Product Details

• Actors: Daniel Ryan
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: BBC Warner
• VHS Release Date: March 6, 2001
• Run Time: 90 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000056HQ5
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #204,500 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars wonderful, loving, and very funny, March 21, 2001

By 

"jamie0824" (Virginia, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: As Time Goes By 5 [VHS] (VHS Tape)

All the volumes of the As Time Goes By series are absolutely a must-have collection. We play and replay them. The Bob Loterby scripts are great, the topics reflect real life interests or concerns, and - at least for a middle-aged married couple - relationships that we truely identify with. It's clear that Judi Dench and Geoffery Palmer, in fact the entire cast, actually care about each other and act/react with honest emotions. A very well acted and directed series.

When Volumes 8,9,10,... are available they'll be snapped up in a flash!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Three Very Good Episodes of a Wonderful Series, August 6, 2001

By 

Matthew Gladney (Champaign-Urbana, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: As Time Goes By 5 [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Volume 5 of 'As Time Goes By' features the first three episodes from the show's third season. They are all cute, romantic, funny pieces, though the second one is, in my opinion, one of the *best* of the series.

The genesis of 'As Time Goes By' is that Jean & Lionel (played wonderfully by Judi Dench & Geoffrey Palmer) were lovers some 40 years previous. The outbreak of the Korean War sent Lionel overseas, and through a terrible mix-up, the lovers' letters did not arrive to one another, and they lost contact. Four decades later, the two have miraculously met up again, and a nice, slow, lovely romance begins to re-kindle.

For those of us who grow weary of sitcoms where there always has to be a thirty-something couple with kids, serious problems, and sometimes lots of shouting, the calm, gentle nature of 'As Time Goes By' comes as a welcome relief. It is funny without being rude, and the central focus remains Jean & Lionel's romance. Judi Dench & Geoffrey Palmer really do have a wonderful chemistry together, and it is a joy to watch them onscreen.

Episode 1 on this particular tape takes place in Paris. Jean & Lionel are on holiday, and through some rather contrived circumstances, they end up having to babysit a couple of newlyweds.

Episode 2, a gem, deals with the marriage of Lionel's 85 year father to the charming Madge, and how it affects Jean & Lionel's own circumstances.

Episode 3 finds Lionel & Jean disputing living locations, and is the most serious of the three on this video.

The episodes are fine, the series is great, the writing and the acting - far above par. If you're in the mood for a gentle, romantic comedy, then look no further.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Jean and Lionel finally start to get serious about it all, March 6, 2003

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: As Time Goes By 5 [VHS] (VHS Tape)

You can think of Volume 5 as the "As Time Goes By" collection as representing the ghosts of romances of the past, yet to come, and the present for Jean (Judi Dench) and Lionel (Geoffrey Palmer). The couple are trying to move forward after the thirty-eight year delay in their romance, but obstacles just naturally fall in their way:

Episode 14 (the numbers are my own; I have been keeping count) has Lionel and Jean finally going off to Paris for the romantic holiday they had planned in their youth. At first the only problem is that Jean wants to walk around the City of Lights without a plan while Lionel would prefer to actually see some sights. But then they encounter first one half and then the other of a honeymoon couple who are consumed by their own problems.

Episode 15 takes place the day of the wedding of Lionel's father has come. Lionel has to give away the bride and Jean gets to be a bridesmaid. She is worried about how she looks in her dress while he has grave reservations about what his father is doing. But then things happen that give Lionel a new perspective.

Episode 16 finds that Jean and Lionel have decided to live together. However, there is confusion as to who is going to live with whom. Once again, the couple jump to assumptions about what the other is thinking (and why) without bothering to actually have a conversation about it all.

Writer Bob Larbey is in no hurry to rush Jean and Lionel down the aisle. Now that the couple have finally agreed they are having a relationship (and are actually acting on that idea) they are taking little tiny steps along the way. Instead of fighting about how they are not fighting I really would like to see the pair create some nice magical moments in the present instead of always wistfully referring back to what happened when he was a dashing young British Army officer and she was a lovely student nurse.