The Good Life

The programme may have been a by-word for cosiness — it was the Queen's favourite sitcom, no less — but behind the soft exterior lay a surprisingly hard centre, with storylines tackling mid-life crises, drunken wifeswapping, and chickens named after famous Communists. The Good Life: Secrets & Scandals reveals the truth of how one of the most unlikely British sitcom successes was really made. The documentary reveals how a special royal episode (requested by the Queen herself) was nearly derailed by a Blue Peter dog on the day of recording. The programme exposes the secrets of the cast's off-screen friendships, including one dinner party that nearly ended in disaster, as well as lifting the lid on the personal scandals of the sitcom's stars. The show reveals how the cast could have looked very different, and how the sitcom might have been unrecognisable if creators had gone ahead with their original idea of filming it all on a yacht. There are also revelations about how the show tackled the role of women, including the notorious episode featuring the Good's homebrew, which nearly ended in adultery, and how the producers had to fight to allow the female characters to drink on screen as well as the scandalous press treatment of Felicity Kendall's iconic character Margo.