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Miraculous recovery

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SCMP Reporter

Anyone in Britain knows how the documentary, The Fall And Rise Of Sgt 'Reggie' Perrin (Pearl, midnight), came by its name.

Reggie Perrin was a sitcom character (played by Leonard Rossiter) who feigned his death and reinvented himself.

The series was hugely popular and, subsequently, newspapers have carried various stories of real-life Reggies who've left their clothes, briefcases and worries on a deserted beach only to resurface later with a new name and life.

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The Perrin at the heart of this film has changed his life not through choice but after being the victim of a terrible accident.

Perrin was an Arctic warfare specialist in the Royal Marines, a Falklands veteran and an ordnance instructor when, in September 1992, while teaching a group of young naval officers how to throw grenades one went off in his face.

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The damage was severe but, against the odds, he began an extraordinary recuperation, recovering his speech and mental faculties, although his movement is still impaired.

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