As we sadly reach the conclusion of our Good Life odyssey, the focus is all on Her Maj and Big Phil as they arrive at BBC Television Centre to attend the recording of the episode Lizzie herself insisted on….

It’s the famous Christmas episode of The Good Life! Will Margo’s Christmas tree meet her oh-so-specific height requirements? WTF is canasta? What is the correct ettiquette for recreating the noise of a banging cracker, vocally?

As we reach the final episode (excluding the specials), there’s heartbreak for the Goods as anarchist burglars break in and obscenely graffiti the words “naff off” on the wall. Meanwhile, Sir finally comes to a decision on his successor at JJM….

Jerry’s gin addled mind has him convinced that proving his opponent’s nose is cosmetically enhanced is the best way to land his dream job. Meanwhile, Tom has his eye on Mrs Weaver’s oil….

As Jerry and Margo prepare to schmooze their way into Sir’s good books to land Jerry the top job at JJM, Tom and Barbara are more concerned with making green dye from nettles and fashioning their own clothes….

In this bonus episode, Alison is joined by James Hogg, author of ‘More Than Just a Good Life’ (the authorised biography of Richard Briers).

When Tom accompanies Margo to Dorking, the manipulative bastard is delighted when she sets her heart (and Jerry’s chequebook) on a spinning wheel….

When Barbara steps in to the breach to speak at the Townswomen’s Guild, she’s an instant hit. The only possible way she could go down any better is backlit, wearing a see-through dress in front of Robert Lindsay and his reprobate borstal pals!

Margo’s getting all ‘ponied up’ in jodhpurs and whip but not actually going to the pony club. What’s going on? The Goods are determined to find out, even if it invokes the dreaded brass tone and zoom camera effect!

In this bonus episode, we welcome Jim Cliff, show host of the superb ‘Fallacious Trump’,
who kindly takes the time to help Eggs see the wide and varied ways in which Margo commits logical fallacies in her many arguments….

When all round good egg Jerry offers the Goods the keys to his black-silk-sheet laden shag pad in Mayfair for the weekend, Tom & Barbara jump at the chance of some 70s style luxury with all the latest mod-cons….

When Barbara begins to feel efeminated (that’s a word, right?), surely she can rely on her loving, considerate husband Tom to make her feel like a real woman? He wouldn’t belittle her, gaslight her and call her a “silly bitch”, would he? 

When the Good’s iron range covers them in soot, they pop next door to bathe (together) in front of Jerry’s rubber duck. Meanwhile, Margo is outraged upon the discovery that Barbara has fleas….

After 20 minutes of setup, involving a series of classic sitcom mix-ups and a beleaguered jobsworth handyman (who bravely refers to Margo as Lady Faceache), we get 10 minutes of classic British sitcom gold….

We finally take the bull by its horns and discuss Margo as a TV version of Margaret Thatcher.  Back in Surbiton, in 1977, Margo is busy politicking her way back into the Surbiton Music Society at the expense of poor Dolly Mountshaft, while Barbara is giving Douglas the runner bean seed a lob on with her huskily whispered sweet nothings….

We play our first ever game of Good Life Blankety Blank! Back in Surbiton (in 1977), the Leadbetter’s ‘help’ have escaped for some blessed relief, meaning Tom & Barbara step into the breach, resulting – predictably – in fireworks!

Pinky starts farting out piglets in the middle of the night, including a runt which Tom wants to mercilessly abandon to a natural death but Barbara is having none of it!

The insufferably chipper enthusiasm of the early-to-rise Tom and Barbara drives the Leadbetter’s to distraction. Compromise is needed, if the Goods are to keep up the decade long loan of Margo’s nutcrackers….

When the Goods and Margo head off to evening classes to broaden their respective skillsets, Jerry looks forward to weekly sessions in his maturbatorium with a cigar, Englebert and his latest jazz mags….

With Perky mercilessly slaughtered for his meat, the Goods arrange for Pinky to be porked by the local pig pimp’s prize pig pumper.