I have come to the conclusion that I like nice, kind, gentle TV programmes. I loved the Vicar of Dibley because of its warmth and humanity and love and kindness, and I love As Time Goes By for the same reasons. The enduring popularity of both these programmes should be sending messages to the TV producers that perhaps viewers don't want endless screens full of sex, violence and swearing. A programme aired before the last two ever episodes of Dibley, which I blogged about, had its creator, Richard Curtis, saying he was delighted that such a 'sweet' programme had proved so popular.
As Time Goes By has the incomparable Dame Judi Dench and the lugubriously wonderful Geoffrey Palmer giving us all a masterclass in TV acting. They play off each other beautifully and make it look so natural that after a while you forget who they are, we are watching Jean and Lionel not Judi and Geoffrey.
The story starts with a simple premise: Jean and Lionel met and fell in love just before Lionel was posted off to the Korean War. They promised to write but Lionel's letter went astray and they lost touch. Both married others and 30 years passed until one day fate took a hand. Jean's secretarial agency provided a temp for Lionel, who was writing a book on his life in Kenya, the temp was not very good, Jean's daughter Judy went along to apologise, was asked out to dinner by Lionel, who came to collect her and Jean realised who he was.
There then followed nine wonderful series as we watched Lionel and Jean find each other again, fall in love, live together, get married and live happily ever after. We get to know Jean's daughter Judy, twice divorced and unlucky in love, her work mate and, ultimately, an unofficial second daughter Sandy (we never do get to hear anything about Sandy's family - she appears to be an orphan..) who all live in what appears to be a very nice posh house in an upmarket part of London. We meet Alistair, super cool publisher of Lionel's book, a commitment phobe who Judy finally marries after many ups and downs. Alistair always greets Lionel with the cry 'Hi Li' and 'you're my main man' and generally irritates him dreadfully (apart from one episode in which Alistair talks about his father, he too seems totally devoid of any family at all. Must be catching). He also develops a huge crush on Jean prior to turning to Judy and bombards her with flowers, balloons and presents and finally a gorilla gram. Under all that dudeness we know that Alistair is a kind, good person really and we all love him.
Lionel has a barking mad father, Rocky, who gets married in his 80s to Madge, played by the late 
great Joan Sims, and embark on pony trekking in the Andes, white water rafting, visiting Ethiopia and generally behaving in a simply outrageous way that is a sore trial to the conventional Lionel. Rocky has a house in the country run by another eccentric character, Mrs Bale, the housekeeper (who I know Nan loves over on her blog) who rules them with a rod of iron and charges around the country on a motor bike, goggles and all. She is addicted to the shipping forecast and is always ready to tell anyone who ask what the weather is like in the Irish Channel.
Whenever I am feeling a bit fed up or depressed, I whip out the first series DVD that comes to hand and will watch two or three episodes. I know them all backwards now and they never fail to make me feel better.
One of my favourite episodes ends with Lionel, who has just visited the Imperial War Museum, coming home with a copy of the missing letter he had sent to Jean, which had turned up in the current exhibition. Jean reads it and with tears in her eyes says 'Oh, you did love me then' to which Lionel replies 'I still do'. Cue music "You must remember this, a kiss is still a kiss, a sigh is still a sigh"
Cue Elaine reaching for the box of tissues.
Pure magic and oh SO British in the nicest possible way.
