The Good Life Silly, But It’s Fun Re-watch

My second Christmas TV special of the four I am revisiting, and this year I am going back to the 1970s, the heyday of the Christmas special where seemingly every comedy and variety show had a specific Christmas episode. Up until 1977, interestingly enough, The Good Life bucked the trend as they kept to the main series only. When they did decide to schedule one for Season 4, writers Esmonde and Larbey gave us an episode that ranks with the absolute classics of the sitcom form.

The Programme

In 1975, John Esmonde and Bob Larbey pitched an idea that took self sufficiency as its subject. The idea of living off of the land had been gaining a fair amount of attention in the 1970s. Now, this was, perhaps, not as progressive as we might think. Even though The Good Life has been seen by some as a ‘green’ comedy, in the 70s far more of the country grew their own fruit and vegetables than they do now. Allotments were far more common with the land being available for these social amenities, and many more men in particular having the time after work and at the weekends to tend to their plots. Self sufficiency took the idea one step further with the people involved trying to escape from, not only the ‘rat race’, but the whole economic system, swapping items using barter rather than paying for goods using currency. Esmonde and Larbey’s stroke of genius was to set their comedy in the heart of the commuter belt, Surbiton in Surrey. This made the lifestyle far more disruptive than it would otherwise have been, given the social strictures of the time. The comedy was built around four characters, Tom and Barbara Good, played by Richard Briers and Felicity Kendal and their neighbours Jerry and Margo Leadbetter, played by Paul Eddington and Penelope Keith. In the first episode, Tom Good is a commuter alongside Jerry Leadbetter, but as he faces his 40th birthday he realises that he is unfulfilled and he is looking for something to inspire him. His decision, to become completely self sufficient is fully supported by Barbara, treated with sardonic amusement by Jerry, who cannot understand why anyone would want to give up security, and viewed with horror by Margo whose life revolves around social climbing. In the 1970s, both households could be supported by their husband’s wages, so the idea of Barbara and Margo looking after the house was not as unusual as it perhaps appears today in a society where even two wages are not enough to get a mortgage. The interesting point here is that Barbara becomes every bit Tom’s equal partner in self sufficiency, giving her a key role in both the decision making and the physical labour. Now, that was progressive for the time.

The Good Life took the situation and got 4 seasons of top class comedy out of the clash of cultures and characters aided by four of the most gifted comic actors of the time. Richard Briers was the most well known of the quartet at the time, and his was clearly the central role, at least initially. However, it didn’t take long for the writers to make it a real ensemble piece. It was in the comedy writing tradition of its time, in that very few supporting actors appeared for more than one episode. The idea of creating an extended network of family and friends who we would become equally familiar with was perhaps a decade away and the Christmas episode had just one other actor in the half hour.

Silly, But It’s Fun

This episode was the penultimate episode of the entire series, and was much needed as far as I was concerned. The final regular episode of Season 4, The Anniversary, was extremely downbeat and actually quite shocking. For the second anniversary of their adoption of self sufficiency, and therefore Tom’s 42nd birthday, they go out for dinner with the Leadbetters as Tom wrestles with the increasing financial problems his lifestyle is causing. While they are out, a gang of burglars who have been targeting homes in Surbiton break into the Goods’ house, and, finding nothing to steal, vandalise the house. It was an episode I didn’t like as a kid, and still don’t like now, although at the time it was praised for injecting a note of realism into the series, and the Christmas episode can arguably be seen as a corrective which returns to the qualities that made it so loved by the public.

The episode starts with Barbara making paper chains out of newspapers. She is going for Christmas robins, although Tom says they look more like Christmas vultures! Tom has also been busy, scavenging at the local golf course for holly and mistletoe, and getting the top of a Christmas tree from the local greengrocer after it had snapped off. In total their Christmas ends up costing 15p, for the balloons which Tom insists are a necessity! On the other side of the fence, Margo has ordered the Leadbetters’ entire Christmas from a high end store. However, upon delivery she immediately spots a problem. The delivery includes a Christmas tree that is supposed to be nine feet tall, but is only eight feet five and three quarters. According to Margo, that six and a quarter inches is a measure of how much standards have fallen! She refuses to accept any of the order as the tree is not up to standard, and insists that the delivery man returns to the store with everything including the food and drink. The cameo by David Battley as the delivery man is a masterpiece of scene stealing. He is laconic, long suffering, and, when he observes something, very funny. He tells Barbara she has the type of eyes men would kill for! He is one of those actors instantly recognisable to regular viewers of 70s film and television, most notably for me as Charlie Bucket’s teacher in the iconic Willy Wonka movie from 1971.

The following morning, having found out that redelivery on Christmas Day is impossible, she rings round her entire social circle with the news that Jerry has chicken pox! Jerry is quite delighted with his ‘diplomatic’ chicken pox as he hates the social whirl of Christmas visits demanded of him by Margo every year. However, reality sets in when Margo reminds him that they now have no Christmas food or drink. Luckily, Tom and Barbara are on hand to save the day by inviting Jerry and Margo to share Christmas with them. When Christmas dinner is over, Tom brings out his home made Christmas crackers and informs the assembled company that all they lack is something that makes them go bang, so they have to shout bang when they pull them! They all do, apart from Margo who says crack as it is the root of the word cracker! When the crackers are opened there are paper hats made of newspaper. Margo, a natural Tory, is less than impressed by the fact that her hat is made from the Daily Mirror, so Tom swaps his Daily Telegraph hat with her! Then, there are the jokes, which Tom has written, which are not entirely suitable as far as Barbara is concerned. Margo reads hers out in one of the funniest moments in the whole episode.

“The Ooh-Aah Bird is so-called because it lays square eggs.”

“I don’t understand that.”

The Good Life Series 4 Episode 8 (Esmonde & Larbey, 1977)

One thing was hinted at during the series was that Barbara was attracted to Jerry and Tom to Margo. In this episode it is out in the open with Barbara and Jerry flirting with each other and Barbara using the excuse of mistletoe to plant a couple of kisses on Jerry and then giggled naughtily as Tom was walking out of the room! Mind you, Tom then cornered Margo and threatened to kiss her if she didn’t start joining in more enthusiastically! Let’s just say that it was the 70s and leave it at that!

The party games are a delight with balloons allowing the two couples to get up close and personal, and giving us the rare sight of a thoroughly enthusiastic Margo letting her hair down. The final scene of an exchange of presents, I will leave for you to see for yourselves if you haven’t already.

Final Reflection

A bit like Only Fools and Horses after Time On Our Hands, The Good Life came back for a further adventure, and, as with Only Fools, it was a let down, and I choose to ignore it and not treat it as canon! That’s my decision and my opinion but don’t let me influence you on that. Anyway, after The Good Life, Richard Briers went on to the fantastic Ever Decreasing Circles, Paul Eddington the timeless Yes Minister/ Yes Prime Minister and Penelope Keith to the comedy juggernaut To The Manor Born. Arguably all three programmes played to the strengths of the actors and showed them in a similar vein to their Good Life characters. Felicity Kendal, however, never had the same success with Solo, even though it was written by Carla Lane. Like The Mistress, four years later, it asked the TV audience to see her as more unsympathetic and flawed, but sadly for her The Good Life’s fan base didn’t take to it.

For four years The Good Life went from strength to strength, becoming one of the best loved comedies of the entire decade. The original showing of this episode drew in over 20 million viewers on Boxing Day 1977, and is still shown most years. Indeed, this year (2023) you can find it on BBC4 at 8:30 pm on 21 December and Christmas Day itself on Gold at 5:25 pm. Do yourself a favour and track it down if you haven’t seen it, and watch it again if you have!