
- Genre
- Sitcom
- Broadcast
- 1992 - 2005
- Channel
- BBC One
- Episodes
- 66 (9 series), plus 1 highlights special
- Creator
- Colin Bostock-Smith
- Starring
- Judi Dench, Geoffrey Palmer, Moira Brooker, Jenny Funnell and Philip Bretherton
- Writer
- Bob Larbey
- Director
- Sydney Lotterby
- Producer
- Sydney Lotterby
Lionel Hardcastle, a young man in the army, and Jean Pargeter, a nurse, are madly in love until Lionel is sent away to the Korean War and, through a lost love letter, they lose touch.
Thirty-eight years later Lionel, a curmudgeonly divorcee, is writing a book about his subsequent years spent living in Kenya and Jean, a no-nonsense widow, is running a secretarial agency in London. When Lionel requires a secretary to assist him with his book revisions he unwittingly contacts Jean's agency and the pair are reunited.
Gradually, after some reluctance and hesitation on both sides, Jean and Lionel begin to rekindle their old romance. Alongside this main story a more tempestuous relationship between Jean's daughter Judith (Moira Brooker) and Lionel's publisher Alistair (Philip Bretherton) plays out.
This popular BBC sitcom draws humour from the ups and downs of unexpected romance in later life.
- Production company
- Soundtrack
- Theme tune is a version of As Time Goes By, originally written by Herman Hupfeld in 1931. This version is performed by Joe Fagin and arranged by David Mackay.
- Laugh track
- Live audience
Broadcast details
- First broadcast
- Sunday 12th January 1992 on BBC One at 8:35pm
- Last new broadcast
- Friday 30th December 2005 on BBC One
- Last repeat
- Friday 1st January 2021 at 3:10pm on BBC2