Hidden gem BBC period drama dubbed ‘better than Downton Abbey' returns to screens a whopping 18 years after original broadcast

Daily Mail​

2 days ago

An overlooked diamond from the BBC archive has received acclaim from watchers, who have compared it to the multi-award-winning Downton Abbey - a titan of British TV.
Lilies, which premiered in 2007, had an eight-episode run, and followed the story of three sisters living with their father and brother in post-WWI Liverpool.
Iris (played by Catherine Tyldesley), Mary (Leanne Rowe) and Ruby Moss (Kerrie Hayes) come of age in a family living on the breadline.
The sisters, though vastly different, go through the simultaneous experience of launching their adult lives for the first time, navigating poverty, passion and prejudice.
The show was the brainchild of Heidi Thomas (creator of Call the Midwife), who was inspired to write it from the stories that her grandmother told her of growing up in post-war Liverpool.
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The show is close to home for Thomas, with some aspects being a raw, direct televisation of her grandmother's anecdotes.
'The end result is not a series about my family,' she notes, 'but a series about the family that might have lived next door.'
'There's not one single episode that doesn't contain something handed down in anecdote.'
The series was praised for its compelling storyline and strong performance, however, it was not renewed past eight episodes, with the last episode to date airing on February 29, 2007.
Producer Chrissy Skinns, whose credentials include The Last Kingdom, A Spy Among Friends and Elizabeth is Missing, was instantly mesmerised by the script once it crossed her desk.
'The Lilies scripts were quite unlike anything I had read before,' she said.
'They were funny, surprising, and made me cry. Above all else, I knew that the Mosses were a family I instantly cared about, and wanted to spend time with.'
Fans are equally as mesmerised, with one rating it 10/10 on IMDB, penning: 'This series is brilliantly written and beautifully realized. Like Heidi Thomas' more recent effort CALL THE MIDWIFE, it seems coy, but tackles difficult topics head-on and without blinking.
'This was such a massive hit in the UK that a fervent campaign for more seasons resulted in nearly a year of developmental meetings and script experiments. In the end, it was decided not to tamper with it, it's that perfect'
Another wrote: 'I came across this at the small local library near where I live and it had such a high imdb rating that I had to check it out---and I'm glad I did.
'Connected stories of a families troubles in England, 1920. It was so well written that you find yourself rooting for the different characters, and their setbacks tug at your emotions. Looking at the film extra's section after I viewed it, I was surprised to see how they made the set because it all seemed so realistic.'
Viewers have gushed that the show even supersedes the quality of Julian Fellowes' hit ITV series Downton Abbey, which was released three years later, in 2010.