The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin



The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin is a British sitcom developed from a series of novels by David Nobbs. The series stars Leonard Rossiter as Reginald "Reggie" Perrin, an advertising executive at Sunshine Desserts.

In the 80s adapted as an American sitcom called Reggie! with Richard Mulligan in the title role, and more recently remade as Reggie Perrin, with Martin Clunes in the title role.

""Are you trying to tell me you're providing a valuable social service?"
 * All Men Are Perverts: Reginald likes to fantasize about him and his secretary suggestively licking ice cream cones, of making love to her on his desk in the middle of a field, &c.. His doctor spends his downtime looking at porn in his office.
 * All for Nothing: Reggie ends up exactly where he started off; stuck in a cruel and completely nonsensical world that he can no longer stand.
 * Allergic to Routine: Reginald Perrin, whose routine eventually drives him round the bend.
 * He's also allergic to the season-spanning routine of destroying everything he's previously created.
 * Attending Your Own Funeral: Reginald
 * Black Comedy: Although it's farcical and ridiculous, the first series especially is a catalogue of a man in the middle of a nervous breakdown.
 * Camp Gay: Reggie becomes this in a futile effort to shock people who have become used to his eccentricities.
 * Catch Phrase: Many that have entered common usage, especially in business. See Mad Libs Catchphrase below.
 * Couch Gag: similarly to Fawlty Towers, the Sunshine Desserts sign was always humourously delapidated.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Reggie.

"I'm not trying to tell you, I'm succeeding. If I'd said 'I like squashy bananas' I would have been failing to say 'I am providing a valuable social service', but I didn't say 'I like squashy bananas', I said 'I am providing a valuable social service', thus succeeding brilliantly in saying 'I am providing a valuable social service'.""

"Reggie: "It almost rhymes and scans properly, that's the important thing. This is exactly what I'm paying you for."
 * Downer Ending: The series ends with Reggie on his way back to the Dorset coast, possibly to kill himself for real.
 * Every Episode Ending: Every episode of series one (except the last) ends with a despairing scream from Reginald.
 * Faking the Dead: Spoofed in the opening credits, later played straight.
 * Giftedly Bad: Tom's wine and advertising slogans for Grot.

Tom:: "Thank you. Well, I'll just give you one more, perhaps: 'Grot is the ideal place for gifts, because they're all on one floor, so there aren't any lifts.' They aren't all of that standard, of course.""

"CJ: "I didn't get where I am today by [action/behavior]"
 * Granola Girl: Reggie's son-in-law, Tom, who distills his own wine, smokes brier pipes, and insists that his children be treated not as children but as "tiny adults".
 * Hey, It's That Guy:
 * Geoffrey Palmer as Reggie's brother-in-law, Jimmy.
 * CJ is played by John Barron, who later had a recurring role as Sir Ian Whitchurch on Yes Minister
 * Hurricane of Puns: Reggie is quite fond of these.
 * Hypocritical Humour: "I'm not a petty man..." as Reggie launches into a neurotic tirade about the tea lady refusing to save him a macaroon in 1971.
 * "I didn't get where I am today by talking in cliches' from CJ
 * Imagine Spot: Reginald provides these all the time.
 * I Take Offense to That Last One: After Reggie has been insulting CL, the German sales rep, since the conversation started, he finally snaps after another barb about flatulence.
 * Large Ham: CJ
 * Last Second Word Swap: "... and with the coming of metrication *office phone begins ringing* I feel confident -- no, the advent, the advent of metrication -- I feel confident that the bloody phone will ring all day."
 * Mad Libs Catchphrase: Lots, which have entered everyday use.

CJ: "Neither I, nor Mrs CJ, have ever [action]"

Jimmy: "Bit of a cock-up on the ____ front"

Tom: "I'm not really an ____ person""

""There's no smoke without the worm turning.""
 * Madden Into Misanthropy: The premise of the show: Reggie one day decides he has had enough of being polite and trapped in his meaningless world, and starts cultivating an antisocial persona.
 * Malaproper: One of the symptoms of Reggie's rapidly declining mental state.
 * Metaphorgotten: CJ is quite prone to these.

""Well we're beginning to make headway. Some of our mousses are holding their own in the Rhennish Palatinate, and flans are heating up in Schleswig-Holstein.""
 * National Stereotypes: Intentionally invoked and later subverted with Seamus Finnegan, the Irish labourer who Reggie hires as his admin officer in a pub (quaffing Guiness, naturally). A self-confessed hard-drinking lazy gambler, he soon turns out to be hyper-competent, much to Reggie's annoyance.
 * Not That There's Anything Wrong With That: One of the boss' toadies is Mistaken for Gay after overindulging at a party and does a desperate Not That There's Anything Wrong With That speech, going overboard with panic when he thinks his boss might be reading more into his use of the stock phrase "Some of my best friends are ..." than he intends.
 * Obfuscating Stupidity: Elizabeth, who pretends not to realise that Martin is in fact Reginald.
 * Running Gag: Plenty, often Once an Episode at least. One example is Reggie drifting into an Imagine Spot of a hippo wallowing in mud every time his mother-in-law is mentioned.
 * 18 minutes late, correcting TV Tropes entry, missed 7:15 train, had to wait for 7:30 train.
 * I didn't get where I am today by modifying TV Tropes pages for 40-year-old shows during my lunch hour!
 * Serious Business: The employees of Sunshine Desserts treat the most ludicrous news on various idiotic puddings with complete professionalism.


 * Sexy Secretary: Perrin's secretary, Joan. Reginald thinks so, anyway, and often fantasizes about her with her hair (and more) down.
 * Shrinking Violet: David
 * Springtime for Hitler: Grots, run as Take That to capitalism ends up being a massive success.
 * Those Two Guys: Tony and David.
 * Great!
 * Super!
 * Trans Atlantic Equivalent: VERY briefly adapted into an American sitcom called Reggie! starring Richard Mulligan in the 80s at some point between his playing Burt on Soap and Dr Westin on Empty Nest.
 * Violent Glaswegian: Kenny McBlane, the cook from Series Three who is always muttering indeciperable gibberish and almost always weilding something very sharp in his time on-camera.
 * Yes Man: Whenever Reggie or CJ suggests something, Tony and David respectively say "Great!" and "Super!"