Magnificently crafted film involving a young adopted girl's coming of age, under the authority of her priggish and religiously fanatical mother. At times, moving, stark and horrifying. It also portrays wonderful strength in the face of adversity, and the extraordinary power of being able to forgive. The acting is first rate, all the way around, and the end truly left me wishing that a sequel had been on tap.
15 Reviews
Poignant and compelling portrayal.
mischarp15 April 2006
This made-for-television gem is made all the more poignant by the untimely death of Charlotte Coleman (Jess)in 2001. Ms. Coleman provides a touching and heart felt performance. The cult-like nature of her upbringing along with her strength in the face of such almost fanatical religiosity shows the value of forbearance in the face of such adversity. The entire cast provide solid and almost chillingly real acting within the storyline. Jess is the epitome of forgiveness and understanding given the predicament she finds herself in. This program is well worth a look if only for the thought provoking nature of the subject matter. This film received several awards and stands the test of time. In a way the production was ahead of its time with its frank assessment of Jess's personality. You can't runaway from your self.
Decently but Plainly Executed Winterson Adaptation
jazzest11 March 2004
Because the filmmakers obviously tried to make a close adaptation of Jeanette Winterson's semi-autobiographical novel, as an avid Winterson fan, I cannot help comparing the film with the book. It would be extremely challenging to preserve Winterson's unique, postmodern literary quality in the adapted film.
In the original novel, Winterson objectively examines coming-of-age experiences of an orphan who is adopted to evangelist parents and finds herself a lesbian. The objectivity remains in the film to some extent; a lot of dramatic happenings are quietly described and never get emotional. However, the nature of the film media inevitably forces the audience to identify themselves with protagonist Jess. The analytical aspect of reading Winterson is lost, and if compared, the film just follows the plotline more plainly than the novel does.
Aside from Winterson, the film is a decently executed prototypical British film, on the tradition of British New Wave and Channel 4 productions, and worth watching.
In the original novel, Winterson objectively examines coming-of-age experiences of an orphan who is adopted to evangelist parents and finds herself a lesbian. The objectivity remains in the film to some extent; a lot of dramatic happenings are quietly described and never get emotional. However, the nature of the film media inevitably forces the audience to identify themselves with protagonist Jess. The analytical aspect of reading Winterson is lost, and if compared, the film just follows the plotline more plainly than the novel does.
Aside from Winterson, the film is a decently executed prototypical British film, on the tradition of British New Wave and Channel 4 productions, and worth watching.
A must-see film!
Erinn7 January 2000
This film hit me hard. I watched it by coincidence, but couldn't keep myself away. It's disturbing, true, but it tackles a topic lots of people need to think about. It's a very difficult topic to discuss in a film like this, and I think it has been done very well. Everyone should see this film!
The Greatest
Tybalt-322 July 2002
In my opinion, the finest movie ever made for television. Charlotte Coleman and Geraldine McEwan are magnificent.
I stumbled upon this movie quite by accident when it was shown in 1990 or 1991 on A&E in Canada, and I stayed up all night to watch it again. I bought Jeanette Winterson's book the next day and have loved it ever since.
I stumbled upon this movie quite by accident when it was shown in 1990 or 1991 on A&E in Canada, and I stayed up all night to watch it again. I bought Jeanette Winterson's book the next day and have loved it ever since.
Disturbing, thought-provoking story of a lesbian girl raised by religious zealots.
cricket-1418 May 1999
Well-acted, sometimes touching, sometimes shocking, story of a young English woman's coming of age and coming to terms with her lesbianism.
Her homophobic parents oppress her unmercifully, but she makes some friends who help her thru her crises to become a strong person. Definitely worth a look!
Her homophobic parents oppress her unmercifully, but she makes some friends who help her thru her crises to become a strong person. Definitely worth a look!
Rediscovering the past in 2021
grahamheather-6560319 January 2021
I have been watching a lot of my old favourites recently and I can't heap enough praise on this adaptation. I'm not a great reader, but this bbc show was just brilliant. The acting, everything. Geraldine McEwan and Charlotte Coleman were both outstanding. The first episode was so funny and endearing, the soundtrack happy and upbeat, a young Emily Aston just lovely, but you knew darker things were to come, how could they not? People don't like to see others happy when they are miserable themselves it seems. I think every school syllabus should have had a book like this included instead of the usual boring heteronomative drivel I was forced to read waay back in the 80's when I was struggling with my sexuality myself. Brilliant show back then and is just as brilliant today.
Not about Cults
bek-beebaa10 April 2006
Warning: Spoilers
This movie, contradictory to what the previous person posted, is not out to portray cults. The movie, based on Jeanette Winterson's novel, is exactly that: about portraying a novel. The movie follows the ideas and thoughts of the novel very well. A young girl who is raised in an adoptive, very religious family, intended to be a missionary for their cause, finds herself. She grows intellectually and spiritually in this movie, yet not in the manner her mother intended. She embraces her lesbianism, and is shunned from her church. She realizes who is important in her life, and her biggest role models slowly disappear from her life. One of the women that protect her dies, and causes even more problems for her, after she thought things were getting better on her own. To better understand the movie, I recommend reading the book.
Patronising at times, but very good point made
Izzit2494 December 2002
It's an excellent portrail of cults that are around the world and how they brainwash their children into becomin very sickly minded, and how they struggle to come out of it and keep their sanity.
Definately worth watching! take my word for it!
Definately worth watching! take my word for it!
Fantastic, but bearing scars...
mat-22321 March 2008
I read the book, and loved it, having to give it back to the library before the Easter long- weekend left me little to do, so after some searching (albeit mainly on YouTube) found this adaptation.
This adaptation was written by Winterson herself, so I expected it to be good, and it was. The acting was tremendous and it stayed quite faithful to the book, as you would expect. Some have accused this adaptation over being over-dramatic and over-exaggerated , particularly with the portrayal of the church and the character of Jeanette's (who in the adaptation is now called Jessica) mother, and to an extent it is, but I feel that this was how it was written in the book and so is fair enough.
Where it fails, however, is that it clearly bears the scars of the transition from page to screen. Mainly through how the cutaway fairy-tales that, whilst about different characters, are significant and relevant in their themes to the main story, are cut out. This was particularly sad for me as I was eager to see how this would be done. The most likely explanation is that this would cut down the adaptation to a happy three-parter, so could this be understandable?
This adaptation was written by Winterson herself, so I expected it to be good, and it was. The acting was tremendous and it stayed quite faithful to the book, as you would expect. Some have accused this adaptation over being over-dramatic and over-exaggerated , particularly with the portrayal of the church and the character of Jeanette's (who in the adaptation is now called Jessica) mother, and to an extent it is, but I feel that this was how it was written in the book and so is fair enough.
Where it fails, however, is that it clearly bears the scars of the transition from page to screen. Mainly through how the cutaway fairy-tales that, whilst about different characters, are significant and relevant in their themes to the main story, are cut out. This was particularly sad for me as I was eager to see how this would be done. The most likely explanation is that this would cut down the adaptation to a happy three-parter, so could this be understandable?
One of a Golden Age of TV .
johnhawkok11 February 2011
One of its many brilliant touches is the ability to be both funny and heart rending at the same time - I can recall scenes where crying and laughing are mixed together(a very messy pairing!).
Charlotte Coleman, Geraldine McEwan and Kenneth Cranham are all outstanding (not forgetting Emily Aston and her asking a confused ice cream seller " What's fornication?"). The whole production team should take a bow as well, with all elements of the project coming together to make something that I feel is one of the high water marks of British TV, and which I tear has ebbed for ever, or at least the foreseeable future. Like the previous reviewer, I watched it at a young age, and can remember whole scenes and strands very clearly, a not inconsiderable feat when I consider all the TV programs I consumed at that age.
Charlotte Coleman, Geraldine McEwan and Kenneth Cranham are all outstanding (not forgetting Emily Aston and her asking a confused ice cream seller " What's fornication?"). The whole production team should take a bow as well, with all elements of the project coming together to make something that I feel is one of the high water marks of British TV, and which I tear has ebbed for ever, or at least the foreseeable future. Like the previous reviewer, I watched it at a young age, and can remember whole scenes and strands very clearly, a not inconsiderable feat when I consider all the TV programs I consumed at that age.
puzzling
selffamily11 June 2010
Warning: Spoilers
Nobody plays an unlikeable person better than Geraldine McEwan. I always end up wanting to slap her hard, and I understand she's a very nice person! She did it in Jean Brodie, and she certainly does it here. An overbearing and ignorant woman with a young child is a horrible sight, and difficult at times to bear. I was aghast when it finished - had I missed something? Suggenly it stops when she is 7 years old and then skips to her showing a photo of a group to another young woman and saying "that was me". I felt as though I'd nodded off - I promise I hadn't - and missed an hour. Why so short? It was excellent, what there was of it, but very confusing. Wonderful character acting from some of Britain's best. But just imagine a child coming to buy an ice cream off you and telling you what the neighbours are doing! Priceless.
Who needs an airing cupboard when you've got Jesus?
JamesHitchcock1 November 2022
"Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit" was Jeanette Winterson's first novel, published in 1985 when she was 26. It could be described as a "Bildungsroman", a German term that literally means "novel of education", but which is perhaps better translated as "novel of character-formation", and like many first novels it is autobiographical. Winterson herself grew up in Accrington, Lancashire, the adopted daughter of evangelists from the Elim Pentecostal Church, who raised her with the intention that she should become a missionary in the church.
The heroine, also named Jeanette in the book but renamed Jessica in this adaptation, grows up in an unnamed Lancashire mill town, the adopted daughter of members of an unspecified Christian fundamentalist church. Jessica's mother- her father plays a much less prominent part in the story- raises her with the intention that she should become a missionary in the church. Jessica enthusiastically embraces her intended destiny until, as an adolescent, she discovers that she is attracted to other women. This means that she can have no future in the church, whose members believe that homosexuality and lesbianism are abominations in the eyes of the Lord. Jessica and her girlfriend Melanie are subjected by their co-religionists (including Jessica's mother) to an exorcism ritual designed to bring them back to God and heterosexuality.
There are four remarkable acting performances- from Geraldine McEwan as Jess's mother, from Kenneth Cranham as Pastor Finch, the bigoted leader of the sect, from Charlotte Coleman as the teenage Jess and from young Emily Aston as the child Jess. It would have been easy for Cranham to have played Finch as a hypocrite, but what makes him so terrifying is that he is utterly sincere in his beliefs that he and his small flock are the Elect of God, that he has a sacred mission to bring souls to Jesus, that his is the only possible interpretation of the Bible and that all outsiders will be irrevocably damned at the imminent Day of Judgement.
McEwan's Mother is a rather more complex character; there is a sense that she has turned to religion to bring some excitement into what would otherwise be a boring life, living in a small terraced house in a Lancashire cotton town and married to a dull husband who hardly ever seems to speak. Despite her religious conversion she is fond of reminiscing about her life "before she was saved", especially her love affair with a Frenchman in Paris, which she still looks back on as one of the highlights of her existence. Her eccentric turn of mind is revealed by some of the bizarre phrases she comes out with, such as "Who needs an airing cupboard when you've got Jesus?" or "The summer is ended and we are not yet saved!" The book's title derives from Mother's reluctance to serve her family with any type of fruit except oranges.
Charlotte Coleman's death in 2001 at the age of only 33 was a sad loss to the British acting profession. Together with the children's series "Marmalade Atkins", "Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit" is probably the programme for which she is best remembered. Her Jessica faces a clash between the values in which she has been brought up and her own inner nature. She sees her love for Melanie as being quite compatible with her love for God, and is devastated to discover that her church and her family see it as something evil and demonic. In some circumstances such a clash could be described as tragic, but I would hesitate to use so portentous a word to describe Jessica's situation because Coleman plays her as delightfully innocent, a girl with a wonderful sense of humour as well as an innate sense of justice.
The television adaptation also succeeds in keeping the book's strong sense of place and time. The setting, a Lancashire cotton town in the sixties and seventies, reminded me strongly of my own childhood during this period. (My grandparents lived in Blackburn, the neighbouring town to Accrington).
Apart from the story of Jeanette, the novel also contains several short stories reminiscent of Biblical stories, mediaeval legends and fairy tales, presumably meant to represent the thoughts of the protagonist and her first attempts at imaginative writing, but Winterson omitted these when she came to write the television version. This was probably a wise move, as I when I read the book I did not feel that these sections were well-integrated with the story. By discarding them Winterson was able to concentrate on the story of Jessica, by turns brilliantly humorous and deeply moving. At the heart of both the book and the television drama is one of the great paradoxes of modern life- why do many of those who claim to follow a God of Love display so little love in their personal lives? This is a question which has, unfortunately, become all the more pertinent, and no more answerable, in the thirty-odd years which have passed since this book was written. 9/10.
The heroine, also named Jeanette in the book but renamed Jessica in this adaptation, grows up in an unnamed Lancashire mill town, the adopted daughter of members of an unspecified Christian fundamentalist church. Jessica's mother- her father plays a much less prominent part in the story- raises her with the intention that she should become a missionary in the church. Jessica enthusiastically embraces her intended destiny until, as an adolescent, she discovers that she is attracted to other women. This means that she can have no future in the church, whose members believe that homosexuality and lesbianism are abominations in the eyes of the Lord. Jessica and her girlfriend Melanie are subjected by their co-religionists (including Jessica's mother) to an exorcism ritual designed to bring them back to God and heterosexuality.
There are four remarkable acting performances- from Geraldine McEwan as Jess's mother, from Kenneth Cranham as Pastor Finch, the bigoted leader of the sect, from Charlotte Coleman as the teenage Jess and from young Emily Aston as the child Jess. It would have been easy for Cranham to have played Finch as a hypocrite, but what makes him so terrifying is that he is utterly sincere in his beliefs that he and his small flock are the Elect of God, that he has a sacred mission to bring souls to Jesus, that his is the only possible interpretation of the Bible and that all outsiders will be irrevocably damned at the imminent Day of Judgement.
McEwan's Mother is a rather more complex character; there is a sense that she has turned to religion to bring some excitement into what would otherwise be a boring life, living in a small terraced house in a Lancashire cotton town and married to a dull husband who hardly ever seems to speak. Despite her religious conversion she is fond of reminiscing about her life "before she was saved", especially her love affair with a Frenchman in Paris, which she still looks back on as one of the highlights of her existence. Her eccentric turn of mind is revealed by some of the bizarre phrases she comes out with, such as "Who needs an airing cupboard when you've got Jesus?" or "The summer is ended and we are not yet saved!" The book's title derives from Mother's reluctance to serve her family with any type of fruit except oranges.
Charlotte Coleman's death in 2001 at the age of only 33 was a sad loss to the British acting profession. Together with the children's series "Marmalade Atkins", "Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit" is probably the programme for which she is best remembered. Her Jessica faces a clash between the values in which she has been brought up and her own inner nature. She sees her love for Melanie as being quite compatible with her love for God, and is devastated to discover that her church and her family see it as something evil and demonic. In some circumstances such a clash could be described as tragic, but I would hesitate to use so portentous a word to describe Jessica's situation because Coleman plays her as delightfully innocent, a girl with a wonderful sense of humour as well as an innate sense of justice.
The television adaptation also succeeds in keeping the book's strong sense of place and time. The setting, a Lancashire cotton town in the sixties and seventies, reminded me strongly of my own childhood during this period. (My grandparents lived in Blackburn, the neighbouring town to Accrington).
Apart from the story of Jeanette, the novel also contains several short stories reminiscent of Biblical stories, mediaeval legends and fairy tales, presumably meant to represent the thoughts of the protagonist and her first attempts at imaginative writing, but Winterson omitted these when she came to write the television version. This was probably a wise move, as I when I read the book I did not feel that these sections were well-integrated with the story. By discarding them Winterson was able to concentrate on the story of Jessica, by turns brilliantly humorous and deeply moving. At the heart of both the book and the television drama is one of the great paradoxes of modern life- why do many of those who claim to follow a God of Love display so little love in their personal lives? This is a question which has, unfortunately, become all the more pertinent, and no more answerable, in the thirty-odd years which have passed since this book was written. 9/10.
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
jboothmillard22 August 2022
Warning: Spoilers
I found out about this serial because it was repeated on BBC Four, I recognised the leading young actress from Worzel Gummidge and Four Weddings and a Funeral, I didn't read much about the plot or anything else, but it was something I was up for giving a try. Basically, in Accrington, Lancashire, England in the 1970s, seven-year-old Jess (BAFTA nominated Emily Aston) lives with her Mother (BAFTA winning Geraldine McEwan) who is a fundamentalist Christian. Jeanette's mother adopted Jeanette and has trained her to be a servant to God, instilling in her the idea that she is unique and will eventually become a missionary to the world. The only other people that Jeanette knows are other members of the church, who are just as fanatical about their religion as her mother is. As a child, Jeanette was misdiagnosed with hearing loss for a long time, which her mother and the congregation believed was something to do with the rapture. However, church member Miss Jewsbury (Celia Imrie) discovered that Jeanette simply has a physical ailment, she helped her to be treated by the Doctor (David Thewlis) at the hospital. Following her operation, Jeanette spends a lot of time with another church member Elsie (Margery Withers) who teaches Jeanette about poetry and lets her listen to classical music. The mother is ordered to send Jeanette to school, and she becomes an outcast because of her evangelical beliefs, and the teachers have disdain for her biblical text and preaching. One teacher, Mrs. Vole (Sharon Bower), informs her that her obsession with God is scaring the other students, and her mother is sent a letter about the issue, but the mother reacts with elation rather than anger. As she grows up, seventeen-year-old Jeanette (BAFTA nominated Charlotte Coleman) realises that she sometimes disagrees with the teachings of her congregation. Although Jeanette begins to question her beliefs, she is still close with her mother, who is a motivating member of their Society for the Lost. As she matures, Jeanette starts thinking about relationships, but her mother tries to influence her with negative opinions of men and husbands. Jeanette finds work washing dishes in a nearby ice cream shop, and whilst there she is interested in a girl named Melanie (The Mother's Cathryn Bradshaw) who works on a fish stall. Eventually, she and Melanie become friends, and Melanie agrees to join her at church to be "saved" by Jesus Christ. Jeanette frequently visits Melanie's house for Bible study, and as they spend more time together, they develop feelings for each other and begin a love affair. Jeanette eventually tells her mother about how much she loves Melanie. They are publicly humiliated and discriminated against by Pastor Finch (Kenneth Cranham) in church the following Sunday. Melanie repents immediately, but Jeanette argues and flees. She visits Miss Jewsbury (Celia Imrie), who is herself a lesbian, she sympathises with her, and they end up sleeping together. The following day, the elders of the church attempt to "exorcise the demons" from Jeanette, and she still will not repent, her mother locks her in the parlour for thirty- six hours with no food. When she is let out, she pretends to repent, but maintains her impression that she has not done anything wrong. Melanie disappears and Jeanette becomes deeply involved in the church again, preaching her own sermons and teaching Sunday school. Soon Jeanette begins a new affair with Katy (Tania Rodrigues), a recent convert. When they are caught one weekend, Jeanette takes all the blame, and the church decide that she has too many responsibilities that she thinks of herself as a man. They insist that she give up teaching and preaching. Instead, Jeanette quits the church, and her mother forces her to leave their home for her "evilness". With no home, friends, or money, Jeanette takes up various jobs, including in a funeral parlour, an ice cream truck driver, and a mental hospital. During this time, she occasionally crosses paths with her mother or members of her congregation who treat Jeanette coldly and say she is possessed by demons. Eventually she moves to the city. Sometime later, Jeanette does return home to see her mother in the winter. Her mother is still faithful in her beliefs, but corruption has broken up her Society for the Lost. Jeanette's mother does not talk about Jeanette's lifestyle, but her behaviour suggests that she has softened. Also starring Brazil's Barbara Hicks as Cissy, Harry Potter's Elizabeth Spriggs as May, Pam Ferris as Mrs. Arkwright, and Mike & Angelo's Katy Murphy as Mrs. Virtue. Aston does well as the younger little brainwashed by the discriminatory religious teachings, and Coleman as fantastic as the adolescent rebel who becomes a lesbian, but McEwan steals the show as the dominating, religious fanatic mother who tries to mould her (adoptive) daughter. It should be mentioned that the meaning of the title is something to do the dominant ideology that dominates the world in which Jeanette lives, it might also be because she has very orange hair. It is a fascinating coming-of-age story of the negative influence faith, and a cult-like upbringing can have, and a difficult relationship between mother and daughter, the story is semi-autobiographical which is scary, a most worthwhile drama. It won the BAFTAs for Best Drama Series/Serial, and Best Film Sound, and it was nominated for Best Film Cameraman, Best Costume Design, and Best Original Television Music for Rachel Portman. Very good!
Don't just watch because of LGB interest.
Mr_Sophistication_Uk25 November 2023
Warning: Spoilers
A young teenager explores her sexuality while growing up in a smothering cult in this beguiling mini-series, packed full of excellent performances and moving scenes.
The much-missed Charlotte Coleman shines as the red-haired Jess, who discovers more about herself and her ambitions as the film goes on and the equally mourned Geraldine Mcewan gives a terrifyingly awesome portrayal of her abusive adoptive mother, who might even give Carrie White's mum a run for her money interms of sheer religeous lunacy.
A good all-round drama well worth catching, even if it does end a bit too soon for me. 7/10.
The much-missed Charlotte Coleman shines as the red-haired Jess, who discovers more about herself and her ambitions as the film goes on and the equally mourned Geraldine Mcewan gives a terrifyingly awesome portrayal of her abusive adoptive mother, who might even give Carrie White's mum a run for her money interms of sheer religeous lunacy.
A good all-round drama well worth catching, even if it does end a bit too soon for me. 7/10.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
