The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin - s01e04 - The Bizarre Dinner Party

The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin
Season One Episode Four - Sept 29 1976
Still at her mother's house, Elizabeth rings Reggie to remind him that she had planned a dinner party but Reggie does not cancel it. Instead he asks C.J. and his wife, young colleague David, who toadies to C.J., the well-endowed Davina from the custards department and his rude uncle Percy, who makes sexist comments about Davina. Then he tells them that there is no food as he has made a donation to Oxfam instead. Next morning he finds a hung over David has stayed the night and can remember nothing of the evening before, not even when his trousers fell down, exposing his ...

[@globaltvandmovies4905]

Masterpiece comedy starring the genius Leonard Rossiter. He is totally brilliant in the role. The rest of the cast are also wonderful. Brilliant writing from David nobbs.

[@borisblade564]

It's sad really how the sit com level has dropped now to almost zero when you look at comedy of this calibre now,from David nobbs the writer to the stellar cast of Reginald and cj and the rest this is absolute gold

[@colinellesmere]

This, like Black Adder, Porridge, Till Death Do Us Part, is so much more than just comedy.

[@Portugal2025]

I would certainly add Fawlty Towers and My Family

[@patrickgallimore6896]

Brilliant sitcom!...Rossiter was magnificent, as Perrin...His acting is sublime...Looking forward to watching all the KZbin episodes of "The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin".

[@Dan-cs5mg]

Timeless portrayal of how isolating a mental breakdown can be.

[@runswithwindz9875]

Good comment

[@BruceAlarie]

that anti gay underwear scene was the funniest scene of the series,but there are so many great moments

[@geoffgeoff5586]

Much as I admire the great talent of Martin Clunes his portrayal of dear Reggie could never match Leonard Rossiter...he IS Reggie. A masterclass in acting.

[@robertfrankgill5962]

Perhaps Reginald Perrin was Leonard Rossiter as much as the other way round. Or even more. But that's just hindsight on my part.

[@Portugal2025]

Leonard was also a wonderful dramatic actor- he left us far too early

[@Martindyna]

One of the best episodes. My late Father was a bit like Uncle Percy .... I remember once when I was pushing him along a corridor in Wexham Park Hospital he said in a loud voice, referring to a lady walking in front of us, `She's got a substantial pair of pins on her' 😁😁. Luckily the lady appeared to not hear this judgement.

[@AnnihilatingAngel]

"Perhaps you'd be better off running a boutique. Or a wine bar. Or a hair-dressing salon....:oD

[@Richie-Rich855]

In a couple years I'll be able to get away with saying... what a lovely pair.......don't need binoculars to see your knockers.....🤣

[@Martindyna]

Barbara Windsor to man eating fruit: Oh what a lovely looking pear ! Man to Barbara: You took the words right out of my mouth ! [Carry on Doctor]

[@BruceAlarie]

id like to think ill always have a filter to what i say --- but i may drop that filter from time to time to surprize and bewilder those around me

[@EM-yk1dw]

I love the scenes with CJ and the Yes men.

[@georgej851]

Super!

[@EM-yk1dw]

@@sprishka666 Super!

[@spencerfrankclayton4348]

"Yes, CJ."

[@spencerfrankclayton4348]

"No, CJ."

[@peterelmer9114]

A superb series showing the brilliance of Leonard Rossiter. Many of the cast were also excellent too and this series imo is up there with the very best of British comedy. However, I do feel that it was overdone in the end.

[@lordstanleyjr2015]

Uncle Percy was interviewed for a job on Are You Being Served.

[@BenFleury]

I have nothing against homosexuals, in fact some of my best friends….NOOO!!! 😂😂😂

[@geoffreycarson2311]

WHAT a Lovely Pair !!!!😂True g

[@leopold7562]

How strange this is... A couple of years back, I picked up a copy of the Entire Reginald Perrin (basically all of the Reginald Perrin books, the first of which is the basis of this series) and finally got around to start reading it a couple of weeks ago. So it's a bit of a surprise that this pitched up in the recommended list. I recall watching the show years ago and I'd forgotten most of it, so it was interesting to watch this episode again with the chapters it covers still relatively fresh in my mind. Naturally, I was expecting lots of the book to be either glossed over (such as Uncle Percy Spillinger's courting of Davina Letts-Wilkinson) or skipped entirely (such as Reggie's continued suffering in the stifling heat while Elizabeth is away), but I was a bit surprised that some bits were overdone. The meeting with Mr. Campbell-Lewiston was a bit more insult laden, for one. But the main one that I spotted, which annoyed me intensely, was those damn chairs in CJ's office. In the book, you get all the way past the speech at the conference (which is the episode after this one, I guess) and they are mentioned just once in the book, but it happens many times in just this one episode and it's pretty obvious that it's done simply for a cheap laugh. I'm not sure this was what David Nobbs would've wanted, really...

[@GirGir183]

That poor hippo had no idea that it was the "Reggie Perrin's mother-in-law" hippo.

[@whyyyyou]

Get a kick out of the unexpected, startling sight gags of Reggie imagining C J to be either a dog or a rabbit, and then Frankenstein's Monster. 19:23 & 23:10

[@smile768]

Thanks for putting this on. I watched the first 2 episodes on BBC but for some reason the other episodes were expunged (I suspect PC snowflakes have censored it, because as we know the 70s never existed)

[@MikeWildePredator]

Uncle Percy has got Uncle Albert Trotter’s Bit On The Side, Same White Hair & Beard, Same Phoney Stories, as well.

[@williammeyer214]

Is that Capt. Quinn from Barry Lyndon? A comedic genius. And the “Farty Chairs work better than the “Comfy Chair” of the Spanish Inquisition

[@michaelnash2138]

Also Dr. Andre Smizlov from 2001:a Space Odyssey. Kubrick did like using Mr. Rossiter.

[@Jizzlewobbwtfcus]

WOW! That short bearded fellow! I recognized him instantly from the Peter Sellers film _The Pink Panther Strikes Again_ . He played Short the Gardener. The reason I bring that up is because Leonard Rossiter was in that film too so thought it was a nice connection.

[@blipblip88]

brilliant. has the same wonderful essence of fawlty towers!

[@matuko313]

I've always loved this show. It's very faithful to the novels, except the TV adaptation omits the love affair between Jimmy and Reggie's daughter. A bit too incesty, I guess.

[@stephenbrown1622]

I keep forgetting that Joan is also Gail platts mum in coronation street

[@jackharkins1689]

GOODBYE REGGIE!

[@BruceAlarie]

i love cjs blunt randomness

[@Sjmby95]

I feel like that sometimes

[@BruceAlarie]

chesty or examined??

[@mariansaldo1]

I'm suspecting this is where the writers of scrubs got the idea for their format.

[@chipperleon7204]

I take it you mean all the cutaways and weird bits

[@justmadeit2]

I wonder what Americans make of this, they are probably baffled by it all !!

[@AnnihilatingAngel]

Not this one: I HOWLED when I first saw it on PBS in the early '80s.

[@mikkiduf]

Love this! Not baffled at all, but I lived in the UK for 3 years. British comedy is so much better than American comedy!

[@relicofgold]

Are you kidding? My favorite series of all time, bar none, and I'm from west coast USA.

[@illaveyoubutler3588]

They made their own version called ‘Reggie’.....ITV showed it here

[@justmadeit2]

@@illaveyoubutler3588 Seriously! ?

[@graham8405]

Goodbye Reggie!

[@sonanderson6351]

“During the war”

[@MsDjessa]

Any one else get the feeling this slightly like a live action version of Stressed Eric?

[@BossBass7o7]

No.

[@BruceAlarie]

never heard of it

[@miles-thesleeper-monroe8466]

Who doesn't like a nice set of knockers and saucy jokes about them?

[@piripi40]

My personal theory is that Reggie has ADHD (inattentive type). Nobody would have recognised that in the 70s, certainly not Doc Morrisey

[@BruceAlarie]

we over diagnose things now admit it ----when i was little you were simply repremanded and told to pay attention

[@steffanhoffmann]

Cancel Culture and all that nonsense, probably wouldn't allow this nowadays. More's the pity. Sitcoms are awful without this type of writing. Jon Cleese said it years ago and he was correct.

[@JBTV1991]

11:31 Aye

[@jasperedwards3341]

those chairs ave whoopie cushions in them

[@martinworld7214]

no shit sherlock

[@BruceAlarie]

most embarrassing---GOODBYE,REGGIE!

[@jjayaraman3191]

15jun2024

[@Hypatia4242]

Does he ever nail the secretary?

[@UncleMort]

I had to look up who she was, it`s Sue Nicholls who plays Audrey Roberts in Coronation Street.

[@brettwyatt7165]

Hypatia4242 love the the profile pic

[@MrMatthiasSchneider]

Spoiler alert: the answer is no.

[@Lytton333]

No, he couldn't get to the DIY centre in time.

[@BossBass7o7]

He did once finger-bang her on a lorry from Rotherham to Kahn's house.

[@darrenwindle3592]

Before the world went to shit with the snow flake brigade

[@stev1963hit]

U mean the people who couldn't accept herr Trump lost?

[@BruceAlarie]

politically correct tightasses is better than all these made up nonsense terms snowflakes karens justins and woke,whatever that means

[@michaelhughes4466]

Hold on, you can't typecast everyone. I don't like woke snowflakes, but I can't stand the illiterate authoritarian Trump either.@@stev1963hit

[@fredflintstoner596]

Mrs Richards: "I paid for a room with a view !" Basil: (pointing to the lovely view) "That is Torquay, Madam ." Mrs Richards: "It's not good enough!" Basil: "May I ask what you were expecting to see out of a Torquay hotel bedroom window ? Sydney Opera House, perhaps? the Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically past?..." Mrs Richards: "Don't be silly! I expect to be able to see the sea!" Basil: "You can see the sea, it's over there between the land and the sky." Mrs Richards: "I'm not satisfied. But I shall stay. But I expect a reduction." Basil: "Why?! Because Krakatoa's not erupting at the moment ?"

[@mariemccann5895]

Shyte.

[@mjrussell414]

Hilarious show, but I was waiting for the requisite 70's homophobia to appear. Hopefully the writers have got that out of their system for the rest of the series. I didn't cringe as much over the sexual harassment, and I had my bum pinched by a pervy co-worker in the early 90's. Back then, if it was unwanted attention, there was no one to tell, so you just avoided the offender.

[@runswithwindz9875]

I was waiting for the homophobia to appear too ! Fortunately I foung it under a layer of Bechemel sauce in my Petrol station Lasagne !

[@BruceAlarie]

@@runswithwindz9875 its not fear,its disapproval

[@propershite]

The fact that i laugh at the hippopotamus bit every episode

[@tonym9310]

I didn't get where I am today by not recognising a classic timeless comedy when I see one Reggie!

[@BruceAlarie]

GOODBYE REGGIE.

[@zthetha]

Great series - I doubt that anyone could carry off Perin like Rossiter did. The opening credits always remind me of Sgt Troy's feigned suicide in Far From the Madding Crowd... hmm? Rossiter will forever be Rigsby in Rising Damp for many of his fans - a remarkable comic combination of obnoxious and loveable.

[@relicofgold]

Rossiter was doing some of TFARORP and RISING DAMP simultaneously!! The man was a worker and near genius at comedy.

[@ozzie-sk9dh]

Feeling a little Chesty Joan? We'll soon have you examined.

[@NWSTRX850]

If you can’t appreciate the genius of this you need to study more

[@BruceAlarie]

i love how the sunshine desert sign decays over time

[@Daniel-xv5jq]

England was also decaying over the same period of time!?!

[@katarinakrnjevic8183]

It's shame that fall and rise of Reginald Perrin never was worwide popular as a black adder or the office.

[@jasperedwards3341]

wat a lovely pair

[@BruceAlarie]

the forever ooooold tony simpson

[@thomashumber9762]

Big crime they demolished the office block......

[@BruceAlarie]

poor sweet mrs perrin

[@thedarrenzone1963]

Great.

[@BruceAlarie]

...super

[@NWSTRX850]

Humour that probably wouldn’t be allowed these days as in our super pc world a joke is considered offensive, bonkers

[@gedrooney9305]

Reginald Perrin for PM

[@kinneretlivne1781]

6

[@johncee1481]

Woman in the green dress is gorgeous

[@jackofshadows8538]

Coleridge Tennyson Wordsworth everywhere I've grown up the streets/roads/closes/avenues were named after unknown rivers or some twat who introduced the Industrial Revolution, to which many middle/upper middle class and professional gits still cling to to this day. YOU CANNOT SAY "GET A JOB" whilst you are earning £300,000 a year to a person who is 35 and has had nothing but 2 failed small businesses and lots of minimum wage jobs, at which point they give up because the 'trickle down effect' DOESN'T!!! The Victorian values of serfdom, being owned by people who are worth lots of money and employ poor people at absolute minimum wage and expect them NOT to steal from you whilst you choose from 6 cars from one of your 5 large mansions which to drive to work whilst the rest of us are forced to take the bus or walk. You cannot expect loyalty from people you pay peanuts. Whilst I live on tea and toast, with the occasional tin of beans, I WILL STEAL from you bastards. We ALL will. The christian work ethic is over. Question: why would a landlady - who is worth £5.7 million use her dodgy accountant of a son to fiddle the payment of rent so that she could keep my deposit from - apparently, 19 months before when I did not pay several weeks rent? Greed. The rich never have enough. AS it was, My sister works in Liverpool at the Tax Fraud Investigation dept and I informed on her. She was claiming she was only worth £4.2 million. I also stole my deposit by NOT paying the last month rent. Fuck the old witch. I think it is fair to say I have a chip on my shoulder but I am looking forward to putting a knife into the shoulders of every landlord/agency who has ripped me off. T.S.Elliott was right about the shitholes in the south coast. greedy, miserly rich who deserve to die slowly. FUCK the human race and fuck everything about it. The sooner we're gone? The better.

[@jb1397]

,,,,,,,,, I see that public school education didn’t serve you very well after all Jack

[@silverapples75]

I seeee......

[@benters3509]

I just don't find it funny. Never did back in the day, and not now!

[@secondchance6603]

It's about a guy having a midlife crisis, it's actually quite sad

[@AnthonyMonaghan]

Then why watch it...or did you just come here because you had nothing else to complain about.

[@garlandraines1855]

That's because it takes a bit of insight to really get the subtext. You might want to find something a little lighter.

[@BarryAllenMagic]

Maybe you'd find Love Thy Neighbour or Benny Hill more your cup of tea?

[@ozzie-sk9dh]

I didn't get where I am today by not finding it funny back in the day and not now. GOODBYE!