Perrin prepares to rise before us once more
I didn’t get where I am today . . . by messing with a classic. Can the BBC get away with a remake of The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin without its hero actually “doing a Reggie”?
Martin Clunes is to take the Leonard Rossiter role in an update of the 1970s classic, co-written by Simon Nye and David Nobbs, the author of the original Perrin books.
The 1976 series ended with the disillusioned sales executive faking his suicide by drowning and then returning to his wife after assuming the identity of a man just arrived from Latin America. The BBC is keen to dispel any similarities to the case of John Darwin, the canoe fraudster. “We leave the series before Reggie’s escape,” explains Nye. “We linger longer over his search for a way out, so we don’t see his return.”
Nobbs adds: “The Darwin case was an insurance scam. Reggie is undergoing a real existential crisis.”
The insufferable boss CJ is retained with his catchphrases while Wendy Craig returns to sitcom as Reggie’s mum. Will Perrin’s torments prove to be a TV recession tonic?
— Sharon Stone won’t be caught out by the British winter weather. After dazzling in a Galliano gown on the red carpet at the Bafta Awards on Sunday, the actress headed to Heathrow in what we can only imagine is her eight-year-old son’s football beanie and a long Louis Vuitton coat. Or is that a wrap, folks?
