The Good Life: Silly, But It's Fun


8:40 pm - 9:15 pm, Today on U&Gold (344)

Average User Rating: 7.00 (1 votes)
My Rating: Sign in or Register to view last vote

Add to Favourites

About this Broadcast

-
Silly, But It's Fun
Season 4, Episode 8

Margo returns her entire Christmas order because the tree is too short - and she and Jerry are left with no means to celebrate after the department store fails to redeliver in time. Tom and Barbara come to the rescue, inviting them round for a Christmas of homemade paper hats and improvised party games. Seasonal special from 1977, starring Richard Briers, Penelope Keith, Paul Eddington and Felicity Kendal


subtitles
Movie/Drama Sitcom

Cast & Crew

-

Felicity Kendal (Actor) .. Barbara Good
Richard Briers (Actor) .. Tom Good
Penelope Keith (Actor) .. Margo Leadbetter
Paul Eddington (Actor) .. Jerry Leadbetter
David Battley (Actor) .. Bill
Bob Larbey (Writer)

More Information

-

No Logo

Did You Know..

-

Felicity Kendal (Actor) .. Barbara Good
Born: September 25, 1946 in Olton, Warwickshire
Best Known For: Playing Barbara in The Good Life.
Early-life: Felicity Ann Kendal was born on September 25, 1946, in Olton, Warwickshire. She made her stage debut at nine months. Her childhood was spent touring India acting in Shakespearean productions directed by her father Geoffrey and co-starring her mother, Laura Lidell. She attended 13 schools in quick succession. At 17 she came back to the UK to work in the West End, but returned to India to film Merchant Ivory movie Shakespeare Wallah, which was based on her family's experiences. Sister Jennifer, also an actress, died in 1984.
Career: Kendal made her TV debut in The Mayfly and the Frog in 1966, but concentrated on the theatre before becoming a household name in sitcom The Good Life, which attracted 18 million viewers at its peak. Kendal has appeared in the movie Valentino, sitcoms Solo and The Mistress, TV drama The Camomile Lawn, and provided a voice for Steven Spielberg's animated adventure, We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story. More recently she appeared in Michael Winner's comedy Parting Shots, light-hearted drama Rosemary and Thyme, and an episode of Doctor Who, though she prefers to work on stage. She gained a new set of fans by appearing on Strictly Come Dancing in 2010. In 2013, she won rave reviews for a London stage revival of Alan Ayckbourn's Relatively Speaking.
Quote: "The fact that I might look my age doesn't bother me. I've found a balance in my life that didn't exist when I was younger."
Trivia: Kendal was appointed a CBE in 1995.
Richard Briers (Actor) .. Tom Good
Born: January 14, 1934 in Merton, Surrey
Best Known For: His role in The Good Life.
Early-life: Richard David Briers was born on January 14, 1934, in Raynes Park, London. The cousin of gap-toothed comic actor Terry-Thomas, Briers grew up in a flat above a cinema and attended RADA between 1954 and 1956. He has a sister and left school with no qualifications. He did, however, win a scholarship to Liverpool Playhouse, and soon became an accomplished stage actor. He moved to the Belgrade Theatre in Coventry before making his West End debut.
Career: Briers' film career began in the 1960s with British features including Bottoms Up, Murder She Said, and The Girl on the Boat. He turned his attention to TV, gaining fame initially in the sitcom Marriage Lines, but it's probably for The Good Life that he will be best remembered. He teamed up again with its creators, John Esmonde and Bob Larbey, on the 1980s sitcom Ever Decreasing Circles. Briers went on to join Kenneth Branagh's Renaissance Theatre Company, taking on more classical and Shakespearean roles including King Lear and Uncle Vanya. He's also appeared in Monarch of the Glen, Peter Pan, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Torchwood. He voiced the cartoon Roobarb twice - in 1974 and 2005.
Quote: On growing old: "I want very little action. I'm one of those awfully boring people who likes David Attenborough and the news."
Trivia: Briers was married to actress Ann Davies from 1958 until his death in 2013. They had two daughters, Lucy and Kate.
Penelope Keith (Actor) .. Margo Leadbetter
Born: April 02, 1940 in Sutton, Surrey
Best Known For: Playing snobby women in a variety of sitcoms.
Early-life: Born Penelope Anne Constance Hatfield in Clapham, South London, on April 2, 1940; her father reportedly disappeared soon after she was born. She met him once, during an outing, but did have a very close relationship with her mother and grandmother. Unfortunately, she failed to bond with her stepfather and still doesn't like to talk about him. After deciding on acting as a career, she attended London's Webber Douglas Academy, where Terence Stamp was among her fellow students. After graduating, she worked in local repertory theatre.
Career: Keith became a star on the small screen in 1975, playing snooty Margo Leadbetter in BBC sitcom The Good Life. More success followed with To the Manor Born, in which she played penniless aristocrat Audrey fforbes-Hamilton alongside Peter Bowles, with whom she was reunited in ITV's Executive Stress in 1986. No Job for a Lady in which she played a rebellious Labour MP and Next of Kin, in which she depicted a retired woman coping with her estranged daughter's children, failed to make much of a mark. She has since largely stayed away from TV, concentrating instead on the theatre, gardening and charity work. However, Keith did return to the small screen in 2003 in Margery and Gladys opposite June Brown, and starred in a one-off To the Manor Born Christmas Special in 2007.
Quote: "I was very tall and very plain. I wasn't going to get very far on looks - so I thought I'd better be the funny girl."
Trivia: In 2002, she spent a year as the High Sheriff of Surrey and was made a Dame in 2014.
Paul Eddington (Actor) .. Jerry Leadbetter
Born: June 18, 1927 in London
Best Known For: Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister and The Good Life.
Early-life: Born in London on June 18, 1927, Paul began his acting career with the Entertainments National Service Association during the Second World War. He went on to work for a repertory theatre company in Sheffield.
Career: Made his TV debut in 1956 in The Adventures of Robin Hood. A variety of stage, film and TV roles followed in the 1960s and 1970s. His big break came in his late forties when he landed the role of Jerry Leadbetter in The Good Life, and in the 1980s he cemented his position as a household name playing politician Jim Hacker in the acclaimed sitcoms Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister. While making Yes, Prime Minister, Eddington was diagnosed with a rare form of skin cancer that eventually claimed his life. He continued to work and went on to appear in The Camomile Lawn in 1992. He died on November 4, 1995 at the age of 68.
Quote: "A journalist once asked me what I would like my epitaph to be and I said I think I would like it to be 'He did very little harm'."
Trivia: He was awarded a CBE in 1987.
David Battley (Actor) .. Bill
John Howard Davies (Producer)
John Esmonde (Writer)
Bob Larbey (Writer)

Before / After

-