Television series
As Time Goes By
- Romantic comedy
- Light-hearted
As Time Goes By is the kind of English comfort telly that asks nothing more of you than to sit down and be soothed. Judi Dench and Geoffrey Palmer play former lovers reunited decades after a wartime affair cut short by a lost letter, and the show settles happily into their unhurried, dry-witted courtship. Gentle, character-first, funny in a murmured rather than a shouted way — for anyone who believes second chances deserve their own sitcom.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you like slow-burn sitcom warmth where two gently wry people are funnier when they're being careful with each other, and the jokes come out of rueful manners rather than slapstick.
Skip it if you want fast plotting or a laugh every few seconds, since this is a gentle, mostly unhurried comedy that spends its time on talk and small domestic moments.
What it asks of you: Nine seasons of half-hour episodes make it a patient, open-ended companion rather than a single sitting; the pace stays leisurely and the tone light and steady.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
Waiting for Godot2001
Same warm British formula of older people falling in love and sparring wittily, only this time in a retirement home. Same era, same gentle rhythms, same conviction that romance doesn't stop at sixty.
But The retirement-home setting and ageing jokes are broader and more sitcom-y than Jean and Lionel's understated charm.
To the Manor Born1979
Penelope Keith's proud widow and her nouveau-riche neighbour spar their way toward romance across class lines, with the same dry English wit and slow-burn affection you'll recognise instantly.
But More overtly class-conscious and farcical than As Time Goes By's quieter domestic comedy; the will-they-won't-they is played bigger.
Keeping Up Appearances1990
A contemporaneous BBC comfort classic built on character and repetition rather than plot — perfect for the exact same tea-and-biscuits mood and unhurried pacing.
But It's pure farce about social climbing with no central romance, and Hyacinth's antics are far broader than Jean and Lionel's gentle bickering.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from As Time Goes By
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Brief Encounter1945
Same English reticence about feeling too much out loud, same theme of love nearly missed through bad timing and unsent words — the serious ancestor of the mood As Time Goes By plays for comfort.
The British classic that did quiet, thwarted English longing first — two people who almost have an affair, undone by propriety, timing, and everything left unsaid.
But Black-and-white, formally reserved, and genuinely sad in a way the sitcom never lets itself be.
More like this (8)
Last of the Summer Wine1973
The longest-running British sitcom ever, following old friends wandering the Yorkshire dales with almost nothing happening and everything charming about it happening anyway.
But Even gentler and slower than As Time Goes By, with barely any plot — some will find it whimsical to the point of inert.
The Vicar of Dibley1994
Dawn French's vicar navigates village life and a long, unresolved romance with the same warmth, patience, and fondness for English eccentricity that defines Jean and Lionel's world.
But Broader physical comedy and sillier set pieces than the naturalistic, dialogue-led humour of As Time Goes By.
Doc Martin2004
A prickly doctor and his ex-fiancée circle each other for years in a Cornish village — the same slow, patient, very English romance, just dressed in scenery and stubbornness.
But Martin's abrasiveness and the show's sharper comedic-drama mix feel harder-edged than the sitcom cosiness you're after.
Grace and Frankie2015
Two women in their seventies rebuild their lives and stumble into unexpected romance and independence, proving second acts aren't only an English specialty.
But American, glossier, and far more explicit about sex and reinvention than the reserved courtship you're used to.
Cranford2007
A gentle ensemble period drama about a small English town's gossip, rhythms, and quiet romances, told with the same fondness for ordinary life and small kindnesses.
But Victorian setting and a large cast dilute the central-couple focus; less comedy, considerably more melancholy.
Frasier1993
Witty, literate, dialogue-driven comedy about a man circling back toward the life and people he thought he'd left behind, with real warmth humming under all the wit.
But Faster and more American in rhythm and joke density, with less focus on one specific decades-later reunion.
Cold Mountain2003
It's Lionel's undelivered letter and wartime posting played entirely straight: same premise of war interrupting love, but staged as devastating epic instead of tea-time sitcom.
A Civil War epic about two people kept apart by war and a letter that struggles to arrive, with years of longing before any reunion is even possible.
But Long, violent in places, and thoroughly tragic in tone — nothing cosy about it whatsoever.
Cinema Paradiso1988
Explores the same premise — decades apart, a door left open, the strange vertigo of reclaiming what time took — but through Italian melancholy rather than English tea-time comedy.
An Italian film about a man who returns home decades later and is confronted with a love and a life he left behind, told with aching, operatic nostalgia.
But Subtitled, unhurried, and far more wistful and bittersweet than anything the sitcom would allow itself to be.
People
Cast
Writing
- Colin Bostock-SmithCreator
Recommended by
The Good Life, To the Manor Born, Ever Decreasing Circles, Keeping Up Appearances, Butterflies