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Reggie Online: The Official Reginald Perrin web site
Minutiae
This
page provides a miscellany of other regularly-featured phrases, subjects,
letters and speeches which do not fit
into
other sections. They are listed in as chronological an order as possible,
although many of the subjects listed
were
prevalent throughout all four series. The numbers on the left-hand-side
refer to the series/episodes.
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Bloopers – A list of bloopers, goofs, or continuity errors from the series. Note: The changes in sets between Series One, Episode 1 and Episode 2 are due to Episode 1 being made separately, as a pilot, with refinements being made for the rest of the series. But they are included here anyway. 1/1
Change in hallway at home (In 1/1 Reggie walked past picture, door, mirror,
door, but in 1/2 it became door, picture, mirror, door)
Episode captions - At the start of each episode in Series One and Two we are updated on the story so far by means of a summary caption: 1/2
“Reggie Perrin, 46, senior sales executive. Bored, under stress. Has begun
to behave oddly."
Street names – In Series One, David Nobbs has typified suburban life by locating the Perrins in a housing estate where all the roads are based on a particular theme. Even when their fortunes see them living elsewhere, they are always on estates with themed road names. Ser.1
Poets: Coleridge Close, Tennyson Avenue, Wordsworth Drive
Sunshine
Desserts - On his arrival at Sunshine Desserts each morning,
we would see Reggie enter the building beneath the company name, displayed
in big yellow letters. These letters had a habit of falling off. Here is
the complete list of what letters were missing each time we saw them.
Reggie’s fantasies
– As his mid-life crisis deepens, and his inability for love-making frustrates
him more and more, Reggie starts to fantasise about his secretary Joan,
imagining them in the following situations.
Reggie’s symptoms – In the first episode, he goes to visit inept Doc Morrissey in the vain hope of him giving him a useful diagnosis. This is how Reggie feels: 1/1
"...legs heavy, keep shivering, can’t concentrate, headaches, can’t finish
the crossword like I used to, nasty taste in the mouth first thing in the
morning, can’t stop thinking about sex, can't start doing anything about
sex, wake up in a sweat in the morning, keep falling asleep during 'Play
For Today'."
Doc Morrissey’s diagnosis – Joan is worried about Reggie, because of his recent behaviour and asks Doc Morrissey if he knows what might be wrong with him. Doc tells her: "Middle-age,
exhaustion, boredom, anxiety, self-disgust, misery, sensitive of inferiority,
dislike of industry, dislike of instant puddings, 25-year itch, fear, insecurity,
frustration."
Pigeon
reports – Sunshine Desserts temporarily employs a market
researcher, Esther Pigeon, to conduct consumer research in anticipation
of a new product launch. Here are her reports:
2/4 Innocuous white pill: "32% of people over 55 in the Wirral, & 2.1% of the people under 43 in the Gorbals liked the idea. 23% of those under 35 in the Wirral & 7.6% of those over 52 in the Gorbals thought it possible. 23.6% found it difficult to swallow. 26.9% of the replies in the Gorbals were rejected by the computer which suffered two fuse blowouts." 2/4 Insoluble suppositories: "9.8% of the 32% of the over-55s in the Wirral, and 36% of the 2.1% in the Gorbals who liked the pill also liked the idea. 33.7% of those in the Gorbals told us where we could put our insoluble suppositories." Reggie’s disguises – At the end of Series One , Reggie leaves his clothes on the beach and travels the Dorset countryside. He ponders what name to call himself, with helpful suggestions from a signpost and a field he passes. He later settles on Martin Wellbourne, but is misquoted by everyone he meets at his wake. At the end of Series Two, both Reggie and Elizabeth fake their suicides, and they use items on the beach to help them choose their names: 1/5 Alastair McTavish, Lionel Penfold, Cedric DeVere Fitzpatrick-Thorneycroft, Charles Bridport, Arthur Dorchester, Timothy Lyme Regis, Vernon Signpost, Henry Hedge, Sebastian Copse, Ronnie Road, Lenny Lane, Nathaniel Bike, Colin Gate, Colin Watt, Colin the first thing I see when I look over the gate : Colin Cowpat. 1/6 Australian, French tourist, Mr. Amherst, Sir Wensley “Mad Pickaxe” Amherst (mountaineer, explorer, cement tycoon, bandleader, gourmet & sex maniac), Lord Amherst, Italian tourist (Signor Antonio Stifado), Donald Potts, Welshman. 1/7 Martin Wellbourne from Brazil. “Reggie’s long-lost friend from Brazil”, who sequestered himself there “after an amorous disappointment in Sutton Coldfield” (misquoted by all attendees at his wake variously as Mervyn Wishbone; Melvin Washroom from the Argentine; Melvin Windscreen from Brazil; Melville Windpipe from Brazil; Melvin Windpipe from Mexico; Melvin Washday). 2/7 Mr. & Mrs. Cliff, Sunrise, Oliver Cromwell, Nathaniel Gutbucket, Tin Can, Dead Thrush, Slug, Rabbit Droppings, Gossamer. |
Newspaper
announcement – Reggie reads about his memorial service
in his daughter’s paper:
“There is shortly to be a memorial service for Climthorpe man Reginald I. Perrin, who is presumed to have killed himself when his clothes were found recently on a beach in Dorset.” Henry Possett languages – After Reggie’s ‘death’, Elizabeth’s new companion is Henry Possett, a man Reggie hates. While disguised as an Italian tourist, Henry tries out his Italian on him and tells Elizabeth of his multilingual abilities. He is, apparently, fluent in: Italian,
Greek, Yugoslavian, French, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, Serbo-Croat,
Russian, Spanish, with a smattering of Urdu, and a little functional Swahili.
"...On the flightpath again today" – In Series Two, Reggie, disguised as Martin Wellbourne, wonders who might be on board the aircraft that thunder overhead: 2/1
Belgian Licensed Victualler's Society, eager for cheap sweaters at Marks
& Sparks.
Job replies – After being sacked from both Sunshine Desserts AND Mr. Pelham’s piggery, Reggie is forced to write off for numerous jobs. One morning, the postman delivers not one, but five letters replying to his applications. He reads them out to Elizabeth: 1.
"'Dear Sir'…they’re sorry."
Elizabeth’s letter – With Reggie on the dole, Elizabeth has to go to work. She is employed as David Harris-Jones’ secretary, but is soon sacked for typing a letter wrongly, not at all the words David dictated to her: 2/3
"Dear Sir, Thank you for your complaint about our soggy sponges. It makes
the eleventh this week. The explanation is simple: frankly, our sponges
are
soggy. The fault lies in your customers for buying overpriced, oversweetened,
unhealthy, synthetic rubbish."
Community
ideas - Reggie has decided to open a community, and runs
through a few ideas with Elizabeth:
3/7 Smelling - At Amalgamated Aerosols, there is a smelling to launch the new range of aerosols. Each person is asked to write down what each smell reminds them of: Smell
number one:
Smell
number two:
Smell
number three:
Legacy/1 Everyone's status - Geraldine Hackstraw asks everyone who they are before she reads out Reggie' will: Linda
Perrin – "daughter"
Legacy/1 Absurdities - In order to try to fulfill Reggie's will condition, everyone tries to do something absurd: Elizabeth
– square hoops; Harris-Jones’s – dressed as Nell Gwynne/Long John Silver;
CJ – proposes to Geraldine Hackstraw, the solicitor; Jimmy – goes to a
party in a woman’s dress; Doc. – also proposes to Geraldine Hackstraw;
Linda – goes shopping on roller-skates.
Legacy/1 Absurd ideas - The staff come up with some ideas for BROSCOR: Young-age
pensions; fashion shows for over-50s; face drops; age hostels.
Miscellaneous
- a pot pourri of other facts:
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Text (c) Paul Fisher. Pictures
(c) BBC