{"id":141421,"date":"2025-05-29T12:47:13","date_gmt":"2025-05-29T12:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/141421\/"},"modified":"2025-05-29T12:47:13","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T12:47:13","slug":"legendary-british-star-is-set-to-return-for-a-tv-special-of-the-good-life-a-milestone-50-years-after-the-classic-70s-sitcom-launched","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/141421\/","title":{"rendered":"Legendary British star is set to return for a TV special of The Good Life – a milestone 50 years after the classic ’70s sitcom launched"},"content":{"rendered":"

A legendary British star is set to return to The Good Life for a TV special – 50 years on from the classic sitcom’s debut.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Dame Penelope Keith, who played the iconic Margo Leadbetter, will be back on our screens for a one-off episode to celebrate 50 years of the iconic BBC<\/a> programme.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The actress and presenter, 85, was one of the leads across its four series, from 1975 to 1978, playing a neighbour to central couple the Goods, who were converting their garden into a farm in a bid for self-sufficiency.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And now, a feature-length retrospective called The Good Life: Inside Out, presented by Dame Penelope, will revisit filming locations, scripts, props and more from the original shoot, the Mirror <\/a>reports.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The documentary – set to air on comedy channel U&Gold later this year – will see the iconic actress step back onto a recreated set, bringing Margo and Jerry Leadbetter’s drawing room to life once more.\u00a0<\/p>\n

From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMail’s new Showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

A legendary British star is set to return to The Good Life (pictured) for a TV special – 50 years on from the classic sitcom’s debut<\/p>\n

\"Dame <\/p>\n

Dame Penelope Keith (pictured), who played the iconic Margo Leadbetter, will be back on our screens for a one-off episode to celebrate 50 years of the iconic BBC programme<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The actress and presenter, 85, was one of the leads across its four series, from 1975 to 1978, playing a neighbour to central couple the Goods (pictured), who were converting their garden into a farm in a bid for self-sufficiency<\/p>\n

Dame Penelope said: ‘I am delighted that U&Gold has invited me to celebrate 50 years of The Good Life, a series that was important to me and is still so well loved by viewers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘I have such happy memories of making The Good Life – it was a wonderful cast and we were working with excellent scripts and a first rate production team.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘The only thing I can’t really believe is that it’s 50 years since I first played Margo… where have the years gone?’\u00a0<\/p>\n

The two-hour show will incorporate rarely seen archival interviews with other stars of the beloved show, including Richard Briers, Felicity Kendal and Paul Eddington.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Felicity, 78, played Barbara Good in the sitcom, one half of the lead couple pursuing a life of self-sufficiency – much to the chagrin of the more conventional Leadbetters next door.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Written by Bob Larbey and John Esmonde, the show followed the Goods as they abandoned the rat race to live off the land – all while remaining in their suburban home in the Surbiton area of London.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Their efforts both shock and bemuse their neighbours the Leadbetters – but the couples gradually forge a kind of friendship.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Felicity was joined by the late Richard, who played her husband Tom Good. The actor passed away in 2013 after suffering from a lung condition.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Dame <\/p>\n

Dame Penelope (pictured in 2014) said: ‘I am delighted that U&Gold has invited me to celebrate 50 years of The Good Life, a series that was important to me and is still so well loved by viewers’<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The two-hour show will incorporate rarely seen archival interviews with other stars of the beloved show, including Richard Briers, Felicity Kendal and Paul Eddington<\/p>\n

\"Written <\/p>\n

Written by Bob Larbey and John Esmonde, the show followed the Goods as they abandoned the rat race to live off the land – all while remaining in their suburban home in the Surbiton area of London<\/p>\n

The late Paul, meanwhile, who passed away in 1995 from cancer, played Jerry Leadbetter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The new TV special will also feature rare archival talking heads footage of producer and director John Howard Davies, to allow viewers to see inside his creative thought process.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It follows another documentary about the sitcom, titled All About The Good Life, which aired on the BBC in 2010 to mark the show’s 35th anniversary.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It also comes after the sitcom was reimagined for the stage last year by director Verity Ramsden, running at the Green Room Theatre in Carlisle.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Felicity has previously explained how she got the part on the legendary show – after her co-star Richard came to see her in West End play The Norman Conquests, by Sir Alan Ayckbourn.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She said: ‘After the show, he came round and said he thought it was great, which was really nice because he was a very famous, wonderful actor that I didn’t know at all but I knew about.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘He said, “I\u2019m going to do this little television series, may I send you the script for the part of the wife? It\u2019s a new series, it may not do well because it\u2019s a very unusual subject”.’\u00a0<\/p>\n

But he could not have been more wrong – The Good Life went on to become a roaring success, with one Christmas episode attracting a whopping 21million viewers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"It <\/p>\n

It comes after the announcement another legendary sitcom (pictured) would be revisited on our screens, with a comeback for a brand new series\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Not <\/p>\n

Not Going Out, the award-winning popular show created by comedian Lee Mack, is set to return for a six-part series 14, around two years after the latest episodes aired. Pictured: First look images of series 14<\/p>\n

\"It <\/p>\n

It follows unambitious layabout Lee, played by the funny man, and his best friend’s sister Lucy (Sally Bretton, pictured), who is also the landlady of his London flatshare. Pictured: First look images of series 14<\/p>\n

Helen Nightingale, head of factual entertainment at UKTV, said: ‘For a show to be remembered so fondly and to be such a reference point in British everyday conversation as The Good Life after 50 years is testament to its quality.’\u00a0<\/p>\n

She continued: ‘This new retrospective with Double Yellow will explore just how and why the show has endured.’\u00a0<\/p>\n

It comes after the announcement another legendary sitcom would be revisited on our screens, with a comeback for a brand new series<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Not Going Out, the award-winning popular show created by comedian Lee Mack<\/a>, is set to return for a six-part series 14, around two years after the latest episodes aired.<\/p>\n

First released in 2006, it follows unambitious layabout Lee, played by the funny man, and his best friend’s sister Lucy (Sally Bretton), who is also the landlady of his London flatshare.<\/p>\n

A will-they-won’t-they romance between the two unfolded over several series, until the unlikely couple married in the season seven finale, just before having a baby.<\/p>\n

The eighth series jumped eight years into the future, with all subsequent instalments following their chaotic family life with three children.<\/p>\n

And now series 14 will move the story on several years more, when the couple are empty nesters and moved out of their suburban family home – but still up to plenty of antics.<\/p>\n

It has also been recommissioned for a fifteenth series, of six episodes, which will be released next year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Good Life: Inside Out will be available to watch on U&Gold later this year.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A legendary British star is set to return to The Good Life for a TV special – 50…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141422,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3937],"tags":[192,92,77,257,382,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-141421","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-bbc","9":"tag-dailymail","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-london","12":"tag-tv","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114591199892405607","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141421"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141421\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}