Why Monty Don’s right about The Good Life

No romance about the toil of self-sufficiency

Sitcom icons Tom and Barbara Good are seemingly beyond criticism in many eyes, but here’s why Monty Don’s right about The Good Life. The often controversial Gardeners’ World presenter and author claimed it promoted a lifestyle that can cause long-term ill health and ’13th-century malnutrition’. Before anyone gets their pruning knives out to hurl them at Monty, it’s important to step back from his article in Gardeners’ World magazine.

Firstly, I’ve not always agreed with Monty’s views. I am not a dewy-eyed fan protecting my idol. Secondly, his comments were voiced in a column – a COMMENT PIECE. The purpose of a columnist is to provoke debate, one way or another.

Monty Don – Fast track to starvation

He is absolutely right about the impossibility of growing all your own food in a suburban garden. If our family had to rely on just the fruit and veg I grow from my plot, we’d be on a fast track to an early demise. The best we can do is supplement what we buy with home-grown produce, which he says is one of the most life-enhancing things a person can do.

The Good Life is surrounded by a golden, rosy glow in my memory. It was my favourite show when I was a kid, but it didn’t take long to realise it was a comedy. Like most ideals, they weren’t really achievable in a Gateshead back yard. He lifted the romantic veil by revealing reality: “No one seriously wanted to know how to separate curds from whey or render fat to make candles, but millions wanted the idea of self-sufficiency.”

‘Dreary repetition and terrible food’

He added: “Self-sufficiency, I have to tell you, is a non-starter. At best, it consigns you to a life of dreary repetition and terrible food, at worst, your teeth fall out, your breath stinks, you erupt in boils, and you sink into 13th-century malnutrition – The Good Life indeed.”

As for his comment about Richard Briers and Felicity Kendall’s characters: “I always thought Tom and Barbara were creepily pathetic,” well, this WAS the 70s. True-to-life characters weren’t thick on the ground. I really wish people on a reasonably-sized patch of land, or a smallholding, the best of luck in self-sufficiency. For the rest of us, common sense has to rule – and Monty’s nailed it this time.

For more on Gardeners’ World, visit www.gardenersworld.com.

Read my Gardeners’ World Live review.