Lilies (2007) User Reviews

DVD's desperately need subtitles.Good news, subtitles now available.

[richardbentz · 9/10 · 15 November 2016]

Review edit by Richard. RLJ Entertainment & Acorn TV has re-released the series and added subtitles. Look for that before purchase if important to you.

Original review by Richard I tried to watch this series on DVD and it looks like it would be enjoyable. However, without subtitles it is impossible for this American.

I just cannot understand the dialog. I get about 1 out of every 2 words.

The DVD's desperately need subtitles. The producers are missing a willing audience in the USA. This is a common problem with many BBC productions that fail to add subtitles. The amount of strain and concentration required to "TRY" to catch the meaning just makes the entire experience unpleasant.

Richard

Heartwarming

[skrw2011 · 9/10 · 21 March 2019]

I found this mini series by accident and what a delight. From beginning to end I felt transported back in time. Throughout the series you get a slice perhaps, of a less sugar coated time of transition after the First World War. This story unfolds through the eyes of three close , but very different sisters and the surrounding family and friends. A sure bet .

good story, funny and touching

[varmitydog · 9/10 · 21 December 2017]

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. I never was one for ladies hat's, but whomever picked out the hats for the ladies in this picked out some very flattering ones, and it makes one wonder what happened to hats as a ladies fashion accessory.

The only thing unrealistic about this show is that these people are all supposed to be related but they look so very different from each other.

Verisimilitude.

[Sidhetaur · 10/10 · 28 July 2017]

I was totally drawn in from the first episode. The spirited Moss family, so much like my own family was that believable. It was written from the reminisces of a grandmother of her family and that is probably why it rang so true. This is one of those shows that so deserved a much longer run that it is a travesty that it was not given one. What WAS made is a gem to be savored for eight episodes.

Awesome series.

[trudy-kain · 10/10 · 28 September 2017]

I loved this series. I wish there were a season 2. I was totally drawn into the Moss family dynamics - what a feisty, real family. I think the show accurately captures the images and the "feel" for the time (post WWI Liverpool, England.) It is 'raw and gritty', 'loving and sweet' & 'dramatic and comical' - just like real life. Nothing here is sugar coated (except for the candies). I highly recommend this to anyone who likes period dramas.

Wonderful Series

[beadhive-73540 · 10/10 · 19 February 2017]

This is one of the most fascinating a series and it drew me in 100%. You cheer and cry for the characters, often in the same episode. Well cast, extremely well acted and directed, it portrays living in Liverpool right after WWI. I am SO hoping to find a copy of Season 2, and it would be a terrible shame if only two seasons were made.

Spirited, intelligent, memorable and wonderful

[cruzarts-73946 · 10/10 · 30 March 2020]

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.

Since you were gone

[sinceverona · 1 October 2009]

In Liverpool just after first world war we see the lives of family Moss.The oldest sister Iris was very devoted to god and father Malia convinced her to become a nun, only because he loved her and wanted her to go away from him. Her younger sister May, a former maid in the family Brazendale, had an affair with Mr.Brazendale and got pregnant. Later she found out that it was all planed an arranged by his wife, because she could not have children. The youngest sister Ruby had a twin brother who died in the First World War. She forms a wonderful friendship with local butcher, Austrian communist which ends up in romance. The only brother Brian turns out to be a very sensitive, and he gets a job as a stuard on a cruise ship for America. Father, a widower who is a veterinarian falls in love with Miss.Bird a local school teacher. The best scene in a whole series was the one where Dadda, the father expresses his love for Miss.Bird. Brian McCardie who plays Dadda gave an excellent performance. The story of family Moss was the story of a very close family. The story was very interesting, after you laugh in one scene ,you are likely to get sad in the one that follows. I am sorry that things did not worked out more happily for Moss sisters. When father found out about Mays pregnancy he took his belt and started to hit her. Soon the other two sisters like little birds hugged her to protect her. A very emotional scene. Brian was very devoted to his sisters and a very likable character. Frank, a Mays childhood friend, had a wonderful scene when he expressed his feelings towards May.

Exceptional

[petgor · 10/10 · 17 July 2022]

Unlike a previous reviewer it took me about 20 minutes to get into episode 1, but I am glad that I persisted. For a start I loved the music which was quite jolly and infectious. I was a little unsure about father who seemed too young for the part, but his acting was so good that I soon got over that. All of the characters whether members of the family or not, were well cast. The many inter connected stories were well written, with very good direction. Much effort was given to the authenticity of the sets, and was very successful. Drama, romance (which I don't..normally go for) and comedy. A perfect series! Congratulations to all involved. I can't see how a second series could have repeated the success of the first.

LILIES: Pre WWI Drama

[Jinxxa_Wolf · 6/10 · 1 May 2024]

LILIES (2007) was a well made little historical series, that takes place in the years before WWI and follows the lives of three sisters, Iris, May and Ruby. This was a interesting series.

"Tough, sexy, funny and heartbreaking, Lillies details the lives of Iris, May and Ruby Moss - Catholic sisters coming of age in a dockland terraced house. Familial love sustains them, and their fortunes are bound to those of their brother and their father. Set in the years immediately following the First World War, Lilies pulls no punches in its storytelling. It depicts a sensual, vivid and sometimes savage universe - where life is lived on a knife-edge of poverty, fuelled by various kinds of love. Dadda, the family's charismatic and mercurial father married very young, is now widowed, and his struggle to nurture his unruly children proves both moving and comic."

Lilies was a show with much emotion and focuses heavily on the bonds of familial ties. Worth the watch.

Back to the North of England workhouse dramas.

[emuir-1 · 5/10 · 2 October 2017]

In the 70's the film industry, BBC North and Granada TV regularly churned out gritty working class dramas of the struggling poor. Sam, A Raging Calm, Room at the Top, Saturday night and Sunday Morning, A Kind of Loving, and the one which satirized them all - Brass, in which Timothy West played a flint hearted millowner who begrudged his workers the cotton dust they took home in their lungs. The modern day characters worked in menial jobs and lived for the Saturday Football match and the night at the dance and the pub. The period characters were a pawn shop away from the workhouse. Parents died and the children were sent to the orphanage. Lovers could not afford to wed and pregnancy out of wedlock brought shame to the family.

All these old clichés return in 'Lilies' a period drama about three young women coping with life in a working class port city. I am no lover of Downton Abbey and its clones, as I am well aware that the lives of the young women in Lilies was the norm for the vast majority. Only a small percentage of the people had means. For the rest it was a daily grind and struggle for survival. Little touches brought back memories for me, the closeness of the neighbors helping with bereavement and hardship, and the front parlor kept for best and only used for laying out the dead and receptions after the funeral. Growing up in northern England in the forties, there were many people around who had lost someone in WWI and a staggering number of widows and single mothers.

Of the performances, two actors irritated me beyond words, the father who seemed to be overacting, and Ruby, his daughter who was a little too brassy and mouthy for my taste. The handsome priest, Father Melia was just a little too handsome for the job. I shuddered when Iris was combing the nits out of his hair. The series did portray the division between Catholics and Northern Irish Protestants very well. Unless you grew up in that environment, it is hard to understand today that neither could enter a church of the other faith without condemning their immortal soul to hell for ever more.