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The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins

2026

A disgraced former football player is on a mission to rehabilitate his image.

Geoffrey Palmer

Cast · Known for ITV Playhouse, Peter Pan

Geoffrey Dyson Palmer, OBE (4 June 1927 - 5 November 2020) was an English actor known for his roles in British television sitcoms playing Jimmy Anderson in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (1976–79), Ben Parkinson in Butterflies (1978–1983) and Lionel Hardcastle in As Time Goes By (1992–2005). His film appearances include A Fish Called Wanda (1988), The Madness of King George (1994), Mrs. Brown (1997), and Tomorrow Never Dies (1997). Geoffrey Dyson Palmer was born on 4 June 1927 in North Finchley, Middlesex. He was the son of Frederick Charles Palmer, who was a chartered surveyor, and Norah Gwendolen (née Robins). He attended Highgate School from September 1939 to December 1945. He served as a corporal instructor in small arms and field training in the Royal Marines during his national service from 1946 to 1948, following which he briefly worked as an unpaid trainee assistant stage manager. Palmer's early television appearances included multiple roles in episodes of The Army Game (Granada Television), two episodes of The Baron and as a property agent in Cathy Come Home (1966). After a major break in John Osborne's West of Suez at the Royal Court with Ralph Richardson, he acted in major productions at the Royal Court and for the National Theatre Company and was directed by Laurence Olivier in J. B. Priestley's Eden End. Palmer found the play so dull, however, that he was deterred from a stage career. Two BBC sitcom roles brought him attention in the 1970s: the hapless brother-in-law of Reggie Perrin in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (1976–79), and the phlegmatic dentist Ben Parkinson in Butterflies (1978–1983). In 1978, Palmer appeared as organized crimelord Simon Sinclair in London Weekend Television's hard-hitting police drama The Professionals, the episode entitled "Where the Jungle Ends". Palmer played Doctor Price in the Fawlty Towers episode "The Kipper and the Corpse" (1979), determined to have breakfast amidst the confusion caused by the death of a guest and Fawlty's inept way of handling the emergency. In 1986, Palmer appeared as Donald Fairchild in the first series of an ITV sitcom, Executive Stress, alongside Penelope Keith. He later left, and was replaced by Peter Bowles. Palmer later starred opposite Judi Dench for over a decade in another BBC sitcom, As Time Goes By (1992–2005). In 1997, he also appeared with Dench in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies, in which he portrayed Admiral Roebuck to Dench's M, and Mrs Brown, playing Sir Henry Ponsonby to Dench's Queen Victoria. Palmer married Sally Green in 1963. They had a daughter, Harriet, and a son, Charles, a television director. Palmer was a longtime resident of Lee Common in the Chiltern Hills, Buckinghamshire, and enjoyed fly fishing in his spare time. At the time of his death, he resided in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire. Palmer died peacefully at his home on 5 November 2020, aged 93.

Jemma Churchill

Known for BBC Five(ish) Doctors Reboot the Doctor Who 50th-anniversary spoof; as Nanny Lyons in Upstairs Downstairs for BBC; most recently on Sky TV's crime comedy Agatha Raisin as Freda. Jemma began acting at the renowned Royal Court Youth Theatre in London in the '70s, working with Danny Boyle, Katrin Cartlidge, Simon Curtis, etc. Trained at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and left to work on Mai Zeterrling's borstal girl feature film Scrubbers. Jemma was brought up around TV studios or film sets as her parents, Pauline Yates and Donald Churchill were well-known actor/writers. Donald wrote over 30 plays for television in the 60's/70's and Pauline worked extensively and perhaps is best known as Reggie's wife in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin staring Leonard Rossiter. Jemma has worked in all areas of film and television. Most recently appearing in the new series for Sky TV Agatha Raisin. Jemma is best known for her portrayal as Nanny Lyons in Upstairs Downstairs for the BBC. She has many connections with the world of Doctor Who and appears in Peter Davisons' 50th Anniversary Doctor Who spoof for the BBC Five(ish)Doctors Reboot in which she plays herself. Jemma can often be seen on British TV Guesting in series such as Doctors, Holby or Waterloo Road. She enjoys working on independent movies on new writing and has recently worked on Deny Everything, Burn The Clock for Raging Calm Films and Between Places directed by Iain Findlay. She produced and starred in Beached and created Two Tree Island Productions with screenwriter Elizabeth Heery which won the Best Short Fiction Film at The Southend Film Festival 2012. The judging panel included Ray Winston and Perry Benson.

Charmian May

Charmian Rosemary May was an English character actress best known for her television and film roles, she appeared in the sitcoms The Good Life, Keeping Up Appearances and the film Bridget Jones's Diary. She appeared as Miss Pershore in episode 6 of The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin.

Leonard Rossiter

Cast · Known for 2001: A Space Odyssey

Leonard Rossiter (21 October 1926 – 5 October 1984) was an English actor known for his roles as Rupert Rigsby, in the British comedy television series Rising Damp (1974–78), and Reginald Iolanthe Perrin, in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (1976–79). He also had a long and distinguished career in the theatre and gained some notoriety for a series of Cinzano commercials (1978–1983), with Joan Collins.

Trevor Adams

Trevor Michael Adams (19 May 1946 – 15 December 2000) was a British actor, best remembered for his portrayal of Tony Webster in the BBC series The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (1976–79), whom he played throughout its entire run, and Alan in Fawlty Towers episode "The Wedding Party" (1975). Adams attended the then Harold Hill Grammar School, in Harold Hill, Essex from 1957 to 1964, and played leading roles in a number of school plays. Later he trained at RADA and was a member of the National Youth Theatre. He spent a year at Stratford-Upon-Avon before turning to television, where he was often cast as a criminal. He had roles in the films Groupie Girl (1970) and Private Road (1971), and appeared in a variety of programmes in Britain, notably Public Eye, The Professionals, Z-Cars, The New Avengers and Dixon of Dock Green. Adams left the acting profession in 1982, before moving to Norwich and retraining as a solicitor. His workload prevented him from appearing in the 1996 follow-up to The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, entitled The Legacy of Reginald Perrin. Adams died after a lengthy battle with cancer.

David Nobbs

David Gordon Nobbs (13 March 1935 – 8 August 2015) was an English comedy writer, most notable for writing the 1970s television series The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, adapted from his own novels. Nobbs was born in Orpington, Kent. Following an education at Marlborough College and St John's College, Cambridge, he worked as a reporter for The Sheffield Star, before starting his career in comedy as a writer for That Was the Week That Was in the early 1960s. He wrote for many of Britain's comedy performers over the years, including Kenneth Williams, Frankie Howerd, Les Dawson, and The Two Ronnies. Nobbs created the sitcom The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (1976–79), adapted from his own novels, which 'told the story of a man living an escapist fantasy in response to the mundanity of his daily commute'. Nobbs also wrote the comedy-drama programme A Bit of a Do (1989) and the Henry Pratt series of novels, the fourth of which, Pratt à Manger, was published in 2006. His novel It Had to be You was published in 2011.

Roland MacLeod

Roland MacLeod (1935 – 3 April 2010) was an English actor working in film and television. He was born in London. His television credits include Coronation Street, Softly, Softly, Ripping Yarns, The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, Sykes, Please Sir!, Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, Marty, Broaden Your Mind and The Goodies. He also made some appearances in Season Three of Grange Hill as a slightly comical workman sporting a comb over, often seen in confrontation with staff and pupils. However, his character showed a kinder side when he cleaned Duane Orpington's new coat in episode two. He also played the mad Head Teacher in The Boot Street Band, a TV series written by Steve Attridge and Andrew Davies. He appeared as a vicar in John Cleese's film A Fish Called Wanda as well as in Le Pétomane and The Last Remake of Beau Geste.

Tim Preece

Tim Preece (born 5 August 1938) is an English actor. He has appeared on British television since the 1960s and also acted on stage Preece was born in Shrewsbury in Shropshire and was educated at the Priory Grammar School for Boys, Shrewsbury. He trained as an actor at the Bristol Old Vic. In 1965, Preece was cast as Nipple in Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs by David Halliwell. He played the role in 1965 at the Dublin Theatre Festival, at the West End premiere opposite John Hurt in 1966, and later that fall in the Broadway premiere directed by Alan Arkin. He was the only original cast member to transfer to Broadway. Preece's television roles include playing Codal in the six-part Doctor Who serial Planet of the Daleks (1973) and Tom Patterson in the first two series of The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (1976–77). He later returned to the role for The Legacy Of Reginald Perrin (1996). He also appeared as the editor of a local newspaper in "The Journalist", an episode of People Like Us (2001) with Chris Langham. Preece played the recurring role of Rev. Sparrow in Waiting for God (1992–94). His other television appearances include the Foyle's War episode "War Games" (2003) as James Philby, the pilot of a doomed holiday jet in the Casualty episode "Cascade" (1992), and as Mark's careers guidance counsellor and therapist in the Peep Show episode "Dream Job" (2003). In 2017, Preece appeared in a Royal National Theatre production of the improvised play Lost Without Words.

John Howard Davies

John Howard Davies (born Paddington, London; 9 March 1939 — 22 August 2011) was a British television director, producer and former child actor. Davies was the son of the scriptwriter Jack Davies. His credits as a child actor include the title role in David Lean's Oliver Twist (1948), The Rocking Horse Winner (1949), Tom Brown's Schooldays (1951) and a few episodes of the television series William Tell (1958). After school at Haileybury, further education at Grenoble and National Service in the Royal Navy, he started working in the City in a finance company. After that, he trained as a carpet salesman but quit after six months to travel the world. Ending up in Australia he returned to acting and met his wife Leonie when they both appeared in The Sound of Music. Back in Britain, he tried selling oil to industry in Wembley and then became a production assistant in the BBC at the end of 1968. Davies is best known for his adult career as director and producer of several highly successful British sitcoms, including All Gas and Gaiters, Fawlty Towers (series 1), The Goodies, The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, The Good Life, No Job for a Lady and Mr. Bean. Davies was also the producer and director of the sketch show The World of Beachcomber and the earliest episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus. He also directed several episodes of The Vicar of Dibley. He became the BBC's Head of Comedy from 1977-1982, then head of Light Entertainment and finally Controller Managing Director of EMI Television Productions and the Head of Light Entertainment at ITV broadcaster Thames Television. During the last role, he was cited by the popular press as the man who 'sacked' comedian Benny Hill when the station decided not to renew his contract after 20 years' service. Description above from the Wikipedia article John Howard Davies, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia

Terence Conoley

Terence Conoley was born on July 15, 1919 in Colchester, Essex, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Fierce Creatures (1997), Crossbow (1987) and The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (1976). He was married to Roberta Kanal. He died on April 7, 2016 in Twickenham, Middlesex, England, UK.

Babylon

2022

A tale of outsized ambition and outrageous excess, tracing the rise and fall of multiple characters in an era of unbridled decadence and depravity during Hollywood's transition from silent films to sound films in the late 1920s.

Rondi Reed

Reed has been a member of Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company for many years, appearing in 51 productions with the company. She appeared on Broadway in The Rise and Fall of Little Voice in 1994 and The Grapes of Wrath in 1990, among others. On July 13, 2005, she originated the role of Madame Morrible in the Chicago production of the musical Wicked. She originated the role of Mattie Fae Aiken in the Broadway production of August: Osage County in 2007, for which she won the 2008 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Play. She later reprised her role of Madame Morrible in Wicked in Chicago, beginning June 27, 2008. Her second run ended November 18, 2008 and she was again replaced by Robertson. She then reprised her role as Mattie Fae Aiken in the London production of August: Osage Country before returning to Madame Morrible in the Broadway production of Wicked. She began performances March 17, 2009, replacing Jayne Houdyshell and bowed out as the evil headmistress on June 27, 2010, to star in the Australian production of August in Sydney. The limited engagement of the show ran from August 13-September 25, 2010. She returned to the New York production of "Wicked" from July 31, 2017 to January 28, 2018. She appeared in the Seinfeld episode "The Kiss Hello" (originally aired on February 16, 1995). She starred on the CBS sitcom Mike & Molly, as Peggy Biggs, Mike's mother. She also appeared on Roseanne as Jackie's therapist.

Nick Murphy

Nick Murphy is a British film director and television director. He is best known for directing the films The Awakening and Blood. He has directed episodes of the television series Prey, The Last Kingdom, A Christmas Carol and the docudramas How Art Made the World, Surviving Disaster, Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire and Heroes and Villains. He also wrote the episodes for all the docudramas he directed.

Dream

2026

Years ago, journalist Shen Leshui recorded the lives of workers at the Old La City Brewery. Now she returns to La City, picks up her camera again, and explores corners forgotten by time. Cao Jun, Tu Chunyan, Qian Yichuan, Cheng Youtian... These people, once the subjects of her lens, experience the rise and fall of fate in the torrent of time. Their stories are like riddles sealed by time. Moving between the past and the present, Shen Leshui uncovers these chapters of the past buried by time.

John Gabriel

John Gabriel was and English actor, born on September 27, 1914 in Hendon, Middlesex, England, UK. As well as appearing in a number of television serials, he was known for 'The Rise and Fall of César Birotteau' (1965), 'Sierra Nine' (1963) and 'The Theban Plays by Sophocles' (1986). He died on May 28, 1998 in Surrey, England, UK.

Alison Steadman

Cast · Known for Play for Today

Alison Steadman (born 26 August 1946) is an English actor. She won the 1991 National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress for the Mike Leigh (her husband 1973-2001) film Life is Sweet, and the 1993 Olivier Award for Best Actress for her role as Mari in the original production of The Rise and Fall of Little Voice. In a 2007 Channel 4 poll, the "50 Greatest Actors" voted for by other actors, she was ranked No. 42. Steadman made her professional stage debut in 1968 and went on to establish her career in Mike Leigh's 1970s TV plays Nuts in May (1976) and Abigail's Party (1977). She received BAFTA TV Award nominations for the 1986 BBC serial The Singing Detective, and in 2001 for the ITV drama series Fat Friends (2000–05). Other television roles include Pride and Prejudice (1995), Gavin & Stacey (2007–10, 2019) and Orphan Black (2015–16). Her other film appearances include A Private Function (1984), Clockwise (1986), Shirley Valentine (1989), Topsy Turvy (1999), and The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004).

Elaine Stewart

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Elaine Stewart was an American actress and model. Stewart was born in Montclair, New Jersey as Elsy Steinberg. She was one of five children born into a German Jewish family. In 1961, nearing the end of her television career, she married actor Bill Carter. After her divorce from Carter, she married television producer Merrill Heatter on December 31, 1964. They had a son, Stewart, and a daughter, Gabrielle. Stewart made her debut by winning Miss See in See Magazine in 1952, with measurements 34–25–36. She was in many magazines such as Playboy and Photoplay. She had a supporting role in The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), as Lila, a starlet who has a romantic fling with a producer played by Kirk Douglas. She was featured as the love interest of Sgt Ryan, played by Richard Widmark, in Take the High Ground! (1953) as Julie. She appeared in other films, such as Brigadoon, Night Passage, Code Two, The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond, and The Adventures of Hajji Baba. Stewart had a small but key role, as Anne Boleyn, in 1953's Young Bess. She co-starred with Jeff Chandler in the film noir The Tattered Dress (1957), with Victor Mature in the western Escort West (1958) and shared top billing with John Derek in a 1958 adventure film, High Hell before turning to television. Stewart guest-starred in TV series such as Bat Masterson and Burke's Law, both starring Gene Barry. In her last acting appearance on TV, she played Irene Grey in the Perry Mason episode "The Case of the Capering Camera" in 1964. Stewart was a co-hostess on two 1970s game shows, Gambit with Wink Martindale and the nighttime edition of High Rollers with Alex Trebek, both produced by her husband, Merrill Heatter. Stewart died on June 27, 2011, at the age of 81.

Jason Orange

After starting his career as a breakdancer in Manchester in the group Street Machine, Jason Orange rose to fame as a member of the boyband Take That. Take That experienced incredible success in the early 1990s before announcing their split in 1996, a year after the departure of Robbie Williams. Orange went on to pursue an acting career, including a role in Killer Net (1998) and a starring role in Gob (a limited run play in London). After moving on from acting, Orange returned to the spotlight in 2005 with the release of Take That: For The Record (2005), a documentary chronicling the rise and fall of Take That. After airing to rave reviews, a few months later Take That - minus Williams - announced that they were reforming for a greatest hits tour. Beyond this, the band then released three more albums and sold out tours with Orange. Orange then made the decision to leave the band in 2014.

Mark Herman

Director · Known for The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Mark Herman (born 1954 in Bridlington, East Riding of Yorkshire, England) is an English film director and screenwriter notable for writing & directing the 2008 film The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. Mark Herman was educated at Woodleigh School, North Yorkshire. He was late entering the film industry. Aged 27 he was drawing cartoons at art college before becoming involved in drama when he began studying film at Leeds Polytechnic, now the Metropolitan University of Leeds. He then trained as an animator at the National Film School in London. He moved away from animation and continued to study directing. He also wrote lyrics for The Christians. Herman’s first feature-length project was Blame It on the Bellboy (1992), a comedy of mistaken identity starring Dudley Moore and Bryan Brown. Next, Herman wrote and directed the critically acclaimed Brassed Off (1996), following the members of a colliery brass band, still struggling to survive a decade after the miners' strike. In Little Voice (1998), adapted by Herman from Jim Cartwright's play The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, Jane Horrocks reprises the title role of a harried young woman whose only escape lies in the memory of her father and in imitating the singers he admired. This film gave Michael Caine the opportunity for his best performance to date. Purely Belter (2000), adapted by Herman from Jonathan Tulloch's novel The Season Ticket, is the story of two teenage boys trying to get together enough money for a couple of Newcastle United F.C. season tickets. Hope Springs (2003), is an adaptation of New Cardiff. His most recent work is the adaptation of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. It was produced by David Heyman and stars David Thewlis, Vera Farmiga, Sheila Hancock and Rupert Friend. Herman directed and adapted the work. Mark Herman is a fellow of Film and Television Production, York St John University, York, England. Description above from the Wikipedia article Mark Herman, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

John Shrapnel

Cast · Known for Natural World, 101 Dalmatians, Gladiator

Shrapnel was born in Birmingham, Warwickshire, the son of Mary Lillian Myfanwy (née Edwards) and journalist/author Norman Shrapnel.[1] As a stage actor, he was a member of Laurence Olivier's Royal National Theatre company and the Royal Shakespeare Company and most recently appeared as Sir Oliver Surface in The School for Scandal (directed by Deborah Warner) at the Barbican Centre in 2011. He has also appeared extensively in film and on television in roles in Elizabeth R, Z-Cars, Edward and Mrs. Simpson, 101 Dalmatians, Space: 1999, Inspector Morse, Coogan's Run, Notting Hill and Foyle's War. He presented an episode of the 1983 BBC television travel series Great Little Railways. He gave performances in three entries in the BBC Television Shakespeare plays and as Creon in the BBC's 1984 productions of the Three Theban plays of Sophocles. In America, he has starred in supporting roles as Senator Gaius in Gladiator, Nestor in Troy and Pompey in the second episode of Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire. He also played the Jail Warden in the 10th Kingdom, an epic fantasy miniseries. He has the rare achievement of appearing in two episodes of Midsomer Murders as two different characters, in Death in Chorus and Written in Blood. Shrapnel appeared in an episode of Jonathan Creek as Professor Lance Graumann in the episode The Omega Man. He appears in Chemical Wedding alongside Simon Callow, telling the tale of the resurrection of occultist Aleister Crowley. Shrapnel also has experience in the field of BBC radio drama through such characters as Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse and William Gibson's Neuromancer. He is the son-in-law of Deborah Kerr through his 1975 marriage to her younger daughter Francesca Ann Bartley. They have three sons, the actors Lex Shrapnel (b.1979), Tom Shrapnel (b.1981) and the writer Joe Shrapnel (b.1976). They live in Highbury, north London.

Geoffrey C. Ward

Writer · Known for American Experience

Geoffrey C. Ward is an author, editor, historian and writer of scripts for American History Documentaries for Public Television. He is the author or co-author of 18 books. Five books are companion books to documentary films that he has written. He has won seven Emmy Awards. The principal writer of the television mini-series The Civil War (1990,) Ward has collaborated with its co-producer Ken Burns on many of the documentaries he has made since, including Jazz, Baseball, The War and Not For Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. This work has garnered him five Emmy Awards. He also won two Emmys for the American Experience series, including The Kennedys, in 1992 and TR,The Story of Theodore Roosevelt in 1996. His script for the documentary Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson, won the Writers Guild of America Award in 2005[3] and the accompanying book won the 2006 William Hill Sports Book of the Year and the Anisfield-Wolf Award for best biography. In 2006, the Organization of American Historians gave Ward their Friend of History Award for his outstanding contributions to American history: "Over the last twenty years Geoffrey Ward's writings on American History have had a greater influence and reached a wider audience than those of any other American writer and historian. [His] work is always his own, but he has also helped free ideas that otherwise might have been imprisoned in the academy and helped them find a wider world. He has helped academic historians understand the possibilities, limits, and demands of what has become the medium through which most Americans now get their history." The most recent Burns/Ward collaboration, Prohibition (2011), brought Ward his seventh Emmy for Outstanding Writing for Nonfiction Programming. He is currently at work on a multi-part series "Vietnam", with Lynn Novick and Ken Burns. He is the principle writer or co-writer of 24 documentary films. Ward is married to the writer and social/environmental activist Diane Raines Ward. He has three children.

James Cartwright

James Lewis Cartwright, Extensive television credits include MINDER, CLOCKING OFF, BBC's LOVE, LIES & RECORDS and the title role in JOHNNY SHAKESPEARE, for which he won Best Actor at Royal Television Society Awards. Theatre includes A PLAN, THE HISTORY BOYS, SATURNS RETURN, THE RISE AND FALL OF LITTLE VOICE and starring in both RAZ (Trafalgar Studios and on tour) and THE VORTEX (Singapore). Film roles range from CLUBBED to 24 HOUR PARTY PEOPLE, Danny Boyle's VACUUMING COMPLETELY NUDE IN PARADISE to VINYL. James also plays 'PC Burns' in BBC R4's THE ARCHERS. (Emptage Hallett)

Alex Gibney

Cast · Director · Known for Dirty Money, Independent Lens, Musk

Philip Alexander Gibney (/ˈɡɪbni/; born October 23, 1953; New York City) is an American documentary film director and producer. In 2010, Esquire magazine said Gibney "is becoming the most important documentarian of our time." Gibney's works as director include The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley, Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief (winner of three Emmys in 2015), We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks, Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God (the winner of three 2013 primetime Emmy awards), Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (nominated in 2005 for Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature); Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer (short-listed in 2011 for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature), Casino Jack and the United States of Money, and Taxi to the Dark Side (winner of the 2007 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature), focusing on a taxi driver in Afghanistan who was tortured and killed at Bagram Air Force Base in 2002. In 2019, he released his documentary Citizen K, about Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian billionaire exile Mikhail Khodorkovsky.