Customer Reviews

A Fine Romance (Episodes 1-9)

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Those who are familiar with As Time Goes By will already be familiar with the writing of Bob Larbey, who also wrote A Fine Romance, and those who've enjoyed As Time Goes By will almost certainly enjoy 1980's A Fine Romance. Though not so well known, this light romantic comedy about two mismatched 40-something lonely hearts bears all the hallmarks of Larbey's classic and engaging style of writing.

Briefly, Dame Judi Dench (As Time Goes By's Jean Pargetter) stars as Laura Dalton, a highly competent albeit somewhat shy, nervous and highly-strung translator with a tall, pretty, charming and very happily married younger sister named Helen, who only wants to see Laura as happy as she is. Helen and her husband Phil decide to team Laura up with Phil's friend Mike Selway, but it's a match made more out of desperation than a belief that the pair would be suitable companions. Mike (the late Michael Williams, Dame Judi's real-life husband of 30 years who died of cancer in 2001), is a shy, laid-back but very nervous, unkempt, disorganised, and socially-inept landscape gardener. He also has very little in common with Laura with respect to their likes and dislikes. The humour in the series is gentle, and it gets its "spark" from the tension engendered by the pairing of this seemingly unlikely couple.

This is the first of three series. The boxed set contains three videos, and each video consists of three 25-minute episodes for a total of nine episodes. This is truly a sweet, charming, relaxing and thoroughly enjoyable series. If you've enjoyed As Time Goes By, I strongly recommend getting this first boxed set. If you enjoy it (and I really do think you will), then go ahead and get sets two and three, for they are just as enjoyable as this one. Personally, although I did have a slight preference for As Time Goes By when I first saw A Fine Romance, I have found that following a second viewing of the latter series, I now enjoy it every bit as much as As Time Goes By. Both are absolutely delightful series that are a joy to curl up watch time and time again.

I have seen non-professional copies of this series, and I am looking forward to the clearer, professional tapes this month. The characters of Laura and Mike, played by Judi Dench and her husband Michael Williams, are lovable and bumbling. The surprise for me was the level of physical comedy--on a par with the best of "I Love Lucy." The "lost contact" episode is wonderful, but the best is probably the "visit to the dentist." If you love Judi Dench from "As Time Goes By" or "Mrs. Brown" or "Shakespeare in Love" you must buy "A Fine Romance."

Recently Acorn Media released the first two seasons of a comedy called "No, Honestly" with husband-wife team John Alderton and Priscilla Collins. Now we have another Britcom with a husband-wife team of a slightly up-market nature: Michael Williams and Judi Dench.

Taped in 1981, this series precedes the more familiar "As Time Goes By" with Dame Judi and Geoffrey Palmer, seen so often on PBS. "A Fine Romance" shows a somewhat more comedic Judi as Laura (a translator) and spouse as Mike (a landscape gardener), who meet at a party given by her younger sister Helen (Susan Penhaligon) and her husband Phil (Richard Warwick). There is that instant dislike that leads grudgingly to not only liking but to living together on terms that can best be described as an uneasy truce.

You have never seen Judi in quite a role as this: terrified of dentists, prone to hide in closets when all is not well, giving those priceless "I'll kill you later" looks when Mike does not behave up to her standards. Mike (whom you might recall from "Educating Rita" and the more recent "Henry V") is forever rumpled, unsure of him self, really committed to Laura but never brave enough to take that final step.

In fact, the 18th and last episode, the only one with a high degree of seriousness, ends ambiguously with Laura wanting a child and Mike perhaps ready to go all the way. All in all, this is a charming series and much funnier than "No, Honestly" because the characters are simply more believable. See both series, by all means, and you will see that where Alderton and Collins elicit plenty of belly laughs, Williams and Dench make us see ourselves a bit more clearly and we laugh at what we see.

As an added bonus, you can hear Dame Judi herself singing with broad British A's the Kern song from which the title of this series is drawn. Fred and Ginger did it no better on a larger screen.

If you've seen As Time Goes By check out theses videos. It is a lovely series with humor, inuendos (no bare skin!) and a wonderful cast. Dame Judy Dench is wonderful of course, as is her "real life" husband Michael Willams. You will also love the actors portraying the sister and brother-in-law. The character actors will have you rolling in the aisles and you can do it all even if your kids and grandma are watching with you. Make it a Saturday night treat. The only problem is that there aren't enough episodes for atleast six months!

A Fine Romance is a brilliantly conceived and performed British comedy about two middle-aged misfits falling in love. Laura (Judi Dench) is a brainy, emotionally inept translator. Mike (Michael Williams) is a shy, lonely landscape gardener. These two colorful characters are thrown together by Laura's matchmaking sister and brother-in-law. Laura's prickly independence and Mike's awkward bumblings are altogether touching as we see their relationship stumble along from mishap to misadventure, misunderstanding to mutual appreciation. First aired over British television in the 1980s, this Acorn Media three volume, 225 minute, full color boxed set presents the first nine episodes of one of Britain's most engaging and entertaining offerings of wit, wisdom, and heart-warming humor. A Fine Romance is highly recommended for personal and community library video entertainment collections.

An ardent fan of As Time Goes By I had always felt "robbed" of the true romantic chemistry lacking in this fantastic and clever series. A Fine Romance is never out of my recorder and DVD player and I now see clearly the amazing chemistry between Michael Williams and his real life wife. To me, although the series with Geoffrey Palmer is more sophisticated, this unlikely couple give an honest portrayal of very awkward people thrust together in later life. I treasure this collection above all others and only wish they had made more

A previous reviewer had noted that it was too hard to believe that Judi Dench's character would fall for Michael Williams' character. This might be helped along by the fact that the two were very happily married in real life for many years until he passed away last year.

I really enjoy this series, but feel that many people came upon it looking for something more after loving the As Time Goes By series. The dialog and plot lines don't compare, but it does share the sweetness and simplicity. It is a bit slow-moving, even for its genre. Still, it will provide a supplement for those deprived of Judi Dench's wonderful acting now that As Time Goes By has completed its final season.

When I think of Dame Judi Dench I think of the moment in "Shakespeare in Love" when Gwyneth Paltrow's character, who is pretending to be a boy playing Juliet in the premier production of "Romeo & Juliet," is brought before the queen starts to make a curtsey instead of a bow. We cut to a shot of Dench as Queen Elizabeth Tudor and I swear all Dench does is change the look in her eye so slightly you may have imagined seeing it. I point to that scene as evidence of why Judi Dench is a great dramatic actress, and the fact that she now plays M in the James Bond movies is a classic example of typecasting as far as I am concerned. So I do not tend to think of her as an actress in situation comedies, but having enjoyed her in "As Time Goes By" and now finding that prior to that she did "A Fine Romance," I may well have to rethink what I think about Dame Judi.

"A Fine Romance" was a British sitcom from Independent Television on BBC2 that premiered in late 1981 and lasted 26 episodes in four series. Dench starred opposite her real life husband, Michael Williams. She played Laura Dalton, who appears to be on her way to being an old maid because she is bossy and stubborn, although she is a softy at heart. He plays Mike Selway, who has a struggling landscaping business. They are set up by Laura's younger and cuter matchmaking sister, Helen (Susan Panhaligon), with some encouragement from her husband Phil Barker (Richard Warwick). Despite their predispositions to dismiss each other as yet another in an endless series of blind dates gone bad, fate keeps throwing Laura and Mike together until they get a clue.

These two DVDs include the first nine episodes of the series, the last two of which are actually from Series 2 apparently: (1) Laura and Mike end up hiding from the people Helen and Phil are trying to set them up with in the same place, the Baker's bedroom; (2) Since Laura and Mike left the party together, Helen and Phil jump to conclusions and trying to explain what really happened proves to be both impossible and unnecessary; (3) Mike decides to ask Laura out to a fancy dinner, but her lost contact lens threatens to turn the night into a disaster; (4) Laura and Mike think they have each found a new romance, but since it is not with each other, they are both wrong; (5) Mike's business is failing and Laura decides to help, although Mike comes up with his own radical solution; (6) Mike and Laura have one final obstacle to their fine romance, namely, where he can park his van in her neighborhood; (7) Mike and Laura finally get to the morning after and are not quite sure what to do about it; (8) Laura comes up with a new client for Mike's business and if she really understood landscaping she would realize she has not done him a favor; and (9) Laura does not like to go to the dentist, so she is given something that not only makes it so she does not mind, but makes her extremely amorous towards Mike.

The results are charming and the key ingredient here is not the chemistry between a pair of leads who happen to be married to each other, but the fact that Dench's character tends to get hoisted on her considerable array of petards in rather endearing fashions (plus she sings the theme song herself). Laura is never going to admit that she is wrong, at least not explicitly, which makes her implicit admissions rather touching. Just because she cares is no reason for anybody to realize that she cares, although Mike learns to read between the lines after a while. During these first episodes the series finds its footing, which means getting rid of eccentrics the likes of Harry (Geoffrey Rose) so that the focus can be on Laura and Mike's fine romance. The economic conditions of the British middle class at that time also becomes part of the equation as Mike's fortunes are put into question. The results are not classic television but certainly enjoyable enough, especially for fans of Dame Judi.

Just for the record, "A Fine Romance" was also the name of an American romantic comedy mystery series in 1989 with Christopher Cazenove as Michael Trent, a stogy Cambridge professor, and Margaret Whitton as Louisa Phillips, a sharp tongued New Yorker. They were a divorced couple who hosted "Ticket to Ride," a travel show, and found a mystery to solve each week in a different exotic locale. So this was not an American version of a British television show, like is often the case (e.g., "Coupling," "The Office").

I bought A Fine Romane because I enjoyed "As Time Goes By" so much and a big fan of Judi Dench. I have to say however I was somewhat disappointed. Even though Judi Dench was married to Michael Williams in real life, there didn't seem to be any chemisty between them. I've also bought the second set of A Fine Romance, but doubt I will buy the third and final set. It hasn't given me enough to care how it ends.

Judi Dench fans will enjoy this series she did with her late husband. Not as good as the series "As Time Goes By", nevertheless it's quite enjoyable.