THE GOOD LIFE: SECRETS & SCANDALS, 9PM, CH5

THE GOOD LIFE is one of the most successful British sitcoms of all time

— it was the Queen’s favourite, no less — but beneath the soft exterior lay a surprisingly hard centre, with storylines tackling midlife crises, drunken wife-swapping and chickens named after famous Communists. The latest in Channel 5’s Friday-night nostalgia fests reveals the secrets of this most unlikely success story, which introduced us to the down-to-earth Tom and Barbara Good (pictured) and their snobbish neighbours, Jerry and Margo Leadbetter, in 1975. This documentary reveals how a special royal episode (requested by the Queen herself) was nearly derailed by a Blue Peter dog on the day of recording, and how the sitcom might have been unrecognisable if the creators had gone ahead with their original idea of filming it all on a yacht. The programme exposes the secrets of Richard Briers, Felicity Kendal, Penelope Keith and Paul Eddington’s off-screen friendships, including one dinner party that nearly ended in disaster, as well as lifting the lid on the personal scandals of the sitcom’s stars. We also learn how the cast could have looked very different — Peter Bowles, of To The Manor Born fame, had originally been cast to play Jerry.