"Lillie" (1978)TV mini-series

Directors:

John Gorrie
Christopher Hodson

Writers:

James Brough (novel)
David Butler (writer)

Release Date:

11 March 1979 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Biography | Drama | Romance

Plot:

Lillie Langtry, trapped in a loveless marriage, takes full advantage of her beauty, attracting many...

Plot Keywords:

Britain | Actor | USA | High Society | Painting

Awards:

2 wins & 7 nominations

Cast

Francesca Annis	...	Lillie Langtry
Anton Rodgers	...	Edward Langtry
Denis Lill	...	Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII
Peter Egan	...	Oscar Wilde
Jennie Linden	...	Patsy Cornwallis-West
Patrick Holt	...	Dean Le Breton
Peggy Ann Wood	...	Mrs. Le Breton
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Dixon Adams	...	Horace Avery
Anthony Ainley	...	Lord Carrington
Peggy Aitchison	...	Lady Stallholder
David Allister	...	Edward Michael
Emma Allum	...	Jeanne Marie (age 4)
Timandra Alwyn	...	Mary Malcolm
Philip Anthony	...	Dr. Lawrence
Neville Barber	...	Doctor
John Barcroft	...	Francis Knollys
Adam Bareham	...	Clement Le Breton
Maggie Bates	...	Lady Suffield
George Belbin	...	Colonel
John Bennett	...	Abe Hummell
Peter Birrel	...	Adolphus Rosenberg
Roger Bizley	...	George Alexander
Bruce Boa	...	Joaquin Miller
Amanda Boxer	...	Constance Wilde
Philip Brack	...	Lord Rosebery
Christopher Bramwell	...	Robert Peel
Helena Breck	...	Elizabeth Jane Price
Christopher Brown	...	George Bentham
John Bryans	...	C.J. Freake
Robert Burbage	...	Michel Corbet
Janet Burnell	...	Catherine Gladstone
Cheryl Campbell	...	Sarah Bernhardt
Patricia Carroll	...	Pianist
John Castle	...	Prince Louis of Battenberg
Simon Chandler	...	Sir George Arthur
Tony Church	...	Squire Bancroft
Peter Clapham	...	Harrison
Clare Clifford	...	Clara
Stephanie Cole	...	Agnes Langtry
Geoffrey Colville	...	Vicar of Kentford
Annette Crosbie	...	Henrietta Labouchere
David Crosse	...	Sgt. Parry
John Curless	...	Louis Barreya
Lesley Daine	...	Nancy Rawlings
Joanna David	...	Jeanne Marie (adult)
Bill Davies	...	Pianist
Terence Davies	...	Wilkinson
Brian Deacon	...	Frank Miles
Mischa De La Motte	...	Majordomo
Edward Dentith	...	Lord Ranelagh
David Dixon	...	Prince Leopold
Vernon Dobtcheff	...	George Lewis
Freda Dowie	...	Mathilde Peat
Norwich Duff	...	Second Reporter
Tommy Duggan	...	Judge Roy Bean
Rosalyn Elvin	...	Princess Louise
Debbie Farrington	...	Sally
Catherine Feller	...	Dominique
Don Fellows	...	J. M. Whistler
Ann Firbank	...	Princess Alexandra (Alix)
Simon Fisher-Turner	...	Reggie Le Breton (as Simon Turner)
John Fowler	...	Paper Boy
Christopher Frederick	...	Fritz
Toria Fuller	...	Clara Frewen
John Gabriel	...	Benjamin Disraeli
John Gatrell	...	Maurice
Michael Gaunt	...	Lord Randolph Churchill
Anne Godfrey	...	Lady
Maxine Gordon	...	Jeanne Marie (teenager)
Stephen Gordon	...	Reporter
Christina Greateaux	...	Lillian Russell
Paul Greenhalgh	...	Richard Le Gallienne
Paul Gregory	...	Ian Malcolm
David Gwillim	...	Arthur Jones
Garrick Hagon	...	Bury Dasent
Jerry Harte	...	Henry Abbey
Robert Hartley	...	Beverly
Michael Haught	...	Fry
Michael Hawkins	...	Col. Wallis
Anthony Head	...	William Le Breton
David Healy	...	Diamond Jim Brady
William Hootkins	...	Col. Cunningham
Gary Hope	...	Edward Poynter
Joseph Horovitz	...	Rubenstein
Basil Hoskins	...	J. E. Millais
Melanie Hughes	...	Alice
John Humphry	...	Lord Rosslyn
Jason James	...	Equerry
Pauline Jameson	...	Mrs. Bancroft
Diana Johnson	...	Mrs. Jenner
Nicholas Jones	...	Squire Abington
Barry Justice	...	Sir George Chetwynd
John Justin	...	Prince Paul Esterhazy
Leonard Kavanagh	...	Simmons
Richard Kay	...	Charles Hawtrey
Mary Kenton	...	Lady Sebright
Timothy Kightley	...	Alfred Ellis
David King	...	Sydney Grundy
Sally Lahee	...	Maid
Jenny Laird	...	Mrs. Stratton
Penelope Lee	...	Lady de Grey
Richard LeParmentier	...	Third Reporter
Robert Lister	...	Robert
Desmond Llewelyn	...	Lord Dudley
Joanna Lloyd	...	Lady Brooke (Daisy)
Joanna Mackie	...	Jenny Colet
Oengus MacNamara	...	Jim Carney
Michelle Magorian	...	Cicely Courtneidge (as Mikki Magorian)
Gregg Mandell	...	Pageboy
Yvonne Manners	...	Lady Wharncliffe
Knight Mantell	...	Evans
Ray Marioni	...	Croupier
Patrick Marley	...	Somerset Maugham
Neville Marten	...	Mr. Downey
Tony Mathews	...	Lord Lonsdale
Claire McLellan	...	Jeanne Marie (age 10)
Pauline Minear	...	Companion
Sheila Mitchell	...	Charlotte Knollys
Bruce Montague	...	Charles Coghlan
Wanda Moore	...	Lady Georgiana Dudley
Gilbert O'Brien	...	Desk Clerk
John Pennington	...	Francis Laking
Richard Pescud	...	Dr. Pratt
John Phillips	...	W. E. Gladstone
Elizabeth Power	...	Ellen Terry
Hana Maria Pravda	...	Madame Nicolle
Sheila Reed	...	Queen Victoria
Adam Richardson	...	Victor Malcolm
Paul Richardson
David Rintoul	...	Charles Longley
Jenny Robbins	...	Nurse
Ray Roberts	...	Captain
John Rolfe	...	Mr. O'Brien
George Roubicek	...	Pierre Lorillard
Alan Rowe	...	Alan Rowe
Ronald Russell	...	Justice Hawkins
Patrick Ryecart	...	Crown Prince Rudolph
Alex Scott	...	Sir Allen Young
Michael Shannon	...	Freddie Gebhard
Michael Sheard	...	Col. Hertzl
Simon Shepherd	...	Lord Alfred Douglas (Bosie)
Julian Sherrier	...	Ferdinand de Rothschild
Tony Sibbald	...	Hotel Manager
Carmen Silvera	...	Mrs. Van Schuyler
Jill Simcox	...	Queen Mary
Graham Sinclair	...	Charlie Mitchell
Derek Smith	...	King Leopold
Jessica Spencer	...	The Baroness
Rosina Stewart	...	Mrs. Maberly
Malcolm Tierney	...	Lord Charles Beresford
Robert Tunstall	...	Frederick Leighton
Keith Varnier	...	Prince George / King George V
Philip Voss	...	Edward Carson
Joanna Wake	...	Mrs. Wheeler
Michael Walker	...	Angelo
James Warwick	...	Hugo de Bath
Deborah Watling	...	Georgia Reed
Elaine Wells	...	Alice
Nicola White	...	Effie Millais
Jeffrey Wickham	...	Lord Hartington
Paul Williamson	...	Lord Wharncliffe
Edgar Wreford	...	Lord Suffield
Phillip York	...	Moreton Frewen

Runtime:

52 min (13 episodes)

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Company:

London Weekend Television (LWT)

Quotes:

Oscar Wilde: Oh, my dear, one day you and I will commit a great folly.

Fascinating portrait of a woman ahead of her time

I almost gave up after watching the first few episodes of this mini-series, where the BBC fell back on its standard "close-up of unblinking female faces" instead of giving us a *clue* what the characters were thinking and why they were behaving the way they did.

I'm so grateful I stayed with the series. Once it got past Lillie's "awkward adolescence" (which seemed to be more a case of "awkward script-writing"), I almost couldn't stop watching. This is a lovely portrait of the Gilded Age. Francesca Annis does an outstanding job with her role as Lillie evolves from naive fawn through sharp, resilient businesswoman and into a more mellow old age.

Along the way we meet Oscar Wilde, written and played to perfection, Bertie Prince of Wales, John Whisler, Sara Bernhardt, Princess Alix, Disraeli and Gladstone, and a wide variety of others (both well-known today and the obscure) who made up a society that seems alien and totally contemporary at the same time.

I found myself dazzled by Langtry's audacity -- to my embarrassment, I even gasped alongside the characters on screen at times! Yet, like fictional heroine Scarlett O'Hara or scores of real-life trail-blazing women such as Elizabeth I, Langtry did what she had to do to create the life she desired. It wasn't all pretty, and the appalling double standards for women and men made some of her choices inevitable, but her courage and fierce intelligence took my breath away. The fact that Annis plays her not as a straight "conniving b***h" but as a complex woman pulled between her desire for independence and her need to love and be loved makes it that much more interesting. There are moments when one detests her character, only to be overtaken minutes later by her kindness and thoughtfulness.

The series suffers from very awkward cuts as it jumps forward in time at odd intervals. One wonders why they couldn't include a subtitle telling us the year at least! Like many BBC productions of the era, the sound is uneven and some of the editing a bit long and tedious. It also left some fairly large holes in the plot, such as the complete absence of Alice Keppel, Bertie's most famous mistress. But it's by far the best production I've seen from the BBC of that era. I found myself wondering what it would look like with "Forsyte Saga" production values today.

This would be a wonderful series to watch with teenagers in order to examine social mores. Themes of peer pressure, the "in crowd," double standards for men and women, sexual politics, class, and much more are present in almost every episode.

By the time the series was half over, I was already looking for a good biography of Lillie so I could know how much of the series was accurate. It's rare for a series to fire the imagination to such a great extent. A wonderful series, masterfully acted by Annis (as well as Denis Lill as Bertie and Peter Egan as Wilde). Highly recommended.