Penelope Keith to front documentary marking 50 years of The Good Life
- The Good Life: Inside Out, coming to U&Gold later in 2025, will mark 50 years of the popular sitcom
- Penelope Keith will take viewers on an "entertaining and heartfelt journey" through the show's history
- The two-hour documentary is presented from a recreation of the Leadbetter's drawing room
U&Gold will air The Good Life: Inside Out, a new two-hour documentary marking the fifty years of The Good Life.
First broadcast on BBC One on 4th April 1975, The Good Life followed two married couples living in London's suburbs. As his 40th birthday approaches, Tom Good decides to throw in the daily grind of the commute, office life and the career rat-race and attempt a self-sufficiency lifestyle with wife Barbara. Meanwhile, next door, Margo and Jerry Leadbetter are shocked by the notion of their genteel neighbourhood being overrun by pigs, mud and other such unsophisticated muck.
The documentary is being produced by Double Yellow, the production company that has also worked on productions such as Morecambe & Wise: The Unseen Tapes, Eric Sykes: A Life Of Silent Laughter and Tommy Cooper: The Lost Tapes.
Speaking about the new commission, the channel says: "Leading the retrospective is The Good Life star Dame Penelope Keith, who famously brought the iconic Margo Leadbetter to life. With her unique insider perspective, Dame Penelope will take viewers on an entertaining and heartfelt journey through the sitcom's history - from its first spark of inspiration to its enduring appeal and its place in British comedy history.
"Packed with nostalgia, the special will revisit filming locations and reveal props and artefacts from the show's development process such as original scripts and production notes. Double Yellow Entertainment has also painstakingly recreated Margo and Jerry Leadbetter's drawing room as it appeared in the original programme, and will capture Dame Penelope Keith stepping back onto the set. As well as Dame Penelope Keith's reminiscences, the special will also include rarely seen archival interviews with co-stars Richard Briers, Felicity Kendal and Paul Eddington, as well as producer director John Howard Davies."
Penelope Keith says: "I am delighted that U&Gold has invited me to celebrate fifty years of The Good Life, a series that was important to me and is still so well loved by viewers. I have such happy memories of making The Good Life - it was a wonderful cast and we were working with excellent scripts and a first rate production team. The only thing I can't really believe is that it's fifty years since I first played Margo... where have the years gone?"
Commissioner Helen Nightingale says: "For a show to be remembered so fondly and to be such a reference point in British everyday conversation as The Good Life after 50 years is testament to its quality, and this new retrospective with Double Yellow will explore just how and why the show has endured."
Mark Wells, creative director at Double Yellow Entertainment, comments: "The Good Life is one of the crown jewels of British comedy. What a real privilege it's been to examine it up close in the company of Dame Penelope Keith, who in Margo created one of the all-time sitcom character greats. Fans of The Good Life can look forward to a very special treat."
The Good Life: Inside Out will air on U&Gold later this year.