Dame Penelope Keith, best known for her roles in classic British sitcoms The Good Life and To The Manor Born, has died aged 86 after a battle with cancer11:16, 29 Jun 2026Updated 11:53, 29 Jun 2026Dame Penelope Keith has died aged 86 after a battle with cancer. The legendary TV star and host, best known for playing snobbish neighbour Margo Leadbetter in The Good Life and former lady of the manor Audrey fforbes-Hamilton in To the Manor Born, died 'peacefully' at her Surrey home.‌"We are deeply saddened to announce that Dame Penelope Keith died peacefully whilst living with cancer at her home in Surrey where she had lived for more than 50 years," her family said in a statement, adding they were 'grateful' for the care and support she received throughout her treatments.‌The Good Life followed couple Tom and Barbara Good, played by Richard Briers and Felicity Kendal, who try to escape the rat race in their suburban house in Surbiton. They try to become self-sufficient, turning their gardens into an allotment and introducing farmyard animals, much to the horror of their neighbours – Margo and her hen-pecked husband Jerry, played by Paul Eddington.‌Felicity Kendal is now the only surviving main cast member of The Good Life, following the deaths of Briers in 2013, and Eddington in 1995.In one of her last TV appearances in October 2025, Penelope fronted The Good Life: Inside Out on U&Gold looking back on the huge success of the sitcom.‌The show – which ran from 1975 until 1978 - ended after four series and a TV special filmed in front of the royal family.Penelope told how she turned down a spin off show, saying: "Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a Leadbetter spin-off and I said ‘No. It’s a situation comedy and the situation is strong because of the two couples’. Can you imagine how tedious it would have been having Margo and Jerry having their own series?”Penelope saluted the writers of the sitcom John Esmonde and Bob Larbey for creating such wonderful characters – with all their flaws - for the viewers to take to their hearts.‌“Margo was the prime lady of the avenue with all the dinner parties and whatever she took part in, she had to do it perfectly and had to be top dog and sometimes she was terribly disapproving She had no sense of humour but she was terribly kind and didn’t want to offend but she engaged mouth before brain so often.‌“She had enormous warmth and adored the goods and likewise jerry but he infuriated her. There is a line where she says ‘I am the silent majority’ and she said it deadpan and that is what she felt and that is what half the country felt at the time as well.”Asked about her time on the show, she said: “I look back on it as one of the happiest times. It was of its time at the right time.“It was as good as it was because of everything else behind it. Everybody cared. The laughter, the joy it brought and the fact that people liked it so much and believed in it so much is reward.”‌Penelope began acting in the 1960s before swapping the stage for TV screens in the 1970s. Her biggest role to date came in 1975 when she landed the role of Margo on The Good Life and became a much-loved household name thanks to her withering one-liners.After picking up a Bafta for Best Comedy Performer, Penelope went on to star in To The Manor Born, playing widowed aristocrat Audrey. The show received audiences of more than 20 million at its peak.Since 2000, she worked mainly in the theatre, with her roles including Madam Arcati in Blithe Spirit (2004) and Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest (2007).‌Away from her TV fame, Penelope had lived at her 17th-century home Mousehill Manor, in Milford, Surrey, since 1978. She shared it with her husband, Rodney Timpson, who is a former detective and later became her manager, and their two adopted sons.The actress met Timpson when she was performing in a theatre in Chichester and he was carrying out security checks for the play. The pair married six months later and adopted two brothers.‌Of her marriage to Timpson, she said in 2010: "We've been married 33 years, and they all said we wouldn't last. He likes looking after me and I enjoy that."Penelope also had a passion for gardening, having a rose named after her in 1984. She was president of the South West Surrey chapter of the National Trust until her death.In one of her final interviews with friend Gyles Brandreth in 2025 she spoke of finding joy in the things around her.Article continues belowAsked about finding happiness, Penelope said: “I can’t think of joy in early times, not that I wasn’t joyful. I’ll tell you what gave me joy today, driving up the A3 and seeing the trees. This is the best time because all the greens are different.“And it was just stunning. I get more joy out of, I hate people say nature, but what is around me in the country, more than anything else. That’s what gives me joy. I suppose I must have got enormous joys when I got my first job.”Asked later what she had learned in life, she said: “I’ve learnt to always consider other people, but not to worry what they think.”