History Series / AsTimeGoesBy

* PayingItForward: Lionel's book is published as a favour to Lionel's father, who loaned Alastair's father the money to start the family publishing company.

** This happens quite often, especially when Penny and Stephen come to visit. Consequently, it is never revealed to the troublesome couple that Lionel is not in fact a psychiatrist, and he even ends up counseling Stephen professionally. Other such lies include that Jean and Lionel met whilst in bumper cars at a fairground, Jean takes judo, Lionel sprained his ankle while playing golf, and that Jean and Lionel were sleeping together (before they were), which resulted in their first night together being spent at Penny and Stephen's house in the country.

* MindScrew: All together now: "I am alone with my sheep. But my sheep are not alone with me."

* TheNicknamer: Alistair constantly annoys Lionel by calling him "Ly" and Jean "Lovely Lady."

* {{Foreshadowing}}: In a first-season episode, Lionel sarcastically remarks that it's probably in the Imperial War Museum. [[spoiler:It is.]]

* DecemberDecemberRomance: Madge and Rocky, who had been having an affair for ten year before tying the knot. Lionel and Jean are a lesser version (maybe October or November).
* DeadpanSnarker: Lionel is apt to make sarcastic comments, especially when everything around him (often from the intervention of Jean) is going to completely mad. Example:

Jean's somewhat overbearing sister-in-law from her first marriage Penny (Moyra Fraser) and Penny's rather dim husband Steven (Paul Chapman) are also recurring characters.

''As Time Goes By'' follows the somewhat unusual love story of Jean (Creator/JudiDench) and Lionel (Creator/GeoffreyPalmer), two former lovers who reunite unexpectedly thirty-eight years after their romance during UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar. In the opening episode, Lionel has returned to England from a coffee plantation in Kenya and is seeking a secretary to help with his autobiography. He requests one from the "Type for You" secretarial agency, not realizing that it is run by his old flame Jean, who by this time is widowed and has a grown daughter, Judith (Moira Brooker). After Lionel asks Judith on a date and the two main characters finally meet, Lionel and Jean both realize the other's identity. We find out that their relationship ended not from any loss of affection, but as the result of the post office losing a letter that Lionel had sent to Jean. Although they part on good terms never intending to meet again, they are thrown back together once again and eventually fall in love.

Although they are eventually back where they started, Lionel and Jean's romance gets off to a slow start, with each being the object of youthful affection during the first series, he from her daughter Judith and she from his publisher Alistair (Philip Bretherton). At the conclusion of the first series, Lionel and Jean share their first kiss (again), by series three -- after some hilarious miscommunications -- Lionel has moved into Jean's house, and they marry the following series. Along the way, Lionel writes a mini-series about their romance for American television which fails spectacularly (not through any fault of his own), Jean opens a second branch of her secretarial agency and eventually retires, and the two acquire a country house from Lionel's somewhat unconventional father.

The series also focuses also on the adventures of Judith, Jean's daughter, Sandy (Jenny Funnell), her secretary who eventually comes to live with them, and Alistair, Lionel's wealthy and flamboyant publisher. The three "young people", as they are sometimes called, provide much preoccupation for Jean, who enjoys managing their love lives, and much hilarity for the audience. Judith and Alistair, after being on and off for nine years, finally get married in the final series of the show. Sandy, who moves in with the Hardcastle/Pargetter clan after a bad break-up, starts dating a policeman named Harry (David Michaels, later Daniel Ryan), whom she eventually accompanies to Canada. Adding extra sparkle to the show are Lionel's father and stepmother Rocky (Frank Middlemass) and Madge (Creator/JoanSims), an older couple, though in their 80s, constantly remaining young at heart, and their housekeeper Mrs. Bale (Janet Henfrey), a Mrs. Danvers-esque figure who is somewhat obsessed with the shipping forecast.

''As Time Goes By'' follows the somewhat unusual love story of Jean (Creator/JudiDench) and Lionel (Geoffrey Palmer), two former lovers who reunite unexpectedly thirty-eight years after their romance during UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar. In the opening episode, Lionel has returned to England from a coffee plantation in Kenya and is seeking a secretary to help with his autobiography. He requests one from the "Type for You" secretarial agency, not realizing that it is run by his old flame Jean, who by this time is widowed and has a grown daughter, Judith (Moira Brooker). After Lionel asks Judith on a date and the two main characters finally meet, Lionel and Jean both realize the other's identity. We find out that their relationship ended not from any loss of affection, but as the result of the post office losing a letter that Lionel had sent to Jean. Although they part on good terms never intending to meet again, they are thrown back together once again and eventually fall in love.

* TriangRelations: Inverted around the middle of the series, when Judy and Sandy are simultaneously trying to set the other up with Alastair. Both of them confide to Jean and Lionel, who decide to stay out of it except to be amused.

''As Time Goes By'' follows the somewhat unusual love story of Jean (Creator/JudiDench) and Lionel (Creator/GeoffreyPalmer), two former lovers who reunite unexpectedly thirty-eight years after their romance during UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar. In the opening episode, Lionel has returned to England from a coffee plantation in Kenya and is seeking a secretary to help with his autobiography. He requests one from the "Type for You" secretarial agency, not realizing that it is run by his old flame Jean, who by this time is widowed and has a grown daughter, Judith. After Lionel asks Judith on a date and the two main characters finally meet, Lionel and Jean both realize the other's identity. We find out that their relationship ended not from any loss of affection, but as the result of the post office losing a letter that Lionel had sent to Jean. Although they part on good terms never intending to meet again, they are thrown back together once again and eventually fall in love.

Although they are eventually back where they started, Lionel and Jean's romance gets off to a slow start, with each being the object of youthful affection during the first series, he from her daughter Judith and she from his publisher Alistair. At the conclusion of the first series, Lionel and Jean share their first kiss (again), by series three -- after some hilarious miscommunications -- Lionel has moved into Jean's house, and they marry the following series. Along the way, Lionel writes a mini-series about their romance for American television which fails spectacularly (not through any fault of his own), Jean opens a second branch of her secretarial agency and eventually retires, and the two acquire a country house from Lionel's somewhat unconventional father.

The series also focuses also on the adventures of Judith, Jean's daughter, Sandy, her secretary who eventually comes to live with them, and Alistair, Lionel's wealthy and flamboyant publisher. The three "young people", as they are sometimes called, provide much preoccupation for Jean, who enjoys managing their love lives, and much hilarity for the audience. Judith and Alistair, after being on and off for nine years, finally get married in the final series of the show. Sandy, who moves in with the Hardcastle/Pargetter clan after a bad break-up, starts dating a policeman named Harry, whom she eventually accompanies to Canada. Adding extra sparkle to the show are Lionel's father and stepmother Rocky and Madge, an older couple, though in their 80s, constantly remaining young at heart, and their housekeeper Mrs. Bale, a Mrs. Danvers-esque figure who is somewhat obsessed with the shipping forecast.

* ScrabbleBabble: (Series 5, Episode 1) After disagreements over ''furzes'' and an attempt to change ''cottage'' to ''pottage'', Jean places ''flug'' and claims it's Old English.

** It's not just Lionel. Something like 90% of the show's humor comes from this.

--> "Remind me to start a rumor here one day."

* OnlySaneMan: This often applies to Lionel, especially when Jean, Judith, and Sandy are participating in feminine behavior which is totally mysterious to him. For example, the episode in which Judy and Sandy are each trying to set the other up with Alistair.

* ExecutiveMeddling: InUniverse, the reason for the disastrous outcome of Lionel's series ''Just Two People''. Includes tropes like ClicheStorm, LondonEnglandSyndrome, CriticalResearchFailure, and ViewersAreMorons (specifically, that their target demographic is 'a potato farmer in Idaho').

* DeterminedWidow: After her husband's death, Jean supports herself by starting a secretarial firm, even though she confesses to Lionel that if they had gotten married, she wouldn't have wanted to go into business.

''As Time Goes By'' follows the somewhat unusual love story of Jean (Creator/JudiDench) and Lionel (Creator/GeoffreyPalmer), two former lovers who reunite unexpectedly thirty eight years after their romance during UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar. In the opening episode, Lionel has returned to England from a coffee plantation in Kenya and is seeking a secretary to help with his autobiography. He requests one from the "Type for You" secretarial agency, not realizing that it is run by his old flame Jean, who by this time is widowed and has a grown daughter, Judith. After Lionel asks Judith on a date and the two main characters finally meet, Lionel and Jean both realize the other's identity. We find out that their relationship ended not from any loss of affection, but as the result of the post office losing a letter that Lionel had sent to Jean. Although they part on good terms never intending to meet again, they are thrown back together once again and eventually fall in love.

* BritishBrevity: Of a sort; each series is only about seven episodes long, but there are nine series (ten if you include the series 10 specials.)

* PayItForward: Lionel's book is published as a favour to Lionel's father, who loaned Alastair's father the money to start the family publishing company.

* FriendsRentControl: No matter how successful Jean's business was, it almost defies belief that the owner of a temp agency could buy a house in Holland Park, one of London's most exclusive neighbourhoods.

* HandsomeLech: Alistair.