From My Shelves – As Time Goes By

(“From My Shelves” is an occasional series of posts where I discuss personal favorites from my personal collection)


As Time Goes By (TV series) – A young soldier and nurse fall in love in England in the ’50’s just before his unit is shipped to Korea.  They don’t see each other for decades when he is writing a book and she is running the secretarial service that he hires to help with the project.  They quickly re-discover their shared history and re-build a relationship in the autumn of their lives.

This is one of the boatload of English comedies (Britcoms) that have come to America over the last 40 years.  This one stands out because of it’s late life romance story line and stellar cast.  Judi Dench leads the cast as Jean Hardcastle with veteran English actor Geoffrey Palmer as the lost love of her life, Lionel.  The supporting cast (which is quite small, there’s only a handful of regulars) is stellar as well.  One of the things we enjoy the most of the show (which I and Lady Phlipside started watching long before we hit the same age as Jean and Lionel) is that they portray the love lives of older folks both respectfully and honestly.

Lionel is a prickly older man who was married, unhappily, years ago.  Since then he has lived as a bachelor and is accustomed to having things just the way he wants.  Suddenly he finds himself in a household dominated by women (Jean and her daughter Judy [Moira Booker] and family friend Sandy [Jenny Funnell]).  The stories are funny and warm and romantic.  Along the way they also touch on some very serious and delicate topics with the same respect and honesty.

“As Time Goes By” ran from 1995 -2002 and the entire series is available on disc.