Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit (BBC-4)

[sistermoon]

Bravo to BBC-4 for repeating this series! I've often thought the Flower Kings (Tomas Bodin especially) were fans of this as the Circus Brimstone track on 'Stardust We Are' always reminded me of the fairground scene on the opening titles, and Rachel Portman's incidental music.

It's based on Jeanette Winterson's novel, about a girl called Jess, who rails against her adoptive mother's upbringing and her fundamentalist Christian faith in Lancashire. I really think this had a big influence on my doubts about Neal Morse ramming his faith down listener's throats later on. God help him if Jayda grows up to be like Jess in the story! Stuart Maconie's disbelief about Catholicism in his books always brought this to mind.

The girl who plays the young Jess is the sister of Sam Aston (Chesney in 'Coronation Street') and Charlotte Coleman plays the older Jess. Charlotte was big in our house because my brother used to watch her on 'Educating Marmalade'! So I regard her as a cool actress, though she's long gone now.

[sistermoon]

In episode 2 her adoptive mum talks of the time she got off with a boy in Paris.

She says to Jess, 'He said to me, 'Voulez-vous coucher avec moi, ce soir?''

Since this was first shown, Labelle's 'Lady Marmalade' has been played a lot on local radio, and I just thought 'Free ol' Lady Marmalade!' at that point. ;D

[Frehley'sCometSparksFirefall]

I remember liking this when it was first on TV, but I can only recall a couple of scenes now. I think there was one at Sunday school or a religious meeting when someone asks the girl where the Reverend is. She says he's playing with the fuzzy felt (which was sort of true) and gets told to stop being fanciful. Yeah, well, you have to see it to appreciate it really.

[sistermoon]

I remember that scene about the Reverend 'playing with the fuzzy felt'! ;D

I'd also forgotten about the scene where Jess unintentionally parks the ice-cream van (with the Flower Kings-esque moniker of Brimstone's Ices!) near the cemetary and is accused of sacrilege as a funeral's going on.

This, Dave Allen and Father Ted all had an influence on how I perceived religious organisations.