The BEST episodes written by Bob Larbey

You Can't Manufacture Happy Endings for Everybody
star
8.53
121 votes

#1 - You Can't Manufacture Happy Endings for Everybody

As Time Goes By - Season 9 - Episode 1

Alistair has finally proposed to Judith, needless to say there are complications as Judith plans for a country wedding and realisation strikes confirmed bachelor Alistair.

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Animal Magnetism
star
8.34
115 votes

#2 - Animal Magnetism

As Time Goes By - Season 8 - Episode 2

Lionel trys to convince Jean that a dog has been following him. Judy and Sandy come home with the very dog that was following him. The women want to keep the dog but, Lionel wants to take him to the shelter so they can find his owner. The owner contacts the police and Harry brings him around to get the dog. Since Judy won't go with him to a party, Alistair invites Sandy and she excepts. Meanwhile Harry asks Judy to go to the movies with him and she excepts.

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Visiting Rocky
star
8.30
163 votes

#3 - Visiting Rocky

As Time Goes By - Season 2 - Episode 3

Lionel takes Jean to see his eccentric father Rocky, the complete opposite of Lionel's gruff self.

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You Must Remember This
star
8.25
216 votes

#4 - You Must Remember This

As Time Goes By - Season 1 - Episode 1

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.

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The Thing in the Cellar
star
8.10
61 votes

#5 - The Thing in the Cellar

The Good Life (1975) - Season 1 - Episode 5

Tom puts the finishing touches to their own electricity generator in the cellar, which runs on their animals' waste. He then goes fishing with Jerry, and decides to store the surplus in the freezer, until the generator plays up...

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Why?
star
8.08
154 votes

#6 - Why?

As Time Goes By - Season 2 - Episode 4

Lionel wonders why Alistair, a rich, successful publisher would be interested in publishing Lionel's less-than-blockbuster book.

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White Hunter
star
8.05
155 votes

#7 - White Hunter

As Time Goes By - Season 2 - Episode 1

Lionel is nervous regarding an upcoming photo shoot for the cover of his book. Despite advice from Jean and Judith that whatever helps sell the book is worth it, Lionel is completely taken aback by what Alistair has in mind.

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The Pagan Rite
star
8.02
53 votes

#8 - The Pagan Rite

The Good Life (1975) - Season 1 - Episode 6

In order to pay for a treat for Barbara, Tom takes a short contract from his old firm, and tries to keep it a secret from her - but his plan is foiled when he fails to account for Margo's nosiness.

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The Copper Kettle
star
8.00
173 votes

#9 - The Copper Kettle

As Time Goes By - Season 1 - Episode 3

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.

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A Weekend Away
star
7.93
156 votes

#10 - A Weekend Away

As Time Goes By - Season 2 - Episode 2

Jean is put on the spot when Judith goes away for the weekend, and the house is left empty. She is somewhat flustered with all the suggestive comments regarding her and Lionel, and makes a fool of herself.

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The Cruise
star
7.91
180 votes

#11 - The Cruise

As Time Goes By - Season 2 - Episode 6

Jean becomes angry when Lionel invites her along on a cruise as a 'freebie'.

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Misunderstandings
star
7.90
155 votes

#12 - Misunderstandings

As Time Goes By - Season 2 - Episode 5

During a weekend at Jean's sister-in-law's house, Jean and Lionel invent more and more ridiculous claims to cover-up their romance thirty-eight years ago.

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The Picnic
star
7.89
191 votes

#13 - The Picnic

As Time Goes By - Season 1 - Episode 6

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...

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Surprise, Surprise
star
7.88
191 votes

#14 - Surprise, Surprise

As Time Goes By - Season 1 - Episode 4

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.

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Relationships
star
7.86
192 votes

#15 - Relationships

As Time Goes By - Season 1 - Episode 5

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.

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Another Proposal
star
7.84
118 votes

#16 - Another Proposal

As Time Goes By - Season 9 - Episode 2

Judy and Alistair make plans for their upcoming wedding and decide that a country wedding at the big house would be perfect. But when Alistair begins to take things out of control, Judy starts to worry about the wedding becoming more than just a quiet affair.

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Getting to Know You --- Again
star
7.83
136 votes

#17 - Getting to Know You --- Again

As Time Goes By - Season 1 - Episode 2

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.

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Plough Your Own Furrow
star
7.63
97 votes

#18 - Plough Your Own Furrow

The Good Life (1975) - Season 1 - Episode 1

After he has celebrated his 40th birthday Tom decides that he is unhappy with his life style so he packs his job in, farms his large garden and becomes self sufficient.

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Pig's Lib
star
7.54
57 votes

#19 - Pig's Lib

The Good Life (1975) - Season 1 - Episode 4

The Goods continue their bartering with local suppliers, but Barbara has a misunderstanding while negotiating with the window-cleaner. They then add a pair of pigs in a sty to their back garden, at which Margo is so appalled she brings in the chairman of the local residents' association to persuade them out of it, but is unsuccessful. However, when one escapes into the Leadbetter's garden, she can only be mollified by getting rid of it.

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You Must Remember This
star
7.54
48 votes

#20 - You Must Remember This

As Time Goes By - Season 9 - Episode 5

On their own at last, with Alistair and Judith married off and Sally and Harry gone to Canada, Jean and Lionel take a look back on their life together in a one-hour retrospective featuring clips from past episodes.

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Say Little Hen...
star
7.51
82 votes

#21 - Say Little Hen...

The Good Life (1975) - Season 1 - Episode 2

The Goods install the first chickens in their chicken coop, but they prove slow to lay their first eggs. Incensed by the condescension of the Leadbetters when they are invited to dinner together with Tom's former boss & his wife, the Goods decide to sacrifice one of the chickens to make a show of their not being as poor as the Leadbetters think.

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The Weaker Sex?
star
7.44
110 votes

#22 - The Weaker Sex?

The Good Life (1975) - Season 1 - Episode 3

Tom buys an old-fashioned range for their kitchen from a passing rag-and-bone man, but Barbara becomes irate when she ends up doing most of the hard work to get it ready for use, while he tries to make a system for scaring the birds off their crops.

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Backs to the Wall
star
6.89
78 votes

#23 - Backs to the Wall

The Good Life (1975) - Season 1 - Episode 7

While starting the harvest, Tom injures his back digging,and since Margo and Jerry are on holiday Barbara is left to look after the farm all on her own. A storm then adds to their problems by turning their garden into a mud bath.

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