Felicity Kendal has dismissed modern woke backlash to beloved BBC sitcom The Good Life.
The actress, 79, who played Barbara Good, had her say about recent interpretations of the show that have seen main character Tom Good named as an example of ‘toxic masculinity’.
Richard Briers, the actor who played Tom, admitted before his death in 2013 that he didn’t like the character, calling him ‘a bully’ and ‘obsessive’.
But Felicity has defended the show, saying Tom never dragged his wife along against her will.
‘I think that sometimes these days, because the show has endured for so long and become part of the folklore, people look back on it mistakenly, and slightly narrow-mindedly,’ she told the i paper.
‘It wasn’t a documentary, it was a comedy, and Tom did not drag Barbara along unwillingly. Barbara was positive, and practical, and totally in love with her partner. I loved Tom.’
Felicity Kendal has dismissed modern woke backlash to beloved BBC sitcom The Good Life
The actress, 79, who played Barbara Good, had her say about recent interpretations of the show that have seen main character Tom Good named as an example of ‘toxic masculinity’
The Good Life ran from 1975 to 1978. It’s first season attracted a modest audience of five million, but by series two, 17 million people were tuning in.
Among them was the Queen, who was such a huge fan of the show that Buckingham Palace wrote to the BBC and asked if she could come for a taping.
While the series had ended the year before, the programme was intentionally commissioned in 1978 as the late Queen had been unable to attend a recording at the BBC’s television centre due to her hectic schedule during her Jubilee year.
‘We were used to filming in front of an audience. But we were worried about what we would do if something went wrong during the recording,’ Felicity said.
The actress added that the cast ‘tended to swear’ but they all made sure not to utter a single curse word while the Queen was on set.
Written by Bob Larbey and John Esmonde, the hit show followed the Good family as they abandoned the rat race to live off the land and life a life of self-sufficiency – all while remaining in their suburban home in the Surbiton, London.
Dame Penelope Keith, who famously brought the iconic Margo Leadbetter to life, revisited the moment the late Queen visited the iconic show’s set to witness that final episode.
Speaking in a retrospective documentary, titled ‘The Good Life: Inside Out’, she poignantly described the atmosphere as ‘electric’ that day, adding: ‘The Queen had an awful lot of diamonds on and she was sitting in the middle.
Felicity has defended the show, saying Tom never dragged his wife along against her will
The late Queen was such a huge fan of the show that Buckingham Palace wrote to the BBC and asked if she could come for a taping
The show followed the Good family as they abandoned the rat race to live off the land and life a life of self-sufficiency – all while remaining in their suburban home in the Surbiton, London
‘Around her, was spread the governors and their ladies who also had diamonds on. So when you looked out, all you saw was sparkle, sparkle, sparkle’.
Recalling how she had to curtsey for the Queen, she added: ‘It was huge fun, fascinating to have done.
‘Felicity who was next to me, she curtsied. But was much shorter than me so I had to curtsey very low.’
Meanwhile, Paul Eddington, who played the role of Jerry Leadbetter in the show, also recalled in 1983 how there had been ‘quite an excited atmosphere’ and a ‘certain kind of tension’ as the cast anxiously prepared for the episode’s filming in the presence of the late Queen.
