Latest news with #GoodLife
The Advertiser
18 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Advertiser
Sticky, sweaty and heaving: rapper Illy kicks off tour in regional Australia
Homegrown rapper Illy is set to blow the roof off pubs, clubs and bars in regional Australia as he embarks on a massive tour for his chart-topping 2024 album, Good Life. The Papercuts rapper is known for his heaving, high-energy live shows, and even nabbed an ARIA award for the best Australian live act in 2017. "I want people to leave with hoarse voices and sweaty clothes," the rapper told this masthead. "I think people who come to the shows can attest that we don't mess around," he said. Starting at Canberra's UC Hub in August, the multi-platinum artist will tour through country towns and regional centres before closing the three-month run in Mildura in November. READ MORE: 'I was meant to do this': Aussie rocker Pete Murray in stripped-back country tour Illy, born Alasdair Murray, said he got his start in the music industry touring throughout regional Australia. "If it's got a low roof, a small little sweatbox, I'll never not feel at home in a room like that," he said. "With some of these small shows that we're playing, we'll almost be in the crowd, which is mad because that's how I started, and I know exactly what to do in that environment." The Aussie rapper and his band plan to perform new hits including Hopeless, Free Hand, Kids and Good Life, as well as songs spanning his 16-year career. Tickets for all 27 shows are available through Songkick. Homegrown rapper Illy is set to blow the roof off pubs, clubs and bars in regional Australia as he embarks on a massive tour for his chart-topping 2024 album, Good Life. The Papercuts rapper is known for his heaving, high-energy live shows, and even nabbed an ARIA award for the best Australian live act in 2017. "I want people to leave with hoarse voices and sweaty clothes," the rapper told this masthead. "I think people who come to the shows can attest that we don't mess around," he said. Starting at Canberra's UC Hub in August, the multi-platinum artist will tour through country towns and regional centres before closing the three-month run in Mildura in November. READ MORE: 'I was meant to do this': Aussie rocker Pete Murray in stripped-back country tour Illy, born Alasdair Murray, said he got his start in the music industry touring throughout regional Australia. "If it's got a low roof, a small little sweatbox, I'll never not feel at home in a room like that," he said. "With some of these small shows that we're playing, we'll almost be in the crowd, which is mad because that's how I started, and I know exactly what to do in that environment." The Aussie rapper and his band plan to perform new hits including Hopeless, Free Hand, Kids and Good Life, as well as songs spanning his 16-year career. Tickets for all 27 shows are available through Songkick. Homegrown rapper Illy is set to blow the roof off pubs, clubs and bars in regional Australia as he embarks on a massive tour for his chart-topping 2024 album, Good Life. The Papercuts rapper is known for his heaving, high-energy live shows, and even nabbed an ARIA award for the best Australian live act in 2017. "I want people to leave with hoarse voices and sweaty clothes," the rapper told this masthead. "I think people who come to the shows can attest that we don't mess around," he said. Starting at Canberra's UC Hub in August, the multi-platinum artist will tour through country towns and regional centres before closing the three-month run in Mildura in November. READ MORE: 'I was meant to do this': Aussie rocker Pete Murray in stripped-back country tour Illy, born Alasdair Murray, said he got his start in the music industry touring throughout regional Australia. "If it's got a low roof, a small little sweatbox, I'll never not feel at home in a room like that," he said. "With some of these small shows that we're playing, we'll almost be in the crowd, which is mad because that's how I started, and I know exactly what to do in that environment." The Aussie rapper and his band plan to perform new hits including Hopeless, Free Hand, Kids and Good Life, as well as songs spanning his 16-year career. Tickets for all 27 shows are available through Songkick.
The Advertiser
19-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Advertiser
'Pop is not a dirty word': Illy's living the Good-er Life on tour
The old saying, never meet your heroes, doesn't wash with Illy. The genre-defying, ARIA Award-winning hip-hop artist otherwise known as Alasdair Murray has met his, and not only are they now his best mates, they've influenced every step of his career to date. "The people in Australian hip-hop that I look up to, like Drapht and Hilltop Hoods, they are examples of how to conduct yourself in this business," he says. "I started rapping in an Australian accent because of the Hoods and they're some of my best mates now, you know? I've been at their weddings, they're coming to my birthday overseas later this year, we're really good friends and they deserve their success. "I still look up to them, same with Drapht." Illy is about to hit the road for the 27-date Good-er Life Tour, having toured Australia's capital cities for the Good Life Tour in March. The regional run follows the recent release of Good Life Deluxe Edition, a follow-up to his seventh studio album, Good Life, released in November 2024. The deluxe edition includes a 2023 standalone single Hopeless (featuring Indiana Massara), new track Free Hand and acoustic versions of singles Kids and Good Life. "Finally getting to do the Good Life tour was, no shit, life-affirming. I loved every second of it, whether it was playing the new album, the big bangers, or meeting people after," Illy says. "I even loved the hungover flights the next morning (maybe not as much). "So now that we've got a taste for it, I am ready and counting down the days 'til the Good-er Life tour starts. "We're the most locked in we've been in years on stage, and when we're in this mode, no one does it better." Illy has seamlessly straddled the line between hip-hop and pop throughout his career, embracing new sonic inspirations on each of his albums. On Good Life, it's clear he now has it down to a fine art. He even sings on the album, drawing on a few years of singing lessons and ever-growing confidence in his abilities. "I've done a few interviews about this album now, because it is the one that goes in the most different directions," he says. "I have known, from the very start, that I couldn't make the same album over and over again and still be doing it on a seventh album. I just couldn't. "If I was just doing this as a gig, and not for love, and rehashing the same shit over and over again, I would have been doing something else years ago." He's copped some criticism from diehard hip-hop fans, but he takes it in his stride. "When people say some of my songs are pop songs, they say it as a dismissive thing because it's not what I'm known for," he says. "The thing is, I'm not embarrassed about that, I don't think it's a dirty word. "You know, the title track alone is somewhere between Oasis and an Aussie pop song. Doing that shit is hard, and it takes balls. "Staying in your lane and doing the same thing, nothing impresses me about doing that. "When people are like 'I don't really rock with this new stuff' or whatever, I pretty much say 'I appreciate you supporting me, I appreciate your honesty, I want you to like this stuff but if you don't, I get it, but I'm not going to not challenge myself for the sake of appealing to as many people as possible'. "I'd rather do what I'm doing and stay inspired and enthusiastic about it." Not being afraid to follow his creativity where it takes him is a sign of maturity for Illy. He recognises it himself. He's never been more passionate about his craft and his career. "I have, in the past, not kept healthy, and not taken care of myself, but then I realised that to keep doing what I do, I needed to put more effort into eating right, getting sleep and exercising," he says. "I quit smoking a couple of years ago, which has helped my voice, and we don't drink before the shows. "I still have fun, of course I do, but this is my favourite thing to do in the world. It's all I've ever wanted to do, I have to give it the respect it deserves. "And you're not going to be around very long as an artist if you're not taking it seriously and not giving the audience their money's worth, either." The old saying, never meet your heroes, doesn't wash with Illy. The genre-defying, ARIA Award-winning hip-hop artist otherwise known as Alasdair Murray has met his, and not only are they now his best mates, they've influenced every step of his career to date. "The people in Australian hip-hop that I look up to, like Drapht and Hilltop Hoods, they are examples of how to conduct yourself in this business," he says. "I started rapping in an Australian accent because of the Hoods and they're some of my best mates now, you know? I've been at their weddings, they're coming to my birthday overseas later this year, we're really good friends and they deserve their success. "I still look up to them, same with Drapht." Illy is about to hit the road for the 27-date Good-er Life Tour, having toured Australia's capital cities for the Good Life Tour in March. The regional run follows the recent release of Good Life Deluxe Edition, a follow-up to his seventh studio album, Good Life, released in November 2024. The deluxe edition includes a 2023 standalone single Hopeless (featuring Indiana Massara), new track Free Hand and acoustic versions of singles Kids and Good Life. "Finally getting to do the Good Life tour was, no shit, life-affirming. I loved every second of it, whether it was playing the new album, the big bangers, or meeting people after," Illy says. "I even loved the hungover flights the next morning (maybe not as much). "So now that we've got a taste for it, I am ready and counting down the days 'til the Good-er Life tour starts. "We're the most locked in we've been in years on stage, and when we're in this mode, no one does it better." Illy has seamlessly straddled the line between hip-hop and pop throughout his career, embracing new sonic inspirations on each of his albums. On Good Life, it's clear he now has it down to a fine art. He even sings on the album, drawing on a few years of singing lessons and ever-growing confidence in his abilities. "I've done a few interviews about this album now, because it is the one that goes in the most different directions," he says. "I have known, from the very start, that I couldn't make the same album over and over again and still be doing it on a seventh album. I just couldn't. "If I was just doing this as a gig, and not for love, and rehashing the same shit over and over again, I would have been doing something else years ago." He's copped some criticism from diehard hip-hop fans, but he takes it in his stride. "When people say some of my songs are pop songs, they say it as a dismissive thing because it's not what I'm known for," he says. "The thing is, I'm not embarrassed about that, I don't think it's a dirty word. "You know, the title track alone is somewhere between Oasis and an Aussie pop song. Doing that shit is hard, and it takes balls. "Staying in your lane and doing the same thing, nothing impresses me about doing that. "When people are like 'I don't really rock with this new stuff' or whatever, I pretty much say 'I appreciate you supporting me, I appreciate your honesty, I want you to like this stuff but if you don't, I get it, but I'm not going to not challenge myself for the sake of appealing to as many people as possible'. "I'd rather do what I'm doing and stay inspired and enthusiastic about it." Not being afraid to follow his creativity where it takes him is a sign of maturity for Illy. He recognises it himself. He's never been more passionate about his craft and his career. "I have, in the past, not kept healthy, and not taken care of myself, but then I realised that to keep doing what I do, I needed to put more effort into eating right, getting sleep and exercising," he says. "I quit smoking a couple of years ago, which has helped my voice, and we don't drink before the shows. "I still have fun, of course I do, but this is my favourite thing to do in the world. It's all I've ever wanted to do, I have to give it the respect it deserves. "And you're not going to be around very long as an artist if you're not taking it seriously and not giving the audience their money's worth, either." The old saying, never meet your heroes, doesn't wash with Illy. The genre-defying, ARIA Award-winning hip-hop artist otherwise known as Alasdair Murray has met his, and not only are they now his best mates, they've influenced every step of his career to date. "The people in Australian hip-hop that I look up to, like Drapht and Hilltop Hoods, they are examples of how to conduct yourself in this business," he says. "I started rapping in an Australian accent because of the Hoods and they're some of my best mates now, you know? I've been at their weddings, they're coming to my birthday overseas later this year, we're really good friends and they deserve their success. "I still look up to them, same with Drapht." Illy is about to hit the road for the 27-date Good-er Life Tour, having toured Australia's capital cities for the Good Life Tour in March. The regional run follows the recent release of Good Life Deluxe Edition, a follow-up to his seventh studio album, Good Life, released in November 2024. The deluxe edition includes a 2023 standalone single Hopeless (featuring Indiana Massara), new track Free Hand and acoustic versions of singles Kids and Good Life. "Finally getting to do the Good Life tour was, no shit, life-affirming. I loved every second of it, whether it was playing the new album, the big bangers, or meeting people after," Illy says. "I even loved the hungover flights the next morning (maybe not as much). "So now that we've got a taste for it, I am ready and counting down the days 'til the Good-er Life tour starts. "We're the most locked in we've been in years on stage, and when we're in this mode, no one does it better." Illy has seamlessly straddled the line between hip-hop and pop throughout his career, embracing new sonic inspirations on each of his albums. On Good Life, it's clear he now has it down to a fine art. He even sings on the album, drawing on a few years of singing lessons and ever-growing confidence in his abilities. "I've done a few interviews about this album now, because it is the one that goes in the most different directions," he says. "I have known, from the very start, that I couldn't make the same album over and over again and still be doing it on a seventh album. I just couldn't. "If I was just doing this as a gig, and not for love, and rehashing the same shit over and over again, I would have been doing something else years ago." He's copped some criticism from diehard hip-hop fans, but he takes it in his stride. "When people say some of my songs are pop songs, they say it as a dismissive thing because it's not what I'm known for," he says. "The thing is, I'm not embarrassed about that, I don't think it's a dirty word. "You know, the title track alone is somewhere between Oasis and an Aussie pop song. Doing that shit is hard, and it takes balls. "Staying in your lane and doing the same thing, nothing impresses me about doing that. "When people are like 'I don't really rock with this new stuff' or whatever, I pretty much say 'I appreciate you supporting me, I appreciate your honesty, I want you to like this stuff but if you don't, I get it, but I'm not going to not challenge myself for the sake of appealing to as many people as possible'. "I'd rather do what I'm doing and stay inspired and enthusiastic about it." Not being afraid to follow his creativity where it takes him is a sign of maturity for Illy. He recognises it himself. He's never been more passionate about his craft and his career. "I have, in the past, not kept healthy, and not taken care of myself, but then I realised that to keep doing what I do, I needed to put more effort into eating right, getting sleep and exercising," he says. "I quit smoking a couple of years ago, which has helped my voice, and we don't drink before the shows. "I still have fun, of course I do, but this is my favourite thing to do in the world. It's all I've ever wanted to do, I have to give it the respect it deserves. "And you're not going to be around very long as an artist if you're not taking it seriously and not giving the audience their money's worth, either." The old saying, never meet your heroes, doesn't wash with Illy. The genre-defying, ARIA Award-winning hip-hop artist otherwise known as Alasdair Murray has met his, and not only are they now his best mates, they've influenced every step of his career to date. "The people in Australian hip-hop that I look up to, like Drapht and Hilltop Hoods, they are examples of how to conduct yourself in this business," he says. "I started rapping in an Australian accent because of the Hoods and they're some of my best mates now, you know? I've been at their weddings, they're coming to my birthday overseas later this year, we're really good friends and they deserve their success. "I still look up to them, same with Drapht." Illy is about to hit the road for the 27-date Good-er Life Tour, having toured Australia's capital cities for the Good Life Tour in March. The regional run follows the recent release of Good Life Deluxe Edition, a follow-up to his seventh studio album, Good Life, released in November 2024. The deluxe edition includes a 2023 standalone single Hopeless (featuring Indiana Massara), new track Free Hand and acoustic versions of singles Kids and Good Life. "Finally getting to do the Good Life tour was, no shit, life-affirming. I loved every second of it, whether it was playing the new album, the big bangers, or meeting people after," Illy says. "I even loved the hungover flights the next morning (maybe not as much). "So now that we've got a taste for it, I am ready and counting down the days 'til the Good-er Life tour starts. "We're the most locked in we've been in years on stage, and when we're in this mode, no one does it better." Illy has seamlessly straddled the line between hip-hop and pop throughout his career, embracing new sonic inspirations on each of his albums. On Good Life, it's clear he now has it down to a fine art. He even sings on the album, drawing on a few years of singing lessons and ever-growing confidence in his abilities. "I've done a few interviews about this album now, because it is the one that goes in the most different directions," he says. "I have known, from the very start, that I couldn't make the same album over and over again and still be doing it on a seventh album. I just couldn't. "If I was just doing this as a gig, and not for love, and rehashing the same shit over and over again, I would have been doing something else years ago." He's copped some criticism from diehard hip-hop fans, but he takes it in his stride. "When people say some of my songs are pop songs, they say it as a dismissive thing because it's not what I'm known for," he says. "The thing is, I'm not embarrassed about that, I don't think it's a dirty word. "You know, the title track alone is somewhere between Oasis and an Aussie pop song. Doing that shit is hard, and it takes balls. "Staying in your lane and doing the same thing, nothing impresses me about doing that. "When people are like 'I don't really rock with this new stuff' or whatever, I pretty much say 'I appreciate you supporting me, I appreciate your honesty, I want you to like this stuff but if you don't, I get it, but I'm not going to not challenge myself for the sake of appealing to as many people as possible'. "I'd rather do what I'm doing and stay inspired and enthusiastic about it." Not being afraid to follow his creativity where it takes him is a sign of maturity for Illy. He recognises it himself. He's never been more passionate about his craft and his career. "I have, in the past, not kept healthy, and not taken care of myself, but then I realised that to keep doing what I do, I needed to put more effort into eating right, getting sleep and exercising," he says. "I quit smoking a couple of years ago, which has helped my voice, and we don't drink before the shows. "I still have fun, of course I do, but this is my favourite thing to do in the world. It's all I've ever wanted to do, I have to give it the respect it deserves. "And you're not going to be around very long as an artist if you're not taking it seriously and not giving the audience their money's worth, either."
Time of India
12-07-2025
- Health
- Time of India
These 10 books will remind you to be kind to yourself
We often talk about self-care like it's a face mask or a weekend getaway, but at its core, self-care is something quieter, deeper. It's how you speak to yourself when you're feeling tired or defeated. It's how you remind yourself you're enough, even on the days that feel like too much. And while no book can solve everything, some of them feel like a friend gently taking your hand and saying, 'Let's slow down.' Here are ten such books, honest, comforting, and gently transformative, that remind you how to be kind to yourself and the world around you. The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down by Haemin Sunim Written by a Korean Buddhist monk, this book is like a warm cup of tea on a rainy day. It teaches that sometimes doing nothing is also a form of care. The short reflections paired with soft illustrations invite you to pause and look inward without judgment. Untamed by Glennon Doyle This is not just a memoir; it's a roar of honesty. Glennon writes about breaking free from expectations and loving yourself as you are. You don't need to fix yourself maybe you were never broken in the first place. Self-Compassion by Kristin Neff Dr. Kristin Neff explains self-care not as indulgence but as survival. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Vet Warns Cincinnati: "If Your Dog Licks Its Paws, Watch This Immediately" Ultimate Pet Nutrition Undo She shows how self-compassion is more powerful than self-esteem, especially during failure or heartbreak. Think of it as therapy in book form. Good Vibes, Good Life by Vex King This book isn't preachy, it's practical. Vex King, once homeless, now a wellness guide to many, writes about gratitude, mindset, boundaries, and how to raise your emotional vibration without burning yourself out. The Comfort Book by Matt Haig These pages don't try to fix you. They just sit with you, reminding you that you're not alone. Written in small, digestible pieces, it's perfect for moments when you're overwhelmed but still want something gentle to hold on to. Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed Pulled from her advice column 'Dear Sugar,' these letters are raw, real, and fiercely loving. Cheryl's voice is unfiltered yet kind, like a wise friend who gives you a hug and also the truth. Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach Tara Brach blends psychology with mindfulness and Buddhist wisdom, gently reminding us that accepting ourselves exactly as we are is the starting point to any healing. A slower read, but deeply powerful. You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay An old-school classic in the self-care realm. Louise Hay speaks about how our thoughts affect our health and energy. Whether or not you believe in affirmations, her writing is rooted in hope and gentle reminders to love yourself fiercely. Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May This one is a quiet gem. It talks about how sometimes we need to hibernate emotionally, to rest, to step back, and let life move at its own pace. Especially comforting during hard seasons of life. Braving the Wilderness by Brené Brown Brené is beloved for a reason. In this book, she talks about belonging, not to a group or community, but belonging to yourself. When the world feels noisy and you feel lost, her words help you find your way back to your own voice. Reading these books won't magically fix life's messiness. But they will offer kindness where the world forgets to. They'll remind you that self-care is not selfish and that gentleness toward yourself and others is a quiet kind of strength. Maybe, just maybe, one of them is the small turning point you didn't know you needed.
Boston Globe
24-06-2025
- Climate
- Boston Globe
Outreach teams race to protect Boston's vulnerable in heatwave
Pine Street Inn is Boston's 'If we see someone on the street, absolutely we're helping them,' Reading said. 'Whether they're our client or not.' Advertisement Sitting in a wheelchair in the shade outside the West End Library, Rob Snyder, 56, graciously accepted two 8 oz. Good Life water bottles and Nutri-Grain bars del Valle produced from her backpack. Snyder said his main priority that day was avoiding a repeat of last weekend's incident. Del Valle and Reading spoke to Rob Snyder in Cambridge Street in Boston. David L Ryan/ Globe Staff 'Saturday, I had a heat stroke right over by the Copley Library. That was my third one,' he recalled. 'It's tough. It just takes a toll on you. You can't always predict when it's going to hit, but I've learned to stay in the shade whenever I can.' Advertisement Sitting just a few yards away, 61-year-old David Bard wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand after accepting water and Nutri-Grain bars from the outreach workers. 'Brutal,' he said of the heat. 'But I've got nowhere to go.' Bard said he's been living on the streets for 24 years and is currently battling multiple forms of cancer, including pancreatic and lung. The extreme heat, he said, only exacerbates his symptoms. 'It makes me nauseous, exhausted,' he said. 'Too much. Too much.' He said he tried to find shelter to ride out the heat wave, but capacity limits kept him on the street. 'Everyone is already booked up,' Bard said. 'There's never no place for us to go.' As del Valle and Reading spoke with Bard, sharing suggestions for other places he might seek shelter, two residents of nearby Beacon Hill, Anna Schoenfeld and Deborah Bennett, approached with a tote bag full of water bottles they had just purchased from the Target a block away, which they handed to the outreach workers to distribute to more people on the street. Reading and del Valle walked under the Longfellow Bridge in Boston. David L Ryan/ Globe Staff 'We were hot, they were hot,' Schoenfeld said. 'We walk by here all the time and saw people out in the sun. We just wanted to make sure they had enough water.' Later, sitting in a shaded concrete walkway outside North Station, 39-year-old Joe Joe, who chose not to disclose his last name, distributed wet wipes, sunscreen, and other toiletries handed out by the outreach workers to several of his fellow homeless friends gathered around his wheelchair. Advertisement 'You've just got to find a cool place,' said Joe Joe, who's spent 23 years — more than half his life — living on the streets. 'I got a bunch of 'em, but I can't tell you — then other people find them.' There are worse things to deal with than the heat, in his opinion. 'Summer's easier than winter,' he said. 'But it all depends if we got somewhere to go.' Moments later, an MBTA employee emerged from the nearby North Station entrance and informed the small gathering they couldn't remain in the area. Joe Joe and his friends dispersed back into the sunlight, searching for another shady refuge. Meanwhile, del Valle and Reading began the trek back to their office, their once-heavy backpacks now nearly empty. Nathan Metcalf can be reached at
Spectator
20-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Spectator
The Good Life simply wasn't very good
A new documentary is to be screened later this year celebrating 50 years of everybody's favourite 1970s sitcom The Good Life. I will not be joining in with the festivities. During the two-hour show, 85-year-old Penelope Keith, who played the irascible Margo Leadbetter, will revisit some of the original locations, including Kewferry Road in Northwood, which stood in for fictional Acacia Avenue in Surbiton – I can feel your excitement growing. The producers have also promised to recreate some of the creaky old sets – OK, calm down at the back. While I'm all for a bit of nostalgia, do we really need to keep reminding ourselves how innocent TV sitcoms were before alternative comedy took a rubber sledgehammer to anything produced before 1979? 'I'm not watching the bloody Good Life,' screamed an incensed Vivian in an episode of The Young Ones. 'It's so bloody nice… confirming the myth that everyone in Britain is a loveable middle-class eccentric.' I'm afraid I'm with Viv on this one. For me, it wasn't just The Good Life's cardboard sets that wobbled but the entire flimsy concept. Margo and Jerry Leadbetter and their new age neighbours, Tom and Barbara Good (surely one of the weakest title puns ever), were certainly loveable, but they felt more like upper-middle-class Hampstead types than drab suburbanites stuck in dead-end jobs. Margo was supposed to be a middle-class snob with delusions of grandeur, but she looked and sounded like a proper aristocrat with her brusque demeanour and cut-glass accent. Unlike Alison Steadman's brilliant turn as Bev in Abigail's Party, Mike Leigh's tragic take on sweaty middle-class angst, Margo never had the contorted vowels and carefully concealed coarseness that made Bev so excruciatingly authentic. Margo just felt like a dotty dowager who'd accidentally wandered into a house full of naff Dralon furniture. No wonder she looked so fed up. And was anyone surprised when Ms Keith went on to play Lady Fforbes-Hamilton in To the Manor Born, a part far more in keeping with her style? Felicity Kendal's Barbara also felt hopelessly out of place with her scrummy head-girl cutesiness and Sloaney-haired confidence – again, hardly your typical Surbiton type. We all fancied Babs, but did anyone believe she had sacrificed everything for the sake of the planet? As for the urbane Jerry, I didn't buy for one moment that he worked for a two-bit company designing plastic toys for cereal packets – it wasn't even an amusing conceit. The late Paul Eddington, a fine actor, imbued Jerry with the easy wit and debonair charm of a country squire or possibly a gentleman sleuth; he'd have made an interesting Bond for sure – but a humble draughtsman from the arse end of south-west London? Gimme a break. And if Felicity Kendal's treacly Barbara and Richard Briers's winsome Tom had been so keen on self-sufficiency, why didn't they just sell up and move to a smallholding in Suffolk? Neither couple appeared to have any children, so what were they even doing festering in the drab 'burbs? Looking back, nothing about the series rang true. The idea that installing a mangy goat and a couple of pigs in a suburban garden meant you never had to go shopping again was for the birds. Speaking of which, Margo would surely have had the Goods evicted on discovering they had named their recently acquired cockerel Lenin. The noise! The politics! No wonder Margo and Jerry became so concerned about their potty neighbours. Imprisoning farmyard animals in unsanitary conditions was surely a matter for the RSPCA. And if I'd been Barbara, I'd have told my penny-pinching hubby where to shove his second-hand loom. In 1975, you could pick up an old jumper from Oxfam for 20p, so why put your wife through the hell of having to weave a new one, which would have cost a lot more anyway? Unless, of course, they were virtue signalling their green credentials to those horribly rapacious neighbours: 'Jerry, I've scoured Bond Street,' as Margo famously lamented. A well-executed stereotype can distil the essence of a character, making them a perfect comedy foil 1970s sitcoms lived or died on the quality of their stereotypes. Warren Mitchell's Alf Garnett was completely believable as a cartoon bigot, as was Leonard Rossiter's absurdly over-the-top landlord Rigsby. John Cleese's portrayal of a middle-class hotelier on the verge of a nervous breakdown wasn't exactly subtle, but we instantly recognised the type. Back then, Brits tended to remain in their silos, only glimpsing how the other half lived via TV sitcoms. I doubt many BBC producers had ever met an actual Albert Steptoe, but Wilfrid Brambell's grotesque interpretation of a rag-and-bone man was real enough to carry a brilliant script. The reason The Good Life characters didn't work was because we couldn't place them properly. Nowadays, of course, we flinch at the idea of stereotypes, assuming they will always be crudely drawn depictions of reality. In fact, a well-executed stereotype can distil the essence of a character, making them a perfect comedy foil. With society becoming increasingly atomised, writers have lost the art of creating believable stereotypes; today, we demand complexity and back stories even from two-dimensional superheroes. The genius of 1970s sitcoms was their ability to hold up a madly distorted but instantly recognisable mirror to the tragicomedy we call life. Unfortunately, The Good Life's situational setting failed to match the comedic stereotypes and therefore failed to tell us much about the human condition. That said, I still giggle whenever I think of Margo going head to head with her nemesis Miss Mountshaft, dictatorial leading light of the local music society. With a name like Mountshaft, perhaps 1970s sitcoms weren't quite as innocent as we like to think.
