The return of Grot
Posted by David Hepworth on 26 August 2008 - 12:17pm.
The story that Martin Clunes is being measured up for a revival of "The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin" makes me wonder whether there has ever been a TV series as catchphrase-rich as the original Leonard Rossiter series. Just count 'em:
"I didn't get where I am today..."
"Sorry I'm late. Gnus on the line at Clapham Junction."
"Great! Smashing! Super!"
"Have a nice day, darling. I won't."
And on unto infinity.
Will they write any new ones or will they just reprise the old favourites?
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Says much as to the state of the Sitcom..
that they are having to do a revival rather than produce something that is both new AND funny.
Would they still do the mother-in-law as hippo imagery?
I don't see Clunes as Reggie working. Leonard Rossiter had one of those classic lived-in world-weary faces which suited the role.
What is really really sad, is that some 30 years later, all the gags about the trains being late still apply.
" ... badger ate a junction box at New Malden"
It was a perfect example of how to do catchprase sitcom. It was clever and well written, and I suspect that the catchphrases were inserted at a late stage of the writing and didn't get in the way of the plot. Other shows - "Hi De Hi", "'Allo, 'Allo'" etc - seem to be written around the catchphrases.
Post-Leonard Rossiter comeback/final series was rubbish though!
I was at school when the series first aired and as I recall the catchphrases were doing the rounds of the playground within days of the first episode. "Success City Arizona!" was particular and adaptable favourite. As was a take on one of C.J. other phrases : "We're not one of those dreadful schools / firms that ...".
As with 'Rock Horror Picture Show' I'm not convinced that a remake is a good idea. The BBC didn't get where it is today by remaking treasured old sitcoms.
If it ain't broke don't fix it
Why change a catchphrase? The Word podcast wouldn't be the same without "the sound of young Islington" or "Mark Ellen is away this week". Reggie Perrin wouldn't be the same without any of the multitude of catchphrases you mentioned.
The Catchphrase League
Surely Dad's Army must be up there with them?
"You stupid boy!"
"I was wondering which of you men would spot that"
"Do you think that's wise?"
"We're doomed"
"I'm all wet Mr. Mainwaring"
and of course
"Don't panic"
and having dried up at five, I'll now use David Hepworth's get-out catchphrase...
"And on unto infinity".
I know loads
"Bit of a cock-up on the catering front."
"We're not [insert category] people."
Er....be back to you.
Oh, go on then, I'll concede at that...
...due to other vital Wordblog commitments, like searching the web for masturbation-related songs on the web.
Lordy, what is this magazine doing to us?
Blackadder must be pretty high in the Catchphrase League too, surely? Any offers?
Not just Reggie's verbal ones
Don't forget the farting leather chair ('Sorry CJ') and the mental image of the hippo whenever his Mother-in-law was mentioned.
And Dr Snerd's terrible paintings of the Algarve.
All played a part.
Even progressing/changing...
...as that programme did after 1st series, didn't diminish the quality. Why the feck do they need to remake it? Martin Clunes will bring his style (ie MBB schtik) to it and it will fail. Might as well cancel production now.
Not a boy, Nancy, you can't be a nancy-boy...
Anyone remember an offshoot of “The Fall and Rise”, called “Fairly Secret Army”? Also written by David Nobbs, it featured Reggie’s brother in law Jimmy finally getting his vigilante army in place. Packed with even more funny lines, largely because it all focussed around Jimmy and his incompetence.
The cover for Jimmy's operation was a shop selling spices. Someone came in and said to Jimmy “Do you have any cloves?” “None but what I’m stood up in” was his reply. When someone later explained how he must be more careful with the punters, he said “Yes…tricky customers, customers”
I've never seen it on TV since it’s first showing, nor found any book that references it. The novels of the Reggie Perrin series are always worth reading, of course…
Fairly Secret Army
I thought I was the only one who remembered it.Definitely overdue this is all I can find on the net about it,
http://www.offthetelly.co.uk/comedy/fairlysecretarmy.htm
Bit of a cock up on the identity front ...
I'd forgotten 'Fairly Secret Army', but was even more surprised to discover that the central character was not Reggie Perrin's brother-in-law, but another completely different character - Harry Truscott - also played by Geoffrey Palmer. Can that be right? I too was sure it was Jimmy.
http://www.leonardrossiter.com/reginaldperrin/RelProds.html
Awkward characters, characters
I would have bet the mortgage that it was Jimmy too – but Tezzyboy’s excellent link gives the lie to that. But even if the name was changed, the character was the same – and it was a belting show. I liked the fact that the character called Nancy wanted to play a homosexual in their training session – but Jimmy (or who ever it was) said that line I used above: “You’re not a boy, Nancy. You can’t be a nancy-boy”.
Do you think she was called Nancy purely to shoe-horn that gag in somewhere? I do hope so!
I hope this doesn't happen
No one could do what Rossiter did. Martin Clunes, nice enough though his, couldn't carry it off.
Some things should never be remade.
I'm now wating for The Good Life, in which Tom and Barbara are played by Justin Lee Collins and Miranda Hart, and Margo and Jerry have been replaced by two snooty lesbians.
Do you think that's true?
Your point about some things shouldn't be remade?
The St Trinians movie? The remake of "The Lady Killers"? Nothing wrong with them, was there?
Can't wait for the remake of "Brideshead Revisited". And isn't there a threat of a rehash of "Kinds Hearts and Coronets"?? Nothing can go wrong there...
Sigh...
My favourite word is serendipity
Mark Ellen hates it. I don't. It's the ancient name for Ceylon. Anyway, I happened to be looking at the website of one of my favourite artists Jesse Winchester and was very taken by the fact that he recommended not just Robert Caro's awesome biography of Lyndon Johnson but also the works of David Nobbs. Doesn't that make you think?
I'd meant to post this earlier about David nobbs
a good many years ago, I was given his book 'A Bit of a Do' for Christmas - no doubt the kindly relative who forked out for it did so on the basis of David Jason on the cover, and this was my first introduction to David Nobbs.
He's a funny kind of writer. The jokes are constantly repeated, the constructs in the sentence are visible from a mile off and yet, and yet, I do believe he's something close to a national Treasure. (Assuming you live in the UK - i don't!)
I've not ever seen/read any of the Reggie Perrin stuff, but what i'm aware of, i've loved - be that the ridiculous train excuses, etc, and there's a rich vein of subversiveness which appears to pervade through the entire story. What's the odds that it gets watered down in any remake?
The mose recent novel I read by him - Going Gently - was, by turns, filthy, heartbreaking, romantic, wry and i should imagine that managing to keep that amount of literary plates spinning whilst maintaining a good story (naturally told from the vantage point of a woman at deaths door) is no mean feat. And this from a "comic writer"?
I think what Nobbs manages in his writing is 'Heart'. ...It's sadly missing in a lot of comedy nowadays, although Gavin and Stacey has it by the bucketload. It's this 'heart' that makes his writing so accessable, enjoyable and enduring. It also makes me wonder...David, shouldn't you be doing one of those Word to the Wise features with Mr Nobbs?
It makes me think
that you may have too much time on your hands, and a job anyone on this site would kill for but ...
'Serendip' is the ancient Persian name for Ceylon/Sri Lanka. 'Serendipity' is a word made up by Horace Walpole.