Radio Times

Watching Reggie Perrin had a necrotising effect - I realised I was dying slowly when Reggie (Martin Clunes, left) made a joke to his wife's female friends about how he admired women because: "Anyone who can bleed for five days without dying deserves a bunch of flowers every now and again."

I wasn't sure I'd heard that correctly, so I had to watch again on iPlayer, just to make sure. No, I wasn't wrong, I really had heard a pathologically abysmal gag about menstruation on a primetime BBC1 "comedy".

Now, there's absolutely nothing wrong with making jokes about menstruation, in fact there's nothing wrong with making jokes about anything. But - here's the catch - if you're going to flirt with bad taste before falling into bed with it, you've got to be funny. And, dear lord, Reggie Perrin was paralysingly unfunny.

I came to it as someone who was never as overawed by the original as the rest of the world, much as I loved Leonard Rossiter, a monumentally gifted comic actor who lifted an ordinary sitcom into something a bit special just by being so good in it, as he did with Rising Damp.

Yet even judged as a stand-alone, without any of its baggage, Reggie Perrin was a dismal affair, something that had mere whiffs of updating and yet which felt, oddly, like something Terry Scott could have starred in during the early 1980s. It was both hapless and hopeless.

Alison Graham is TV editor of Radio Times

**

Did you watch Reggie Perrin? Do you agree with Alison? Post a comment and let us know.

I thought that joke was hilarious! The series was average, butabysmal is unfair.

Reggie Perrin is brilliant. I loved the original, and in some ways this update is even better. For example, Nicola is a much more rounded character than the original, and the relationship between her and Reggie is more complex. Congratulations to all involved - ignore the carping critics who just don't get it, please may we have another series?

I heard that they put Reggie Perrin on instead of Lee Mack's "Not Going Out" because the BBC thought that this would be funnier. I have no problem with martin clunes but "not going out" was so much funnier and a much more "friday night" kind of comedy than this. After watching the last episode of Reggie Perrin, i did not laugh for the last 15 mins at when the title credits came leaving clunes naked on a beach, i was utterly baffled by where the series had led to. This was very poor by BBC's standards and i hope to God they don't commision another series.

I heard the joke the first time round and absolutely pissed myself. Alsion wind your neck in love, it's call humour! I have loved the whole series and hope they do a second!

Never saw the original so came to Reggie via Martin Clunes. Have always found it hilarious from the first episode I watched (which wasn't the first in the series) and I think MC is brilliant in it. Having said that, yes the gag about bleeding for five days gag is abysmal!

The problem is not Clunes, and perhaps not even the other actors. It's the script. It is too obvious, at times crass, treating the audience as if it couldn't pick up on the slightest nuance. The dull secretary is an example - she doesn't have to be that stupid; ditto for the soppy counsellor - TOO soppy. It's fair to say that the menstruation gag Alison raised DID just fall flat - and seemed also out of character for Reggie who's quite sweet generally. Overall, forced, lacking sparkle, and it's all down to the script! Clunes does what he can with a weak, childish script. (Cf. the far superior sitcoms with really well-thought out scripts, such as Everybody Loves Raymond - you just can't compare them). Come on, bring back British subtlety!!!

There are bits of this show I have found very funny and I have been surprised how much of RT's reviews (as well as viewers') have been so negative. But a lot of this has been owing to Martin Clunes' comic delivery. Overall the show falls a little flat and for a very good reason - it fails to have the tension of Perrin's angst against his trivial meaningless life building up with increasingly bizarre behaviour before he finally snaps and does something *really* outrageous. The original was called "The fall *and rise*..." We don't get the feeling that either is going to happen here. It is worth recalling that the original David Nobbs book was a serious novel with some (a lot of) funny bits, not the other way around (hence Ronnie Barker's review quote, "I laughed 178 times and cried twice," on the paperback's cover.) Some people who think their life and occupation are significant and worthy, when they not, deserve a reality-check and taking down a peg or two, and we get lots of amusing examples of this here - I particularly like Perrin breathing fire like a dragon on his boss's door, and his smashing up the "Wellness Person"€ridiculous "soothing music" on the boom-box - but as the series doesn't seem to be going anywhere, the overall effect is less than a sum of the gags, sadly.

By the way, though, Alison, as much as I like your reviews generally, I do think you missed the point of the menstruation joke - Perrin was being deliberately ironic and even confesses as much - he's actually attacking the way people are insufferable when being politically correct all the time. It's just another one of his little digs at the straitjacket of a life he is living. (Anyway, it made me laugh, so there you go.)

I watched the first episode and saw it as a flop,so never watched it again,from most of the comments,I guessed right.

As a 46 year old I utterly loved the original Leonard Rossiter Reggie Perrin and I thought Doc Martin while quirky was also a genuinely creative vehicle in which Martin Clunes tested the limits of his creative ability in acting terms (he was much better in that role than Men Behaving Badly, which I always hated).

This program (for some reason pretending to be a remake of the original Reggie Perrin when it has nothing to do with it other than deliberately trampling on the grave of the original) is utterly atrocious and aside from being bad in its own right is also a huge insult to the memory of Leonard Rossiter and his fantastic original achievements in the series. The Controller of BBC One, the head of BBC Drama and the head of BBC Vision should all be fired for allowing this pile of steaming excrement to be produced.

I remember the leonard rossiter version; it was a very slow starter - its difficult to do comedy about boredom

I am physically upset by how bad this show is, though in no way surprised. The arm chair nature of the show is tediously prime time. The slack acting, and total lack of attention to recreating the intrigue apparent in the subtle depths of the originals characters makes viewing meaningless.

The only similarity that i can see between the inspirational Reginal Perrin series and this pile of steaming proverbial, is the name of the lead character. The best jokes are when Martin Clunes shows flashes of 'Gary' from men behaving badly, or when the interaction with the MD Chris is marginally reminiscent of the original which sent me spiralling off into a nostalgic escapism. An escapism that sadly didn't last as long as the episode.

When will the BBC stop wasting money commissioning safe half arsed badly written nonsense and invest in some decent scripts backed by new talent?

Rubbish.

Appalling review focusing predominately on one line of the show, which you have misinterpreted as it is clearly the timing of the joke that is the pun. Comments such as 'paralysingly unfunny' clearly highlight your own level of wit and as a journalist I would be ashamed to have this article linked with a organization so well renowned as The Radio Times.

I enjoyed the first three episodes, then I watched tonight's and noticed the laugh track for the first time and noticed they were laughing at something that wasn't funny. I've given up on the whole series now. Pity. It was very good at first.

I have yet to work out how this is an update on the 70s programme. The point of the 70s programme was that Reggie disappeared and then came back to run a ludicrous company. The current programme does not copy this storyline it is simply a story of a man who hates commuting and his job. Why call it Reggie Perrin?

Generally I have found the programme as tediously dull as Reggie obviously finds his job. Martin Clunes is simply regurgitating his Men Behaving Badly character and the scripts are abysmal.

This show is typical of the poor quality comedy the BBC are churning out at present - My Family etc. Clearly it is time for a comedy revolution as happened at the start of the 1980s and all the BBC comedy programmes have fallen into the cozy pattern as they did in the late 1970s

I couldn't disagree more. As a fifty something i enjoyed Reggie the first time round and think M.C does an excellent job as a modern day Reggie. Just as you're laughing at the up to date version in slips a little something from the original episodes which makes you smile and as for his wife beautifully cast, so dry and droll.

Loved the original so was very sceptical about the new series, but once you set your expectations lower it's a real grower and I find myself looking forward to it now. It helps that I'm a regular commuter so can relate to his frustration with the trains

Both Ben and Alison have missed the point on the menstruation joke. It was the fact that Reggie said it at the most inappropriate time that is the joke. Three episodes in and it goes from strength to strength. I particularly like the wellness person and the father-in-law replacing the brother-in-law in the original series.

I find the review incredibly weak. Poorly written, faux outrage about a single line (what are you, 80?), demanding humour while never providing any yourself.. It's a great show. I think you are tired.

I loved the original Reggie Perrin, and was very sceptical about the remake. Having watched some of the new one, it isn't quite as bad as I expected, and I like one or two of the new jokes, but it is still only a pale imitation of the original. I don't think Martin Clunes is well cast here, and there are some essential characters missing - Ponsonby and the 'dustbins' spring to mind!

When I heard the brilliant Leonard Rossiter sitcom was being remade I was more than a little dubious, but this is much better than I expected and Martin Clunes is actually very good as Reggie.....As regards Alisons comments,"necrotising effect", she does realise Reggie is a fictitional comedy character, doesn't she??....mind you it probably would help her spot the comedy here if she were male, middle aged, and stuck in a job she'd rather not be doing!..........

Completely off mark with her comments.The original version was spot on,beautiful timing,a true classic.This is a pale copy struggling for a joke.Clunes ..a real underachiever.

I loved the original and watched it about a year ago now being a certain age and see how spot on it is. Martin Clunes does a great as new milleminum Reggie and don't you often see the characters in real life. I know of an exact copy of his PA the resemblance is remarkable and she like the character is a miserable witch.

I would rather watch Peter & Katie do America than this. Reggie Perrin was grim.

I did have misgivings about the whole remake thing, but my fears were groundless. David Nobbs has updated his own classic, 'nuff said really, and Martin Clunes is a national treasure fully worthy to step into Leonard Rossiter's sacred shoes. We loved it, can't wait for the next one.

I think that, while the remake with Martin Clunes is not something I would watch; as I am such a fan of the original (yes I know this makes me an old skool bigot!) - I have to admit that I was sitting in a pub just last weekend and heard a group at a table nearby absolutely rave about how good the remake is! Personally, I love the original - all 3 series - and Pearson's comment that the original was unfunny, only shows a lack of depth to the way she views TV comedy, and no doubt prefers comedy that is blatantly obvious, I'm thinking Only Fools and Horses here! Anyway, she is often a very good reviewer, but her harsh criticism of this show, both old and new versions, seems a little bit..patronising and is a 1-D perception of what (in the case of the original series) is pure 3-D TV comic material! If you don't love Reggie, you've never experienced, or helplessly looked for, the meaning of life, surely?

There is something horribly wrong or corrupt with the commissioning processes at the BBC if this '70s re-hash can come to air. It should have been aborted after the first script was submitted. Even the undiscerning masses will have difficulty swallowing anther five helpings of this tasteless prole-feed.

Spot on. It wasn't the idea of remaking a classic that was bad about this. It was the writing. The acting. The directing. The ludicrous laughter track. But mainly the writing. And the menstruation joke? Okay, not funny, not charming. But also, not even original. It's been around the block in misogynist hip hop lyrics for years. How pitifully lazy.

Reggie Perrin is one of the best comedies I have seen for a long time. What seems to pass for comedy nowadays bores me to death.

This series seems to have rediscovered what comedy should be and the constant switching from reality to fantasy is a superb device.

I should like to be able to watch the last episode followed by an episode of the IT crowd. I think Reggie might beat them!

First you're defending the virtue of women in your post about brutality (especially by sweaty and portly gentlemen) against women in the drama, Compulsion, and now you're objecting to the 'pathologically abysmal gag about menstruation' on another programme.

Are you, by chance, having a bad man week? Perhaps you need a more personal blog, as opposed to one where you're supposed to be writing about television?

updated, yes. But only to the 1980s by most of the setups. It would have made more sense if they hadn't called it Reggie Perrin (as other sitcoms about beleaguered, bewildered middle-class men haven't been) but then, without the link to the original I doubt it would have been commissioned. To be fair, it's obviously found its target audience - whatever lives inside the can which provides all that laughter.

I thought Alisons' comments on the new Reggie Perrin to be quite harsh -as (unlike her) I really enjoyed the updated version of the original sitcom.

Martin Clunes gave a great and entertaining performance and I, for one, am looking forward to the rest of this series.

I hadn't heard the menstruation joke before; I thought it was quite funny and endearing. I can understand that if you didn't like the original Reggie Perrin you won't like this but I like both versions. It probably helps to be male. Incidentally Alison seems to have invented a new sport - extreme television reviewing. "A necrotising effect", come on Alison it's only a TV progamme.