The Good Life(or as it was called in the US good neighbours)

[Chickenlady]

I wish they would resurrect it! I didn't think a new Dr Who series would be any good but I watched the first programme with my daughters and we all loved it - they even hid behind cushions as I used to when I was little.

You would need a new cast, though. Hmm...Colin Firth as Tom, obviously, Kate Blanchett as Barbara?

[mountaingirl]

I dont see why not. Of course it would require a younger cast.....and hopefully that would not go along with the tackyness of a lot more recent programming. But there are major issues here to be discussed albeit through comedy/drama.

A new 'Good Life' could really help the British public come to terms with and grasp the possibilities of more recycling, alternative home energy, energy saving and yes.....growing food.

It would also help to raise awarness of our current plight with growing pollution, environmental destruction and unsustainable development.

I think a new 'Good Life' would be a good medium for putting forward the philosophy which Tom and Barbara followed.

It would be nice if both of the couples had had a baby and the two had grown up now and got married, that would mean that the old characters could wander in and out from time to time.

I believe that Britain NEEDS another 'Good Life.' We are a nation sailing towards a destroyed, denuded, and dangerous future.
mountaingirl

[Andy Hamilton]

there is talk that Channel four are going to show a program called the real good life. Also I have been contacted by two production compaines that are looking for people who live 'the real good life'. One will de based around londoners and the other seems to be about anyone in the UK.

So it does look like some kind of awarness is going on. the trouble with theses shows is that they could possibly have a negative effect. Look at the werdo now we know why we don't give up Mcdonals, you know that sort of thing. Well time will tell.

[mountaingirl]

there is talk that Channel four are going to show a program called the real good life. Also I have been contacted by two production compaines that are looking for people who live 'the real good life'. One will de based around londoners and the other seems to be about anyone in the UK.

So it does look like some kind of awarness is going on. the trouble with theses shows is that they could possibly have a negative effect. Look at the werdo now we know why we don't give up Mcdonals, you know that sort of thing. Well time will tell.

You are so right Andy to have that concern. When the Good Life came out it reflected a real movement allied to the hippy movement where people were going to Wales or Ireland or wherever houses and land were cheaper at the time to live self-sufficiency lifestyles.

There was the whole rise of the Green movement at the time and the series reached those who were not out and out hippies or greens to show how anyone could make a difference who had even a suburban garden.

Now there is no underpinning current social philosophy to back the show and the danger is that it is yet more fodder for 'reality tv' i.e. 'Britians most self-sufficient couple' which is made by the same production company as 'Britains noisiest neighbours' and 'Britains most overfed children.'

Ideally what is wanted is a series which will run and run, has real social and philosophical depth, teaches us all something and is not just a soon forgotten one-off exploitation.
mountaingirl

[Andy Hamilton]

Maybe we should just go ahead and make our own. I mean internet television is starting to take off. I could use the self sufficientish.org name that I own to air a few video clips of how to do stuff.

The end of this summer I am planning a move to Bristol into a house with a garden (first time in 4 years). I could flim the progress of turning it into an 'urban farm' and show it on-line.

Would be expensive to host though, so would need to think about how to fund it. But I could see it working, what do you think?

[mountaingirl]

Maybe we should just go ahead and make our own. I mean internet television is starting to take off. I could use the self sufficientish.org name that I own to air a few video clips of how to do stuff.

The end of this summer I am planning a move to Bristol into a house with a garden (first time in 4 years). I could film the progress of turning it into an 'urban farm' and show it on-line.

Would be expensive to host though, so would need to think about how to fund it. But I could see it working, what do you think?

Well as Chicken Lady said if you can make Dr. Who you should be able to remake 'The Goodlife.'

As to the original series I hope C4 should understand that 'The Good Life' was/is a programme worthy of the deepest respect and of the highest value.

A major component of 'The Good Life' as important as the the self sufficiency was the culture of British TV traditional loving couples dating from other series such as George and Mildred, Terry and June, Reginald Perrin and his wife and so on. That is essential to the magic; the couple must be lovable and give out a positive message that whatever the stresses and strains in marriage and life, love keeps people together.

But separately your idea is really interesting, one could video ones projects and show each other around our homes and gardens.

Say someone had a plumbing problem from their rainwater tank then they could video-clip it with their post so that another member who is an expert reading the post and viewing the clip could diagnose and prescribe.

But the site is really nice as it is.
mountaingirl.

[alcina]

Personally I don't think that The Good Life could be remade. It's humour was very much of its time. The Margot snobbish, middle class character just isn't sent up any more, and Tom's chauvinism would not go down at all well! The whole zeitgeist of the 70s was different - we have 30 years more experience to jade our eyes than they did! Yuppies, EU, war.

That said, there's a difference between remaking The Good Life and making a new comedy programme about people who try to be self-sufficient. There would be more green politics and less dropping out from the drudgery of work. Fewer people have enormous semi-detached houses and the accompanying land on which to experiment, so it may be based more around the window-box self-sufficiency attempts! Possbily the added inflection of conspiracy theory and survivalism - nutters usually make good comedy !

To have a simple "let's try to be as self-sufficient as possible" programme wouldn't really work as we have had The River Cottage documentary, so there'd have to be a slightly different angle on it. It would be treading a fine line though...much more offence is taken these days if portrayals are not to people's liking!

Just my 0.075 Euros
Alcina

[Andy Hamilton]

Have you heard about ITV's new offering 'the real good life' 5 couples thay have their mortgage paid for a year and get given some pocket money. They have to be as self sufficient as possible before the year is out and there will be a winner at the end.

Still open minded about it. Might do wonders for the grow your own cause, might also be disasterous.

[Wombat]

I reckon it sounds interesting! I hope it is done well.

Nev

[manxminx]

i'd love to see a new one made but i don't think they could do it the same , i don't think it would be anywhere near as good

[Wombat]

G'day Kerry, been a while since we've heard anything from you! welcome back.

Nev

[Nev63]

i think any revival of the good life should show Tom and Barbra now any way " the real good life" was good fun as i think most of us knew it was fly on the wall TV, still onward and upward. right now i have raised beds to build before winter in my parents garden, a green house to move across the same garden and an allotment to find

Nick

[hedgewizard]

I don't think a "remake" would work, as TGL was not only of it's time, but relied on a wonderful mix of talent. You can't (unless you're very lucky) put that kind of thing together on purpose - but when it happens, that show (or play/film/whatever) really becomes something more than the sum of its parts.

What you could do is re-invent it just using the basic concept, in the same way that Russell Davies re-invented Dr Who. It's really very different to the original, and it has to be to work in the 21st century (sadly, perhaps).

These days Tom Good would have to be a burned-out white collar professional pagan who sinks everything into buying a house with a big garden in a really snobby eccentric village in rural Dorset, and he'd have to scandalise everyone by driving a ratty old banger and sticking a polytunnel up in his garden and selling eggs out the front and... hang on, that's me!

...Oh yeah, and he's have to be played by Vin Diesel, obviously 8)

[manxminx]

o0o0o just checking telly listing and The good life is on tomorrow ( tuesday) BBC2 at 7:30

[kenboak]

Guys,

It's hard to believe that it was made 31 years ago in 1975, and they got it SO right!

Potatoes in the front garden
Wood burning range
The pointlessness of office life
The rotovator used as transport
The methane bio-gas generator for electricity
The wonderful variety of home made wines
The highs and lows of self sufficiency
The dailly challenge of keeping animals

All these relevant issues in the height of the 1970s - I was 10 at the time

That takes some vision.

Ken