How two old flames warmed our hearts
MARION McMULLEN recalls gentle comedy As Time Goes By which showcased love the second time around 30 years ago
THE comedy talents of Dame Judi Dench and Geoffrey Palmer made As Time Goes By a sitcom favourite.
The romantic BBC series began this month in 1992 and followed the relationship of a couple reunited by a quirk of fate after years apart.
Jean Pargett and Lionel Hardcastle had been young lovers during the Korean War, but a lost letter saw them go their separate ways until Lionel returned to the UK to publish his memoir My Life In Kenya.
He employed the services of an agency called Type For You which just happened to be run by his old flame Jean, but was the spark between them still there?
Bob Larbey, who also wrote A Fine Romance starring Dame Judi and co-wrote The Good Life, penned As Time Goes By. It followed the fortunes of Lionel and Jean over 67 episodes and became a hit in both the UK and America.
The sitcom was originally going to be called Winter With Flowers, but the title was changed for the first episode to the song title As Time Goes By. Joe Fagin sang the theme tune. He has also had a hit with the theme tune for Auf Wiedersehen, Pet – That’s Living Alright.
The photographs of the young Jean and Lionel in the opening credits are actually Dame Judi’s daughter Finty Williams and Geoffrey’s son Charles.
Dame Judi once called Geoffrey the ‘naughtiest’ man she’d ever worked with and he said of his co-star: “She would say that she doesn’t enjoy being a national treasure, which would be an absolute b***dy lie. She loves it.” The two actors later revived their partnership in James Bond blockbuster Tomorrow Never Dies and Geoffrey was made an OBE in 2004 for services to drama. Geoffrey who passed away in 2020, aged 93, was well known for his distinctive voice and jowly face structure, of which he once said: “I’m not grumpy. I just look this way.”