It is Friday, and Reggie is preparing to make a speech to the British Fruit Association wittily entitled ( by C.J. ): 'Are We Getting Our Just Desserts?'. Doc Morrissey gives him pills designed to give him 'Dutch courage'. Unfortunately, Reggie then mixes these with alcohol. By the time he begins the speech, he is bombed out of his mind.
He begins by ridiculing the title of the talk, insults Dr.Hump ( Dennis Ramsden ), though with a name like that he should be used to it, suggests the members of the audience shake hands with the person sitting next to them, and generally behaves in such a shambolic manner he has to be forcibly evicted from the stage.
Reggie recovers and puts into place the first stage of his master plan to escape from his drab, monotonous existence once and for all...
There is a famous scene in the Boulting Brothers comedy 'Lucky Jim' ( 1957 ) in which university lecturer Jim Dixon ( Ian Carmichael ) has to give a speech to the students on the subject of 'Merrie England'. He takes pills to give him Dutch courage, mixes them with drink and gives such a shambolic performance he falls off the stage. Now I am not suggesting for one moment that David Nobbs pinched the idea on purpose, but the scenes are incredibly similar, even down to the speaker's slurred words. Put it down to coincidence. Either way, both are very funny.
This is, of course, the episode in which Reggie says goodbye to one life while adopting a new one. But before he departs he is determined to make C.J. suffer - hence his theft of a lorry load of loganberry essence, which he then pumps into the very river C.J. and his pals are fishing in. Thinking it to be blood - divine retribution for being too ruthless in business - C.J. falls into the sweet-smelling goo. Doc Morrissey wades in to help him, and pronounces him dead. Then, one of C.J.'s eyes snaps open: "You're fired!", he says.
Reggie is last glimpsed wandering down a country road looking like an old tramp, and wondering what to call himself now that 'Reggie' is supposedly dead.
Funniest moment - Reggie's speech. A masterclass of comic acting from the peerless Mr.Rossiter.
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