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Daily Mail
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Hidden gem BBC period drama dubbed ‘better than Downton Abbey' returns to screens a whopping 18 years after original broadcast
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. From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMail's new Showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. 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.
The Guardian
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Paul Mescal says comparing his film romance with Josh O'Connor to Brokeback Mountain is ‘lazy and frustrating'
The actor Paul Mescal has hit out at critics who have drawn comparisons between The History of Sound, a gay romance in which he stars opposite Josh O'Connor, and Ang Lee's landmark western Brokeback Mountain. Speaking at a press conference in Cannes the day after the film's premiere, Mescal – who followed a supporting performance in Andrew Haigh's acclaimed gay ghost story All of Us Strangers with playing the lead in Ridley Scott's Gladiator II – said he believes cinema is 'moving away' from alpha male roles. In The History of Sound, directed by Oliver Hermanus, whose Kurosawa remake Living scored an Oscar nomination for Bill Nighy three years ago, Mescal and O'Connor play musicologists who travel to New England just after the first world war to record the folk songs of their rural countrymen. 'It's ever-shifting,' said Mescal. 'I think maybe in cinema we're moving away from the traditional, alpha, leading male characters. I don't think the film is defining or attempting to redefine masculinity, I think it is being very subjective to the relationship between [their characters] Lionel and David.' Asked whether he was pleased by comparisons some critics had drawn with Brokeback Mountain, in which Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal star as ranchers who fall in love in 1950s Wyoming, Mescal rejected the idea. 'I personally don't see the parallels at all with Brokeback Mountain, other than we spent a little time in a tent,' he said. Lee's drama, which controversially lost out on a best picture Oscar to Crash in 2003, is, continued Mescal, 'a beautiful film but it is dealing with the idea of repression … I find those comparisons relatively lazy and frustrating, but for the most part I think the relationship I have to the film is born out of the fact that it's a celebration between these men's love and not the repression of their sexuality.' Mescal then praised his absent co-star O'Connor, who made his name in Francis Lee's queer drama God's Own Country and is now finishing production on Steven Spielberg's next film, calling him 'one of the easiest persons' to establish a rapport with. 'Josh has a great gift,' he said. 'The person who the general public sees is very similar to the one that we know and I think that's very difficult for an actor in today's age to do. 'We've known each other for about five years and we were definitely friendly so that foundation of safety and play was there, but that relationship really deepened in the three or four weeks we were filming.' The actor said their bond was further deepened by a shared love of the hard candy Jolly Ranchers. 'It sounds kind of coy but Josh is just incredibly silly to me,' said Mescal. 'We got fixated on this diet drink during the shooting process but we would also become fixated on having eight Jolly Ranchers a day … There's a microcosm to our relationship that I think of Josh and I think of jolly ranchers.' The History of Sound was warmly greeted at its Cannes premiere on Wednesday evening, although with not quite the same rapturous reception as the later film to screen that evening, Sentimental Value. O'Connor will also be seen in another film premiering on Friday at the festival, Kelly Reichardt's The Mastermind. Later this year Mescal will star as William Shakespeare opposite Jesse Buckley in Chloé Zhao's adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell's novel Hamnet.
