Good Life Series One - the laughter begins.

Advantages: Great comedy - what more can I say?
Disadvantages: None!

...I have recently written a review about the complete boxed set of every episode of the seventies comedy The Good Life in which I promised to do reviews on each of the individual DVD's in the set. I won't go into the set up too much here as I would be repeating what I said in the previous review and that wouldn't be fair on you as the reader or on Ciao who would be paying me twice for the same information, so I will just give a very brief synopsis. Tom and Barbara Good live in a posh part of Surbiton and have decided to become self sufficient. This entails plating both their front and back gardens with vegetables and keeping pigs, chickens and a goat! The next door neighbours are Margot and Jerry Leadbetter who are good friends with Tom and Barbara. However Margot is a snob and is horrified at the new set up next door. The sit...

SusanLesley 17.03.2008 · Read review
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Review of The Good Life - Series 1 (DVD)

One of the funniest series ever made!

Advantages: Funny no matter how many times you watch it
Disadvantages: Be careful where you buy it from as the prices differ wildly

...In my opinion one of the best, if not the best, sit com to come out of the BBC has to be The Good Life. Originally broadcast in the 1970's it has been repeated many times and I still find it funny no matter how many times I watch it! The basic premise of the plot is that Tom Good, on reaching his 40th birthday, decides that he has had enough of the rat race and wonders if he and his wife Barbara could give up work and become self sufficient. They discuss it and decide that it has to be worth a try. Initially they convert their front and back gardens into vegetable plots and then add a hen house, a pig sty and get a goat. Then they get an allotment and make their own transport and electricity generator all with hilarious consequences. As a concept this would be funny enough but for extra comedy add this all to the fact that...

SusanLesley 10.10.2009 · Read review
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Review of The Good Life - Collection (DVD)

Life On Mars - Series Two

Advantages: A great continuation of a fanstastic series
Disadvantages: It's the last series. Some might find the conclusion unsatisfiying.

...always right. Gene Hunt is Sam's biggest antagonist. He is Sam's boss in 1973 and truely a man of his time. He is a loud, morally dubious, politically incorrect character who is sexist, racist and violent. But at his core he is a good man, who wants to make the world a safer place, and knows that to do that you need to get your hands dirty. The conflict between Gene and Sam is key to the success of the series. Gene undergoes some strong development and is explored further in this series and Sam and Gene really start to influence each other. Right at the start of Life on Mars they were almost opposites, but slowly they get closer together, both seeing their flaws in the other. The only lead female character is Annie. She is giving a bigger role in this series. In the first series she tended to be someone Sam could talk to and share his...

cheesman88 27.07.2007 · Read review
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Review of Life On Mars - Series 2 - Complete (Box Set) (DVD)

Cooking up the good life.

Advantages: easy to follow recipes, well laid out, informative
Disadvantages: none

..., the changes through the year and how happy he is that he now has lots of his own produce. Jamie grew up watching 'The Good Life' with Barbara and Tom who grew lots of their own stuff, living next door to Margo and Jerry who had everything but were very unhappy. Jamie is therefore trying to encourage us all to try our hand at growing something ourselves, whether it be in a large garden or just a pot or window box, we can all try the basics, like potatoes, tomatoes, salad or herbs. > Main sections - spring, summer, autumn, winter. The main part of the book is divided into four main sections, which covers foods which are at their best at that time. He concentrates on a few different types of food. Jamie spends time talking about each food: how they grow, how to cook them, what they go best with, his opinion on taste etc, before he then gives...

nicolaks1 01.11.2007 · Read review
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Review of Jamie at Home: Cook Your Way to the Good Life - Jamie Oliver

The laughter continues ..............

Advantages: Great laughs, series hasn't lost anything with age
Disadvantages: None

...I have recently written a review about the complete boxed set of every episode of the seventies comedy The Good Life in which I promised to do reviews on each of the individual DVD's in the set. I have already done the review on series one and now here is series two ??. I won't repeat the set up here as I would be repeating what I said in the previous reviews and that wouldn't be fair on you as the reader or on Ciao who would be paying me twice for the same information, so I will just give a very brief synopsis. Basically Tom and Barbara Good live in a posh part of Surbiton and have decided to become self sufficient. This entails planting both their front and back gardens with vegetables and keeping pigs, chickens and a goat! The next door neighbours are Margot and Jerry Leadbetter who are good friends with Tom and Barbara...

SusanLesley 27.03.2008 · Read review
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Review of The Good Life - Series 2 (DVD)

Comedy doesn't get better than this!

Advantages: VERY funny!
Disadvantages: None at all

...Some time ago I wrote reviews about the complete boxed set of every episode of the seventies comedy The Good Life and then detailed reviews of series one and two. I thought it was about time I got round to reviewing series three. The DVD on its own currently costs £17.98 from Amazon. I won't go into the set up too much here as I would be repeating what I said in the initial review and that wouldn't be fair on you as the reader or on Ciao who would be paying me twice for the same information, so I will just give a very brief synopsis. All the programmes are brilliantly written by John Esmonde and Bob Larbey. Tom and Barbara Good live in a posh part of Surbiton and have decided to become self sufficient. This entails planting both their front and back gardens with vegetables and keeping pigs, chickens and even a goat...

SusanLesley 14.11.2008 · Read review
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Review of The Good Life - Series 3 (DVD)

It's still a Good Life

Advantages: A show to make you smile, good story line, excellent actors, wonderful scripts
Disadvantages: None

...There must be more people out there now like Tom and Barbara Goode, trying to become self-sufficient in a world of rising prices and shortages. I know when I've lived in a house, my garden has always been well dug and planted with all manner of veggies ... but somehow I don't see me living in a built up area and trying to have a pig fattening up or chickens clucking around. Fine in the country but not in the suburbs. One can only imagine the full extent of Margot's horror, if she were indeed a real person. So prissy, wanting nothing more than her perfect little life and poor hen-pecked husband , Jerry, and to suddenly end up with Old Macdonald's farm next door. The interactions were amusing the first time around, and the second - was it memories rekindled or a genuine sense that this show was as valid now as it was when it was...

poet831 25.07.2001 · Read review
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Review of BBC1 - The Good Life

Good Charlotte - Chronicles Of Life & Death

Advantages: diversity, progression of Joel's vocals
Disadvantages: slightly more pop orientated

...Following the success of their first two albums ?Good Charlotte? and ?The Young & The Hopeless?, Good Charlotte have a go at being ?dark? on us, supposedly going darker within their lyrics and heightening their overall sound. Now, being someone who loved their first two albums, I will honestly say that I would have loved this regardless, but it doesn?t mean that my opinion should be heard any less than a neutral. In fairness, Joel Madden?s quotes of this being a much darker record are not proven correct, with the same relative beat as was so evident on ?The Young & The Hopeless?, yet with the success of that album what need is their to change things. In the case of ?The Chronicles Of Life and Death? there are to be two separate releases, one incorporating life art, whilst the other features death art. Apart from that one minimal...

ManUtdBoi 13.10.2004 · Read review
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Review of Chronicles Of Life And Death, The - Good Charlotte

Life On Mars Series 1 Box set

Advantages: A fantastic fantastic series
Disadvantages: Some of the 70s references will be lost on younger people.

...Life on Mars is the hit BBC One series which brought to you by the same produciton company as other great shows like Spooks and Hustle. It won the International Emmy for Best Drama Series for 2006 Life on Mars is a very different kind of show to a lot of things on the BBC. It is a high-concept drama, with elements of fantasy, science fiction, humour, and the 70s thrown in for good measure. Essentially Life On Mars is a cop show. The main character is Sam Tyler. While investigating a murder in 2006 Sam is struck down by a car. Playing on his iPod at that moment is David Bowie's 'Life On Mars'. As the song rings in his ears he loses consciousness and wakes up with the song still playing. However he quickly realises something is amiss. He has woken up in 1973. Sam faces the questions: Has he really travelled back in time? Is he in...

cheesman88 16.12.2006 · Read review
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Review of Life On Mars - Series 1 - Complete (Box Set) (DVD)

The Good Life

Advantages:
Disadvantages:

...Recently repeated on the BBC, the good life is a true British classic, originating like most of the good ones from the 1970's. It's about a middle aged couple (Tom and Barbara Goode) who decide to leave the rat race behind and lead a self sufficient lifestyle. Richard Bryers (see my review of everdecreasing circles) and Felicity Kendle are perfect as the said couple, and wonderfully supported by next door neighbours Margot and Jerry played by Penelope Keith and Paul Eddington. The show is very funny right the way through, and occasionally fits in a sad moment, like the Time Tom and Barbara were burgled. It's well balanced out with Tom and Barbara living off the land, and Margot and Jerry living in luxury. The best thing about it is Tom's sarcasm towards straight laced Margot. This is one of the funniest comedies to come out...

student 20.07.2000 · Read review
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Review of BBC1 - The Good Life