Reggie attends his own memorial service in disguise and re-enters Elizabeth's life as an old friend of Reggie, Martin Wellbourne. Elizabeth and Martin get on so well that they decide to marry.

After his fake suicide, Reggie tries out his new life in which he can be anyone and go anywhere. However, he realises that he wants Elizabeth. He reveals himself to Linda but finds that Elizabeth is to re-marry.

Reggie decides to put an end to it: he says goodbye to Joan, makes a drunken speech to the British Fruit Association, says goodbye to Elizabeth, floods a river with loganberry essence and fakes his own suicide.

Reggie's revolt against the normality of his life is becoming brazen. While Elizabeth is away, he hosts a dinner party without any food.

While Elizabeth is away, Reggie asks Joan, his secretary, to come over for a business meeting but he actually intends to start an affair with her. A stream of visitors causes his plan to go awry.

Reggie Perrin needs a month's holiday but all he gets is an afternoon in a safari park with his wife, daughter, son-in-law and their two "tiny adults".

When Reginald Perrin set out for work on Tuesday morning, he had no intention of calling his mother-in-law a hippopotamus. But he did, and from then on everything began to change.