If only I
had the memory and could reproduce Penelope Keith's intonation, then The
Good Life really is one of the most quotable comedy series that there's
ever been. Margo has a reply for every occasion. Just a few from this week:
Oh, I'm so sorry. I thought you were telling a joke.
I've got a horrible feeling that this conversation is nose-diving into the carnal.
Then will you kindly eat it in the kitchen with the extractor fan full on? Last time, this upholstery reeked of vindaloo for a week.
No, I have not finished, Miss Mountshaft. Furthermore, let us remember that it is I who supplied the gingerbread men for rehearsal teas. (...) "Blackmail" is an ugly word, Miss Mountshaft.
I've never been very comfortable with Ian and Gilly since they started dabbling in those tarot cards.
One line that I'd never really
noticed before (probably because you tend to concentrate on the four leads),
but which made me laugh and laugh this time around, comes from Reginald Marsh's
'Sir'. He explains his vision of the graphic that he wants Tom to design for a
trade exhibition: "I want people who visit this exhibition to get a
picture of me, smiling benignly at them through... a laurel wreath, or
something like that. I want them to feel, 'Here's a man we can trust!'. That's
all I want."
Something else I've never noticed before occurs in the final scene in the hotel dining room. The moment when Barbara pours Tom's dessert of green figs into his lap is rather rushed and doesn't ring particularly true, but something much funnier is happening in the backround where you can see John Scott Martin's waiter, laughing meanly at Tom's misfortune.
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