As Time Goes By

We meet the two main characters: Lionel and Jean. In the pilot episode, Lionel is in a hotel cafe giving a waitress a hard time. He is scathingly sarcastic. Jean is, similarly, seen being brittle and unbending. Lionel is working on his book "My Life in Kenya" about his life in Kenya. (This joke comes up in numerous episodes.) He requires a secretary to help with the revisions. That's where Jean's secretary service ""...Type for You"" comes in. Judith, Jean's daughter, meets Lionel at his hotel to apologize for the terrible secretary. Lionel asks Judith out. When he arrives to pick her up he is introduced to Jean. After about two seconds Jean and Lionel both independently figure out who they each suspect the other person to be: a lover last seen in 1953.

Jean and Lionel look no closer to renewing their relationship when Lionel checks out of his hotel without telling Jean. However, Lionel's publisher, Alistair, convinces him to go to a party tonight to meet some 'faces', people who can help in the sale of his book. He checks back in, and, after a walk in the park, Lionel asks Jean to go to the party with him.

Lionel is about to go on a lecture circuit, so he invites Jean for a day out. The revisit some old haunts, only to discover that a lot has changed. However, after a trek through an overgrown field, they find 'The Copper Kettle', an old place which Lionel and Jean were quite fond of.

Judith persuades Jean to surprise Lionel by going along to his lecture in Nowrich. However, it is Jean who gets the surprise when she finds that Lionel already has a lady friend to stay with. While Lionel attempts to deal with the embarrasing position he is in, as well as his new found reputation as an elephant killer (thanks to Alistair's hyped-up blurb), Jean faces the romantic advances of Alistair.

The trip to Nowrich has changed Jean and Lionel's relationship. While Alistair still continues his romantic overtures to Jean, Lionel attempts to smooth things over with Jean. Alistair also gets Lionel to attempt another revision of his book, and Lionel becomes frustrated with the entire project.

Jean and Lionel are both flattered by the romantic attentions of Alistair and Judith, but decide that things cannot continue as they are. Jean bets that if all four of them go on a picnic together, Judith and Alistair will hit it off. But perhaps it will be Jean and Lionel who grow closer...