All four stars of The Good Life were promoted to their own starring vehicles when that popular series ended; for Felicity Kendal, the move took her away from the role of a devoted wife to that of a woman fed up with being trodden upon.

Butterflies had demonstrated that Carla Lane could take serious subjects and weave humour into them, and she furthered the process with Solo, which looked at the life of a 30-year-old woman, Gemma Palmer, coming to terms with - and trying to better - her position in the world. Gemma's life is progressing tolerably well - she has her own flat, a good job and a live-in partner, Danny - when said man has a sexual fling with one of Gemma's friends, the busty Gloria. The incident brings Gemma's life into sharp focus and she realises that she is treated by friends and colleagues as a human doormat. She promptly ejects Danny from the flat - although she remains fond of him and keeps in touch - tells Gloria a few home truths, quits her job and sets about re-creating herself as someone not to be trifled with.

This proves more difficult than she had anticipated, however, for just as Ria in Butterflies was prevented from consummating her affair by her conscience and social conditioning, so Gemma is hindered in her quest by her own schooling in life. While she abhors the hypocrisy around her and deplores the double-standards that allow men to get away with more than women, she cannot alter her core beliefs and sensibilities, the traits that make her part of 'the system' and thus its victim.

All this adds up to heavy-sounding material for a sitcom, but it was handled with a light touch and was very much a worthwhile enterprise.

Note. Felicity Kendal reprised her Solo role in The Last Waltz, a specially scripted production featuring characters from four Carla Lane series (Bread, Butterflies and The Liver Birds were the others) aired by BBC1 on 10 March 1989 as part of Comic Relief.

Mark Lewisohn

 

Last Update: 07:01:2002