"The Good Life" (1975) TV series 1975-1978

Seasons:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | unknown

Release Date:

4 April 1975 (UK)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

The perils of "escaping the rat race" and dropping out of society - to start a farm in Surbiton (and to drive Margo nuts).

Plot Keywords:

Farm | Neighbor | Conservative | Housewife | Innuendo

Awards:

1 win & 6 nominations

Cast

Richard Briers	...	Tom Good (30 episodes, 1975-1978)
Felicity Kendal	...	Barbara Good (30 episodes, 1975-1978)
Penelope Keith	...	Margo Leadbetter (30 episodes, 1975-1978)
Paul Eddington	...	Jerry Leadbetter (30 episodes, 1975-1978)

Also Known As:

Good Neighbors (USA)

Runtime:

28 min (30 episodes)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:PG (some episodes) | Australia:G

Filming Locations:

Kewferry Road, Northwood, Middlesex, England, UK

Company:

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Trivia:

The last episode, "When I'm 65" was the second comeback special (by popular demand) and was recorded in the presence of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip. After the recording the cast and leading members of the crew were presented to the royal party.

Goofs:

Continuity: In "The Early Birds" (episode #3.01), after the couple's sleepless night, Tom spoons sugar into his tea and ceases in the reverse shot, his attention focused on Barbara.

Quotes:

Tom: [calls through the letterbox] Bring out your dead! Bring out your dead!
Margo: Tom!
[pauses]
Margo: *What* is that?
Tom: It's two dustbins on a trolley.
Margo: I can see it's two dustbins on a trolley and when I asked you the question it was a rhetorical one which does not need a direct answer as you knew very well in the first place.
Tom: Oh. You make me hold my breath when you do those long sentences, Margo.
Margo: What *is* it?
Tom: It's two rhetorical dustbins on a rhetorical trolley.
Margo: Then will you kindly remove them from my crazy paving before someone sees us.
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Comedy Connections: To the Manor Born (#4.5)" (2006)

Soundtrack:

Please Release Me

Well Thank You Very Much, Jerry!

Neither as acerbic as FAWLTY TOWERS or ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS! or as radical as THE YOUNG ONES, THE GOOD LIFE remains cosily stuck in a middle-class time-warp but happens to be blessed with terrific scripts (all written by Bob Larbey and John Esmonde) and extremely strong characters, played to perfection by the four principle actors. Originally airing April 1975 to April 1978, the series managed to maintain a very high standard despite a slight air of exhaustion of ideas that crept into the fourth final series. It was decided to quit while they were ahead, at the peak of the series popularity, with a final episode filmed in front of the Queen (one assumes she must have been a fan).

The basic set-up concerns Tom and Barbara Good (Richard Briers and Felicity Kendal) who decide to opt-out of the rat race and try self-sufficiency in Surbiton. On this slender premise hung all kinds of imaginative plots involving pigs, goats (and their excretory processes), generators, rotary cultivators (and contraptions of all kinds) as well as political machinations in the local music society headed up by the formidable Miss Mountshaft (often referred to but never seen).

As the series progressed, the plots tended to depend upon situations guaranteed to cause maximum embarrassment to the Goods social-climbing fully paid-up member of the white middle-classes neighbour Margo Leadbetter (played with admirable gusto by Penelope Keith). Margo's husband, Jerry (Paul Eddington) maintains just the right amount of total resigned bemusement throughout.

Stand-out episodes include 'The Windbreak War' (a feud erupts over the positioning of Margo's windbreak), 'A Tug Of The Forelock' (Tom and Barbara go into domestic service...for Margo), 'Silly...But It's Fun' (the Christmas 1977 episode in which Harrods fail to deliver Margo's Christmas), 'Mutiny' (in which Margo plays Maria in the local music society's production of The Sound Of Music) and 'The Thing In The Cellar' (Tom installs a methane generator that runs on something that comes out of pigs).

It's easy to forget the critical approval and the public appreciation the series gained during it's initial tenure, along with the fame that greeted the actors (especially Penelope Keith who memorably appeared on the Morecambe & Wise Christmas Show, the ultimate accolade at the time). The series is one of only a few classic comedy shows of its time that is regularly repeated on British TV to this day, a strong testament to it's overall quality despite the fact it seems unlikely to be remembered in the same breath as DAD'S ARMY, STEPTOE & SON or the magnificent FAWLTY TOWERS.