42 Years Ago Tonight

The final episode of The Good Life aired. It was a Royal Command Performance for the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh (who turns 99 today, btw), who are pictured here meeting the cast and crew afterwards.

I love The Good Life - it gave us the astonishing Penelope Keith:

 Audrey fforbes-Hamilton (Penelope Keith, To the Manor Born)

Her role as Margo Ledbetter in The Good Life could’ve easily gone in here since they’re basically the same character, but I chose this one because it’s the lead. It takes an amazing actress to pull off a character we’d normally be set up to not like, the sort of English upper-crust who believes people around her exist merely to maintain her own social status. There is a thrill in her initial “downfall”, but we quickly root for her because even though she’s a snob, she’s so damn likable. Partly because she’s of the (maybe?) last generation of “noblesse oblige”; she’s lost almost everything but the idea of letting her butler Brabinger loose out into the cruel world is unthinkable to her. Her role is to desperately fight maintain the status quo of her once and future estate. How good of a character is this? Incredibly, her natural sense of entitlement is somehow endearing. Now THAT is tough to pull off (at least to an American, I suppose.)

...and while I wouldn't put it in my Top 10 Britcoms it will always shave a place in my heart: it was the first Britcom I stumbled into after streaming had opened the floodgates of the BBC. I don't even remember how or why, but I did. I'd seen shows like Fawlty Towers and The Vicar of Dibley before on BBC America, but now I could blaze through entire series, and as anyone who's read this for more than 10 minutes, I have.

Meeting the Queen!!!

But of course we all know Margo Ledbetter was always the real queen.

I always loved their kitchen - which I strongly suspect was repurposed 30 years later for the wonderful Only Fools and Horses spinoff The Green, Green Grass.