As Time Goes By: Season 9

The finale of Americas favorite romantic comedy

by Michelle Street, Editor of The Insider

If you spend a lot of time watching television or movies, you might get the idea that love is almost exclusively the province of the young and beautiful. Middle-aged couples, when shown at all, are normally portrayed as cranky sparring partners rather than people who still might still have an iota of interest in one another romantic or otherwise.

Thats part of the reason why audiences have taken As Time Goes By to their hearts. Its refreshing to see a not so-young sitcom couple whose relationship hasnt deteriorated into something along the lines of Sybil and Basil or even Hyacinth and Richard.

But then again, As Time Goes By was never intended to be as overtly farcical as Fawlty Towers or Keeping Up Appearances. This gentle romantic comedy began as a "will they or wont they?" story about two middle-aged lovers Jean Pargetter (Dame Judi Dench) and Lionel Hardcastle (Geoffrey Palmer) who reunited after forty years. Could they and should they rekindle the spark?

That plotline was resolved fairly early on when Jean and Lionel moved in together and eventually married. In less-skilled hands the show might have ended right there. However, writer Bob Larbey (who penned such classics as Mulberry and Good Neighbors) was smart enough to take the show in interesting new directions such as Jean having to deal with retirement and Lionels worries about being able to help with the couples retirement. He also left himself other romantic entanglements to explore and sort out, which he does nicely and neatly in the final season of this popular sitcom.

Jean and Lionel are present and accounted for, but the focus shifts to the romantic dilemmas faced by Jeans daughter Judy and her former employee Sandy. Of course Jean is right there in the middle, trying to prod their relationships along in her own inimitable style. Lionel cautions her not to get involved.

"If this is going to be a lecture about minding my own business and not wanting everything to turn out for everybody, you can forget it," she tells him. "I dont mind my own business and I do want everything to turn out right for everybody."

First, she wants to see happiness for her daughter. Throughout the series Judy has been involved in an on/off relationship with the self-centered, ambitious publisher Alistair Deacon. As season nine begins they are definitely off. During the first episode Alistair, who had suffered a career crisis, gets his mojo working once again. Now that he has his financial house in order Alistair decides to propose to Judy once again. She turns him down for the same reasons as before - Judy wants someone less work-obsessed whos going to be there for her. She cant get Alistair to see that she doesnt care about him because of his money. In fact, she liked him better when he was down. Alistair claims that hes going to change, but Judith doesnt believe him.

Meanwhile, theres still the issue of Harry and Sandy. Thats all sorted out as well when Harry sees the errors of his way and Sandy goes to Canada with him. That leaves Jean and Lionel as they started almost forty years earlier just the two of them together. Jean had told Lionel that she wanted things to work out for everyone and thats what happens.

A terrific ending, but a sad one since its the finale. Dame Judi wants to concentrate on stage and film work, but at least she agreed to this last season so that everything could be wrapped up.

As Time Goes By will be missed for many reasons. First, it didnt use vulgarity or profanity to get laughs. It didnt need to - Dame Judi and Geoffrey Palmer could say more with a look at each other than other actors could say with pages of dialogue. It didnt rely on the "babe factor" to pull in viewers. It didnt present situations that were totally out of sync with the experiences of the average person, so most viewers could watch and relate. (OK, not everyone gets to weekend in a beautiful house in Hampshire, but you get my drift.) It gave some extraordinarily talented actors some top-notch scripts and came up with a winner.

Call me nuts (go ahead you wont be the first person), but when I think of As Time Goes By I cant help but think of Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles. No disrespect whatsoever to Princess Diana, but Charles and Camilla were probably meant for each other from the start. They were probably together in private, sure, but the fact that after so many years they finally are together publicly and may even marry is an optimistic story. And thats what As Time Goes By always was a hopeful tale showing that sometimes things do work out in the end. Just like Jean wants them to.