The rise and fall of mirth in Reginald Perrin

When you die, you have to have done something special to avoid being forgettably replaceable.  That was the fate that befell Reggie Perrin but not David Nobbs, who wrote The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin.  The Today programme was eulogising Nobbs' passing but such a landmark in British comedy will resonate with few under the age of 25.
I remember catching a re-run of the series on BBC2 in the late 1990s and though a few things are noteworthy (the progressive parents who insist on calling their brattish progeny not children but 'little adults', more out of ideology than parental pride) and it is observational comedy, it is one captured in aspic.  The only way it is observational now would be viewing a dig at an archaeological site.  All of which is a roundabout way of saying it hasn't aged well.
One guest on Today exclaimed that "anyone can write a gag" (not true) but what Nobbs did was create a magnificent comic character.  In this, the series was blessed with Leonard Rossiter, a man born to play Reggie Perrin as much as Rigsby in Rising Damp, but it speaks to truths of its milieu - the dreariness of the workplace and home life of an office drone in the late 1970s - rather than eternal ones of character traits.  The workplace and home life of an office drone can still be dreary with bragging bosses and shrewish spouses, just not in the same way anymore.  Which is why Dad's Army, written about much the same time but referring to an age even further removed, garners so many more repeats as the jokes stem from the timeless attributes of people (coupled with first-rate acting).
When I watched it in the late 1990s, I felt compelled to laugh out of decency rather than from an irrepressible geyser in side of me.  The Today presenter in charge of the tribute to Nobbs, cited a line that had stuck with him from The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin as thus: "The train will be delayed by five minutes due to wolves on the line."  It speaks to the absurdity of excuses cooked up by the rail authorities that are announced straight-bat (which could be said to timeless as long as public transport lasts) but it wasn't the delivery that failed to evince a smile from me.  It was stimulating, yes, but not funny.  It really needed a rider to cap it such as, 'just as sheep mow lawns, at least that will take care of the suicides' or something of that ilk (I'm just thinking on spur of the moment; this is a blogpost after all, instead than something goes out on national television).  This summed up ...Reginald Perrin - jokes in which there was much to be admired, through meta-context and construction but, like reactions to solemn statuary crowning a tomb, they induce respect rather than laughter.