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Dame Penelope Keith has spilled the secrets of The Good Life as she claimed a sequel would be ‘tedious’ and would not work

Dame Penelope Keith has revealed how she turned down the chance to star in a spin-off of The Good Life as she claimed it would be ‘tedious’ and would not work. The actress, who is now 85, became a household name in the 1970s BBC sitcom which drew audiences of up to 20 million viewers.

She starred as the snobbish social climber Margo Leadbetter who was married to the poor hen-pecked husband Jerry (played by the late Paul Eddington).

Every week fans tuned in to see her disapproving sneers as she struggled to deal with her suburban neighbours Tom and Barbara Good (portrayed by the late Richard Briers along with Felicity Kendall) who had swapped the rat race for ‘the good life’ of make-do-and-mend sustainability – trying to grow their own food and keep chickens, pigs and a goat in their garden.

The show – which ran from 1975 until 1978 – ended after four series and a TV special filmed in front of the royal family. However, soon after, the idea was raised about writing a spin-off series for her and Paul featuring just The Leadbetters.

But she explained: “People mentioned ‘Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a Leadbetter spin-off and I said ‘No. It’s a situation comedy and the situation is strong because of the two couples’.

“Can you imagine how tedious it would have been having Margo and Jerry having their own series?”

A year after The Good Life ended, instead Penelope landed another huge BBC hit playing posh Audrey fforbes-Hamilton in To The Manor Born from 1979 to 1981. Later she appeared in sitcoms Executive Stress and Next of Kin and No Job For A Lady before embarking on a highly successful theatre career.

The Good Life ran for 30 episodes in total and its 50 ^th anniversary this year is being marked by a forthcoming TV special called The Good Life: Inside Out fronted by Penelope.

It reveals how, when the show first launched, the TV critics and audience were lukewarm and did not find it that funny.

Penelope even admits that the ‘green theme’ was a brave choice of plot line adding: “It was a sort of fantasy. People weren’t packing up and thinking ‘Oh there must be more to life than this daily grind.’”

One reviewer even risked causing a tense atmosphere on-set by claiming that The Leadbetters ‘stole the show’. Briers, apparently, saw the review but brushed it aside joking that he was the one with the top billing and getting all the money.

But soon viewers fell in love with both couples as The Goods struggled to deal with surviving on growing their own dinners and milking Geraldine the goat for milk in their tea.

Meanwhile posh middle class Margo would look on disdainfully at their antics which she felt brought down the neighbourhood. The plots included a touch of sauce too.

In one episode, both couples get drunk and Jerry admits to fancying Barbara and Tom tells Margo she is a good looking woman.

Penelope says about this: “There was flirting and all those sorts of things but you never felt that there was any wife swapping or anything like that. It was a very strong bond between them and I think that was again in the writing that was so clever.”

In another episode, Margo decides to add some spice to an afternoon by playing the seductress to Jerry – but he is distracted and completely blanks her, leading her to utter the immortal line ‘That’s the last time I play the tart for you, Jerry’.

Penelope loved the script and admits she is shocked that fans come up to her wanting her to say the line.

She said: “When I saw the line ‘That’s the last time I play the tart for you Jerry’ I thought ‘Wow that is a humdinger’.

“I had people coming up to me and saying ‘Will you say that line for me please?’ which I thought was most peculiar – but I said it!”

Penelope salutes the writers of the sitcom John Esmonde and Bob Larbey for creating such wonderful characters – with all their flaws – for the viewers to take to their hearts.

She points out that Tom could be quite beastly and selfish to wife Barbara but he got away with it (‘You love Richard. You adore him. You laugh at him even when he is being an absolute horror because he does with a sense of humour’.)

Barbara was cute and long-suffering but adored Tom and everyone felt nothing but sympathy for poor Jerry. However it was Margo – a Conservative-supporting, Telegraph-reading domineering social climbing wife – who got the most attention and some of the funniest lines.

Penelope explains: “Margo was the prime lady of the avenue with all the dinner parties and whatever she took part in, she had to do it perfectly and had to be top dog and sometimes she was terribly disapproving. She had no sense of humour but she was terribly kind and didn’t want to offend but she engaged mouth before brain so often.

“She had enormous warmth and adored the goods and likewise jerry but he infuriated her. There is a line where she says ‘I am the silent majority’ and she said it dead pan and that is what she felt and that is what half the country felt at the time as well.”

As its popularity grew, so did the laughs especially at the expense of Margo. Fans loved the scene where she tried to help The Goods with planting in the garden and decked in yellow oil skins and boots she slipped over and fell knee deep in mud.

Penelope recalls: “Someone actually asked me the other day – ‘Was it a mistake?’ and I said ‘No. I did five times’. I couldn’t walk for about three days afterwards because of my back and of course every time I fell over I was covered in mud and so I had to be hosed down afterwards.”

And another of her favourite scenes was when one of The Good’s pigs was in labour and Tom asked Margo to go and fetch some brandy as ‘a stimulant’.

The actress recalls: “I walked out of shot and then back into shot and asked Tom ‘Remy Martin or VSOP?’ I mean what a wonderful line. It was so witty and so funny. It is one of my favourites.”

It seems Margo also got the most attention when it came to wardrobe. Since The Goods always wore the same clothes and Jerry was always in a suit, it did not take a genius to work out where the majority of the clothes budget went.

Fans loved seeing what dress or gown Margo would be sporting during each episode. They usually came from Harrods and some were even the high end fashion label Frank Usher.

Penelope said: “There was a budget I remember and the person who got the most spent on them as far as clothes were concerned was me. I don’t think I would have worn any of those dresses but Margo loved them.

“Everybody wanted to see what Margo was going to wear next. Monday used to be my one day off but I used to spend it in Harrods occasionally Harvey Nicks looking for beautiful clothes. Silk gowns in such lovely vibrant colours.”

In the TV special, Penelope visits a replica of Margo and Jerry’s drawing room which has been painstakingly recreated by designers.

She laughs: “I remember the sofa being so low. That was alright 50 years ago but I don’t know if I can get up today.”

And she revisits the garden in Northwood in west London which was used for all of the outside filming shots for Tom and Barbara’s farm and allotment.

She comments: “What a garden! It’s all trees now but back then it was all dug up. It looks a totally different place now. Must be good soil here – all that animal excrement because we had pigs and chickens and Geraldine the goat! But we loved it here – being released into the open air was freedom after working in the studio.”

One little known secret which Penelope does uncover delving back into the archives is that when the BBC planned a special to be filmed in front of the royals called When I’m Sixty Five, they asked playwright Alan Bennett to have a cameo role in the episode as a bank manager.

However he turned them down. He told them he was too ‘worn out’ and needed a holiday having committed to making a series of plays for ITV.

Instead an actor called George Cole got the role – just weeks before he was cast as Arthur Daley in Minder. The Good Life ended in 1978 and all the main stars thought it was the right time to bow out.

Penelope confessed: “I remember saying to Paul ‘I don’t think we can do any more. I think we have squeezed this orange to the pips really’ and I know Richard felt like that and Felicity too.”

But fans expecting a finale which ended on a high with a load of laughs were in for a shock. The episode ended with burglars ransacking The Goods’ home and turning it upside down and leaving everything in tatters.

Jerry tells Tom he must now give up ‘the good life’ and go back to work – but it is Barbara who says they must carry on and not be beaten. Penelope called the episode a stroke of genius.

She added: “When we got the script for the last episode we were all amazed, but in wonder, what a brilliant way to finish. When we came to the studio we did the beginning and then they had curtains which they drew across the set and then they sprayed (paint) all over the set and then the floor manager talked to the audience but said nothing about what was going on behind the curtains.

“Then the curtain went up and the audience gasped, absolutely gasped. It was extraordinary. People were in tears at the end.”

Asked about her time on the show, she now says: “I look back on it as one of the happiest times. It was of its time at the right time.

“It was as good as it was because of everything else behind it. Everybody cared. The laughter, the joy it brought and the fact that people liked it so much and believed in it so much is reward.”

After starring in the BBC sitcom for four years, Richard Briers continued his TV career, landing a lead part in another BBC sitcom a few years later. He played the unsympathetic Martin Bryce on Ever Decreasing Circles from 1984 to 1989. His character Martin was the polar opposite of Tom from The Good Life. He died in 2013.

Felicity Kendal has enjoyed a varied career on stage and screen including on TV a starring role in the thriller Rosemary and Thyme from 2003 to 2006, to guest appearances in Doctor Who in 2008 and Pennyworth in 2019. Paul Eddington played Jerry, who worked with Tom until he and his wife decided to make this life change.

Just two years after The Good Life he took on the title role of Jim Hacker in the comedy series Yes, Minister. He starred in the series until 1984, before taking on a main role in its spin-off Yes, Prime Minister.

Paul later reunited with his co-stars from The Good Life, starring opposite Felicity in The Camomile Lawn in 1992, and then alongside Richard in the play Home in 1994. The actor sadly passed away at the age of 68 in 1995 after a cancer battle.

* The Good Life: Inside Out airs on U&Gold on Tuesday October 28 at 9pm.

ITV bosses have reportedly offered boxing champ David Haye a spot on the next season of I’m A Celeb’s All Stars spin off – with one major topic expected to be discussed around the campfire

I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! is planning to add boxing champ David Haye to their knockout line-up of the next All Stars spin-off season. The former heavyweight champ, 44, first appeared on the long-running ITV reality show’s twelfth season back in 2012.

And he may be returning to the jungle as one of the All Star contestants for the spin-off series that sees past participants return for another round of stomach churning trials. The first season of the All Stars version, titled I’m a Celebrity… South Africa, aired in 2023 with Myleene Klass being crowned winner.

And now a string of popular former contestants are being lined up for a second trip to the outback – with David among the top names wanted to take part in the series. He came third when he participated in the series the last time behind winner Charlie Brooks, of EastEnders fame, and Pussycat Dolls runner-up Ashley Roberts.

READ MORE: Emmerdale’s Adam Thomas in ‘advanced talks’ for I’m A Celebrity All Stars returnREAD MORE: The Only Way is Essex original stars now as show celebrates 15-year anniversary

Since then, David’s foray into the world of media stardom has seen him appear in shows including The Big Narstie Show and his own David Haye versus series, which saw him interview and train with major celebrities.

A source told The Sun: “David was delighted to get the call from ITV. As viewers know, no chats are off-limits around the campfire, so they can expect to see David grilled over his quirky relationships.” The Mirror has contacted representatives of David and ITV for comment.

It is expected that the new season of the ITV show will begin filming in the autumn months when a string of other former contestants will return to the wilderness to survive on basic rations. Football icon Harry Redknapp, 78, who won in 2018, and Gemma Collins, 44, who quit the show after three days in 2014, are among names linked to the new season.

A number of familiar faces are expected to jet to Australia in November to film the next season of the main I’m A Celeb series. It will be the 25th outing of the show – which first aired way back in 2002.

Hosts Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly will travel Down Under to preside over all the terrifying trials and encourage the celebs to eat revolting meals and drinks. The 2024 season of the show was won by McFly singer Danny Jones.

But the 39-year-old singer has had a difficult few months since he was crowned the king of the jungle. He was shamed in March when video footage emerged of him locking lips with fellow I’m A Celeb 2024 contestant Maura Higgins, of Love Island fame.

The footage sparked shock among his fans – who have championed his marriage to beauty contestant Georgia Horsley – a former Miss England winner. The couple have been an item since 2009 and they have been married since 2014.

They also welcomed a son named Cooper who was born in 2018. Danny offered a groveling apology to his wife which he issued via social media soon after his extramarital kiss went viral.

In a statement, the McFly singer said: “Hello everyone, sorry it’s taken me a while to post this but I’ve taken some time out to be with those closest to me. I want to deeply apologise to my wife and family for putting them in this situation. I love them so much and we’ll continue to deal with this privately.

“I love you guys, thank you for your patience, understanding, and support. See you all soon, Danny.” Meanwhile, a source close to Danny revealed at the time that he was “mortified” by what happened as well as the “awful situation he has put everyone in”.

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Driverless Waymo vehicles, coated with graffiti and engulfed in flames. Masked protesters, dancing and cavorting around burning American flags. Anonymous figures brazenly blocking streets and shutting down major freeways, raining bottles and rocks on the police, while their compatriots waved Mexican flags.

The images flowing out of Los Angeles over nearly a week of protests against federal immigration raids have cast America’s second most populous city as a terrifying hellscape, where lawbreakers rule the streets and regular citizens should fear to leave their homes.

In the relentless fever loop of online and broadcast video, it does not matter that the vast majority of Los Angeles neighborhoods remain safe and secure. Digital images create their own reality and it’s one that President Trump and his supporters have used to condemn L.A. as a place that is “out of control” and on the brink of total collapse.

The images and their true meaning and context have become the subject of a furious debate in the media and among political partisans, centered on the true roots and victims of the protests, which erupted on Friday as the Trump administration moved aggressively to expand its arrests of undocumented immigrants.

As the president and his supporters in conservative media tell it, he is the defender of law and order and American values. They cast their opponents as dangerous foreign-born criminals and their feckless enablers in the Democratic Party and mainstream media.

The state’s political leaders and journalists offer a compelling rebuttal: that Trump touched off several days of protest and disruption with raids that went far beyond targeting criminals, as he previously promised, then escalated the conflict by taking the highly unusual step of sending the National Guard and Marines to Southern California.

Reaction to the raids by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and the subsequent turmoil will divide Americans on what have become partisan lines that have become so predictable they are “calcified,” said Lynn Vavreck, a political science professor at UCLA.

“The parties want to build very different worlds, voters know it, and they know which world they want to live in,” said Vavreck, who has focused on the country’s extreme political polarization. “And because the parties are so evenly divided, and this issue is so personal to so many, the stakes are very high for people.”

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1. A demonstrator waves a Mexican flag as a fire that was set on San Pedro street burns on Monday night. (Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times) 2. Protesters continue to clash with the Los Angeles Police Department in downtown on Monday. (Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times) 3. Protesters continue to clash with the Los Angeles Police Department in downtown Los Angeles on Monday. (Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times) 4. Anti-ICE protesters face off with the LAPD on Temple St. on Monday. (Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times) 5. Flowers lay at the feet of federalized California National Guard members as they guard the Federal Building on Tuesday. (Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)

As a curfew was imposed Tuesday, the sharpest street confrontations appeared to be fading and a national poll suggested Americans have mixed feelings about the events that have dominated the news.

The YouGov survey of 4,231 people found that 50% disapprove of the Trump administration’s handling of deportations, compared with 39% who approve. Pluralities of those sampled also disagreed with Trump’s deployment of the National Guard and U.S. Marines to Southern California.

But 45% of those surveyed by YouGov said they disapprove of the protests that began after recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions. Another 36% approved of the protests, with the rest unsure how they feel.

Faced with a middling public response to the ICE raids and subsequent protests, Trump continued to use extreme language to exaggerate the magnitude of the public safety threat and to take credit for the reduction in hostilities as the week progressed.

In a post on his TruthSocial site, he suggested that, without his military intervention, “Los Angeles would be burning just like it was burning a number of months ago, with all the houses that were lost. Los Angeles right now would be on fire.”

A large crowd hold their fist up with faith leaders outside the Federal building in downtown Los Angeles as demonstrators protest immigration raids in L.A. on Tuesday,.

(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)

In reality, agitators set multiple spot fires in a few neighborhoods, including downtown Los Angeles and Paramount, but the blazes in recent days were tiny and quickly controlled, in contrast to the massive wildfires that devastated broad swaths of Southern California in January.

Trump’s hyperbole continued in a fundraising appeal to his supporters Tuesday. In it, he again praised his decision to deploy the National Guard (without the approval of California Gov. Gavin Newsom), concluding: “If we had not done so, Los Angeles would have been completely obliterated.”

The Republican had assistance in fueling the sense of unease.

His colleagues in Congress introduced a resolution to formally condemn the riots. “Congress steps in amid ‘out-of-control’ Los Angeles riots as Democrats resist federal help,” Fox News reported on the resolution, being led by Rep. Young Kim of Orange County.

A journalist based in New Delhi pronounced, based on unspecified evidence, that Los Angeles “is descending into a full-blown warzone.”

Veterans Affairs Secretary Douglas Collins suggested that the harm from the protesters was spreading; announcing in a social media post that a care center for vets in downtown L.A. had been temporarily closed.

“To the violent mobs in Los Angeles rioting in support of illegal immigrants and against the rule of law,” his post on X said, “your actions are interfering with Veterans’ health care.”

A chyron running with a Fox News commentary suggested “Democrats have lost their mind,” as proved by their attempts to downplay the anti-ICE riots.

Many Angelenos mocked the claims of a widespread public safety crisis. One person on X posted a picture of a dog out for a walk along a neatly kept sidewalk in a serene neighborhood, with the caption: “Los Angeles just an absolute warzone, as you can see.”

Federal officers and the National Guard protect the Federal building in downtown Los Angeles as demonstrators protest on Tuesday.

(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)

In stark contrast to the photos of Waymo vehicles burning and police cars being pelted with rocks, a video on social media showed a group of protestors line dancing. “Oh my God! They must be stopped before their peaceful and joy filled dance party spreads to a city near you!” the caption read. “Please send in the Marines before they start doing the Cha Cha and the Macarena!”

And many people noted on social media that Sunday’s Pride parade in Hollywood for the LGBTQ+ community went off without incident, as reinforced by multiple videos of dancers and marchers celebrating along a sun-splashed parade route.

But other activists and Democrats signaled that they understand how Trump’s position can be strengthened if it appears they are condoning the more extreme episodes that emerged along with the protests — police being pelted with bottles, businesses being looted and buildings being defaced with graffiti.

On Tuesday, an X post by Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass reiterated her earlier admonitions: “Let me be clear: ANYONE who vandalized Downtown or looted stores does not care about our immigrant communities,” the mayor wrote. “You will be held accountable.”

The activist group Occupy Democrats posted a message online urging protesters to show their disdain for the violence and property damage.

“The moment violence of property damage begins, EVERY OTHER PROTESTER must immediately sit on the floor or the ground in silence, with signs down,” the advisory suggested. “The media needs to film this. This will reveal paid fake thugs posing as protesters becoming violent. ….The rest of us will demonstrate our non-violent innocence and retain our Constitutional right to peaceful protest.”

Craig Silverman, a journalist and cofounder of Indicator, a site that investigates deception on digital platforms, said that reporting on the context and true scope of the protests would have a hard time competing with the visceral images broadcast into Americans’ homes.

“It’s inevitable that the most extreme and compelling imagery will win the battle for attention on social media and on TV,” Silverman said via email. “It’s particularly challenging to deliver context and facts when social platforms incentivize the most shocking videos and claims, federal and state authorities offer contradictory messages about what’s happening.”

Dan Schnur, who teaches political science at USC and UC Berkeley, agreed. “The overwhelming majority of the protesters are peaceful,” Schnur said, “but they don’t do stories on all the planes that land safely at LAX, either.”

Protesters march in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday.

(Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)

Though it might be too early to assess the ultimate impact of the L.A. unrest, Schnur suggested that all of the most prominent politicians in the drama might have accomplished their messaging goals: Trump motivated his base and diverted attention from his nasty feud with his former top advisor, Elon Musk, and the lack of progress on peace talks with Russia and Ukraine. Newsom “effectively unified the state and elevated his national profile” by taking on Trump. And Bass, under tough scrutiny for her handling of the city’s wildfire disaster, has also gotten a chance to use Trump as a foil.

What was not disputed was that Trump’s rapid deployment of the National Guard, without the approval of Newsom, had little precedent. And sending the Marines to L.A. was an even more extreme approach, with experts saying challenges to the deployment would test the limits of Trump’s power.

The federal Insurrection Act allows the deployment of the military for law enforcement purposes, but only under certain conditions, such as a national emergency.

California leaders say Trump acted before a true emergency developed, thereby preempting standard protocols, including the institution of curfews and the mobilization of other local police departments in a true emergency.

Even real estate developer Rick Caruso, Bass’ opponent in the last election, suggested Trump acted too hastily.

“There is no emergency, widespread threat, or out of control violence in Los Angeles,” Caruso wrote on X Sunday. “And absolutely no danger that justifies deployment of the National Guard, military, or other federal force to the streets of this or any other Southern California City.”

“We must call for calm in the streets,” Caruso added, “and deployment of the National Guard may prompt just the opposite.”