Mum's Monday: As Time Goes By

Back in 1992, As Time Goes By, starring Judi Dench as Jean and Geoffrey Palmer as Lionel, appeared on our screens for the first time. A couple of young lovers, who met during the Korean war; when Jean was a nurse and Lionel a soldier. 

Over the years they were away, they lose touch, as a letter from Lionel to Jean goes missing. Many years later, Lionel, a divorcee has been in Kenya as a coffee producer and he is now back in London writing a book about his life over there with the help of his agent, Alistair Deacon (Philip Bretherton). Jean is now a widow and runs her own secretarial business with her daughter, Judith (Moira Brooker) who has been working for her along with her secretary, Sandy (Jenny Funnell).

The first few episodes, where Jean and Lionel meet up again and rekindle their relationship, seems as though the characters were lacking depth – despite them having lead full lives, they appeared to be a bit hollow. Jean was unsure where the relationship is going, but Lionel still feels the same for Jean from when they first met, and therefore pushes forward quicker than Jean feels comfortable with. Judith is an unreliable employee that takes advantage of the fact her Mum runs the company – her timekeeping is put into question.

As the series moved forward, we see Lionel move in with Jean, and as their relationship grew, so did the depth of characters. We eventually see them get married and as the characters turn a corner in their lives, so does the series in becoming more solid and with much more of a storyline. This includes Sandy going from being Jean’s secretary to being offered the job of running the second branch. Which she does turn down but is flattered all the same. Judith, who has matured and her and Sandy are running the main branch now Jean has retired. Judith and Alistair (who has gone from being a flashy, shallow bachelor to a more in-depth person showing his true-self) are eventually a couple (as throughout we see an on and off relationship between them as Judith sometimes found him annoying) and they get married. Sandy has met the love of her life, Harry, a police officer (David Michaels) and they leave for Canada for a year at the same time as Judith and Alistair are going on their honeymoon.

A scene that stands out for me was when Jean, Lionel, Judith, Sandy, and Alistair are involved in helping at an OAP party. Lionel is asked to wrap a plate of cupcakes in cling film, ready to take to the venue where the party is being held. He is then seen again wrapping each cake individually. This is funny and somewhat real as people do have moments where they are not thinking straight and miss-understandings can occur.

My least favourite scene is when Sandy is stood up by her date (a sports journalist). The featured storyline was that he had to rush off at short notice to do his job. Judith has just told Sandy he wouldn’t be coming. As part of the scene, Sandy mentions that a journalist would have to rush off if there was a war. Judith says “What war?”. It is pretty obvious Sandy was being hyper-theoretical and the script writing let that scene down. Judith is not shown intelligent enough to work out what Sandy meant.

In 2005, Lionel and Jean are bought back for a 2-part reunion special. It is set a year later when Sandy and Harry (now played by Daniel Ryan) are back from Canada. Sandy is worried; she is now pregnant and Harry wants to join the armed police. Judith and Alistair are trying unsuccessfully for a baby. Alistair who is used to getting his own way in life acts very out of his normal character, but is in keeping with how his character would act and does show how far his character has developed. Which leads to scene from the reunion that stands out the most for me is when Alistair goes for a fertility test and Lionel goes with him for moral support. Unknown to Lionel, Alistair has put his name down for the appointment, much to Lionel’s annoyance when his name is called.

My least favourite scene and doesn’t seem to follow the previous series, is with all the talk of babies, we see Lionel in a dream sequence pushing a buggy with multiple children in it. Before we would just have seen Lionel wake with a start and tell Jean about his dream or nightmare as he called it. Instead of him telling the dream to Jean after waking up, we see the actual dream sequence, which seemed unnecessary and out of place.

The reunion episodes are a good idea and setting it when Sandy and Harry come back from Canada is very well thought out. It is good to see the characters more developed and getting on with their lives. Although it does leave you wandering whether Alistair and Judith become parents or not. There is room for another reunion. If not, it is good to keep people guessing.