The Good Life

I wonder just how many people in the mid 1970s - anywhere in the world - would have realised just how visionary writers John Esmonde and Bob Larbey were with this marvellous tale of a happily married suburban couple who decide to give up their daily grind and revert to a subsistence existence. Richard Briers and Felicity Kendall are great in the roles of the optimistic and naive "Tom" and his stoic and determined wife "Barbara" as they scrap, save, cannibalise, economise and basically do just about anything to avoid needing/earning/spending money - not an easy task. For me, the best parts come from their loyal and wealthy neighbours "Jerry" (Paul Eddington) and "Margo" (Penelope Keith). The former, the long suffering husband to the loving but terribly snobbish wife who looks down with a mix of disbelief and disdain on the newly self-sufficient folks next door. It features hilarious scenarios that take the most basic of themes - heating oil, vegetable patches, making your own clothes or cheese or wine and turns them into genuine laugh out loud comedy. It is simple and hugely effective, the humour working on many levels as the underpinning principles of love, loyalty and obstinacy marry well with sheer bloody mindedness and, on occasion, downright stupidity - but not just from the same side of their garden fence each time. It probably helps, as with the contemporaneous "Fawlty Towers" series that there was a very limited run. It clearly has an environmentalist aspect to the narrative, but it not delivered in the preachy, puritanical fashion that is so often the style used now - it successfully uses humour as a conduit for a message that is both potent and, frequently, laugh out loud. The writers don't flog the heart out of the joke, and the characters are given plenty of space to develop and shine. Great stuff well worth a watch.

The idea of people being self sufficient was talked about quite a bit in the 70's and there were people who really did it like the Goods.

The reason in the show the Goods could afford to live in their house is that they owned it and didn't have to pay rent. If you think, even in the show, the life they led was easy, you obviously haven't watched much of it at all because it was anything but.

The Goods ran into problems in just about EVERY episode, but the point was doing it for different reasons ~ a challenge, to feel alive, back to basics, to not have to answer to any body...etc. They were down-to-earth, happy, smart and had a sense of humor.

In those ways I find the show really inspiring and intelligent. As for the comedy, the characters once again provide this with their amazing dynamic.

Managing to get four of Britain's best comedic actors at the time together in one show was perfect.

Tom with his cheeky boyish wit, strength and determination. Barbara with her logical intelligence, resourcefulness and feisty charm. Jerry with his cheeky chuckle, free spirited but at times stern nature and his protectiveness towards Tom and Barbara. Margo with her incessant need for a good social standing, strong sense of friendship and almost innocent nature when it comes to certain things like sex.

These character were more than just one dimensional faceless general characters. They all had different sides to them. Margo acted differently with Barbara than she would with Tom and at times her and Jerry, although having their problems did seem very much in love and one could very much see why they were together. Tom and Barbara's relationship was very much equal, with Barbara getting just as much say in what the couple did as Tom.

Tom was sweet and lovable and funny and Barbara was cute and supportive. The four of them went together very well and made a dynamic that wasn't necessarily hilarious, but it was interesting, intelligent and made me giggle. Not only that but the show is full of double entendres and innuendo! Everything from tame bondage to wife swapping is eluded to through the series!! Hahaha.

I'm realize that comedy, more than anything, is subjective but you really should look at this show closer.

This is one of those series that give Britcoms such a good name! "Good Neighbors" (as we know it here in the states) is intelligent, funny, and extremely endearing. And who can beat the cast? Richard Briers is a very respected veteran now -- he was nominated for a Tony last year for "The Chairs" -- and he was just as talented when he was younger! Felicity Kendall is absolutely precious as his wife (I *love* her scratchy little voice!), and Paul Eddington and Penelope Keith are terrific as the snooty next-door neighbors. "Good Neighbors"/"The Good Life" is dry, but in a good way... You'll laugh out loud at this one! And it has a heart -- you'll fall in love with the Goods, and enjoy following them through their ups and downs! Do yourself a favor and check out this series!

I've always liked this BBC sitcom from the '70's, it was never uproariously funny in the same way as its channel contemporary Fawlty Towers was, but it was always pleasantly funny and always delivered. It was a genuine attempt to extract humour from a serious human decision, that of quitting the rat race and becoming self-sufficient in Surbiton. How the Good's managed it was the subject of about 30 half hour episodes, with a definite tapering off in story quality towards the end. They'd all proved their point: it could be seen to be possible and successful and once achieved could only repeat like the seasons of the year.

"Plough your own furrow" broadcast 4.4.75: This is where 40 year old Tom, with Barbara's considered support quits his job and they become self-sufficient. To celebrate their decision they dance around the goldfish pond at 3 in the morning much to their next door neighbours Jerry & Margot's disgust.

Tom, Jerry and Margot were all splendidly portrayed by Briers, Eddington and Keith, but as has been repeatedly pointed out in previous comments, it was Felicity Kendal who brought something extra to the shows. She provided a downbeat and downplayed realistic attitude that was at the time and still is completely beguiling and refreshing to watch. Those who couldn't get into it sure missed something! Sitcom was perhaps rather beneath her talents, and I always thought of Briers as a farceur, but they gelled together well in their opposition to the world.

8/10

The Good Life has been repeated many many times on the BBC ever since it first aired back in the mid to late 70s and for good reason too.

Back then Britain was going through years and years of industrial strikes culminating in 78/79 with the so-called "Winter Of Discontent" when National Strikes crippled the country. During the 70s there were many situations when most of the country had its power cut off for nights on end by striking energy workers.

Thus millions of families would be cast in darkness huddled round candles, talking or trying to read under the gloom. It also gave thought to our total independence on eletricity and the power it provides us at the simple flick of a switch.

And so The Good Life came to light (bad pun I know). However, the writers decided not to make a comedy about people suffering darkness at the hands of militants and strikers. Instead they decided on taking a typical middle-class couple into the realms of voluntary self-sufficiency.

So enter, Tom & Barbara, our selfless & willing guinea pigs who decide the rat race and huge bills is not a world for them. And for the next 4 years we seem them struggle & succeed in their attempts at going their own self-sufficiency way at the bemusements of their neighbours.

This kind of environmentalism was a relatively new concept to British audiences in the 70s and perhaps underlined why the show was such a great & enduring success. But it also raised lots of questions both for us the viewing audience and Tom & Barbara themselves.

Generating electricity is no easy thing as Tom found out when the Electricity Board finally cut their power for not paying their bills. Both Tom & Barbara had to adapt really quickly and get used to the idea that nothing was going to happen any more by simply clicking on a light switch, opening a fridge or turning on a tv.

All these creature comforts we take so much for granted are all gone for Tom & his wife. And trying to build his own little power generator in his celler using the effluent of his pigs to create some form of electricity not only makes for a great episode but also shows us how much hard work & self sacrifice is involved by going the Green Route.

Two major questions that surfaced during the show involved the keeping of animals in Tom's back garden and the hard work, noise, odours etc that this creates and the problems it causes to the neighbours; the difficult matter of having to kill their own chickens bare handed rather than simply going to the shops and buying frozen foods killed by other people.

Interestingly the Goods (Tom & Barbara) were childless which was probably intended by the writers otherwise the show could have suffered if children were involved.

As time went on some of the episodes looked very "samey" from earlier episodes and the laughs were becoming just a little desperate. So to learn that the series would finally end in 1978 was the right choice. Its always best to finish on top than try to stretch a joke too far.

Even though the topicality of the show was popular at the time, I don't think it set a trend with the British in reality. Self-sufficiency was good & funny providing someone else did it, but for the majority of the population it was just too damned hard to even contemplate.

****/*****