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As the 1960s turned into the '70s, a generation of young people was rejecting
the urban rat race in favour of a simpler life. It was a time when groups of
young people abandoned the cities to 'get their heads together in the country',
experimenting with communal living, independent farming and self-sufficiency.
The same period saw the first flowering of the green movement.
This trend was the inspiration for The Good Life (BBC, 1975-77), one of the
most successful sitcoms of the genre's 'golden age'. Created by John Esmonde and
Bob Larbey, whose previous credits included Please, Sir! (ITV, 1968-72), the
show followed the exploits of two unlikely social revolutionaries, Tom and
Barbara Good, who reject their comfortable middle-class lifestyles and Tom's
advertising career, turn over their typical suburban garden to vegetables,
chickens and a goat, and strive for a self-sufficient life. Tom and Barbara's
decision astonishes and alarms their conservative Surbiton neighbours,
particularly Margo and Jerry Leadbetter, who share their garden fence.
The show was a gentle social satire of the suburban middle-class, with most
of the jokes being at the expense of the Leadbetters, particularly Margo, who
became an icon of uptight suburban prissiness. Obsessed by her social status and horrified by the mud and dirt on the other side of the fence, Margo is, underneath, a well-meaning and tolerant woman who simply fails to understand her friends' chosen lives.
The Good Life's enormous popularity owes much to the easy chemistry between
the four principle players. As the enthusiastic (if not always competent) Tom,
Richard Briers was witty and charming, with a winning, childlike good humour, while
Felicity Kendal's lively, sexy Barbara won her the adoration of millions of British men. Penelope Keith never had a better role than the glorious Margo,
while for Paul Eddington, the hectored Jerry was a staging post on a comedy path which would lead to his career-making role in Yes, Minister (BBC, 1980-82) and Yes, Prime Minister (1986-87).
Perhaps the show's greatest achievement was to win a loyal following among the very middle-class types it ridiculed week after week.
Mark Duguid
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1. Office politics (3:36)
