Caption:
“Reginald Perrin, 46, of Sunshine Desserts. Bored, under stress. Has begun to behave very oddly!”
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Friday afternoon. In his office, Reggie opens a package that has arrived on his desk, to find a tall three-tier 'Ice Cream Pagoda'. He decides it is time to go home, but not before chasing the window repair man on the phone about mending his broken window. He asks Joan about her plans for the weekend, fantasises about them rolling on the floor of a laundrette, then tells her that "something might crop up this weekend". He has decided to have an affair, instead of going to his mother-in-law's and reading all her old copies of Reader's Digest.
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Saturday morning. Reggie is rummaging through some things from the attic, and is not listening to Elizabeth when she asks him if he wants meat or fish from the shops. She blames him for them never having a proper conversation anymore, so he tries her with an interview-style discussion about her opinions on the part high-rise housing plays on the rise in suburban hooliganism. She changes the subject by reminding him about their Sunday visit to her mother's, but Reggie has a fantasy about him and Joan on the garden swing, and makes his excuses not to go. When Elizabeth has left for the shops, he rings Joan to tell her that "something has cropped up". He fantasises about them both enjoying Sunday lunch at a table in the middle of a field. Watch video
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Sunday morning. Reggie is nervous to get Elizabeth out of the way before Joan arrives. After she has left he practices welcoming Joan into the house, but is so nervous he has to change his shirt twice. Eventually she arrives, and inbetween inopportune phone calls from Elizabeth they enjoy a sherry, and Reggie forces a kiss on her. Joan is amazed, and starts to kiss Reggie all over his face, letting him know their feelings are mutual. Reggie is amazed at this, and becomes shy. Joan leads him upstairs, and into Mark's bedroom where Reggie turns the portrait of Her Majesty to the wall. Joan asks him to undress her, but the doorbell rings. Reggie is relieved to see anybody, but it turns out to be his layabout son Mark. He is a fan of Cockney rhyming slang and his dad can't keep up with him. He moans at Mark about not being presentably dressed for a Sunday, and only just manages to stop Mark from going upstairs to get some other clothes. He sends him into the kitchen then rushes up to tell Joan to move to Linda's bedroom. Then Reggie's son-in-law Tom arrives. He wants to go into Linda's bedroom to settle a bet about the view from the window there, so Reggie advises Joan to climb down the drainpipe outside the window. The doorbell rings for a third time. It's Jimmy, scrounging for food again. Reggie realises that Elizabeth has called all three the day before on the phone, and thinks she's done it on purpose to keep an eye on Reggie while she's away. Reggie tries to stop everyone from going upstairs or looking out of the window as Joan is due to crawl past by showing them some of the things he retrieved from the attic, including an old wedding photo, a stuffed trout and an empty tube of Nurse Jenkins' Wart Eradicator. Jimmy glances out of the window and catches sight of Joan crawling through the shrubbery. Reggie says it's a local lady who's a bit of a loony, and that he always lets her crawl through his shrubbery. Watch video
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Monday. Reggie sheepishly enters the office, asks Joan if she'd had a nice weekend, then instantly regrets it. The Ice Cream Pagoda is still on his desk, and he notices the window has still not been mended. He complains on the phone to Mr. Burlap, the maintenance man, about 'both' windows not having been repaired, but Joan corrects him that only one window is broken. Reggie rectifies the situation by throwing the Ice Cream Pagoda through a second window. Watch video clip
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