As Time Goes By

Well, it's been awhile. I am trying to keep this blog really focussed on things I feel that extra attachment to so I suppose it's bound to be more limited. Perhaps it will be surprising that this post mentions a television series. But I watched it again tonight and thought, no, it's right up there in the "things I love" category.

Although I do occasionally get addicted to unlikely TV series, I don't think there are really many apologies to be made for loving this one--not with Dame Judi Dench aboard. The premise of this one, for anyone who may have missed the frequent reruns on your local PBS affiliate, is that a man returning from life in Africa is reacquainted with a woman who runs a secretarial agency, and soon discovers that she is the same person he fell in love with when he was a young officer during WWII and she was a young nurse. Although there is a bittersweet note of lost chances running through this, it is essentially a comedy, and played by two actors with very great comic gifts, it inevitably leans in this direction.

I have tried to think what makes this rate a post here. I have mentioned it to friends who I thought would like it--they haven't. But I suspect they haven't seen it in the same light I have. People find each other again, certain misconceptions are patched up, love is rekindled, and there are a host of charming or eccentric secondary characters. The acting level is very high, the writing is up to the highest mark, and the timing is superb.

But all this is really secondary. What I really fall for is the reality of this little world of Jean and Lionel, and her daughter Judy, employee Sandy, publisher Alistair and so on and so on. It is convincing and complete, and a life that I would be happy to be invited into. It isn't everyone who gets a second chance at love in their senior years, but it is so nice to think of this household in their very comfortable London home, and wish that life for everyone had such a happy ending.