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.
- Summer Special repeated tomorrow at 5:05pm on U&Gold
Press clippings Page 4
Felicity Kendal recalls Good Life actor Richard Briers
I try not to do regrets - I think they're such a waste of time - but I now have one. Not having kept in closer touch recently with Richard Briers, or Dickie as I used to call him, is a real sadness to me now that he has gone.
Felicity Kendal, The Telegraph, 17th March 2013When Richard Briers died recently aged 79, there was a huge outpouring of affection for one of our great comic actors. Audiences felt as if they'd lost a favourite uncle.
It was John Esmonde and Bob Larbey's 1975 sitcom, which ran on BBC1 for three years, that cemented Briers's place in our hearts. He played Tom Good, an ex-City man who turned his back on his old life to set up a smallholding with wife Barbara in the London suburb of Surbiton.
As a tribute, G.O.L.D. is broadcasting back-to-back episodes, starting with episode seven of series one, followed by all of series two and ending with the final episode of series four. Age hasn't wearied a minute of it.
Alison Graham, Radio Times, 3rd March 2013Grieve for The Good Life? Not this Young One
For comedy-watchers of my vintage, The Good Life was notable chiefly for one thing only: it was the icon of bourgeois entertainment that, in 1983, was ripped to shreds by Vyvyan the punk in The Young Ones.
Brian Logan, The Guardian, 3rd March 2013Penelope Keith remembers her co-star Richard Briers
"We were very close... He was kind, generous, a real gentleman and also someone to look up to as an actor"
David Brown, Radio Times, 2nd March 2013The Good Life would never work in modern Britain
The BBC sitcom The Good Life would never work now because viewers would not believe that rich and the poor could live next door to each other, Penelope Keith, one of its stars, has said.
Richard Alleyne, The Telegraph, 26th February 2013Are you a Good or a Leadbetter? Try The Good Life quiz
Fondly recalling the 1970s sitcom, we ask: What is your idea of the perfect lifestyle?
Iain Hollingshead, The Telegraph, 24th February 2013A look at the Silver Jubilee Good Life performance
At the conclusion of the myriad of events surrounding the recent Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebration, I started thinking back to the Silver Jubilee in 1977 when Her Majesty and Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, attended a taping of an episode of The Good Life (Good Neighbors in the States), starring Richard Briers, Felicity Kendal, Penelope Keith and Paul Eddington.
Bill Young, Tellyspotting, 12th June 2012Box set club: The Good Life
This 70s tale of self-sufficiency has a warmth and lightness of touch that can brighten even these austere times.
Julia Raeside, The Guardian, 30th August 2011Penelope Keith on the actor/writer relationship
From Behind the Britcom: From Script to Screen, coming to PBS stations nationwide in March 2011, we continue our look at the making of British comedy while celebrating those that pen the programs that make up one of the most intelligent television genre's on the planet.
Bill Young, Tellyspotting, 21st February 2011Penelope Keith bemoans poor use of English language
Penelope Keith, the star of The Good Life, has expressed her exasperation about the poor use of the English language in modern Britain.
Roya Nikkhah, The Telegraph, 14th November 2010