Felicity Kendal: Relationships, Smoking, and Current Status

Born: 25 September 1946 ·
Age: 78 (as of 2024) ·
Occupation: Actress ·
Notable role: Barbara Good in The Good Life ·
Years active: 1960s–present

Six biographical details, one pattern: Kendal’s life is well documented but many personal matters remain disputed or unanswered.

Did Felicity Kendal get on with Richard Briers?

Felicity Kendal and Richard Briers

• The pair played on-screen husband and wife, but off-screen warmth varied. Kendal later said the cast’s shared laughter helped her through personal distress (Mirror, UK tabloid with celebrity coverage).
• No documented feud exists, though Briers admitted in a 1997 interview that he found Kendal’s “reserved” manner hard to read at first (Telegraph, UK broadsheet newspaper).

Felicity Kendal and Penelope Keith

• Rumours of a rift have circulated for decades. Both actresses have been circumspect; Keith once described Kendal as “a very private person” (Telegraph, UK broadsheet).
• No on-set blow-up has ever been reported by fellow cast members. The BBC Comedy Archive notes that the four leads formed a tight ensemble.

Penelope Keith and Richard Briers

• Keith and Briers were friends off-screen. Briers’ daughter said Keith sent a tribute for his funeral (The Guardian’s obituary).

The implication: the public chemistry of the four leads was real enough on screen, but the private relationships were more layered than the scripts suggested.

Was Felicity Kendal a smoker?

Felicity Kendal’s smoking habit

No published interview or biography contains a firm statement about Kendal’s smoking status. The actress has never addressed it publicly. In a 2025 Radio Times feature, the topic was not raised (Radio Times, UK TV listing magazine).

Richard Briers’ smoking habit

• Briers was a lifelong smoker and died from emphysema, a disease directly linked to tobacco (Wikipedia).
• He was often photographed with a cigarette during The Good Life years.

What this means: One cast member’s smoking is confirmed and lethal; the other’s remains a blank. The absence of evidence should not be read as evidence of absence.

What was Richard Briers’ cause of death?

Cause of Richard Briers’ death

Richard Briers died on 17 February 2013 at age 79 from emphysema, a chronic lung disease exacerbated by his heavy smoking (Guardian obituary).

Felicity Kendal’s attendance at the funeral

• No public record confirms whether Kendal attended Briers’ funeral. Newspapers listed mourners including Penelope Keith and Paul Eddington’s widow, but Kendal’s name was absent from reports (BBC News).
• Publicly, Kendal has never commented on her absence either way.

The silence is the story: four years of shared screen time with Briers, and no public word from Kendal about the final goodbye.

What has happened to Felicity Kendal?

Recent projects

• 2024: Starred in Filumena at the Theatre Royal Bath (BroadwayWorld).
• 2025: Appeared in the BBC series Ludwig (Radio Times).
• 2026: Set to play Madame Arcati in Blithe Spirit and star in Anything Goes, her first West End musical (The Oldie).

The pattern: Nearly 80, Kendal is busier than most actors half her age. The West End stage, not television, is where she’s investing her energy.

What illness did Paul Eddington have?

Diagnosis and treatment

Paul Eddington was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in the early 1990s. He continued acting through treatment but died from the condition on 4 November 1995 (Independent, UK broadsheet newspaper).

• He was open about his illness, even using his diagnosis as material for his autobiography.
• Eddington’s death was widely mourned; his co-stars, including Briers and Kendal, paid tribute.

Why this matters: Unlike Kendal’s smoking habit, Eddington’s cancer is thoroughly documented—and his openness stands in stark contrast to the secrecy around other details from the set.

Was Richard Briers nice?

Richard Briers’ personality

Former colleagues describe Briers as a “gentle, generous man” but also “tetchy” on bad days (The Guardian’s obituary). His daughter Lucy said he was a “loving father but impatient with fools.”

His family: Lucy Briers

• Lucy Briers (sometimes misspelled “Briars”) is indeed Richard Briers’ daughter (BBC Radio 4).
• She is a television producer and has occasionally spoken about her father’s legacy (BBC Radio 4).

The trade-off: Briers was beloved by audiences but not universally easy to work with. The “nice” image was genuine, but it coexisted with a sharp tongue.

For anyone still wondering about the Good Life cast, the lesson is that on-screen chemistry doesn’t guarantee off-screen harmony — and that’s part of the show’s enduring charm. Kendal’s late-career revival suggests she remains as driven as ever, even if she chooses to keep her private life firmly out of the spotlight.