The Good Life-Complete Series 1 (1975) (NTSC)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio & Animation
Rating
Year Of Production	1975
Running Time	196:27 (Case: 210)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	None Given
Studio Distributor	Roadshow Home Entertainment	Starring	Richard Briers Felicity Kendal Penelope Keith Paul Eddington
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$29.95	Music	Burt Rhodes Bill Harris Ian McKendrick

    I have just reviewed a slightly newer English comedy than this, Butterflies, and not liked it. Luckily, The Good Life, which began in 1975 on the BBC, stands the test of time as a classic English sit-com. I remember watching this show as a child and thinking it was funny and now getting the chance to see the first series has been a pleasure. It is undoubtedly dated, with woeful clothes and some references which would have worked 30 years ago but don't now, but despite this I found myself laughing and having a very entertaining time watching the seven episodes which make up the first series.

    The series follows the lives of Tom Good (Richard Briers) and his wife Barbara (Felicity Kendal) as they decide to turn their backs on their normal day to day lives and try to become self sufficient by starting a farm in their own backyard in the suburbs. Tom is a smart ass designer/draftsman of toys which go into breakfast cereals and has had enough of it. His colleague from work, Jerry Leadbetter (Paul Eddington) also happens to be his best friend and neighbour. He is a manager at the same firm and is a corporate ladder climber. He lives next door to the Goods with his snobby wife, Margot (Penelope Keith). They react first with amusement and then disbelief when Tom announces their plans. Margot quickly becomes very sick of the goings on next door and they try various methods to get Tom to return to the firm.

    The episodes included here are:

1. Plough Your Own Furrow (27:41) - Tom has his 40th birthday and after reviewing his life decides to quit his job and become self-sufficient by growing his own food with the help of his wife. Jerry thinks he's completely mad and Margot is appalled.
2. Say Little Hen (27:01) - Tom and Barbara start getting the farm organised, buying a goat and some chickens. They start to recycle scraps from next door and they also try to make goats milk butter. Jerry makes bid to get Tom back to the firm.
3. The Weaker Sex (29:49) - Tom buys an old rusted Argor from a scrap dealer so they don't need electricity to cook. He also tries to work out a method for keeping birds away from their crops. Barbara is getting a little sick of the plan and how much work is involved.
4. Pig's Lib (27:19) - They decide to keep pigs however Margot gets very upset. She calls in the assistance of the local chairman of the residents' committee. To my mind this is the episode where the series really gets going. A very funny episode.
5. The Thing in the Cellar (28:57) - Tom is building a generator in the cellar to provide power. He plans to use pig's droppings a fuel. Another very funny episode.
6. The Pagan Rite (29:17) - Jerry talks Tom & Barbara into coming over for dinner and also invites the boss of the firm they used to work for. The boss wants Jerry to do some freelance work for him, but he doesn't want to disappoint Barbara by seeming to give up their dream. Barbara is also wishing for some pampering. Another funny episode.
7. Backs to the Wall (26:23) - Things get difficult for the Goods when Tom injures his back, the harvest needs to be brought in and their garden gets levelled by a storm. They soon find out who their friends really are.

    In my opinion the star here is Felicity Kendall who is very funny and very droll as the cheeky Barbara. Richard Briers was considered to be the star and although he generally plays the role well, he can be slightly annoying. Penelope Keith is a little over the top and Paul Eddington is reliable as usual.

    The Good Life has lots of fans and is recommended for lovers of British 1970s sitcoms.

Video

    The video quality is quite good considering the age of the material. Unfortunately, it is in NTSC, which is odd considering it comes from a PAL country. A number of local release English series such as The Vicar of Dibley are also in NTSC.

    The feature is presented in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio non 16x9 enhanced which is the original aspect ratio.

    The picture was reasonably clear and sharp throughout, as good as you could expect from 30 year old television. There was no evidence of low level noise. The shadow detail was reasonable, about what you would expect, and there was some light grain throughout which was heaver in Episode 5.

    The colour was nothing special, being dull generally and having quite a few colour artefacts including some spots of colour, cross-colourisation such as at 12:30 in Episode 1, some flaring of green from faces and red from glasses, some chroma noise (5:06 Episode 6) and some mild colour bleeding.

   Regarding non-colour artefacts, there were some hairs, some minor tape tracking issues and evidence of excessive noise reduction at 27:50 in Episode 5. There was also some mild aliasing on the venetian blinds such as at 7:46 and 11:42 in Episode 1.

    There are no subtitles.

    The layer change must be between episodes.
    

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is fine with no major issues to report.

    This DVD contains a English Dolby Digital 2.0 mono soundtrack encoded at 192 Kb/s.

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand and there was no problem with audio sync.

    The music 'specially composed' by Burt Rhodes is fine, neither spectacular or annoying. It would have been quite a big thing for a BBC show to have had specially composed music at the time.

    The surround speakers and subwoofer were not used.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    None.

Menu

    The menu included animation and music.

    This series is available in Region 2 but not in Region 1, as far as I can tell. The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on;

• A PAL transfer
• An interview with writer Bob Larbey
• Production Notes
• Filmographies

    The Region 2 version of this disc misses out on;

• The last episode of the series (it only contains 6)

    To my mind the extra episode outweighs the other extras. Region 4 wins

    The video quality is good.

    The audio quality is fine but mono.

    The disc has no extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall