Good Neighbors

I just watched the first episode of a very old (mid 1970s) British comedy series that I first saw when it was new. It's called Good Neighbors, though I believe it was called Country Matters when I first saw it when I lived in Houston many years ago. It was originally called The Good Life in England. I highly recommend it. If you can watch, do...you won't regret it!

The premise is simple, as described on BBC's website:

The show had an irresistible premise: a middle-class suburban couple, Tom (Richard Briers) and Barbara Good )Felicity Kendal), decide to go back to the land and turn their Surbiton home into a self-sufficient farm-cum-allotment, growing their own food, keeping animals and making their own tools and equipment. This creates friction with their neighbours, especially the Leadbetters, located next door, prime examples of the gin-and-tonic set. In addition to a wealth of good storylines, it was the interplay between the two couples that really gave the show its appeal. It would have been easy for the writers to use Margo's snobbery and domination of her husband to simply set up the Leadbetters in the role of villains, constantly at odds with their idealistic neighbours, but the authors were more clever than this and instead drew a real affection between the couples.

I really enjoyed the program when it ran back when I lived in Houston. Seeing the first episode again tonight made me fall in love with Felicity Kendal all over again...she's the ideal wife (absent the perfect wife I have now, of course) for a man who wants to do something crazy like drop out of the rat race.