As Time Goes By:What Happened When

Read Michelle Streets article on Season 9 of As Time Goes By.

Here, she presents a guide to the other eight seasons. So get yourself a custard tart and enjoy this look back.

Season 1 (1992)
Former lovers Jean Pargetter and Lionel Hardcastle are reunited after almost forty years when Lionel uses Jeans secretarial agency to help him with his memoir, My Life in Kenya. At first hes attracted to Jeans twice-married daughter Judith, without realizing who her mother is. Meanwhile, Lionels smarmy and egocentric agent, Alistair Deacon, takes a shine to agency owner Jean.

So at first, the older man (Lionel) is attracted to the younger woman (Judith) while the younger man (Alistair) is attracted to the older woman (Jean). As the season ends, this tangled web of romantic intrigue is about to be unwoven. Jean and Lionel realize that the years of silence between them were caused by something as simple as letters that went undelivered. They take hesitant steps towards resuming a friendship while Alistair finds a lot to like about Jeans daughter Judith.

Season 2 (1993)
Pressure mounts in several ways. Lionels book is about to be published and there are concerns about how well it will sell and about the new image Lionel will need to project. Its tough to teach an old dog new tricks (especially an old dog as set in his ways as Lionel), and Alistairs attempts at a makeover meet with mixed results.

Theres also the question of where Jean and Lionels relationship is going. Jean meets Lionels father (the ever youthful Rocky) and Rockys housekeeper, the weather

obsessed, fanatically precise Mrs. Bale. Also introduced in the season are Jeans former sister-in-law Penny and her husband Stephen, who think that "poor Jean" has given up on life following the death of her husband.

Trying to explain her still fuzzy relationship with Lionel proves to be tricky for Jean, but as the season ends the pair are set to once again become more than friends.

Season 3 (1994)
The season starts in Paris, where Jean and Lionel are on the holiday they had wanted to take many years earlier. They return to the news that Rocky, 85, is going to marry Madge, 78. Their commitment to one another is another wake-up call to Jean and Lionel to think about where their relationship is headed. They decide to move in together and after some initial confusion, they begin sharing Jeans house.

Lionel and Jean then head to Los Angeles to meet with television big wigs. Lionels book may not have set the world on fire, but there is interest in him writing a mini-series based on it. Of course, since this is Hollywood theres very little chance that the story will actually resemble the truth.

Jean also forges ahead professionally, opening up a second branch of her secretarial service. She hires the gorgeous, absolutely perfect Sally "Miss Ice Cubes" Curtis to run it. Jean is not happy, though, when Sally sends Lionel the beautiful Daisy (Zoe Hilson) to help him with the mini-series. Surely that cant be jealousy coming from the usually tough Miss Pargetter, can it?

Season 4 (1995)
Lionel is trying hard to write the mini-series but has a number of distractions mainly of the female variety. Things are going smoothly for Jean and Lionel, but everyone else seems embroiled in a romantic crisis. Sandy, a secretary from Jeans office, is now sharing the home with Jean, Lionel and Judith after breaking up with her boyfriend. They are soon joined by Penny, who temporarily separates from Stephen when he tells a white lie to throw her off the track about their upcoming surprise anniversary party.

Adding to this distraction is Mrs. Flack, who becomes Lionels secretary following the dismissal of the beautiful Daisy. Mrs. Flack has a good heart, but is absolutely hopeless when it comes to being of any help to Lionel. Jean swallows her pride and Daisy returns.

Series writer Larbey then gets to have a lot of fun satirizing American television when the couple deals with show biz visitors from the States who use Rockys country house as a setting for Lionels mini-series. Most important, Lionel and Jean finally do something they should have done years earlier they marry.

Season 5 (1996)
During season four Lionel was given possession of Rockys country house since he and Madge are usually trotting about the globe anyway. Jean and Lionel welcome it as a peaceful place to spend weekends, but the house becomes something of a burden when they meet up with the "Hampshire set," a tight-knit group of locals who overwhelm Jean and Lionel with social invitations. Jean and Lionel discover, however, that the locals have some disturbing, cliquish habits and take steps to disentangle themselves from the gang.

Also during this season Lionels mini-series (called Just Two People) hits the small screen in America to the overwhelming indifference of the few viewers who see it. Its no wonder, seeing as the Korean battle scenes were shot in Wales.

Season 6 (1997)
Season six takes a step back from the romantic to deal with Jeans reluctant acceptance of the fact that she needs to slow down and retire. Without the worry of her secretarial agency, she has nothing to do but concentrate on other peoples problems. She frets about her daughters love life when Judy and Alistair go through a rough patch and also attempts to find out more about the mysterious Mrs. Bale.

Seasons six and seven are also about aging. Jean is far from having one foot in the grave, but now that her work has slowed down she needs to find constructive ways to spend her time. Lionel seems content to take things slowly and catch up on the reading he never did during his youth, but Jean needs a different kind of activity. Volunteering seems to be the perfect answer, but in the process Jean volunteers the rest of them as well.

Season 7 (1998)
Jean and Lionel may be settled in their relationship, but season seven still contains romantic problems aplenty. Judy and Alistair reach a critical point in their relationship while Sandy finds a new love interest in a policeman named Harry. Like any good "parents," Jean and Lionel (well, mainly Jean) try to find out more about Harry in their own discreet manner. Sandy discovers, however, that she must play second fiddle to his love of rugby and becomes disenchanted.

Jean reunites with an old friend James Penny, only to find that sometimes old acquaintances should be forgotten. Jeans curiosity is also peaked by the arrival of new neighbors and Alistair does a striptease to the delight of a number of senior citizens.

Season 8 (2000)
Romantic problems continue for Judy and Sandy. While on the outs with Judy, Alistair decides to ask Sandy out. Sandys had it with Harrys inattentiveness and wants the glitz and pampering that Alistair can provide but worries about Judys reaction. Judys fine with it, though she seems unable to convince everyone else of that. Harry then asks Judy out. Changing partners, so to speak, doesnt work. Sandy realizes that Alistairs heart belongs to Judy and breaks things off with Lionel. Judy realizes that Harrys not the guy for her. Poor Alistair - along with his romantic troubles, he encounters financial difficulties as well.

Meanwhile, the whole crew (except Lionel) falls in love with a mangy dog that follows Lionel home. Jean tries to keep up with the times by getting on the Internet and Lionel worries about being able to help financially as he and Jean grow old together.