Beeb to resurrect Reggie Perrin

Martin Clunes in frame for Rossiter role

By Lester Haines • Get more from this author

Posted in Entertainment, 26th August 2008 11:10 GMT

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The BBC is planning to resurrect The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, with Martin Clunes in the frame to take the lead role made famous by the late Leonard Rossiter, the Guardian reports.

Speaking at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International TV Festival, new BBC1 supremo Jay Hunt professed her love of the original show - aired between 1976 and 1979 - and declared that "one of her first acts in the job had been to look into reviving the series". She insisted it was "once again relevant".

The rehash will be produced by Objective, the force behind Peep Show and Star Stories, while Men Behaving Badly pensmith Simon Nye will join forces with Perrin creator David Nobbs to work up the scripts.

Hunt further announced at the festival that she "hoped to slightly lower the average age of BBC1 viewers"*, and "plans to introduce shows aimed at younger viewers that will run in a slot after the evening news".

She also confirmed plans to reintroduce "a popular science show back to prime-time for the first time since the axing of Tomorrow's World". Licence payers can only hope this will actually contain some science, an element sadly lacking from the moribund TW shortly before it was consigned to the dustbin of TV history. ®

Bootnote

*Yup, we read that as "hoped to slightly lower the average IQ of BBC1 viewers" as well.

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