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His Life & Career - Reginald Perrin - Rising Damp

Reggie Online: The Official Reginald Perrin web site




Production Notes - Some interesting facts from behind the scenes:

Opening Titles
- Leonard stripped down to flesh-coloured trunks; a stuntman, Ken Barker, did the swimming scene.
- The beach - Freshwater Beach, Burton Bradstock, near West Bay - in Dorset was swarming with holidaymakers minutes before the scene was shot. They were all evacuated, and gathered behind the camera during filming.

Series One
– The street used for the Perrins’ residence of ‘Coleridge Close’ is Beaufort Close, in Ealing, West London.
- Reggie's street corners (Coleridge Close, Wordsworth Drive, Tennyson Avenue) were filmed at Audley Road, The Ridings and Ashbourne Close.
- The ‘Sunshine Desserts’ building was a disused warehouse located at 32-36 Telford Way, near North Acton, West London (view on Google Street View). See also these images, courtesy Steve Flewin: One - Two - Three - Four - Five.
- Reggie’s fantasies of Joan (ice creams, picnic, etc.) were filmed in Witney, Oxfordshire.
- The safari park scene in Ep. 2 was filmed at Longleat House on one of the hottest days of the year. Visitors had wisely avoided driving round couped up in a car on such a hot day, so the cars seen behind Reggie’s are driven by the production team. The lions that Reggie had a confrontation with were not real – one lay still, one lay on a plinth concealed by grass with a crewmember swishing its tail occasionally by means of a wire, and the third was a man in a costume.
- C.J.’s fishing contest in Ep.5 was filmed on a riverside near Burford, Oxfordshire.
- Reggie's night-time walk into the sea as he left his old life behind was filmed at West Bay, Bridport, Dorset.

Series Two
– The premises used as the Grot offices can be found off London’s North Circular route. The name on the building (‘Perrin Products (Grot) Ltd.’) was superimposed by shooting the building through a glass plate with the letters painted on it.
- The shop used in the opening ceremony of the 50th Grot shop in Ep.3 can be found in High Wycombe High St.
- During the trip to the seaside in Ep.6, the author David Nobbs can be seen walking past the car as the Perrins sit staring out to sea.
- The clifftop scene with Reggie, Elizabeth and C.J. in Ep.7 was filmed at 5am from a helicopter. The pilot was killed the following week when his aircraft crashed in London.

Series Three
– The houses and streets used for the location of the Perrins community can be found in a suburb of Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, including Eldorado Road near Cheltenham Spa rail station.
- Reggie's scenes in and out of the George & Dragon pub were filmed at The Beehive Hotel in Cheltenham.

The Legacy
- Many of the external shots during the recruitment drive were filmed in Buckinghamshire. Actor Trevor Adams (Tony Webster) was written out of "The Legacy..." because David Nobbs had heard he was busy with a career in law. In fact, Trevor had been made redundant, got divorced, lost the custody of his children, lost his father who had died of a stroke, and had become an alcoholic as a result. Trevor has now recovered and has returned to acting. Click here to see a 1996 picture of Trevor.
 

 

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Text (c) Paul Fisher. Pictures (c) BBC