Product Description

From the vaults of British television comes a comedy gem starring two consummate actors who were also a couple in real life: Dame Judi Dench (Iris, Shakespeare in Love) and her husband Michael Williams (Educating Rita). They play a pair of middle-aged, dating-game dropouts as wary of romance as they are perfect for each other.

Laura, a brainy translator, and Mike, a shy landscape gardener, are introduced by Laura’s glamorous younger sister, who is intent on finding a mate for her spinsterish sibling. Awkward and rumpled, Mike drives an old wreck and fails to impress the prickly Laura. Still, Mike senses an opportunity, if only he can find the courage to pursue it. From this unpromising beginning, the pair lurch and swerve their way to companionship, friendship, and, finally, love. This is a fine, funny, and all-too-real romance. Written by Bob Larbey (As Time Goes By).

DVD SPECIAL FEATURES INCLUDE cast and crew biographies and episode selection.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #24344 in DVD
• Brand: Acorn
• Released on: 2004-07-06
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 6
• Running time: 650 minutes

Amazon.com
As the Jerome Kern-Dorothy Fields standard goes, this is A Fine Romance, a smart and low-key 1981 British series starring Oscar-winning Judi Dench and her real-life husband, Michael Williams, as a mismatched couple. In the first nine episodes, a comedy of errors keeps linguist Laura (currently translating a German textbook on urinary infections) and struggling landscape gardener Michael from hooking up romantically. It is, to again quote the song, a fine romance with no kisses (at least not until episode 6). Like Glenda Jackson, Dench excels at portraying prickly women of fierce intelligence who possess a quick wit and a sharp tongue, and who do not suffer fools. "I don't have any small talk," she complains to her matchmaking sister at a party. "Or any medium talk." Williams has a rumpled Dudley Moore quality as sad-sack Michael, "the odd single chap for the odd single girl." He is, as one character notes, "second division": quiet, nervous, short, and shy. His desperate attempts to find common ground with Laura--witness their ill-fated excursion to an ethnic mask museum exhibit in episode 2--make up much of the humor of these initial episodes.

In the nine episodes that comprise the second season. the mismatched couple moves in together, deal with jealousy, throw an ill-fated dinner party, fret over Mike's struggling business, meet Laura's parents, and in the poignant cliffhanger, contemplate parenthood (she wants a baby, he does not). You don't have to be British to enjoy this intimately observed human comedy (there is nothing like it on American television). But in the case of one episode's running joke, in which Mike is mistaken for some obscure (in this country, at any rate) celebrity, it no doubt helps.

Do Mike and Laura appear to be in shambles in the final eight episodes? Laura is much more sympathetic and vulnerable in these poignant episodes (she won Britain's equivalent of the Emmy) as she contends with Mike's reluctance to become a parent, his new girlfriend, and ultimately, his shouted marriage proposal. A final crisis involving their dream farmhouse seems to be "the final reckoning" for the luckless couple. Not to worry: A Fine Romance ends on a welcome and satisfyingly graceful note. --Donald Liebenson

Customer Reviews

A Very Enjoyable Light, Romantic British Comedy!
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.

The set contains the all twenty-six 25-minute episodes of this sweet, charming, relaxing and thoroughly enjoyable series, which I highly recommend to fans of As Time Goes By. 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.

Do you love "As Time Goes By"?
Then you MUST buy this complete series. It is different, but wonderful. Dame Judi and Bob Larbey (the author of both this and "As Time Goes By") shine. Judi Dench plays opposite her now deceased husband, Michael Williams, and they are a real treat. Playing a middle-aged couple who miss as often as they click, they show, through real acting skills, what this crazy thing called love is.
I bought this, not having heard a word, or seen a bit. Because I so enjoyed "As Time Goes By". I sat down with my mom and we laughed and cried and just loved it.
DO NOT hestitate-for this cannot be available much longer-it is over 20 years old. Just go for it...you won't be sorry.

Loved the series!
Judi Dench is so great at this type of comedy.
I would have loved to have seen her in something of Neil Simons.
Her gift for repartee is impressive. As a long time watcher of
"As Time goes By" I was delighted to find this series.
Rather bittersweet that it was made with her husband, who she lost after a long and I gather successful marriage.