Love, love, LOVE this show! I've been a Judi Dench fan for years but her character of "Jean" is by far my favorite. She and Geoffrey Palmer (Lionel) are absolutely wonderful together - such great chemistry! It seems that 99% of the comments about this show have been more than favorable and I find that refreshing. The show is about real seeming people and their day to day lives. It just shows that people all over the world are basically the same and all want that "warm fuzzy" feeling that you get when watching Jean and Lionel interact. My favorite of the supporting characters is Penny. She is a classic! Her "poor Jean" at every turn and Jean's reaction to that is hilarious. American sitcoms have just become ridiculous over the years and I rarely watch any of them. My other two favorite British sitcoms are "Waiting for God" and "Keeping Up Appearances". Jean and Lionel are definitely number one, though.

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!

"As Time Goes By" is heir to the finest tradition of British situation comedy: fully realised characters (Judi Dench and Geoffrey Palmer are terrific as the couple who find each other again in late middle age), scintillating dialogue, understated, witty humour and the kind of self deprecating irony that never spills over into bleakness or cynicism. And like another well-loved comedy, "Fraiser", it enshrines the bonds of family, always in the subtlest of ways. Add to that the pace (gentle and modulated) and the fine supporting cast and you have a show that is a delight to watch. It is also ultimately what it says it is -- a musing about time: time lost, time re-gained, and the power of memory.

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).