British Comedy Guide
The Good Life. Image shows from L to R: Margo Leadbetter (Penelope Keith), Tom Good (Richard Briers), Jerry Leadbetter (Paul Eddington), Barbara Good (Felicity Kendal). Copyright: BBC
The Good Life

The Good Life

  • TV sitcom
  • BBC One
  • 1975 - 1978
  • 30 episodes (4 series)

After Tom Good becomes disillusioned with his life, he packs in his job and he and his wife attempt to live a completely self-sufficient life in suburbia. Stars Richard Briers, Felicity Kendal, Penelope Keith and Paul Eddington.

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Press clippings Page 2

All of life can be found in a good sitcom

Highbrow dramas and earnest documentaries are often held up as mirrors but shrewd historians know to look at comedy.

Libby Purves, The Times, 31st May 2021

Now The Good Life gets an 'offensive content' warning

The Good Life has become the latest vintage sitcom to be given a viewer warning - over a golliwog apron Margot wears in one episode. Streaming service Britbox now warns that the 1970s comedy 'contains offensive racial imagery'.

Chortle, 8th May 2021

Comfort classic: The Good Life

A show that gently sends up the English middle class is built on a sharp script and consummate acting.

Matthew Bell, Royal Television Society, 4th February 2021

Beyond Spitting Image - more BritBox comedies available

Classic satirical comedy Spitting Image has just been revived for a new generation on BritBox. This is BritBox's first original commission, but there are also plenty of classic comedies available on the streaming service, which also features some of the best shows that have aired on the BBC, C4 and ITV over the years.

Bruce Dessau, Beyond The Joke, 4th October 2020

The Good Life to become a stage show

Classic sitcom The Good Life is to be made into a new stage show, with Katherine Parkinson playing Barbara.

British Comedy Guide, 27th January 2020

Poll reveals the best sitcom Christmas specials

The finale of The Office has been voted as the best TV Christmas sitcom special by readers of Radio Times.

British Comedy Guide, 11th December 2019

Fawlty Towers tops Radio Times greatest British sitcom list

Fawlty Towers has come out top of a list of the greatest British sitcoms, as compiled by Radio Times magazine.

British Comedy Guide, 9th April 2019

The top 10 British sitcoms of the 70s

The 1970s is rightly lauded as the golden age of British sitcom.

Greg Jameson, Entertainment Focus, 1st December 2018

Extract: The Authorised Biography Of Richard Briers

Too smug, selfish and middle class: why Richard Briers hated himself in The Good Life.

James Hogg, Daily Mail, 23rd September 2018

Good Life is to be recreated for TV experiment

Cameras will follow families as they attempt to live off their own land, avoiding packaging and ever-rising supermarket prices.

Nicola Methven, The Mirror, 26th April 2018

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