‘The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin’ is set to rise again … in musical form
Leonard Rossiter as Reginald Iolanthe Perrin. Photo: BBC
David Nobbs’ late ’70s sitcom, The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, is getting ready to have more lives than Reggie himself with word that a Reginald Perrin stage musical is in development. Based on a series of novels originally written by Nobbs that began in 1975 with “The Death of Reginald Perrin,” the series starred Leonard Rossiter, Pauline Yates and Geoffrey Palmer and ran for three seasons on the BBC.
Facing a mid-life crisis, the overly stressed middle-class office worker at Sunshine Desserts was quickly growing weary of the world so he faked his own suicide before reinventing himself and returning to his family. Following Rossiter’s death in 1984 while he was waiting to go onstage at the Lyric Theatre, London, The Legacy Of Reginald Perrin was broadcast in 1996, with the premise of reuniting Perrin’s friends and family after the character’s for real death this time around.
The original series was then remade in 2009 with Martin Clunes (Men Behaving Badly, Doc Martin, Manhunt) in the title role alongside Wendy Craig (Butterflies) and Kerry Howard (Young Hyacinth).
Unfortunately, very little is known at this point about the musical other than the music is being composed by producer, songwriter and composer Mike Batt with David Quantick and Jonathan Coe writing the show.
