This year marks the 50th anniversary since the original broadcast of one of the most beloved of British television series, The Good Life.
Created and written by John Esmonde and Bob Larby, the series’ premise is well known: namely the highs and lows of a middle-aged suburban couple who decide to quit the rat race and become self sufficient in contrast to the affluent, acquisitive lifestyle of their upwardly mobile neighbours. The situation leads to conflict, comedic tension and ultimately strong mutual friendship as the story unfolds over the 30 episodes which screened in four instalments of seven from the spring of 1975 to the summer of 1977, together with an additional Christmas special and a Royal Command Performance in 1978.
What endeared and continues to endear the series to most viewers today is the happy combination of Esmonde and Larby’s scripts and their inspired casting. Richard Briers, as the leading character of Tom Good, was already an established character actor of stage and small screen but Felicity Kendal, playing his wife, Barbara, Paul Eddington as Jerry Leadbetter and Penelope Keith as his wife, Margo, were relatively unknown names at the time. Yet they were all perfect for their respective roles, becoming household names by the time The Good Life reached the second series.
Outwardly, Tom Good seems to be a mild-mannered but ultimately frustrated individual who transforms into a boisterous , eccentrically happy and persistently optimistic man as soon as he breaks free of his past and takes on the self-sufficiency life, rejoicing as he turns his back garden into a farm replete with the pigs Pinky and Perky, Geraldine the Goat and Lenin the Cockerel and his harem of hens – not mention a herd of sheep and a huge crop of vegetables which includes a row of stealable leeks round the front and a closet of cabbages and onions in the bedroom wardrobe. And yet, Briers’ portrayal of Tom is much more subtle and multifaceted than initial appearances imply.
At heart, Tom is something of an obstinate, pigheaded egomaniac, selfishly dragging his wife into a life of long hours, hard, dirty physical work and serious financial risk (with only £3.18 in his bank account by the time of the Command Performance episode). He’s by far and away the most intelligent character of the four, with an educated, inventive engineering mind. He reads up on how to go about the work and is a remarkably dab and resourceful hand at shoring up makeshift inventions, which range from a generator powered by methane from animal waste, to a petrol-driven lawnmower which doubles as a road tractor. Outwardly acting the quick-quipping clown, especially to Jerry and Margo, Tom Good is in all respects a relentless force of nature, whose intractable positivity is a mask for occasional inward doubt and a craving for personal achievement and valediction.
Reassurance for Tom’s rare moments of fainting courage is provided by his supportive if seemingly long suffering wife. But again, Felicity Kendal brings to the role of Barbara a naughty, flirtatious, sharp-tongued quality that soon lifts her above a mere dreg and shows a steely determination to stand by her man no matter what the cost. Barbara willingly sacrifices the middle class creature comforts of her life and upbringing to help Tom realize what for both of them is a better and therefore ‘Good Life’.
Accomplished subtlety also informs Paul Eddington’s performance of Jerry Leadbetter. Outwardly the harassed, overworked business executive and henpecked husband, there’s more to Jerry than meets the eye. A shrewd, ambitious man with his eye on his managing director’s chair, he has climbed the greasy pole to promotion via office politics cunning as opposed to actual ability. Gifted with a sharp, cynical humour, Jerry stands up to Margo with cryptic one-liners and often mocks Tom, his former work colleague, with well-aimed put downs and a wicked laugh. Convinced that Tom’s crusade will ultimately fail, Jerry frequently tries to persuade him to return to his former job but finally comes to respect his friend’s determined stand against The System. An essentially stylish and urbane actor, Eddington is a frequent and delightful scene-stealer in The Good Life, realizing what may have been the weakest and least convincing character into a witty and inwardly strong one.
Then there’s the legendary Margo, played by Penelope Keith in what was effectively her first major television role. A humourless social climber with a strong, domineering personality, the staunchly Conservative Margo, with her precious membership of the local music society and pony club, could have easily been a dislikable personality with proto-Thatcherite tendencies but, for all her bickering and arguing with both Jerry and the Goods, Margo has a vulnerable side. Bullied at school for having no sense of humour and often the butt of Tom’s teasing and Jerry’s subtle defiance, Margo’s snobbery is a vulnerable defence which soon breaks down when made aware of her faults by others, including Jerry. In contrast to the late Patricia Routledge’s grotesque Hyacinth Bouquet, Penelope Keith’s Margo has both an inner sadness and a heart of gold, abandoning all pretense when a genuine emergency arises for both her husband and the Goods.
The growing respect and affection between the four characters in the series is enhanced by the genuine chemistry between the four actors. The ease, spontaneity and natural enjoyment they show in each others’ company is for many the greatest strength in The Good Life. This may indeed be partly responsible for the more subtle but no less important undertow that informs the message the series delivered and continues to deliver today – namely the pros and cons of a non-market Socialist system.
While Tom and Barbara’s vision of The Good Life was and perhaps remains for many an eccentricity removed from Capitalist fiscal necessity, for others both back in the 1970s and down subsequent decades, it remains an example of consensual community and social environmentalism across perceived class divisions. The fact that it happens to be dressed up in the well-spoken middle-class attire of a BBC sitcom is an artful artistic disguise.
Tom Good is in many ways the Everyman of the series. Because he has left the forces of Competition behind, he can stand as both Individual, Observer and Commentator of the passing scene. He is the leader, while the others are led. And yet what Tom ultimately stands for is the original French Revolutionary mantra of Liberty, Fraternity and Equality. Barbara is his willing cup bearer while Jerry and Margo are Absolute monarchs in reluctant but pragmatic retreat.
Two key episodes of the series reinforce the structure magnificently. In the last episode of series four, ‘Anniversary’, as the four celebrate Jerry’s long-awaited promotion, the friends conga their way back to Tom and Barbara’s house only to find it has been broken into and the living room vandalized by neo-Nazis. At this point the laughter, which for most episodes was real not canned – stops completely and the silence that follows speaks volumes. It is at this point that the Goods and the Leadbetters forget their social differences and come together in a bond where each is resolved to help the other in a genuine hour of desperate need.
On a lighter note, in the Christmas Special episode, Margo learns from life experiences when, following the aborted delivery of her expensive seasonal order, she and Jerry are invited round to Tom and Barbara’s for a more basic celebration of homemade paper hats and improvised party games. After an awkward start and a private talk in the kitchen with Tom, Margo joins in the fun and comes to realize that ‘Christmas does not come in a van’ and admits that it was the best Christmas Day she’d ever had. The amusing climax appears just ahead of the closing credits as the Leadbetters announce and present their Christmas gift for the Goods – a cow.
As an interesting final observation, virtually every episode of The Good Life contains at least one reference to Classical music. On seeing Margo’s attempt to build a grotto in her back garden for evenings to impress the music society, Tom feels there would be room for Andre Previn and the LSO to perform from behind the stone toadstools while Margo upbraids Jerry (who prefers Gerry Dorsey to the original Englebert Humperdinck) for leaving her copy of Handel’s Messiah in the same magazine rack as his copy of Playmate. In another episode, Tom discovers that his crops will grow best when treated to a surfeit of Delius and Peter Dawson, while towards the end of the series, he and Barbara have to sell their LP collection to make ends meet – which includes a complete cycle of the Shostakovich symphonies.
This obvious and informed love of music between the four characters is another fine facet which binds them together in what I suppose is an essentially Utopian vision of what an alternative lifestyle and its effect on others could so easily be.
Endearingly quirky, frequently idealistic and quite often topical, The Good Life remains both of and ahead of its time and could well endure to entertain and perhaps inform open-minded viewers in another 50 years’ time.
Robert Kenchington
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