... more obits for Richard Briers & the girls & I watch an episode of The Good Life on iPlayer by way of paying tribute (the one where Tom does his back in & Margo picks beans one at a time).

It's interesting to see the rush of 70s nostalgia occasioned by Briers' death, no doubt something to do with the average age of the journalists writing. Interesting, too, the way many pundits argue that the programme represented a golden age of television sit comedy - the quality of the writing, the acting, and a pervasiveness gentleness.

The first two I don't dispute and are surely due to 1) more generous ways of dealing with scriptwriters; 2) the proven track record of each actor in theatre before they went on screen. However, the third ... really? Just because no one swore and there weren't any up front challenging story lines, I'm not convinced The Good Life was so 'innocent'. As with the (admittedly) harder hitting Rise and Fall of Reginald Perrin there is an implicit critique of suburban life and the moronic routines and games of the corporate workplace (why, indeed, Tom abandons advertising and derides Jerry's subservience to 'Sir'). More disconcerting is the sexual dimension of the series. As is generally accepted, Felicity Kendall made baggy sweaters and dungarees suddenly sexy (and remember the Young Ones' launderette scene) much as Diane Keaton transformed a man's waistcoat and tie in Annie Hall. The Tom-Barbara relationship was compelling as it miraculously legitimised the tomboy girl-friend - a playmate in a different sense - someone who (for a bloke) could wield a spade, rub her nose fetchingly and promise much upstairs. A sort of feminism-lite for middle-class England. But who could watch without sensing that darker forces were at work? That given half the chance Jerry would steal away with Barbara and Tom would pounce on Margo. And, sure enough, there is that episode where they all get drunk and fidelity begins to teeter. Watch the episodes again and you can sense this pervasive sexual tension. For all its respectable pre-watershed pastoral innocence, The Good Life has its Dionysian energies threatening to spurt out.