"As Time Goes By" stars Judi Dench & Geoffrey Palmer. Long ago Lionel, a dashing young British Army officer met Jean, a lovely student nurse and fell deeply in love. When Lionel was shipped off to fight in the Korean war the two lost touch. In the first episode of Series One they meet again and slowly begin to rekindle their romance. The wonderful series that ensues is simply a pleasure to watch.
Reader Reviews
Volume 9 of the BBC comedy "As Time goes By" has one of the moments we have been waiting for since Lionel (Geoffrey Palmer) and Jean (Judi Dench) rediscovered each other forty years after the British postal service sent their love letters to each other astray and estranged the young lovers. Finally the show is getting away from Lionel's efforts to write a mini-series for American television based on the dashing young British Army office and a lovely student nurse and back to the present and Lionel and Jean living happily ever after, or, at least, as much as possible given all the other people cluttering up their lives. In the case of this trio of episodes, those people would be Jean's sister in law Penny (Moyra Fraser) and her bumbling husband Stephen (Paul Chapman):Episode 27: As if having Sandy in the house along with Jean, Lionel and Judy is not enough, Penny shows up insisting she has to move in because Stephen is having an affair with his dental hygienist. This is stunning news to Jean and Lionel, not to mention Stephen. Meanwhile, Judy (Moira Brooker) has written off Alistair (Philip Bretherton).
Episode 28: The insipid American producer of Lionel's mini-series has hopped across the pond to scout locations. Lionel take him and the gang to see his family home (which might pass as his family home in the mini-series), where his father, Rocky (Frank Middlemass) and his eccentric wife, Madge (Joan Sims), has an unexpected offer for Lionel. In turn, this allows Lionel to do something he has been wanting to do for forty years.
Episode 29: Stephen's plans for a surprise 25th anniversary party for Penny go completely wrong. Fortunately Alistair, who has accompanied a reluctant Judy for the weekend, is around to save the day (or night in this case). Ironically, the only happy couple on the scene appear to be Lionel and Jean.
This series works best when Jean and Lionel take center stage and this volume gets them back towards the center spotlight. However, Alistair and Judy are never far behind at this point. Note: My number of these episodes goes from the beginning of the series, where as this video insists these are episodes 4-6. It does not say so but my research indicates these would be from Series 4 ("As Time Goes By" made it to Series 9). It only sounds confusing, so hang in there.
