Reggie Perrin: Set 1

The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (VL-7/09), which starred Leonard Rossiter as an unhappy business executive who faked his own death in order to start a new life under a series of assumed identities before eventually returning to his family, originally ran from 1976-79 on the BBC. This 2009–10 updating, starring Martin Clunes in the title role, incorporates many elements from its predecessor—Reggie's repeated lateness due to bizarre train delays, his incompetent boss and unctuous subordinates, and his habit of daydreaming about violent retribution befalling those who irritate him. Even though the new Reggie flirts with the notion of suicide—as well as with colleague Jasmine (Lucy Liemann) instead of secretary Vicki (Kerry Howard), who is now a dunderhead—here he merely loses his job and suffers the indignity of unemployment before returning to the company. Added subplots involve the infidelity of Reggie's wife, Nicola (Fay Ripley), and an unlikely romance between his harridan mother, Marion (Wendy Craig), and Nicola's father, William (Geoffrey Whitehead), who sponges off them mercilessly. Reggie Perrin is satisfyingly amusing, especially because of Clunes, who delivers the protagonist's misanthropic harangues with aplomb, but it is also far more conventional than the original series. Compiling all 12 episodes of the first and second seasons, DVD extras include a behind-the-scenes photo gallery. Recommended. (F. Swietek)