The Splosh UK Forum

I found this on a TV related forum, but some of you may be interested...

Artist seeks volunteers for Performance at Whitstable Biennale 2008, 4pm on Saturday 28th of June

I DIDN'T GET WHERE I AM TODAY.....

Fancy a dip in the sea dressed as Reginald Perrin?

Remember Leonard Rossiter as the office worker Reggie Perrin in the hit 1970's sitcom The Rise and Fall of Reggie Perrin? Artist Lee Campbell is looking for anybody to help him recreate the opening credits of the comedy where Reggie says goodbye to a monotonous existence and runs into the sea, leaving his clothes and his life behind and coming back as a meaningful purposeful eco-warrior free of his life at "Sunshine Desserts".

Lee is just one of many artists taking part in this year's exciting Whitstable Biennale. He has been creating humorous and playful performances for the last two years, from shouting messages into a megaphone on the top of Mount Snowdon to singing his heart out at the end of Brighton Pier in the dark for 7 hours.

For Whitstable Biennale, Lee will ask members of the public to become Reggie Perrin. Volunteers will be asked to chant many of Reggie's boss CJ's catchphrases, for example "I didn't get where I am today...." and to then run into the sea wearing second-hand suits or office wear. The participants will strip off to their undies and let their office clothes drift away into the sea, finally emerging from the water as new and refreshed individuals. This is not for the faint hearted!


If you are interested then you would need to be available from 4pm on Saturday 28th June. The performance will take place at 5.15pm and lasts no longer than thirty minutes. Participation is strictly voluntary and should be a huge amount of fun.

Contact Lee on 07917 363 235 or email him at leejjcampbell@yahoo.co.uk

Press Office Contact: Simon Steven on 01843 596 194 or press@whitstablebiennale.com

Hi

I know I am feeling a bit pissed off today (reason may appear in another post if I can be bothered), but as a loyal Reggie Perrin (and David Nobbs the writer) I would like to remind the 'artist' that Reggie got undressed before going into the sea (there is an important plot point about things he left for people to find).

Also as a one-time boat owner, leaving clothes in the water to 'drift out to sea' will foul propellars, add to pollution etc.

Yes, I know, I'm being a miserable git but if you want to run in the sea in a suit, just do it. Don't give it some arty bloody reason.

Bill

and while we're being pedantic...

Is'nt it called the Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin?


Great show like

Bill,

Grumpy or not, you're absolutely right about the timing of the undressing and the pollution (as is Rex about the title).

Someone should tell this artist so that he doesn't cause problems to other people for the sake of his art. (Why is it that some artists never actually seem to be able to think through the implications thoroughly to their logical (or illogical?) conclusion once they've had the initial idea?)

Incidentally, my recollection was that he didn't come back as an eco-warrior. That was a later series in which DN had to find a new angle for the re-incarnated Reggie after the first series (based more on the original book) and the second series (written purely for TV) had finished. It wasn't as good either.

In the first series, he returns from his apparent suicide and doesn't know what he's going to do with himself, taking a range of menial jobs, including working on a pig farm and a sewage works, disguised as a character by the name of Donald Potts. (I'm working from memory here, though.) Eventually, he returns to the same position in the same company (as Martin Wellbourne) and eventually re-marries his original wife in series two before opening his megalith (Grot).

Am I right? If so, the whole premise for this work is more than a little flawed.

C_W.

-------------------------------------
The UK Regional WAM e-Mail Notification Groups

Hi

Slightly less grumpy but no less pedantic...

Actually the original book was called The Death of Reginald Perrin though the TV series was indeed The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin. The first series plot was much as described. It took him as far as living with his wife again (who he thought she was unaware that he was her late husband) and working at Sunshine Desserts though in a role devised by CJ to keep his staff happy not in his original job - but beginning to want to run away again. Series Two has him remarry his wife, admit he was really alive and set up Grot - the company that only sold rubbish. The third series featured his 'community' which although it had a lot to say about the silliness of greedy middle class people pretending to be right-on but really only interested in success was less good.

The first and second books in my opinion are excellent (any similarity between me giving up working on a real magazine to do Splosh! and Perrin setting up Grot as one final snook cocking against the world which backfired is totally coincidental). The third possibly dragged the joke on a bit far and the fourth - The Legacy of Reggie Perrin - about a campaign to treat old people better after Reggie died is pretty dire.

Since the whole point was that Reggie never found happiness whatever he did, the whole artist concept is completely misguided. However, don't let me stop you running in the sea in your suit shouting whatever you like. Just don't leave your clothes in the sea. Apart from anything else the latter could waste a lot of time and money. A friend of mine (hello Pete if you are reading this) recently went fishing and when the sea got rough he tied up his boat and came ashore several miles from his destination. Although he informed the police, he didn't inform the coastguard and so when his boat was found unturned by the waves and adrift (it has slipped its mooring) and he failed to turn up at his destination, a search involving Hastings, Rye, and Eastbourne lifeboats and the helicopter from Southhampton was organised. It costs £15,000 and he was sitting in the pub all the time. Finding a large number of clothes washed up is going to have coastguards thinking a ferry had sunk at least!

Bill

Another pedant -

There's only one 'h' in Southampton!