As Time Goes By stars Geoffrey Palmer and Judi Dench as Lionel Hardcastle and Jean Pargetter. Lionel was a soldier and Jean was a nurse, the pair fell in love in the 1950's and had a whirlwind romance. Sadly they lost contact and each lived very different lives, until decades later when they meet again by chance. Lionel is trying to get a book published about his life in Kenya and Jean is now running a secretarial agency.They both still care about each other and begin a friendship, through which they realise they are still in love with each other. This is a beautiful series, with two characters you can easily relate to and it is also very funny. Dench and Palmer are superb and have such magical chemistry that you believe they really are in love.As well as focusing on Jean and Lionel, we also follow the lives of Jean's daughter Judith(Moira Brooker),her friend Sandy(Jenny Funnell)and Lionel's publisher Alistair(Philip Bretherton). If you want a gentle and charming series with superb performances, then this is one to watch.

I realize that this show is billed as a romantic-comedy, but I just can't quite put the comedy title on the show myself. Sure, I laugh hard at a lot of the show, but I can't believe a "comedy" would put tears in the eyes of an old man (and sometimes cause out-loud, though muffled, sobs to escape his lips! (Sometimes it is good that I watch TV alone.)) I am not quite sure what word should come after the "Romantic-" part.I do believe that most of the quality of this show is centered directly on the actors (and maybe the Director). In many other shows these days, if there are characters in a scene that are just there to take up space and have no "active" part, the actor seems to have no idea how to play the part. If they react to the scene at all it is sometimes ahead of the dialog!But in this show they always react to the scene appropriately. A glance in the right direction at the right time, a facial expression that matches the situation and does not occur until just the right amount of time AFTER the line being reacted to is delivered!I hope this is not too much of a spoiler for anyone but, my favourite example of this "inactive part" acting is during the wedding scene. A couple of rows behind the happy couple is a woman that really seems to be only semi-interested in the wedding... I suppose she is a "business acquaintance" of Jean. When Lionel deliberately miss-announces his name, the reaction by this woman is priceless and in perfect relationship to the dialog. A few seconds later a man just in front of her and to the right also has the "correct" reaction to a piece of dialog. This typifies the quality of all the acting done on the show.Excellent show!

Each episode begins with Lionel writing a letter to Jean FROM Korea. It is dated February 14, 1953 (Valentine's Day). During one episode Jean shows Lionel the letters he wrote to her BEFORE he was posted to Korea. Lionel looked at the date of a letter and said it must have been written a few weeks after they first met. When discussing the letters they mention that they were written in August 1954.The letters Lionel wrote in England should be August 1953. The letter from Korea should be February 1954.This makes more sense considering that in the first episode Jean tells Judith that she spent about three months with Lionel before he was posted to Korea (approx. July 1953-October 1953??). In another episode she tells Lionel that she waited and waited to hear from him after he left (October 1953 - February 1954).

This is probably the most engaging comedy series ever made. Great dialog and acting. Perfect chemistry among the actors and fantastic locations in England. Lets put it this way, I have seen all the episodes at least 4 times each and still watch it when it comes on PBS. If it's on I will watch it again. I've followed the show since an episode where Jean and Lionel go to visit Lionel's father's estate and end up having to entertain the locals. I loved the concept of fish out of water city folks in the country. Then the next episode they were back in town and the whole story became clear and I was hooked, watching it again from the beginning to the latest episodes in 2005.