As Time Goes By: Complete Series 5 (1996)
Review by HTQ4
Film:
DVD:

Written by Bob Larbey
Directed by Sydney Lotterby
Starring Dame Judi Dench, Geoffrey Palmer, Moira Brooker, Philip Bretherton, and Jenny Funnell

Features:

• Excerpts from Judi Dench's BAFTA tribute, featuring personal anecdotes from Geoffrey Palmer
  
• Cast Biographies
  
• Trailers
  

Jean Pardgeter (Dench) and Lionel Hardcastle (Palmer) knew each briefly before he went off to fight the Korean War, but they followed different paths that eventually crossed again. They fell in love and decided to have a go at a relationship. Lionel moved in with Jean and her daughter Judith (Brooker). In the time since then, Lionel has written a mini-series for American television about the story of how he and Jean met, separated for all those years, and finally got back together to stay. His publicist and friend Alistair (Bretherton) has been in contact with his people in L.A. to get the mini-series produced, while semi-courting Judith, but they never seem to be on the same page as one another.

Series 5 takes us through their lives after the American producers have completely rewritten and butchered Lionel's script, thereby causing it to be absolutely creamed by the critics. Anyway, their lives go on and a failed television series can not stop that. Lionel's parents have given them their house in the country and they are not getting on well with the locals.

This television show just continues to get better and better with each series that comes out. It really is the kind of show that you have to watch from the very beginning in order to get the full effect. Judi Dench can do absolutely no wrong. She is simply perfection in her role as Jean. And Geoffrey Palmer is equally as perfect as her husband, Lionel. Their relationship is so good on screen that watching the show almost feels like voyeurism. When you add the rest of the cast into the mix, this show can not fail. The only word that can describe why this show works is collaboration. Merriam Webster defines this word as "to work jointly with others or together especially in an intellectual endeavor." This is a word that a lot of American television producers should learn. It really shows in the final product.

I don't know whether it's that this DVD marks the fifth in the series, or whether the BBC is actually waking up to the fact that people might want more special features on their DVDs, but finally they have put something on this disc other than just the cast bios and trailers for other BBC television programming. By the way, the cast bios and the trailers are still there and the trailers are the same as the are across the other four series--in some cases even for the same shows. But I digress. This time they put some excerpts from BAFTA's (British Association of Film and Television Artists) tribute to Dame Judi Dench. Those excerpts that they chose for this DVD are the ones of Geoffrey Palmer giving his portion of the tribute.

There's not that much to it, except that we learn that there are a score of outtakes that are presented on one BBC show that shows the "bloopers" from other BBC shows (hint to the BBC, these would make killer bonus material for all of the seasons that follow!). Palmer is charming and very sweet to his fellow co-star, but like any good tribute he also takes the opportunity to roast her a little, which is nice. All in all, it leaves you wanting much more than you get, but thankful for what you have. We should be thankful for any bonus material that they give us.

Read my other reviews of this series. Every single one of them should be part of your collection and this one is no different.