As Time Goes By: Difference between revisions

''As Time Goes By'' follows the somewhat unusual love story of Jean and Lionel, two former lovers who reunite unexpectedly 38 years after their romance during the Korean War. In the opening episode, Lionel has returned to England from a coffee plantation in Kenya and is seeking a secretary to help with his autobiography. He requests one from the "Type for You" secretarial agency, not realizing that it is run by his old flame Jean, who by this time is widowed and has a grown daughter, Judith. After Lionel asks Judith on a date and the two main characters finally meet, Lionel and Jean both realize the other's identity. We find out that their relationship ended not from any loss of affection, but as the result of the post office losing a letter that Lionel had sent to Jean. Although they part on good terms never intending to meet again, they are thrown back together once again and eventually fall in love.

 

 

The series also focuses also on the adventures of Judith, Jean's daughter, Sandy, her secretary who eventually comes to live with them, and Alistair, Lionel's wealthy and flamboyant publisher. The three "young people", as they are sometimes called, provide much preoccupation for Jean, who enjoys managing their love lives, and much hilarity for the audience. Judith and Alistair, after being on and off for nine years, finally get married in the final series of the show. Sandy, who moves in with the Hardcastle/Pargetter clan after a bad break-up, starts dating a policeman named Harry, whom she eventually accompanies to Canada. Adding extra sparkle to the show are Lionel's father and stepmother Rocky and Madge, an older couple, though in their 80s, constantly remaining young at heart, and their housekeeper Mrs. Bale, a Mrs. Danvers-esque figure who is somewhat obsessed with the shipping forecast.