For those who are visiting from another planet the Good Life, Written by John Esmonde and Bob Larbey was about a man who on reaching his fortieth birthday decides to give up the rat race and become self-sufficient.
The
man having the midlife crisis is Tom Good played by Richard Briers who with the
help and support of his long suffering wife Barbara, Felicity Kendal turns his
detached Surbiton home into an urban farm.
This
doesn't go down too well with their good friends and neighbours, Jerry Leadbetter played by Paul Eddington
and his snooty wife Margot, Penelope Keith.
The Christmas episode,
Silly, But It's Fun, first broadcast 26th December 1977 is in my opinion the
funniest Christmas sitcom ever made.
Most Christmas
sitcoms highlight the most negative aspects of the day creating a kind of
nightmarish microcosm of family life at Christmas.
The good life was
the story of contrasts with the Good’s making the best of the resources they
had while the Leadbetter’s just bought the best of everything and lots of it.
It “ Silly, But
It's Fun” Margo ordered Christmas to be delivered from Harrods on Christmas eve
but refused delivery when the tree was six inches shorter than the one she had ordered.
As she rejected
the tree she also rejected everything else including Jerry’s gin under the impression
that Harrods would redeliver Christmas including a tree of the requisite height
for her later that day.
She was sadly
mistaken and on Christmas day she had to phone around canceling all their
Christmas engagements under the pretext that Jerry has Chicken pox.
Jerry was
unperturbed at having political chicken pox but horrified when he discovered
that there was no more gin.
Enter the Goods
who save the day by inviting the Leadbetter’s to their house for the day and a
good time was had by all.
They all got plastered
on pea pod burgundy and played silly games.
The moral of the
tale being that you can’t buy Christmas you have to make it yourself.
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