The Good Life (1975 TV Series) - After The Good Life

After The Good Life

After the success of The Good Life, the three cast members who were little known beforehand were given their own "vehicles" commissioned by the then Head of Comedy and producer of The Good Life, John Howard Davies. Penelope Keith starred alongside Peter Bowles in To the Manor Born, which broadcast a year after The Good Life ended. Paul Eddington joined Nigel Hawthorne and Derek Fowlds in Yes Minister and its sequel Yes Prime Minister. Felicity Kendal, who had become something of a sex symbol with her tomboy character, complete with wellington boots, went on to join Elspet Gray in Solo, and Jane Asher in The Mistress. Richard Briers later starred alongside Penelope Wilton and Peter Egan in the popular sitcom Ever Decreasing Circles. In 1992 Felicity Kendal and Paul Eddington reunited in the Channel Four adaptation of Mary Wesley's The Camomile Lawn.

In 2003, the BBC broadcast a mockumentary entitled Life Beyond the Box: Margo Leadbetter, describing Margo's life since the series had finished, although the original actors appear only in archive footage. In 2007, Briers and Kendal were reunited on ITV1 series That's What I Call Television in a mock up of the Goods' kitchen.

There are many organic gardening and self-sufficiency movements within the UK who continue to this day to claim that The Good Life was inspirational and influenced their own lifestyle changes. In many ways, the show was years ahead of its time in addressing ideas that were then far from mainstream.