As my grandmother can tell you, I am a huge fan of the 90's early 2000's British Romantic sitcom, "As Time Goes By". It stars Judi Dench (middle) as Jean Pargeter (later Hardcastle), a woman in her early sixties who runs a secretarial agency with her daughter Judy (Moira Brooker, on Judi Dench's right), and Geoffrey Palmer (next to Judi Dench) as Lionel Hardcastle, a man in his late sixties who is a writer, and formerly ran a coffee plantation in Kenya. Lionel and Jean were sweethearts when they were teenagers. They were separated when Lionel went off to serve in Korea. 38 years later they reunite and rekindle their romance. The series also stars Philip Bretherton (far left) as Lionel's book publisher and Judy's love interest, Alistair Deacon. Jenny Funnell (far right) as Jean's secretary and Judy's best friend. It would take too long to explain the whole show. Just take my word for it, it is wonderful, funny, and romantic. Well, my point to this is that, while I was planning my trip to London, I got to thinking..."I wonder if you can find these real places they used in the series. I searched for a while online until I found a site that displays where TV series and movies were filmed. Below is what I have found. I shall only provide the picture of the location as well as its address. Note: most of these locations are probably public residents, NOT MUSEUMS! To see the complete list of "As Time Goes By" locations in and out of London click the link below. Also, to watch "As Time Goes By" click on the You Tube link below. An account named "bklyngyrl75" was nice enough to publish the whole series into a series of playlists based on seasons. But a few of them have been removed. If you wish to buy them, they are all on Amazon on DVD or instant video. I really suggest you watch it. It is quintessential British Romantic Comedy! Cheers!
44 Comments
Harry Mink
10/25/2016 06:09:20 pm
I love the show wish there were more like this
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Steve
1/6/2017 01:48:13 pm
Any one know anything about Rocky's house in Hampshire?
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9/2/2017 12:30:13 pm
We love British sitcoms over here in the U.S. (At least in our family). We find it a refreshing change from a lot of the junk TV we find on a lot of American networks. Thanks for sharing some of your wonderful television locations in the U.K.
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10/11/2017 10:57:21 pm
Dear Mike and Terri. You are certainly quite right about the mostly lousy American television programming today. So much of what Hollywood cranks out has degraded into embarrassment over the last few decades. I've turned to British programming as a result. I hope that the original productions of Amazon and Netflix and other independents effectively disassemble the old Hollywood guard and completely revamp both filmed production and distribution. Time for Hollywood's candle to blow out completely.
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David Lynn
12/25/2020 11:54:57 pm
Stay in England a Country where they still bowing to a queen and princess how modern 😆 8/9/2018 11:58:12 pm
I continue to agree! As Time Goes By is brilliant comedy. Far too much of American TV program is horrendous these days. Culturally Americans are very dumbed down. Part of American higher education should be forced travel and study in a foreign country for a semester or two, so we build a nation of worldly people.
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10/11/2017 10:52:24 pm
AS TIME GOES by is one of my favorite shows. I purchased the DVD set to watch the episodes over and over again. Has anyone drawn an estimated floor plan of Jean's townhouse?
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Sue Perkins
2/12/2018 10:04:01 pm
Yes I have.
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Lily Livard
7/14/2021 03:42:29 pm
Nope.
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Sue Perkins
2/12/2018 10:03:26 pm
I also bought the dvd series and I watch it every night 1 - 4 episodes. I just love it. My husband now watches as well. And silly as it seems, I have drawn the floor plan.
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2/12/2018 11:37:02 pm
If I ever can get the money together for a trio to England -- I've LONG wanted to go to London -- I will need to visit the outside of Jean's house, and other locales for the TV show.
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Jack Splatt
7/14/2021 03:44:27 pm
Why not make it a quartet instead of a trio?
Steve
9/7/2018 04:00:12 pm
Love to see them. Also do you have such for Rocky’s house?
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Gay goodfellow
4/5/2020 06:45:21 pm
I'm sure we'd all love to see your floorplan for jean's townhouse on As Time Goes By. The kitchen location is a mystery that needs to be solved!
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Nigel Rowe
2/7/2023 07:45:03 am
I would love to see the floorplan! I did find one a few years back in a For Sale website, but can't find any now. You go down the hall to the end, turn left where there is a staircase going down to the lower ground floor. At the bottom, turn left (so you are going under the living room), left again and the kitchen door is on the left. Go through this and you are in the kitchen!
Nigel
3/11/2024 06:40:35 am
Here is a floorplan which might help solve the issue: 2/12/2018 11:33:45 pm
Hi Sue Perkins! I unsubscribed by accident. Hope you see this message. I have tried to draw a floor plan too, but I get messed up with the position of the kitchen. If you go down the main hallway to the end, and turn left, you enter the kitchen. BUT the width of the main staircase is not taken into account if you look carefully. So the TV sound stage set for the kitchen must be separate from the rest of the first floor living space. I have obsessed over this a bit, because I love the show very much, and if I had enough money I'd recreate Jean's house to exacting dimensions and styles to vacation in on weekends! I'd also LIKE to building a 1/4' scale model of Jean's home. I used to build architectural models from scratch.
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Elizabeth
12/2/2018 12:38:28 am
I thought I was the only person that thought about the floor plan and tried to figure out the kitchen! Re-watching the dvd series and my wondering about the house brought me here. Great to see others with great taste in British programming.
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12/2/2018 01:39:27 am
Hi Elizabeth: I can't make sense of the kitchen at all, and I studied residential architecture for two years and built many house models from scratch with balsa wood and cardboard. If you look at how the actors move into and out of the kitchen, the kitchen has to be down that hallway to the right of the main staircase, and then left of the wall at the rear of that hallway. If the kitchen were directly off the back then it would be blocking the rear living room/office window. But the kitchen cannot be oriented to the left of the back of the main staircase because then the rear garden kitchen door would open out to the left of the flat -- and right into the flat next door. So, basically, the set designers did not care about any logic regarding the placement, orientation, or size of the kitchen. Shame, because it frustrates me! LOL.
Terren
11/10/2019 09:23:29 pm
Most houses like this have the kitchen down a floor. you do not hear them going down steps into the kitchen on the show but the kitchen must be under the lounge.
Randy
8/9/2018 11:17:30 pm
After a bit of Street View sleuthing, I believe Lionel's flat is located at 14 Holland Park Gardens, Holland Park. What do you think?
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Joan Skapczyk-Alabakis
9/7/2018 03:18:47 pm
I love all of your thoughts!! One of my biggest questions is about that incredible Hampshire home!! I once read it was the manse of a church or something like that, and the church is actually seen in some episodes. I only also read that it had been sold and is now a private residence. I still would like to know more.
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Charlotte
1/12/2019 03:39:57 pm
Holy custard tart! I thought that I was the only one to draw Jean's house plan! Look at a house for sale on Addison in Holland Park to see the exact sitting rooms and similar house plan drawing (3 mil, in case you have your checkbook handy). Their kitchen is on lowest floor. The bedroom floor is called the first floor, which is why Jean was going to put a second bathroom on the first floor. The sitting room floor is the ground floor. There's no way that the kitchen could be on the ground floor behind the staircase. Once I realized that the stairway makes a right turn halfway up, i could figure out the upstairs layout. The stairway to Sandy's room ends at a landing. You turn right and right again to get to her door, I think. The best scene that shows the upstairs is when Lionel is coughing at the bathroom door. Check out the website As Time Goes By locations index at tvlocations. I am now watching To the Manor Born and Good Neighbors on old video tapes. American tv comedies pale by comparison.
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J M Taylor
10/9/2019 06:20:27 am
I'm sat watching it now season 2 episode 3, I love love love this show, plus my mum looked so so much like Judy Dench and now she is no longer with me I find it quite comforting when I watch it, I also have all dvd's.
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Johnny G
12/24/2019 02:57:20 pm
Hello everyone. I’m so glad to see that I’m in good company when it comes to being a fan of “As Time Goes By”!
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Melissa
3/13/2020 08:23:14 pm
In season 3 episode 1 ‘Problems Problems’ (1994) they show art work of a man in a hat in Lionel’s flat when he and Allister are speaking, does anyone know that piece of art or the artist?
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Sue R.
4/3/2020 11:12:13 pm
I'm so glad that I'm not the only one studying the architectural details! Shows how much it's integral to the show, think! Studied this in school too, and I confess, when I watch the show I can't help but wonder about the kitchen location too, as well as the basement/cellar. It's mentioned several times in the show, and I know many Regency townhomes feature kitchens below ground (think "Upstairs, Downstairs"). So, how would they access this? No stairs in the front, and apparently none in back or from a staircase in the interior (kept hoping the interior staircase would also access the cellar from that closet, but apparently no). Frankly, it would totally freak me out to have a cellar that anyone could break into and wandering about in, but me not able to access myself, yikes! Just another of those production design things, I'm sure though, so no worries! And, Melissa, you have me curious now, so will have to watch that episode from Season 3 and look at the painting. Hopefully, someone will help with the painter!
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Ken C
9/20/2020 01:56:07 pm
Has anyone noticed that there are two sets for the kitchen? One set has a door to the garden. The other set has no door.
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Billie Garrett
7/17/2021 10:49:23 am
I thought I was the only one to notice that the backdoor from the kitchen to the garden comes and goes. 😆
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Gay Goodfellow
9/20/2020 04:29:11 pm
No I hadn't noticed the kitchen with no door -- good catch, Ken.
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1/3/2021 04:30:27 pm
I'm from the United States of America and I live in Michigan I watch this show all the time I love this show as time goes by I wish they were still filming. The show is so down-to-earth family friendly. I can watch episode after episode over and over again and never get tired of them. I how they film and make it feel like you're really there. They have people eating using bathroom going out shopping doing laundry real stuff and they wear real clothes. Not all dressed up like the soap operas in the United States. It's funny and serious and is such a nice show to watch. Every character is so sweet .I love Jean and Lionel's home and all the other locations that they film. I wish I could find more British shows on TV. Cindy from the United States of America Chesterfield Michigan
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Judy
2/3/2021 02:20:57 pm
As you all are discussing the kitchen layout and I agree, it is strange. I was always bothered about the window in Jean's bedroom. They are always looking out that window to the street but Jean's bedroom is in the back of the house according to the layout of the upstairs. There is no way they could see the street from her room, maybe the back garden.... I know this is crazy but just one of those things!!
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Lucy
2/21/2021 06:06:03 am
Is there a dining room in Jean's house? where do they eat when Penny and Steven visit?
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Judith
3/4/2021 07:54:55 pm
I have worried about that kitchen too. But I know it is definitely downstairs, but how do they get there? This is similar to The Golden Girls, which is a very funny American SitCom. Their bedrooms are down a passage off the living-room, but would be in the middle of the kitchen in reality.
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Mary Moran
1/6/2023 08:05:13 pm
I love the blue and white abstract painting in the front hall, just inside the doorway. Anyone have any information on it?
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Sheryl Perry
1/17/2023 11:39:33 am
I've been watching and rewatching this show since 2010. I cannot explain why, but it has a calming effect on me. Whenever I feel everything is topsy turvy, I switch on this show and I feel immediate relief. Having spent four months in England years ago, I especially love that someone has taken the time and effort to pinpoint the actual places of filming!
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Kelly
11/18/2023 09:16:23 am
Hi Sheryl, if you IMDB the show they will give you a list of shows similar to this one. This show is my all time favorite. It is actually my 'happy place'. Then The Vicor of Dibley with Dawn French. The list goes on...
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Troy Seymour
12/22/2023 02:46:16 pm
My wife and I started watching this during Covid. I watched it years ago on PBS on Sunday evenings and had sort of forgot about it. We watch one episode a night all the way through. After two days, we start it over again. We have been through several times now and always notice something new. We cannot explain why this show does not get old but it doesn’t. Neither of us have watched American television in 20 years other than college football. I watch British and Australian television exclusively using Britbox, Acorn, etc. I enjoy history and you learn history watching this type of television. Our favorite show by far - very well done. A proper comedy.
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Tess
8/7/2023 05:58:08 am
Does anyone know where the bench in Hyde Park or Holland park is where they're at when they do the clapping next to the young kids and eat their lunch?
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Judy McGougan
1/30/2024 01:34:59 am
I love love love As Time Goes By. Have any of you noticed the small fold down desk beside the fireplace? With only one or two exceptions, the desk remains closed.. I have seen it open with some clutter showing and believe this must me an error. What great rapport this couple has,
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Joanne O’Dwyer
3/10/2024 08:04:53 pm
I have the DVD set of the series, I love this programme and Judy Dench. She’s just amazing. There’s something so calming and happy watching this programme. The characters are wonderful, Moira Brooker is just beautiful, so sweet, Alistair, is so much fun a bottle of pop, Lionel, & Jean just Marvellous their conversations and wit.
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