Plot
Second Lieutenant Lionel Hardcastle and Middlesex Hospital nurse Jean Pargetter met in the summer of 1953 and fell head over heels in love, but then Lionel was posted to Korea. When he wrote to give her his mailing address there, the letter went astray. Jean assumed he had lost interest in her and stubbornly refused to ask the army to locate him; he, in turn, decided she must have lost interest in him.
After his war service, Lionel emigrated to Kenya, became a coffee planter, and married Margaret, whom he later divorced due to "mutual boredom". Some time after his divorce he returned to England. Meanwhile, Jean had also married and borne one child, Judith. After her husband's death, Jean opened "Type for You", a secretarial agency. Judith, 35 years old during the series, is twice divorced (from Ken, who had "sad eyes", and Edward, who was "very clever"); during most of the series, she lives with her mother and works at the secretarial agency.
Lionel, now writing his memoir, My Life in Kenya, hires a typist through "Type for You", unaware that Jean owns the agency. He and Jean first meet again when Lionel picks up Judith for a dinner date. Although Lionel and Jean's reunion is full of missteps and miscues, their romance gradually rekindles. In the third series, Lionel moves into Jean's house in Holland Park, London; they marry during the fourth series.
Lionel's memoir is published by Alistair Deacon, a go-getting entrepreneur much younger than Lionel. When pressed by Lionel, Alistair eventually admits that he only agreed to publish the book as a favour to Lionel's father, whose loan to Alistair's father was the foundation of Alistair's wealth; but he works hard for the success of the book and over time he becomes good friends with Lionel and Jean. Alistair is a vain ladies' man and likes to call Lionel "Li", but he is also good-hearted and energetic, and proves resourceful enough to handle many situations that arise.
In the first series, Judith develops a crush on Lionel while Alistair takes a similar interest in Jean and likes to call her "lovely lady". Both crushes are brief; eventually, Judith and Alistair fall for each other and, in the final series, marry. Other story arcs feature Lionel being asked to write an American TV mini-series, Just Two People, based on his early romance with Jean. The mini-series fails after much rewriting and network interference. Jean eventually retires from "Type for You" and later volunteers at a charity shop.
Jean's very efficient secretary and Judith's best friend is Sandy, who eventually moves in with the Hardcastles after splitting with her boyfriend Nick. After Jean's retirement, Judy and Sandy become co-managers of "Type for You". Sandy dates Harry, a policeman and amateur rugby player, whom she marries at the end of the series. Sandy's last name is never revealed on the show.
Other notable characters include Lionel's irrepressible father Rocky, whose favourite saying is "Rock on!" and who owns a large country house in Hampshire, which he later gives to Lionel; Rocky's housekeeper, Mrs. Bale, who has an unusual interest in the Shipping Forecast and gives exact times that meals will be ready; Rocky's gardener, Lol Ferris, who says Jean is a "tender woman"; and Lionel's glamorous young secretary Daisy, who firmly repels Alistair's clumsy efforts to chat her up every time they meet. In series 3 of the show, Lionel is told by Rocky's physician that his father has less than a year to live, but this plotline was dropped and Rocky continued to appear throughout the show's later series, including the final "Christmas Specials" in 2005.
Rocky marries Madge, who is as much a character as Rocky is, when he is 85 and she is 78 (Rocky features in the 2005 Christmas Special, where he must be around 97 years old). They travel the world, are country and western music fans, tool about in Madge's classic Cadillac convertible (with steer horns on the grille), and hang out at the local pub, where Madge sings. In series nine, Madge is mentioned as being on an archaeological dig in Egypt; in reality, Joan Sims died before filming began. Also appearing many times are Penny, the meddling, neurotic sister of Jean's late first husband, who calls Jean "poor Jean", and Penny's well-meaning but dull dentist husband, Stephen, who once accidentally declined an OBE. [6]
