characters who help him along the way, on one man's quest to avoid an everyday existence.

This hilarious episode in the remarkable exploits of Reginald Perrin follows our hero on his most ambitious venture yet. Setting up a commune strictly for the middle-class and middle-aged, Reggie's therapy centre nurtures its clients, encouraging them to find the love and goodness that lurks deep inside. And he's gathered together the unlikeliest of staff to help him - including C.J. (for people's work problems), David Harris-Jones (handling their sex problems), plus Tony Webster (culture), his son-in-law Tom (sport), and Doc Morrissey (psychology). With a team like this, how can the indomitable, unconventional R.I.P. ever fail in his bid to create a Better World?

First published: Monday 30th September 2013

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  • Published: Thursday 26th April 1979
  • Publisher: Penguin Books
  • Pages: 304
  • Catalogue: 9780140051582

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