Finally Seen Reggie Perrin

Well finally seen episode one at last. Unfortunately my fears in an earlier blog entry were well grounded. There is a rather cynical feel to the whole production, Martin Clunes plays Reggie with no sympathy whatsoever; with Rossiters character you felt sympathy with the way his character began the decline due to the endless mononity of his life and his workplace - it was the point of the programme and hence the need to prefix the title with "The Fall and Rise...". The Rossiter Reggie daydreams would help get him out of this to seek humour within a boring situation, hence fantasizing over Joan his Secretary would allow him to get over his sheer boredom of dictating a letter, or thinking his mother in law was a hippo. There are fantasies in the new series, but there are ones that make Reggie look to be prudish, impatient and very negative.

Even Reggies wife, now called Nicola, is an independent woman who doesn’t really seem to back Reggie – with the Rossiter creation his wife (called Elizabeth) was there, at first as that constant area in his life, always with dinner that he didn’t want or a drink of something when he came through the door, but later on more of a partner, friend and confidant.

Neil Stuke is a good actor, but he is so trying to be John Barron’s CJ with none of the quirkiness or stupidity and vulnerability that he had; instead we get a kind of ‘forced eccentricity’ that doesn’t sit very well. Indeed CJ over the episodes of the original series becomes a cherished character, one that kept the mannerisms and character despite the many changes to his life which become entangled with Reggies. Somehow I can’t see this series lasting three.

What we have presented as Reggie Perrin is so incredibly soulless, cynical and modern, it’s lost the very elements that made the original different yet very very funny. Its like Star Trek without Spock or Eastenders without the dreariness.

‘Reggie Perrin’ 2009 style is just British Television being lazy again, exploiting old glories and not risking schedules with anything new.