The Good Life - Collection (DVD)

In my opinion one of the best, if not the best, sit com to come out of the BBC has to be The Good Life. Originally broadcast in the 1970's it has been repeated many times and I still find it funny no matter how many times I watch it!

The basic premise of the plot is that Tom Good, on reaching his 40th birthday, decides that he has had enough of the rat race and wonders if he and his wife Barbara could give up work and become self ...
...comedy add this all to the fact that they live in Surbiton in 'The Avenue', which is a somewhat posh area AND they live next door to Margo Leadbetter a snob of the first water and her husband Jerry.

Jerry and Tom worked together until Tom changed his lifestyle and poor Jerry can't understand why Tom would want to swap a life of well paid work in a comfortable office for a life of poverty and hard graft outside in all weathers.
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In my opinion one of the best, if not the best, sit com to come out of the BBC has to be The Good Life. Originally broadcast in the 1970's it has been repeated many times and I still find it funny no matter how many times I watch it!

The basic premise of the plot is that Tom Good, on reaching his 40th birthday, decides that he has had enough of the rat race and wonders if he and his wife Barbara could give up work and become self sufficient. They discuss it and decide that it has to be worth a try.

Initially they convert their front and back gardens into vegetable plots and then add a hen house, a pig sty and get a goat. Then they get an allotment and make their own transport and electricity generator all with hilarious consequences.

As a concept this would be funny enough but for extra comedy add this all to the fact that they live in Surbiton in 'The Avenue', which is a somewhat posh area AND they live next door to Margo Leadbetter a snob of the first water and her husband Jerry.

Jerry and Tom worked together until Tom changed his lifestyle and poor Jerry can't understand why Tom would want to swap a life of well paid work in a comfortable office for a life of poverty and hard graft outside in all weathers.

Jerry is henpecked by Margo who likes her life and home to be 'just so'. She is a member of the Pony Club and the local Music Society and likes people to think that she has the perfect life so the neighbours owning pigs and growing vegetables in their front garden is her worst nightmare!

There are two main things that make this comedy work. The first is the excellent casting of:

Felicity Kendal as Barbara Good
Penelope Keith as Margo Leadbetter
Paul Eddington as Jerry Leadbetter
Richard Briers as Tom Good

The second thing is the relationships between the four characters. Tom and Barbara have a solid marriage where they discuss things, sort out any disagreements as they arise and have a lot of fun.

Margo and Jerry also have a solid marriage where Margo is very much the boss, but their love for each other is evident and they both seem to be happy with their lifestyle.

Margo, for all her snobbish ways, is very fond of both Tom and Barbara. She feels sorry for Barbara and often makes it clear that she thinks Tom has bullied her into their new lifestyle and she tries to get her to assert herself by doing things like joining the Pony Club. Tom often teases Margo making her blush with his innuendos.

Jerry thinks Tom is mad for giving up his job and often tries to get him to go back to work for 'Sir' played by Reginald Marsh.

As with all good sit coms the characters all have their fair share of the limelight and both success and failure within the storylines.

Each week sees Tom and Barbara wrestling with yet another aspect of self sufficiency for example the sow giving birth, the building of the new hen house, the pigs getting into Margo's garden and the buying of the new range for the kitchen.

There are many more such incidents and all are hysterical but they all turn out OK in the end!

The series was written by John Esmonde and Bob Larbey and produced by John Howard Davies.

As I said at the start of the review I can watch these over and over again and still laugh even though I think I know the script better than the actors do in some cases! LOL!

Incidentally the DVDs all have a PG certificate which I must admit I was surprised by this as the 'adult' references in the shows aren't offensive in any way and I can't think off hand of any that would be a problem to a younger child, but there you go.

The box consists of 3 DVDs covering the first three series and they are as follows:

DVD One - Series One 1975

Plough Your Own Furrow
Say Little Hen...
The Weaker Sex?
Pig's Lib
The Thing In The Cellar
The Pagan Rite

DVD Two - Series Two 1976

Just My Bill
The Guru of Surbiton
Mr. Fix-It.
The Day Peace Broke Out.
Mutiny
Home Sweet Home
Going To Pot?

DVD Three - Series Three 1977

The Early Birds
The Happy Event
A Tug of the Forelock
I Talk To The Trees.
Whose Fleas Are These?
The Last Posh Frock

Together the three DVDs cover all the episodes in the first three series. I am not going to give any descriptions of the episodes in this review as it will make it far too long and boring but I have noticed that each DVD is available separately and as such is listed separately on Ciao so I will actually review the episodes one DVD at a time.

On each DVD there is also an interview with Bob Larbey, some scriptwriters' biographies, filmographies and some production notes. I don't find this sort of thing in the least bit interesting I'm afraid as I had the set to watch the programmes again and again and again……..

I have taken a look around various websites to see what the current price of this set is and as usual with DVDs of series there is a huge difference between the various sets. For example on www.play.com this set costs £17,99 and is called ‘Good Neighbours’ but if you decide to purchase the complete set which includes all four series plus the Christmas specials it would cost a whopping £349.99! I can’t imagine that anyone would be daft enough to pay that much even for comedy as good as this!

If you feel like treating yourself to this or indeed any other television series on DVD it is well worth checking all the relevant websites including EBay before you make your purchase.

In conclusion I would say that this set is well worth adding to your collection as, no matter how many times I watch it, I still laugh!
 

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