The BEST episodes of The Good Life (1975)

Every episode of The Good Life (1975) ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of The Good Life (1975)!

The Good Life stars Richard Briers and Felicity Kendal as Tom and Barbara Good, a middle class suburban couple who on Tom's 40th birthday decide to turn their Surbiton home into a self sufficient allotment. They grow their own food, keep farm animals and have sold or bartered all of their electrical appliances as they have no electricity. This creates friction with their best friends and next door neighbours, the Leadbetters (Jerry and Margo) played by Paul Eddington and Penelope Keith. But even though the Goods have lowered the tone of the neighbourhood in the Leadbetters eyes they still can't help but be best of friends. The show was known as Good Neighbors when it aired in the US.

Last Updated: 3/4/2024Network: BBC OneStatus: Ended
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Suit Yourself
star
8.56
41 votes

#1 - Suit Yourself

Season 4 - Episode 5 - Aired 5/8/1977

The Goods obtain some sheep fleeces, make their own vegetable dyes, and start making their own clothes using their loom. Jerry's boss decides to retire, and invites three potential successors to dinner to choose who to appoint.

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The Thing in the Cellar
star
8.12
60 votes

#2 - The Thing in the Cellar

Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 5/2/1975

Tom puts the finishing touches to their own electricity generator in the cellar, which runs on their animals' waste. He then goes fishing with Jerry, and decides to store the surplus in the freezer, until the generator plays up...

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Anniversary
star
8.10
42 votes

#3 - Anniversary

Season 4 - Episode 7 - Aired 5/22/1977

Although troubles beset them, the Goods are still glad that they've followed the path of self-sufficiency. Jerry thinks he's failed to succeed Andy as head of JJM. Margo installs a burglar alarm system, but the Goods think they've no need of one, as they've nothing left to steal.

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The Pagan Rite
star
8.02
53 votes

#4 - The Pagan Rite

Season 1 - Episode 6 - Aired 5/9/1975

In order to pay for a treat for Barbara, Tom takes a short contract from his old firm, and tries to keep it a secret from her - but his plan is foiled when he fails to account for Margo's nosiness.

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Just My Bill
star
8.02
53 votes

#5 - Just My Bill

Season 2 - Episode 1 - Aired 12/5/1975

The Goods are faced with paying their rates bill (local property tax). They try to sell their harvest surplus to raise money, but it proves more difficult than Tom imagines.

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Mr Fix-It
star
8.00
53 votes

#6 - Mr Fix-It

Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired 12/19/1975

A journalist writes a freelance article on the Goods and their way of life. Margo tries to muscle in to promote her forthcoming amateur dramatics production. Jerry obtains quantities of free merchandise for the Goods, on the grounds that the article is to appear in a national Sunday newspaper.

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Away From It All
star
8.00
42 votes

#7 - Away From It All

Season 4 - Episode 1 - Aired 4/10/1977

When the poor harvest and other tribulations of life get to the Goods, the Leadbetters suggest they go away on a short break, and volunteer to look after things while they're away. But can they be trusted?

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The Day Peace Broke Out
star
7.98
43 votes

#8 - The Day Peace Broke Out

Season 2 - Episode 4 - Aired 1/2/1976

Leeks start to go missing from the front garden, and Tom initially suspects Margo. When he discovers the real culprit, he takes the law into his own hands, but ends up in deeper trouble than the thief.

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Our Speaker Today
star
7.95
42 votes

#9 - Our Speaker Today

Season 4 - Episode 3 - Aired 4/24/1977

When Margo's society's guest speaker pulls out at short notice, Barbara agrees to give a talk about self-sufficiency. She's so good that Lady Truscott asks her to do several other talks, but it interferes with maintaining the animals & crops.

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Mutiny
star
7.94
50 votes

#10 - Mutiny

Season 2 - Episode 5 - Aired 1/9/1976

Jerry refuses to put up a foreign businessman visiting the company, as it would interfere with Margo's performances as Maria in a local amateur production of The Sound of Music, and he is consequently sacked. The Goods try to get him reinstated.

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A Tug of the Forelock
star
7.93
46 votes

#11 - A Tug of the Forelock

Season 3 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/24/1976

The need for some means of transport to replace the broken trolley causes Tom to modify the rotavator. To pay for its fuel, the Goods decide to take temporary work as domestic staff... with the Leadbetters.

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I Talk To The Trees
star
7.91
44 votes

#12 - I Talk To The Trees

Season 3 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/1/1976

A fellow allotment holder claims that talking and playing music to his plants gives better yields, so Tom decides to do a scientific experiment, enlisting Barbara's help. Unfortunately, playing music to the crops in the back garden threatens to sour their relationship with Margo, who is standing for election as president of the local amateur operatic society.

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The Guru of Surbiton
star
7.90
51 votes

#13 - The Guru of Surbiton

Season 2 - Episode 2 - Aired 12/12/1975

The Goods take in a student couple for a week, to help them with the work on the smallholding. The couple rapidly become infatuated with the Goods and their way of life. When they decide to buy the other house next door, to start a commune with similar aims, Margo becomes incensed.

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Going to Pot?
star
7.87
46 votes

#14 - Going to Pot?

Season 2 - Episode 7 - Aired 1/23/1976

Tom's inability to repair the roof decides the Goods on joining evening classes in practical subjects, Barbara taking pottery and Tom taking weaving. Both do badly and decide to swap subjects. Tom achieves outstanding results, resulting in the temptation to go commercial.

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The Weaver's Tale
star
7.85
40 votes

#15 - The Weaver's Tale

Season 4 - Episode 4 - Aired 5/1/1977

When Margo buys a spinning wheel, Tom buys a loom so that the Goods can borrow the spinning wheel and make their own clothes. However, Barbara has just convinced Jerry to forbid Margo to spend any more money, and the spinning wheel purchase is canceled. It looks like the loom is a white elephant.

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Home Sweet Home
star
7.84
49 votes

#16 - Home Sweet Home

Season 2 - Episode 6 - Aired 1/16/1976

A boar-walker visits the Goods' remaining pig, and recommends they move to a larger smallholding that he knows is for sale. Neither Tom nor Barbara can think of a good reason not to go, but neither really wants to.

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The Green Door
star
7.79
42 votes

#17 - The Green Door

Season 4 - Episode 2 - Aired 4/17/1977

The Goods need some fertiliser for their land in preparation for sowing the new season's crops. When they try getting it from the pony club that Margo belongs to, they find that although she pretends to, she hasn't been going recently. The Goods wonder where she's been going instead.

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Plough Your Own Furrow
star
7.64
95 votes

#18 - Plough Your Own Furrow

Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 4/4/1975

After he has celebrated his 40th birthday Tom decides that he is unhappy with his life style so he packs his job in, farms his large garden and becomes self sufficient.

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Pig's Lib
star
7.54
56 votes

#19 - Pig's Lib

Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 4/25/1975

The Goods continue their bartering with local suppliers, but Barbara has a misunderstanding while negotiating with the window-cleaner. They then add a pair of pigs in a sty to their back garden, at which Margo is so appalled she brings in the chairman of the local residents' association to persuade them out of it, but is unsuccessful. However, when one escapes into the Leadbetter's garden, she can only be mollified by getting rid of it.

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Say Little Hen...
star
7.50
81 votes

#20 - Say Little Hen...

Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 4/11/1975

The Goods install the first chickens in their chicken coop, but they prove slow to lay their first eggs. Incensed by the condescension of the Leadbetters when they are invited to dinner together with Tom's former boss & his wife, the Goods decide to sacrifice one of the chickens to make a show of their not being as poor as the Leadbetters think.

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The Weaker Sex?
star
7.43
108 votes

#21 - The Weaker Sex?

Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 4/18/1975

Tom buys an old-fashioned range for their kitchen from a passing rag-and-bone man, but Barbara becomes irate when she ends up doing most of the hard work to get it ready for use, while he tries to make a system for scaring the birds off their crops.

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The Early Birds
star
7.41
49 votes

#22 - The Early Birds

Season 3 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/10/1976

The pressure of work sowing the new season's crops requires the Goods to make the most of the daylight hours. The disturbance of their early morning work sours their friendship with the Leadbetters, and their attempts to go to bed early meet with a variety of frustrations.

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Whose Fleas are These?
star
7.36
45 votes

#23 - Whose Fleas are These?

Season 3 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/15/1976

The Goods find they have fleas, which they initially believe are from their animals. Then they remember that they have just been next door to the Leadbetters.

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The Last Posh Frock
star
7.36
45 votes

#24 - The Last Posh Frock

Season 3 - Episode 7 - Aired 10/21/1976

Various people mistake Barbara for a man, causing her to doubt her femininity, and when she accidentally tears her last good dress, she becomes distraught. Tom compounds things by fawning over an elegantly dressed dinner guest, but then tries to make up by buying her another dress.

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Sweet and Sour Charity
star
7.33
42 votes

#25 - Sweet and Sour Charity

Season 4 - Episode 6 - Aired 5/15/1977

Tom sets his eye on the contents of the other neighbours' heating oil tank when they move out. Barbara just manages to convince him that it would be stealing. Then they get permission to take it.

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