Good Neighbors 3

In "Going to Pot" Tom and Barbara attend night school to learn some essential home repair skills and enroll in pottery and weaving classes as well. When Tom is a flop in his weaving class and Barbara proves equally inept in pottery, they trade classes and soon discover that Tom is a gifted potter. As Tom's crockery becomes more and more popular and in demand by paying customers, he and Barbara begin to stray from their self-sufficient lifestyle and to succumb to the allure of a steady income.

The Goods' sow Perky finally delivers her litter in "The Happy Event". One of the piglets, unfortunately, is a runt, and when Tom's iron rule of efficiency condemns it to an early death Barbara draws the line and forces him to reassess his values. With the Ledbetters in tow the race is on to save the runt before time runs out.

Tom's attitudes are again called into question in "The Last Posh Frock". In this episode Barbara tears her last nice dress, and an unsympathetic Tom has her questioning her feminine role in the perpetually practical life the Goods have chosen. When Jerry finally sets Tom right on the importance of an impractical feminine extra or two in Barbara's life, Tom comes through in a style reminiscent of "The Gift of the Magi".

As with the previous offerings, these episodes are a video treat.


Classic British comedy with all the usual delights   February 11, 1999
4 out of 5 found this review helpful

Brit-com fans should not miss this wonderful cast. Anyone who has discovered the genius of Paul Eddington will be delighted with this pre-Yes Minister sit-com. The premise is clever and the cast works together beautifully.


Excellent British comedy   September 27, 2002
Kurt A. Johnson (Marseilles, Illinois, USA)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

Good Neighbors (or The Good Life as it was known in the UK) is the story of Tom and Barbara Good, a middle-aged couple in the 1970s who decide to escape the rat race by living a life of complete self-sufficiency. They exchange their car for a cultivator, and turn their garden into a full-fledged (if rather small) farm. Their good friends and neighbors, the social climbing Gerry and Margot Leadbetter (played by Paul Eddington and Penelope Keith!) sometimes provide support, and other times disapproval. Through it all, the antics of the two mismatched set of neighbors produces laughs and good times for all!

Sadly, for some reason known only to the BBC, the episodes of this wonderful show have been released in a seemingly random order. Still, this show is so good, that it is better to have them this way than not at all! This tape contains three, half-hour episodes.

Going to Pot - Series 2, episode 14 (January 23, 1976) - Tom and Barbara realize that night school can broaden their range of talents, but will night school survive them?

The Happy Event - Series 3, episode 16 (September 17, 1976) - When the day approaches for the Good's pig to litter, the Leadbetters find themselves pulled into the hubbub.

The Last Posh Frock - Series 3, episode 21 (October 22, 1976) - When Barbara decides that she needs to feel more feminine, she digs out her last nice dress. However, when she tears it, and worse, when Tom refuses to see anything particularly feminine about her all hell breaks lose!


Leadbetters & Goods are more than good! They're GREAT!   September 29, 2000
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

I saw this series when it came to US TV some years ago (thank you, forever, PBS). I loved it then. I love it now. I've got the whole collection, finally.

Stars: Tom & Barbara Good, played by Richard Briers and Felicity Kendal - whom I worship, and Margo & Jerry Leadbetter, played by Penelope Keith and Paul Eddington.

I also saw Felicity Kendal in a PBS replay of the BBC Shakespeare series with her starring as Viola in "Twelfth Night" and was so impressed that I named a daughter after her.

Felicity (and the other cast members) are believable, funny, and always in trouble, love, etc., with each other.

The setting... Tom & Barbara move to a ritzy neighborhood and start a farm... well, more like they decide to "live off the land." Try that in a swank neighborhood and I'm sure you'll end up with some of the problems they had.

Totally hysterical. Very funny. A must see. Own it if you can. Definitely for the whole family.


The Golden Age of the BBC   March 19, 2001
Captain Cook (Somewhere off Terra Del Fuego)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

When I first saw the Good Life (the British name) in the 1970s as an impressionable kid, I immediately loved it. Everybody was so nice and civilized unlike the glue-sniffing, head-butting ruffians at my local Scottish comprehensive school. I was so charmed that I almost wanted to become English, middle-class, and 'awfully nice.' I also developed a raging crush on Felicity Kendall.

This series was a product of the golden age of British TV when the BBC was more like a giant artists' collective than the faceless management bureau it has since become. The casting is incredible. The four main actors are hand-in-glove with their roles.Paul Eddington as the long-suffering but slyly rebellious Jerry is the perfect foil for Margot's innocent pomposity. Felicity Kendall's Barbara is both tomboyish and kittenish and serves as a welcome check on Richard Brier's naughty little boy act as the exuberant and mischievous Tom.

For those unfamiliar with the situation of this situation comedy, it concerns the efforts of Tom and Barbara Good to escape the 9-to-5, Monday-to-Friday, suburbs-to-city commuting rat race, by starting a commune in their own garden, and the effect this has on their relationship with their very strait-laced neighbors, Jerry and Margot.

The 3 episodes collected on this tape reflect poor BBC marketing expediency more than anything else. This means that the marvellous continuity between episodes is lost, dampening the effect of some of the humor. This tape includes episode 7 from the 2nd series and episodes 2 and 7 from the 3rd series, with the following original transmission dates.

(1) Going to Pot - 23rd of January, 1976

No, not that kind of pot - although you would have thought that would be one advantage of their 'grow-it-yourself' lifestyle. This proves to be one of the less memorable episodes, although it is still amusing for the way Margot spends a fortune when she takes up the hobby of pottery. The main storyline concerns the threat to their way of life posed by Tom's success as a potter.

(2) The Happy Event - 17th of September, 1976

Pigs are always good for a laugh, especially when the other Pigs (the Police) turn up to help save the runt of the litter. This episode is heart-warming, but not particularly well-writen.

(3) The Last Posh Frock - 22nd of October, 1976

Another of the weaker episodes, but still enjoyable because of the fine characters. Issues of gender arise as Barbara's glamour-free lifestyle starts to take its toll. Feeling dowdy, she gets in a mood about being thought of as 'one of the boys' until Tom treats her to a new dress.