UP there with Post It notes and lava lamps, Reggie Perrin was one of the great inventions of the 1970s - and he was born in Orpington.

Author David Nobbs told Vibe: “I like to think the idea of Reggie Perrin came to me catching the 8.16am from Orpington Station on the way to school.

“I saw the same people in the same position in the same carriage, businessmen.

“The idea came into my head and that’s what surfaced all those years later.”

Mr Nobbs was at Cafe Panacea in Orpington High Street yesterday (Tuesday, June 11) to sign copies of his novels and give a talk at All Saints’ Church Hall.

The 78-year-old lived in Sevenoaks Road until he was 23.

During the war he was evacuated to Wiltshire but returned in 1944, shortly before Hitler dropped a Doodlebug on the town.

He said: “We were lying in the road for about ten minutes until we heard the explosion. I thought it was quite fun as a child but my parents thought ‘oh my god, we have made a mess of things bringing us all back.’”

Mr Nobbs’ 19th novel, the Fall and Rise of Gordon Coppinger has recently been published and he has already completed his 20th.

He said: “I just love writing. It’s what I do. I just love it – I think I have got a really good story and it is one I am going to push for.”

The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin starring Leonard Rossiter, adapted from Mr Nobbs’ books - finished in 1979 - but the author said he still lives with the character.

He said: “People keep doing his catchphrases, saying ‘I didn’t get where I was today...’ and that kind of thing, so they’ve not let me forget which is quite nice really.”

As well as writing novels and adapting them for television, Mr Nobbs worked as a writer for TV greats like the Two Ronnies, Les Dawson and Tommy Cooper.

He said: “Some of it was very, very rewarding – the Two Ronnies and Les Dawson.

“Tommy Cooper was less rewarding because Tommy Cooper didn’t really need writers.

“He was a comic genius. Even if you had written a sketch it wouldn’t come out how you’d written it.

“Frankie Howerd was fairly fully-scripted but he looked like he was blathering on, making it up.

He liked to have all that written in.”

“It is not as much fun as doing your own stuff because you are writing in their style. Not for the

Two Ronnies because they don’t really have a style. They’re actors really. They were very clever people.

“Leonard Rossiter was a very clever man. A genius.”

A revamped version of Reggie Perrin starring Martin Clunes returned briefly in 2009 but failed to catch the imagination of the original.

Mr Nobbs said: “It wasn’t a failure but equally it wasn’t a success.

“I now think Martin was wrong (for the role). He’s a lovely actor but he’s too likeable. You can’t believe he’s going off his rocker to be honest.

“The person I wanted was David Tennant. He was very off-the-wall, you can imagine him being rude to people.”