15th September 1976

Elizabeth notices that Reggie is looking very tired, so suggests that he demand C.J. to give him a month's holiday. Reggie feels quite confident about this, but once he confronts C.J., his nerves get the better of him. C.J. graciously affords Reggie to take the afternoon off. Reggie's idea of a quiet Friday afternoon doing nothing is hampered by a visit from his brother in law, Jimmy, and daughter Linda, who asks her parents to take her and her husband Tom and their two young children to the safari park on Saturday. A visit which sees Reggie becoming very hot under the collar...

Reggie Perrin, 46, senior sales executive. Bored. Under stress. Has begun to behave oddly!

As Joan starts to take dictation, Reggie is very distracted by her and starts to fantasise about the two of them lying on a desk in a field, kissing passionately. Later, when Joan tells Reggie that she doesn't like cakes, Reggie pictures him delicately feeding her at a picnic, then starting to embrace. When he gets home in the afternoon, Elizabeth reminds Reggie that they are seeing her mother on Sunday, which gives us a flash of the hippopotamus.

On Friday morning, the first word has been reduced to the letters HINE and the second word reduced to an ES, a gap, and ER.

On Friday morning, it's due to "defective junction box, New Malden."

"...by waffling"

"...without learning how to handle people"

"...without learning how to compromise."

C.J. also reveals that his motto is "Never use two words where one will do." He also advises Reggie that "We're not one of those dreadful firms that squeeze a man dry and then abandon him." When Reggie is just outside his office doors, C.J. says out loud "1,2,3,4 Make 'em sweat outside the door; 5,6,7,8 Always pays to make 'em wait; 9,10,11,12 COME!". C.J. suggests that Reggie take Elizabeth away to the countryside for the weekend, so that he will return a different man. After all, when C.J. and his wife do that, they return different men!

Reggie gives Tony and David their new sales areas during a short meeting in his office, during the course of which Tony manages four Great's and David five Super's. C.J. does inform Reggie that he doesn't want to be surrounded by yes men (Tony and David were not present at this meeting though).

Reggie confidently phones C.J. to see him about his holiday, but is surprised to hear that C.J. wants to see him!

Although we see Peter hard at work on his crossword on the train, he doesn't sneeze. He is surprised when Reggie speaks out loud on a couple of occasions.

In his first appearance, Tom doesn't utter what will become his catchphrase. As he has crashed the car, Tom has to rely on Reggie to drive the family around Longleat Safari Park. On a very hot day in the car, Tom and Linda had eaten squid and garlic the day before, and Tom's son Adam gleefully calls out that he has done "biggies" and "poopie plops in my panties". Tom and Linda say that they treat their children like tiny adults, and that they want their children to grow up to see reality how it is (for example, lions are not nice). In the car, Reggie calls Tom a bearded prig.

Jimmy arrives at Reggie's home at 10 past 3 on Friday afternoon, just minutes after Reggie himself has got home early. He is there due to the inevitable cock up on the catering front, and there has also been a cock up over pay. He has a couple of whiskeys, even though he is driving, and takes away most of the contents of their fridge, including a fillet steak which Reggie was looking forward to for dinner that ngiht.

While in bed on Thursday night/Friday morning, Reggie remarks to Elizabeth that she should have married Henry Possett, though she replies that she didn't want to. Their golf-playing neighbours are called the Millfords, and Reggie once parked on their front lawn in the fog. Reggie's full name came from being born during the production of the Climthorpe Players' "Iolanthe". He muses that a year later and he would have been called Reginald "Pirates of Penzance" Perrin! Doc Morrissey's internal extension number is 242. At Sunshine Desserts, Mr Norriss from Crumbles always has a piece of Battenburg on Fridays. In 1971, Reggie asked the tea lady to reserve a macaroon for him, but she refused. Joan has worked for Reggie for 8 years. Sales in April were down by 0.1%, much to C.J's consternation. Linda sweats a lot, and Reggie refers to his grandchildren as "those damned children".