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His Life & Career - Reginald Perrin - Rising Damp

Reggie Online: The Official Reginald Perrin web site

Scene-by-Scene Guide, including DVD Captures Gallery

Series Two, Episode Seven
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Episode 7:
Caption: "Reggie fed up with success of Grot. Tries to destroy it. Result – even more success."
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Scene 1: Reggie enters his office, the usual twenty-two minutes late, and kisses Joan passionately. Joan never bats an eyelid.
Scene 2: Reggie is a guest on Pillock Talk, a consumer affairs programme on BBC2, hosted by Colin Pillock. He tries to get Reggie to admit to selling shoddy products, to being a conman, and to explain his claim of providing a valuable social service, but he is no match for Reggie who runs rings round Mr. Pillock.
Link: Next morning, Reggie and Elizabeth are walking through the Poets Estate. Reggie has begun to sink down on his left leg every fourth step, resulting in a funny walk.  
Scene 3: Elizabeth enters Reggie's office for a file from the cabinet. Reggie grabs Joan and kisses her. Elizabeth notices but says nothing, claiming that he wouldn't have done it if he'd meant it. Elizabeth leaves, and Joan tells him he was very good on television the previous night.
Scene 4: Reggie is being interviewed by Sheridan Honeydew on ITV's The World Tomorrow Today. Reggie sidesteps his questions and the discussion gets heated when yesterday's BBC1 interview is mentioned, against the wishes of Mr. Honeydew. Reggie tells the viewers the whole thing is boring and to switch over to a Swedish film on BBC2.
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Link: Next morning, the Perrins are walking to the railway station. Reggie's funny walk is now more pronounced, and Elizabeth chides him over it.
Scene 5: Tony is in Reggie's office when he arrives. He has come to pass a comment on last night's interview. The comment is "Great!". Just to complement it, David Harris-Jones puts his head round the door to say "Super!"
Scene 6: BBC2 welcomes Reginald Perrin onto its money programme Hi Finance, hosted by Peregrine Trembleby. Reggie avoids all of Mr. Trembleby's questions about Grot's plans for expansion into Europe, and instead talks about the usefulness or otherwise of his cruet sets with no holes.
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Link: Reggie's walk down Coleridge Close is now even more pronounced, with a forward thrust of his briefcase thrown in.
Scene 7: Doc Morrissey, David and C.J. all come to Reggie's office to congratulate him on his interviews. Reggie despairs. C.J. stays behind to voice his concerns over the Germans insistence on calling their Grot shops Grotfabrieken Rubbishhausen. After dictating two rude letters to Joan, Reggie thanks C.J. for wasting his time on the matter and agrees with the Germans. C.J. leaves. A prospective employee, Mr. Herbert, knocks and enters, and Reggie sees it a perfect opportunity to shock a stranger. He invites him to sit down, then pulls the chair from beneath him, insults him about his dandruff and terrible taste in socks. Reggie suddenly regrets his comments and takes Mr. Herbert by the hands, telling him he can take the job, and invites him out for dinner. Mr. Herbert thinks Reggie is sexually attracted to him and runs off. He tells Joan of the disaster and asks her to arrange a meeting between a branch manager and himself, where he will pretend to be camp.
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Scene 8: Reggie is in full mincing mode when Percy Lisburn arrives. He plays a homosexual, then instantly regrets it. He is astonished when Mr. Lisburn turns out to be gay himself, inviting him to a business orgy. He dismisses Mr. Lisburn like a flash. He decides to make one supreme last effort.
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Scene 9: Reggie goes to the local pub in Climthorpe dressed in a blue dress, tights, wig and brassiere. His neighbours recognise him instantly and talk to him as though nothing was out of the ordinary. Reggie despairs again and walks off.
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Scene 10: At home, Reggie broaches the subject of his first faked suicide, and asks Elizabeth to accompany him on another one. They decide to say goodbye to the family first, but without them realising it.
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Scene 11: Tom, Linda and Jimmy come round, and Elizabeth makes up the story of her and Reggie going to the Woking flower show, and Reggie asks each of them what they would like to say to them if it were the last time they were to see each other for a long time. Tom thanks Reggie for giving him job satisfaction, Jimmy says there's been another cock-up on the catering front, and Elizabeth proposes a toast.
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Scene 12: Reggie and Elizabeth have driven to the same town where Reggie faked his first suicide. He walks her down to the beach where it all happened, and they start to undress. They both don tramps coats, false teeth and think-lensed glasses.
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Link: The anonymous couple walk along the clifftops trying to think of a new name. They look down onto the beach for inspiration. Rejecting Mr. and Mrs. Dead Thrush and Mr. and Mrs. Tin Can, they instead agree on Mr. and Mrs. Gossamer.
Scene 13: Reggie and Elizabeth are seated on a clifftop bench, enjoying the early morning sun. A tramp approaches and asks for ten pence for a cup of tea. The phrase he uses sounds familiar. It is C.J. He points towards the nearby telescope. To their utter amazement, Reggie and Elizabeth see the beach is buzzing with people shedding their clothes, and with them their dreary lives, for new ones.
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