The Link Between Assumption and Cowardice

In a second-series episode of the British TV show “As Time Goes By,” Lionel is awakened from a Sunday afternoon nap by the front doorbell.  His caller is his publisher Alistair, who wants to give him a pamphlet regarding the upcoming launch of Lionel’s book My Life in Kenya.  Lionel is surprised by the visit, in part because Alistair had told him that he would be out of town this weekend.  When Lionel asks if Jean’s daughter Judith was disappointed that business disrupted his plans, he explains to a mystified Alistair that Judith also made plans for a weekend away, and Jean had assumed that the two were together.  After revealing that his weekend plans never involved Judith, Alistair, a hip mover-and-shaker, who is always looking for a new catch phrase, comes up with this: “Assumption doth make cowards of us all.”  Lionel recognizes this for what it is, a twist on Shakespeare’s “Conscience doth make cowards of us all,” from Hamlet’s great “To be or not to be” speech.  He bats down Alistair’s new catch phrase with, “That’s misquoted and doesn’t make sense.”  Alistair then asks if he’s going over to Jean’s tonight: he, like everyone else (except Lionel) assumes that, with Judith out of Jean’s hair, Lionel will trot over to her house with romance on his mind.

What Judith and Alistair fail to understand is this: while Jean and Lionel were once in love, that was thirty-eight years ago, before Lionel went off to fight in Korea.  The two have begun building a new friendship together, but neither is ready to resume their original romance.  Lionel tells Alistair of how Jean has been acting flighty ever since Judith announced that she would be leaving town, and how she told him that she would be unable to see him all weekend because she had work to catch up on.  Alistair suggests that she is merely suffering from “big match nerves.”  

Disgusted, Lionel visits Jean.  He confronts her as to why she assumed that, with Judith away, he might “lose control” and press her to take their relationship to a level neither yet feels ready for.  She is chagrined to admit that yes, she didn’t really trust him with that opportunity.  However, she also admits that, with the house to themselves, she had feared that she might get carried away, and do something that both would regret later.

Ironically, Alistair’s spur-of-the-moment catch phrase applies not only to Lionel and Jean’s current situation, but also to how the couple originally lost touch.  When Lionel arrived in Korea, he sent her a letter, letting her know how much he missed her, and how she could get in contact with him.  She never received that letter, and consequently assumed that he had not written.  Likewise, when he received no reply, he assumed that their whirlwind romance had been too good to be true, and did not pursue the matter with a second letter.  Neither possessed sufficient belief in their own worthiness.  Instead, each assumed that, once they had been separated, the other had realized how ill-suited they were, and thus decided to break off the relationship.  Consequently, Lionel went off to grow coffee in Kenya after his stint in Korea, and there, plagued by loneliness, eventually married a woman he did not love just to have someone to talk to.  (Predictably, their marriage failed).  While Jean eventually fell in love again, married, and gave birth to Judith, she endured many years of loneliness after the death of her husband.

As the series focuses primarily upon Lionel and Jean, we tend to identify with them when, ironically, we should be identifying with Alistair and Judith.  After all, while Jean has made a success of her secretarial agency, the way life has repeatedly taken from her the men she loved has caused her to give up trying to meet another who might banish her loneliness.  Likewise, Lionel has always grasped what easily came to hand.  Now, after a change of law in Kenya, he is back in London with nothing to show for all his years of farming, and afraid of risking another relationship with Jean.  The book deal with Alistair fell into his lap, so he took it.


In contrast with Lionel and Jean's caution and reluctance to risk, Alistair lives life at a frenetic pace.  A cauldron constantly bubbling-over with ideas, he never worries about looking silly, and is always willing to chance his hand at any opportunity life throws his way.  It is he who risks publishing Lionel’s book; it is he who finagles it into a lecture tour for Lionel; it is he who will eventually secure a mini-series (based on Lionel and Jean’s initial love affair) for network TV in America.  As a result of his willingness to constantly risk his reputation and resources, Alistair has a long list of contacts that can aid him in any situation that comes his way, and needless to say, has millions in the bank.  And while Judith lacks Jean's work ethic and Alister's success, she likewise looks to the future for hope.  With two divorces behind her, she still looks for another with whom she can share her hopes and dreams.  She is not disillusioned by failure and loss; she stands ready to clutch onto any opportunity that passes her way.

“To be, or not to be,” is the question that “As Time Goes By” poses.  Will we remain content with what we have, or will we throw caution to the winds?  Will we remain like Lionel and Jean, or will we try to graft a little of Alistair and Judith onto ourselves?  I know who I have been.  I know who I would love to become.  The only question remains how hard I am willing to work, and how much I am willing to risk, in order to become that which I wish to be.

In addition to series’ writer Bob Larbey, I must also credit a comment by SFWA Grand Master Robert Silverberg as the inspiration for this entry.  “As Time Goes By” was a British comedy that lasted for nine series and spawned two reunion specials.  The series is available on DVD (and well worth seeking out).