News You Can Bruise for 2005 August 30 (entry 0)

(4) Tue Aug 30 2005 23:02 PST The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin: This is one of a block of British sitcoms that the San Mateo (?) public television station likes to show on Sundays. I really don't see what is great about the majority of British sitcoms shown on public television (eg. "As Time Goes By", which as far as I can tell doesn't even have any jokes in it) but this one is wonderful. It has a wide variety of types of humor, it's extremely plot-arc-driven, and it has a view of human nature that holds up well over the years. I recommend it.

Comments:

Posted by Sean Neakums at Wed Aug 31 2005 03:34

"Have a good day." "I won't."

Posted by Kevan at Thu Sep 01 2005 06:26

The books are good; quite a bit darker, with more of the bland malevolence of English suburbia, and some subplots that they either dropped for the series or I just don't remember being in them (Reggie going for bored walks on the same evenings that women are being attacked in the area, and not really caring whether people think it's him or not).

Posted by nutella at Sun Sep 04 2005 22:32

If I recall correctly Uncle Jimmy is also quite a lot more weird in the books than in the television series. A bit more than "Cock up on the catering front."...