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His Life & Career - Reginald Perrin - Rising Damp

Reggie Online: The Official Reginald Perrin web site

Character Studies: Reggie's Colleagues

Charles 'C. J.' Jefferson  -  Tony Webster  -  David Harris-Jones  -   Joan Greengross  -  Dr. Gerald 'Doc' Morrissey




Charles 'C. J.' Jefferson


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Related Links: C J's catchphrases - John Barron biography

Introduction:
C. J. - Charles Jefferson - is the owner of Sunshine Desserts, and is as tough a boss as they come. Tyrannical and unforgiving, he lords over his employees with a rod of iron. He is married to Kate, but she is only ever referred to by him as 'Mrs. C. J.', and they live in Virginia Water in sprawling grounds with a river running through the rear garden. They have no children. He lives for being in control and at the top of the business tree, and enjoys advising people that he didn't get where he is today by doing or saying what his inferiors have just mentioned. But C.J.'s life suffers many setbacks and revivals as the series progress.

Series One
C.J. is briefing the three key men - Reggie, Tony and David - on Sunshine Desserts' brand new project, Exotic Ices. His office is large, with double doors and a huge oak desk. His chair is ominous in itself and adequately frames the man who makes his employees quake. He is present later in Reggie's much smaller office for a 'tasting' to determine the three most popular flavours that will launch the Exotic Ices project. The computer collating the results blows up, however, and C.J. is left contemplating the fact that the three most popular flavours are bookends, pumice stone and West Germany. The next day, C.J. has his key man, Reggie Perrin, in his office to tell him that he has chosen him to give a speech at a fruit seminar on Friday. C.J. has decided the speech will be called 'Are We Getting Our Just Desserts?' He begins to get concerned about his decision for Reggie to give the speech when Reggie invites him and Mrs. C.J. to a dinner party but refuses to give them any food. His worries are diverted, however, by David Harris-Jones getting drunk, dropping his trousers and asking him for the last waltz. Next day, Reggie is present in C.J.'s office when he grills David over last night's events. He is more concerned that David is a homosexual and that his underpants featured a picture of Ludwig von Beethoven, and goes so far as to call for Tony Webster to display his pants. David explains they were on sale while on holiday in Bonn. As the day of the speech arrives, C.J. calls in on Reggie to see if he is nervous, and more to the point, is still sane. He is, just about. But Reggie gets drunk at Bilberry Hall and refers to C.J. as 'toothbrush', and invites anyone from Tarporley to stand up and shake hands with the person on their right. Reggie disappears, leaving his clothes on a beach in Dorset, but not before sabotaging a fishing contest held on C.J.'s private stretch of river, featuring Tony, David and Doc Morrissey. Reggie borrows a van of loganberry essence and pollutes the river upstream, having earlier promised C.J. in a furtive letter posted under his door that 'blood will flow'. C.J. sees the 'blood' and is convinced there is a crazed murderer killing all his guests. He wades into the river, trips and is knocked unconscious. Doc Morrissey declares him dead. C.J. declares the Doc fired.
A week or two later, C.J. is in the pub with Tony and David. He is still not sure about David's future with the company, but has promoted Tony Webster to fill Reggie's position. Reggie, disguised as a Welshman, listens nearby to their conversation, and is surprised to hear that his disappearance has made C.J. think about life. He hears him tell his proteges that his dad once caught him thinking and advised his son that 'philosophy doesn't get the washing up done'. Reggie's death has changed C.J. He attends Reggie's memorial and cracks jokes at the wake (Reggie attends both in disguise as Martin Wellbourne, Reggie's friend from Brazil). Elizabeth falls in love with Martin and gets him a job at Sunshine Desserts. C.J. has given Reggie the job of running the Reginald Perrin Memorial Foundation.

Series Two
Reggie is again working for C.J., except this time disguised as Martin Wellbourne. He hates his job, as he's in charge of his own memorial fund. He has been asked by C.J. to distribute a questionnaire among all staff about what people like about Sunshine Desserts. There were very few things Reggie could report to C.J. that people actually did like. One of the main things they didn't like was C.J. himself. But C.J. is a changed, more happier man since Reggie's 'suicide', and takes Martin's findings in his stride. However, things soon change after Martin visits Doc Morrissey and the old medic recognises him as Reggie, and tells C.J. The boss sacks both of them on the spot. With Reggie no longer 'in memoriam', the Reginald Perrin Memorial Foundation is scrapped, and it's back to business with the Exotic Ices project. After their split, Joan has left the company and Tony is now overseeing the project in the position left by Reggie. Reggie is out of work and there is no money coming in. This drives Elizabeth to desparate measures - she goes to see C.J. for a job. He employs her as secretary to Tony and David. With Mrs. C.J. in Luxembourg, C.J. uses the opportunity to wine and dine Elizabeth with the hope of having an affair in his country cottage near Godalming. He uses the ruse of a pile of papers that need sorting, and she reluctantly agrees to meet him one Saturday morning. C.J. plies her with champagne but realises the stupid mistake he is making, and reaches for the pile of unsorted papers. All this time, Elizabeth has been lying to Reggie that she is working for the British Basket Company, but he begins to suspect, and follows her to work - all the way to Sunshine Desserts. He suspects, correctly, that C.J. is the man at the centre of all this, but C.J. deflects the blame onto Tony Webster. Reggie and Tony fight, and both end up with black eyes. Next day, Elizabeth decides to get herself sacked in case C.J. tries anything else, and does so by typing out a rude letter. Meanwhile, Reggie has returned to the piggery, but the owner has found out who he really is too, and he has been sacked from there.
Soon, Reggie gets his inspired idea for Grot and goes to see C.J. for a loan. C.J. thinks it's blackmail money and readily signs a cheque for him for £30,000. The Grot empire soon grows, and at the same time Sunshine Desserts goes bankrupt. Reggie thinks it would be fun to have all his old crowd working for him for a change, particularly C.J. He invites C.J. for an interview and gives him a job as Head Of Expansion (Europe). Eventually, Reggie tires of Grot and the commuter rut he has found himself back in, and both himself and Elizabeth leave their clothes on the beach and assume new identities. The following day, they are sitting on a cliff-top bench when an old tramp asks them for some small change for a cup of tea. It is C.J. He has followed Reggie's lead in faking his death, and hundreds of others down on the beach are doing the same.

Series Three
At the start of Series 3, C.J. has not returned to society but has remained a tramp, or 'street entertainer' as he prefers to call it, earning a living by busking, badly, on the streets of London. Reggie has set out to recruit all the old mob again for his Perrins Community and finds C.J. playing his banjo outside a tube station. He treats C.J. to a pint and offers him a job, although he'd have to live in a tent. With all staff recruited, the first meeting is soon held to allocate everyone's jobs in the community. Reggie elects C.J. the Work Therapist, as "no-one understands the problems of work..." more than C.J., adding "having caused most of them yourself, C.J.". But C.J.'s first task is less than satisfying for him. Reggie is in charge of the household chores, and applies C.J. to babysitting duties three days running. Linda's children Adam and Jocasta and baby Reggie Harris-Jones are fond of thrusting a stuffed Kermit toy down the front of C.J.'s trousers, much to his annoyance. Eventually, guests start to arrive, although half the staff have to pretend to be guests to assure the first real guest that he is not alone. C.J. pretends that he 'can't make friends' but the guest sees through the scheme and flees in panic.
When the community is fluorishing, we see C.J. in a role-playing session with two guests, Thruxton Appleby the textiles tycoon and Arthur Noblett. an arc welder. Reggie looks in to hold a 'watching brief', and suggests that the worker should be the boss and the tycoon should be the labourer to demonstrate the 'them and us syndrome'. C.J. reluctantly agrees and decides to be the boss's secretary Cynthia Jones. The two guests fail to become each other and so C.J. and Reggie decide to show them how it's done, but get carried away and end up in a slanging match. Guests are now pouring into Perrins as a result of TV and newspaper promotions and Reggie tells staff members they will have to share. He bets Elizabeth five pounds that he can get C.J. to share with Doc Morrissey, and does so, but only by first telling him he must share with sweaty, germ-ridden Scottish chef McBlane then 'compromising' by saying the Doc instead. But when the Doc hears of his order to share with C.J., he faints. In Anti-Self-Consciousness Week, C.J. has an idea to go out in public and having conversations ending with '-ergle'. They try it on a train and it is a great success. A femme fatale called Deborah Swaffham leads C.J. astray, even to the point of them both being undressed. But the Community is threatened by thugs and despite their best efforts, they cannot save it and it closes down. All staff go their separate ways, and Reggie faces the prospect of never seeing C.J. again. A few weeks later, however, a letter arrives inviting Reggie to an interview at Amalgamated Aerosols where C.J.'s brother F.J. is managing director. Reggie soon discovers he is to be C.J.'s 'think tank' and orders Reggie to attend a 'smelling' to determine the three most popular fragrances which will launch the new range of aerosols. C.J. is horrified to read that one person has listed rude answers to what each smell reminded people of, and he knows it's Reggie. He orders Reggie to conduct an investigation, but Reggie decides to come clean and dictates a memo to be distributed to all departments.
 

The Legacy of Reginald Perrin
With Reggie now dead, all are assembled at his funeral service, including C.J. Weeks later he, along with all Reggie's other close friends and family, have been ordered to attend the reading of Reggie's last will and testament at the office of solicitor Geraldine Hackstraw. C.J. nearly faints when told he is to inherit £1million of Reggie's money, but is less than keen to learn they all have to do something totally absurd to earn it. After working separately, they eventually decide to work together to march on London in demonstration against ageism. C.J. funds the project, and recruiting begins. Meanwhile, C.J. tries to woo Miss Hackstraw, little realising that Doc Morrissey is trying to do the same. C.J. decides to betray the team and sell the secret to the papers - spied on by Tom and David - but one journalist gets run over by a lorry and is hospitalised, and another decides to join the team. The big day arrives, and the injured reporter remembers his scoop in time to tip-off the London police about the demonstration. Newspapers carry the story of C.J. the betrayer and one has 'PM thanks C.J.' for allowing the police to be there to meet them. On the day of the beneficiaries receiving their money, no-one is speaking to C.J. and Elizabeth suggests C.J. should forfeit some of his money in recompense. But Geraldine refuses to release any of the money anyway, as the project failed to be absurd enough, and C.J. nearly has a heart attack.
 

Character Analysis
C.J. is second only to Reggie himself for the number of scenes and number of storylines to be featured in during The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin. He has probably the most fondly-remembered catchphrase of all the characters and, including The Legacy of Reginald Perrin, has more 'rises and falls' than Reggie. C.J. is remembered because his character was larger than life, and one that everybody loved to hate. He was ruthless with his employees but also funny without him realising it. He revelled in his power and was uncaring in embarrassing his workers in front of others. More than anything, he was real. People who watched the series worked for people like C.J.. their tyranny, their giant cigars, giant desks in their 'inner sanctums' of a giant office, and their sheer brutality was displayed with total accuracy by C.J. It is, however, only the first Series in which C.J.'s character is remembered by most people. His subsequent ups and downs - working for Reggie at Grot, becoming a busker, working for Reggie at Perrins, Reggie working for him again at Amalgamated Aerosols - are not often recalled by most viewers when they think of C.J. This is because, although, still a dominant figure, the character became only as peripheral as that of, say, Tony or Joan in Reggie's later projects, but still managed to provide some of the greatest scenes of all three series. C.J. is now in the halls of sitcom fame as the archetypal office boss, unmatched by newcomer pretenders to the throne such as that of Ricky Gervais' creation in The Office. C.J. was king, and still is.


Tony Webster


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Related Links: Tony's catchphrases - Trevor Adams biography

Introduction:
Tony Webster was a handsome, trendy man in his early twenties. He was also one of Sunshine Desserts' 'yes-men'. Where David Harris-Jones was conciliatory and obedient out of fear, Tony did it out of a desire to get promoted. Eventually, it worked. He is single at the start of the series but ends up married to, then separated from, Joan Greengross, Reggie's secretary. His approving remark was 'Great!' and he used it often. Later it became 'Knockout!'. He was a likeable character, and C.J. liked him a lot, 'grooming him' for management.
 

Series One
Tony Webster is in C.J.'s office with David Harris-Jones and Reggie, being briefed on the launch campaign for the new range of Exotic ices. Later, he is present in Reggie's office with a number of staff to help select the most popular flavours which will launch the new range. He collects everyone's scorecards and goes off to feed them in to the computer. To C.J.'s surprise he is back within two minutes. Unfortunately, the computer has blown a fuse and printed out the three most popular flavours as being bookends, pumice stone and West Germany. The next day there is a marketing meeting in Reggie's office with advertising guru Morris Coates, statistics expert Esther Pidgeon, Tony and Reggie. David Harris-Jones is off sick after eating thirty-six ice creams the previous day. By now, Reggie is despairing of his job and is rude to both Morris and Esther. Tony stays behind after they have left and congratulates Reggie on his handling of them. Reggie says "Great!" The following day Tony and David arrive to be given their sales areas for promoting the Exotic Ices. Reggie has completely forgotten about designating their areas and quickly puts the maps on his desk, grabs the wastepaper basket and draws round it for Tony's area, and uses Joan's handbag to delineate David's area. Tony has been given East Lancashire, although 20% of it is in the Irish Sea. At Tony's mention of this, Reggie congratulates him on being observant, and passes off his error as being 'whole new sales terrirtory', including oil rigs, ferries and trawlers.
When David Harris-Jones is interrogated about his underpants decorated with Beethoven, after he dropped them in front of C.J. at Reggie's dinner party, it is Tony who is brought in to set an example. C.J. asks Reggie to ask Tony to drop his trousers, revealing a pair of plain blue pants. When Reggie creates the loganberry slick in C.J.'s private river, it is Tony who spots it first and drags C.J. out of the river. We next see Tony at Reggie's memorial, and then in the pub with C.J. and David, reminiscing over Reggie, although Tony is happy to have been promoted to Reggie's old job. When Reggie is Martin Wellbourne and Elizabeth has got him a job at Sunshine Desserts, Reggie is now working for Tony Webster.
 

Series Two
At the start of Series Two, Tony is enjoying being Reggie's boss. He tells Reggie to inform C.J. about a noticeable increase in absenteeism, but C.J. is off sick. C.J. discovers that Martin is really Reggie and sacks him, so Elizabeth has to get a job. C.J. employs her as secretary to Tony and David. He takes her to dinner where Tony is having a meal with Joan. They are in love, and become engaged. Elizabeth, meanwhile, is lying to Reggie about where she is working, and assumes she is having an affair. He follows her all the way to Sunshine Desserts one morning and confronts C.J., but he deflects the finger of suspicion onto Tony. He waits for Tony to come back from lunch and fights with him behind a hedge. Later, when Grot is successful, Reggie returns to Sunshine Desserts to repay a loan he has had from C.J. He finds Tony looking at a pile of papers on C.J.'s desk while his boss is in a crucial meeting. 

Sunshine Desserts goes bankrupt and all the staff eventually end up at Reggie's firm Grot. Tony is pleased to be offered a job, but is horrified to learn he will be working under David Harris-Jones. Personally, Tony is separated from Joan after getting married then chatting up a Swedish woman on their honeymoon. With Joan now back as Reggie's secretary, he hoped working under the same roof would have brought them back together. Eventually, after a number of liaisons between Joan and Reggie, Tony goes back to her.

Series Three
When Reggie sets off to recruit his staff for the Perrins Community, he finds Tony and Joan's flat. Tony lies he is involved in an import-export business and is just off to Frankfurt. His briefcase falls open, however, to reveal leaflets for the UniWarm central heating system, for which he is on a poor commission each time he makes a sale. He accepts Reggie's offer and accepts on behalf of Joan also. When the staff are gathered for the first time, their jobs in the Community are allocated. Tony is the Culture Officer, expanding guests' knowledge of English literature and art, once he's expanded his own. The staff become demoralised at the slow start, however, and Tony cheers himself up by decorating his work hut with Page 3 topless women. Eventually the Community is a success, and more properties are needed to accommodate everybody. Reggie asks Tony to pose as a black man to make their neighbours move out. He appears as Winston Gladstone Baldwin Chamberlain Frederick, with blacked-up face and a tea cosy on his head. The stunt works. Tony becomes one of the first to fall under the spell of femme fatale Deborah Swaffham, but he is one of many. Soon after, the Community is forced to close and everyone goes their separate ways.
 

The Legacy of Reginald Perrin
Tony is said to be in New Zealand during the events of The Legacy of Reginald Perrin, and has been separated from Joan for ten years. Joan has a new boyfriend, Hank Millbeck.
 

Character Analysis
Of the two sycophantic 'yes-men' that work for C.J., it is Tony who is more driven. He is the one who works to become, and remain, his boss's favourite. C.J.says he is 'grooming him' for management, and indeed becomes Reggie's boss when disguised as Martin Wellbourne. But Tony is still a teenager at heart, with an eye for the women, a trendy wardrobe, and probably a sports car too. He has the grooviest of the two catchphrases he shares with David - 'Great!' is more street-cred than the slightly more fusty 'Super!' In Series Two he is too proud to admit to Reggie his commission-only job until forced to when his leaflets fall from his briefcase. By now he has acquired an even more juvenile catchphrase, ending statements as though they were entire towns in the US - 'Success City, Arizona', 'Sensations in Triflesville'. Completely meaningless, but he thinks it makes him 'hip'. His ignorance is revealed when Reggie makes him Culture Therapist in his Community, but he pulls through and eventually proclaims Shakespeare 'a real laid back Bard'. Had Tony been in Series Four, he would no doubt still be trying to talk and act young, probably with ponytail and jeans too tight.


David Harris-Jones


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Related Links: Bruce Bould biography

Introduction
David Harris-Jones is a nervous, lightly-built man from Haverfordwest. He is totally lacking in self-confidence and quakes at the very mention of C.J. By Series Three he is much more confident and is a major player in BROSCOR during Series Four. He is married to Prue, and they have a child by Series Three called Reggie.
 

Series One
David, Tony and Reggie are being briefed by C.J. on the launch of the new Exotic Ices project. David eats too much ice cream at the tasting later in the day and is forced to take the next day off sick. When he returns he learns he has been given Hertfordshire as his sales area to promote the Exotic Ices. He is invited to Reggie's dinner party (without food) and embarrasses himself by getting drunk, asking C.J. for the last waltz and dropping his trousers in front of him. He is too drunk to travel home and spends the night at Reggie's, travelling to work on the train with Reggie the next day. C.J. is wondering about Reggie's Uncle Percy's suggestion that David was probably a poof, and orders him into his office, with Reggie present. He enquires as to the reason why his underpants bore an image of Ludwig von Beethoven and suggests he might be better off running a boutique or hairdressing salon. He attends C.J.'s fishing contest but catches nothing, and is with C.J. and Tony in the pub after Reggie's disappearance.
 

Series Two
Now working for Martin Wellbourne, David is still as nervous as ever in front of his 'new' superior, although he claims he is more confident. He is asked if he has been given the colour scheme booklet for his new office and tells Martin he is undecided on which colours to choose, and for what reasons. Later on, he is forced to dictate to C.J. the letter which he earlier dictated to Elizabeth, who is working for him as secretary. Elizabeth, however, is aware that Reggie suspects her of having an affair, and gets herself sacked by ignoring David's dictation and typing out a rude letter instead. When Sunshine Desserts goes bankrupt, David is the first ex-colleague to be recruited by the fluorishing Grot and is present at a design meeting with old affiliates Morris Coates the advertising exec and Esther Pigeon the market researcher. When Tony agrees to join the firm, Reggie informs him that he will be answerable to David. Both employees are as shocked as each other to find out.

Series Three
When Reggie has his idea for the Community, he sets out to recruit all his old friends. He finds David and his wife Prue at their home in West Wales, along with a new addition, baby Reggie, named after Reggie himself. They agree to move to Botchley and become part of the project. Much to David's horror, the quiet, prudish David is given the job of sex therapist, talking through the guests' sexual problems frankly. He fails miserably, becoming tongue-tied even at the mention of the word 'sex'. At the Mr. Babbacombe charade, David pretends to be a drug-addicted roadie for a rock group, but the sole guest recognises him as the warden who greeted him at the door the previous day. His confidence grows and is even found to be conducting a game of sexual Just A Minute with a number of guests. Deborah Swaffham's femme fatale charms come off the worst with David, as he is spotted leaving her bedroom by his wife Prue. She leaves the Community, and her husband, returning to Wales. At the news of the impending violent activity, however, she returns to help fight, but it is to no avail. They return to Haverfordwest with little Reggie Harris-jones.

The Legacy of Reginald Perrin
David and Prue gather at the reading of the will, and please everybody by still being together, when everybody else has just described their broken relationships. David has, however, been made redundant from the company he worked for. The fate of their son, however, is less than perfect. Reggie Harris-Jones lives in a gypsy caravan with his pregnant girlfriend in a lay-by. As part of their individual attempts to be absurd, they go to their local pub dressed as Long John Silver and Nell Gwynn. When they decide to work as a team, it is David who suggets the idea of the elderly and unemployed marching on London in demonstration, and everyone is surprised at how good the idea is. When C.J. decides to leak the project to the papers, Jimmy elects David and Tom to spy on him, but David makes his own gaffe when, at the wedding reception of Joan to Hank and Tom to Linda, he gets drunk and tells Tom and Linda's son Adam Patterson all about their aims. Adam works for the BBC.

Character Analysis
David Harris-Jones is a memorable character, not only because of his catchphrase response "Super!", but also because he is another archetypal office character - as much as is tyrannical C.J. or loyal Joan. David is intelligent, but never seems able to show it. He is extremely nervous, dithering and totally lacking in self-confidence. He is clumsy and awkward in front of superiors and shy in front of women. He is almost comparable to sitcom 'mummy's boy' characters, but moves away from that in Series Two onwards. He becomes much more confident, taking charge of situations, getting married and having a child. Unlike his colleague Tony Webster, he becomes responsible and mature. And happier with it.





Joan Greengross


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Related Links: Sue Nicholls biography

Introduction:
Joan Greengross is Reggie Perrin's faithful secretary of eight years. She is young, attractive and single. She is kind, generous, well-mannered, obedient and a good worker. She is also secretly in love with her boss. She is an independent woman and knows her own mind. As the series progresses she romances Tony Webster and they eventually marry, then separate. In Series Four she gets engaged to, then marries, Hank Millbeck.
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Series One
Joan Greengross is as much a part of Reggie's routine as his late trains and familiar faces. She knows he will always arrive at eleven minutes past nine and her boss will always explain his delay. She is always ready with her notepad for dictation when Reggie arrives. She advises Reggie of anything he should know about immediately, such as a collection being made for a colleague who is leaving, or the fact that Reggie is apparently only entitled to a 3-peg hatstand, not a 4-peg one. She takes part in the ice cream tasting to determine the launch flavours for the Exotic Ices project, as it is she who has laid out the various tubs in Reggie's office ready for the tasting. As the days pass, Joan is noticing that his boss's excuses are getting more fanciful and that he is looking at her longingly. Things come to a head when Reggie asks Joan to go to his house on Sunday for 'important business'.
He soon admits he has got her there to have an affiar, and Joan is pleased, as she has often dreamed of such events. Unfortunately, Reggie's son, son-in-law and brother-in-law come round, sent by Elizabeth to check on him while she's away. Joan has to get dressed hurrily upstairs and climb down the drainpipe. She is spotted by Jimmy crawling through the shrubbery on the front lawn, and Reggie quickly explains it's the local mad woman, and that they always let her crawl through their shrubbery. Later that week, Joan has gone to see Doc Morrissey as she is increasingly worried about Reggie's behaviour. Doc tells her it's middle-age and that he should be over the worst by now. She goes back to her office to find Reggie sitting in her dictation chair pretending to be her. She is never more worried than when Reggie says goodbye and shakes her hand before his 'disappearance', although he insists he will see her again soon. After Reggie has become Martin Wellbourne, he is back working for Sunshine Desserts, running the Reginald Perrin Memorial Foundation. His new secretary is his old secretary, Joan.
 

Series Two
After eight years of working for Reggie, Joan soon realises that Martin is really Reggie behind the wig and beard, but realises she can't tell C.J. the truth. C.J. finds out from Doc Morrissey and Reggie is sacked, along with the Doc. Elizabeth gets a job at Sunshine Desserts and is being wined and dined by C.J. in a restaurant which he thinks is quiet. Behind him is David and his girlfriend, and Tony and Joan at another table. We next see Joan when Reggie has built up his Grot empire and is fed-up at having dour Miss Erith as his secretary. He discovers that Joan and Tony were married, then separated on the second week of the honeymoon when Tony cheated on her with a Swedish girl. Joan consequently left Sunshine Desserts to work for an ointment manufacturer in Godalming. She is soon working for Reggie again, but both have promised that what almost happened before must not almost happen again. 

Reggie hoped that with Tony also working at Perrin Products (Grot) Ltd. it would bring him and Joan together again. Joan thinks it would be a good idea to make Tony jealous in an effort to rekindle their relationship and cajoles Reggie into being 'the other man'. This time, Tony does indeed call on Joan at her flat while Reggie is there, and it is Reggie who has to climb down the drainpipe. Eventually sick of Grot, Reggie confides in Joan that the only way to destroy it is to start behaving oddly again.

Series Three
Joan and Tony are back together for Series Three and both arrive together at Perrins Community, located in 19, Oslo Avenue, Botchley. They have to sleep in a tent, until more properties are purchased. Joan is designated the music therapist. The first guest has a fear of being the first guest, so Joan and others have to pretend to be guests. The plan fails. Eventually, guests do arrive and Joan sets to work improving their vocal ranges, without much success. She later leads a 'campfire' session of staff and guests by playing a song on the guitar. She realises that Tony is one of the people who succumbed to the seductive charms of Deborah Swaffham, but that he was not alone. Soon, however, the Community is closed down and Tony and Joan leave for pastures new.
 

The Legacy of Reginald Perrin
Joan is one of the beneficiaries of Reggie's will, and meets the rest of her old friends and Reggie's family at the solicitors for the reading of the will. They spend a lot of time 'catching up' on the years that have passed, and Joan tells the assembled party that she separated from Tony again, and she hadn't seen him for ten years. The idea of doing absurd things separately has been swept aside by a desire to unify in their cause by the time we next see Joan. She attends a meeting at the Perrins' home, and brings along her new boyfriend, a City shares dealer Hank Millbeck. Hank is later made redundant, as if to endorse the team's ideas for marching on London to demonstrate about ageism and occupational rejection in the workplace. Joan and Hank get engaged, and have a double wedding with the newly-rekindled lovers Tom and Linda.
 

Character Analysis
Considering the number of scenes in which Joan Greengross her appeared, she remains one of the less-developed characters of the series. For example, we know nothing of her history or of her family. As stated previously, she is kind, generous, happily subserviant to Reggie and a good listener as well as a good worker. She speaks her mind when she needs to, but also knows when to keep quiet. She is secretly in love with Reggie, but keeps it to herself until Reggie declares his love for her. She is important enough to be remembered by Reggie in his last will and testament.


Dr. Gerald 'Doc' Morrissey


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Related Links: John Horsley biography

Introduction
Gerald Morrissey is the company doctor at Sunshine Desserts. How he became a doctor, nobody knows or dares to consider. He is the very definition of a 'waste of space' and fails to give a diagnosis every time, claiming only that he suffers with it as well and wonders what it is. His prescription is always two aspirin. He eventually gets struck off the medical register for giving his usual white tablets to a person who had actually been infected with the country's first ever recorded incidence of Pink Baboon Fever.
 

Series One
Reggie's visit to Doc Morrissey's surgery disturbs his reading of a porn magazine. He listens to Reggie's symptoms and stands to examine him as best as he can. He begins as normal enough - taking Reggie's temperature, listening to his heartbeat - but then asks Reggie if he has had any dreams about naked sportswomen and if he has started to be unable to finish the Times crossword like he used to. Reggie is amazed that Doc has described his ailments exactly, but Doc confesses that it's only because he is suffering from the same problems too. He leaves Reggie with the obligatory two aspirin. A few days later, Reggie again visits Doc Morrissey because of his inability to make love and his apathy for work, although pretending they are his friend's symptoms. The Doc tells him he needs a break and could have given Reggie a sicknote if it was him. As Reggie's eccentricities increase, Joan visits the Doc, concerned for her boss. Doc Morrissey is more concerned about trying to get Joan to undress for him. On the day of Reggie's speech at Bilberry Hall, he goes to see the Doc for some tablets to calm his nerves. Reggie ends up finding something suitable himself, as Doc is preoccupied worrying about C.J.'s fishing contest later in the weekend. The Doc spends most of the day trying to untangle his fishing line from the grass and flowers behind him, but is soon on the scene when C.J. knocks himself unconscious after seeing Reggie's loganberry slick and convincing himself that a murderer is killing all his guests. After Tony and David drag C.J. to the side, Doc Morrissey can find no signs of life and says he is dead. C.J. opens one eye and sacks the Doc on the spot. Watch video -
 

Series Two
After Reggie's 'death', C.J. is a changed man and has a happier outlook on life. He has re-employed Doc Morrissey and has informed the new employee Martin Wellbourne to go for a check-up with him. The Doc checks him over, but sees through Reggie's disguise. He goes off to tell C.J. Later, both Reggie and the Doc are in C.J.'s office. No longer happy as Reggie was not really dead, C.J. returns to his tyrannical ways and sacks both men. We do not see Doc Morrissey again until Grot is a huge success and Reggie is trying to destroy it. He employs Doc Morrissey as Head of Creative Thinking. As with all his 'unsuitable appointments' though, the Doc turns out to have some very good ideas, such as January sales in September, with 'great increases all round'. Reggie's attempt to sack all his new recruits also fails. He pretends he has had a medical report come through about the Doc. He makes up some medical-sounding words and expects the Doc to understand. Doc Morrissey insists they have invented a lot more new parts of the body since he was at medical school, and doesn't understand any of the terms. However, he thinks the report is of Reggie and not himself, and tells Reggie to see a doctor.

Series Three
Reggie catches up with Doc Morrissey in Southall, where he is sitting on a park bench, feeding popadums to pigeons. Reggie entices the Doc into joining the community as the psychologist. He becomes one of the tent brigade in the back garden, although it keeps falling down on top of him in the middle of the night. He is also one of the members of staff who have to pretend to be guests for scared Mr. Babbacombe. He pretends he is prey to the delusion that he is a doctor, although his standing up every time Reggie mentions the Doc is not accidental, although Jimmy is pretending to be the real Doc at the time. With several guests now at the Community, Reggie visits each staff hut to hold a 'watching brief'. This completely unsettles the Doc who is trying a session of word association with Bernard Trilling, head of Anaemia Television, who has lost his sense of humour. It is Reggie who eventually cures the man, but Doc Morrissey gets the credit. With sleeping space soon at a premium, Reggie tries to get C.J. to share a room with the Doc, but Doc Morrissey faints at the suggestion. Even Doc Morrissey becomes a victim of Deborah Swaffham's charms, suggesting that a patient-patient situation - ie. on the couch with her - would be much more efficacious. He falls off the couch, however, and hurts the parts he was hoping to use. With staff morale at a low ebb, Doc surprises everyone by inventing an odourless, colourless liquid that restores the body's balance and provide all the goodness by chemical means that the Community is trying to achieve by physical means. All are sceptical but agree to try a glass of the liquid. All are soon violently ill with dysentery, and Doc Morrissey is blamed. The Doc denies this, however, as the liquid was in fact only water. It is the staff's conviction that the Doc has concocted a poison that has made them all ill. After the end of the Community, Doc Morrissey tells Reggie he will go back to teaching English to ethnic minorities at the local college. He says he can call himself 'Professor' as it pays more.

The Legacy of Reginald Perrin
Doc Morrissey is pleased to have been remembered in Reggie's will and enjoys meeting up with all his old friends and Reggie's family. When the instruction is given to do something absurd for his inheritance he promptly asks the executing solicitor to marry him. Unfortunately, C.J. has the same idea. Geraldine Hackstraw thus spends her evenings alternately at restaurants with the two men, although C.J. takes her to upmarket establishments and Doc Morrissey prefers to take her to places such as the Goffley Tandoori. Once BROSCOR is established, the Doc thinks of the idea of 'young age pensions', much to everyone's surprise. He remains part of the team to divert all coaches to London and takes part in the demonstration.
 

Character Analysis
Gerald 'Doc' Morrissey is the classic loveable, bumbling idiot. We know nothing of his background, but it matters not. We know he is magnanimous enough and proud to become the worst doctor in England, as it saves someone else from having the title. If he ever knew his medicines and anatomy, it is clear he has now forgotten them. Even the most basic of examination methods sometimes escape him - he listened to Reggie's heartbeat in one episode without putting his stethoscope in his ears. And while aspirins have been proved to cure many ills, it is clearly not ALWAYS suitable as a prescription. He is a dirty old man, trying at every instance to get the female employees' clothes off. He reads adult magazines in his office and is not seen or heard to have had a wife or girlfriend at any stage of the series. By the time he tries to woo Ms. Hackstraw in Series Four, he is probably too old to do anything if she HAD succumbed to his charms.




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