The intriguing scenario of As Time Goes By was conceived by veteran comedy writer Colin Bostock-Smith. Bob Larbey took up the scriptwriting duties. (Larbey and his former writing partner John Esmonde created The Good Life, Ever Decreasing Circles, and other Britcoms. Esmonde later moved to spain to pursue a career as a novelist.)As the opening episode unfolds, we learn that Lionel and Jean were young sweethearts in the early 1950s when Lionel was sent off to the Korean War. Once in Korea, Lionel wrote to Jean, just as she had written to him. Somehow though, their letters never reached each other, and each concluded that the other had decided to abandon the relationship. Thirty years later, the widowed Jean is owner of a successful secretarial agency. Lionel, having been a coffee plantation owner in Kenya for most of the intervening years, has been persuiaded to write a book about his life. His need of a secretary leads him by chance to Jean's agency. Once there, Lionel meets Jean's daughter and office assistant, Judy. Lionel takes an interest in Judy and invites her out to dinner. Through a series of chance remarks over the next few days and with a few probing questions for Judy, both Lionel and Jean independently discover that their parths are indeed about to cross again. Judy sets up their initial meeting, which is awkward, poignant, and funny. Once they discover how their letters never reached each other, they can't help but think of what might have been. The big question becomes what to do now. Try to rekindle and old flame, or go their separate ways again?
Lionel and Jean cautiously resume casual dating, much to the delight of Judy and of Lionel's agent, Alistair. As the series progresses, the love affair blooms. The natural course of events leads them to decide to move in together under the same roof. But who's roof will it be? After a few misunderstandings and an uncomfortable stalemate, Lionel finally volunteers to give up his modest apartment. But moving in with Jean and Judy brings about a new set of compromises to be worked out. In the meantime, Alistair has found an American TV company interested in making Lionel and Jean's romantic story into a mini-series. Lionel finds himself on the spot to come up with a suitable treatment to pitch to the TV executives in Los Angeles.
To complicate life further, Jean's assistant Sandy temporarily moves into the Pargetter house as well. Lionel, having been divorced for years and preferring to think of himself as rather set in his ways, now finds himself sharing a house with three women.
Lionel and Jean eventually marry (in series 4), but the story doesn't end there, as the notorious American miniseries of their life nears completion and broadcast.
The familiar faces and obvious professional chemistry between Geoffrey Palmer and Judi Dench make As Time Goes By an easygoing pleasure. Palmer is by now an icon of sorts in the Britcom world. Judi Dench (who is actually Dame Judi Dench, since receiving the OBE in 1988) has won six BAFTA Awards. In addition to her Academy Award nomination for her role as Queen Victoria in Mrs. Brown, Dench won the 1999 Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth in Shakespeare in Love.
Thank you to Angela, who wrote to tell me about the book in which she found this excerpt. The book is BEST OF THE BRITCOMS: FROM FAWLTY TOWERS TO ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS by Garry Berman -- Paperback - 160 pages (November, 1999), Taylor Pub; ISBN: 0878331603. This book is available online for $15.16 plus shipping from Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and Borders (among others).