Lilies by Heidi Thomas - a new drama series for 91Èȱ¬ One: Liverpool, 1920. Three girls on the edge of womanhood, a world on the brink of change
Costumes and set design
Ralph Holes, Costume Designer
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"Lilies was not going to be a costume drama, but a drama about real people who happened to be dressed in period costumes was the ethos from the beginning," explains Ralph Holes.
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"Most of the clothes for the series were hired from Angels in North London, but we also got some from the internet and others from vintage clothing specialists.
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"We had about 500 costumes in total, if we include the crowd scenes. To save money we re-used and re-dyed particular pieces, but we had to take care not to damage the original because they had to be returned in pristine condition.
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"The colour palate was autumnal brown throughout with kicks of colours here and there to stop it from looking too turgid.
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"May's (Leanne Rowe) red hair worked really well against the autumnal colours. Catherine Tyldesley who plays Iris is the spiritual member of the family, so I decided to keep her in blues and greys as well as mossy greens. Ruby (Kerrie Hayes), who is a feisty little tomboy, became much more monochromatic in dark navys, grey, black and white.
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"It also meant the girls could share things and they wouldn't jar against each other. For instance Iris wore one of Ruby's blouses in one scene; May would borrow one of Iris's sweaters and they could still have their own individual looks.
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"It was important to maintain an overall palate of those nice earthy rich, warm colours, and avoid things which were to bright or too garish.
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"I had strong ideas about how the girls' coats should look, so I designed them myself by sourcing fabrics which were practical as well as authentic. The coats looked like there were made out of wool, but in fact I made them out of cashmere, the lightest weight possible, to give the same effect. The girls were filming during summer so it was important that they weren't dripping in sweat.
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"At Angels a lot of hats were found at the bottom of an old box, looking rather tired, but I talked them through what I wanted and they managed to breathe new life into them.
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"Designing a wedding dress for Iris in episode two proved to be a challenge not just for Iris's sisters, but also for the Costume Department," explains Ralph.
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"Iris's wedding dress was scripted (by Heidi Thomas) as Mrs Brazendale's nightdress so there were restrictions placed upon us," laughs Ralph.
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"But I found a fabric in a pinky peach with a lining which the girls could use to make a sash around the waist and sleeves.
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"The corset which May wears (in the opening episode) was designed by myself. It was ruby red which was racy, hot and fiery and had a nice kick against Leanne's red hair.
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"The shoes from the series came from Angels. They had to be practical for summer and winter so we had a lot which were adapted. Approximately 100 pairs of shoes were used during filming."
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Ralph Holes' credits include Bend It Like Beckham, Canterbury Tales and Trial And Retribution.
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Taff Batley, Set Designer
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A disused waste ground in Aintree, Liverpool was transformed in less than two months to provide the much-needed backdrop for Heidi Thomas's wonderful eight-part series set in the Twenties.
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Set Designer Taff Batley explains the design process: "The reason we built the houses rather than use existing ones is it quickly became obvious that the streets, if they existed today, would be modern and extremely expensive for us to change back to the 1920s.
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"In the 1920s a terraced street would have probably been owned by a single landlord who would not have wanted to spend money on it. No work would have been done on them over the last seven or eight years because of the First World War, and they would be in a pretty poor state.
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"The terrace houses today are all privately owned, well-kept with double glazing and double yellow lines. All the cobbles have disappeared because they were considered too dangerous with today's modern traffic.
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"Consequently, what we decided to do to get control of the street for the duration of filming was to create our own.
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"Five chippies, four painters and a construction manager worked full-time to create the set which was a pretty good feat given what we manage to create in the time," continues Taff.
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"The space was the size of two football pitches, the actual build, once designed, took about 10/11 weeks to complete.
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"There were no stones involved. Just plaster work and timber! The cobbles on the street were made out of concrete which were then formed to look like cobbles.
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"The cost of building the street was a bit expensive, but cost effective in the long run.
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"What I actually designed was a street with a T-Junction at each end. We designed it so we could move things around either by changing what was at the end of the street by putting a pub on the corner or adding a shop halfway down.
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"We had seven houses down each side of the street and at one end it was dressed to look like the Docks because the series is meant to be set in Liverpool near the sea.
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"For a couple of episodes we needed allotments, so we created allotments down the back alley.
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"All the insides of the houses were created inside a studio, so what you see on the street itself is just the front door and little bit of the hallway.
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"I wanted to also convey how poor people were in those days, people didn't just have throwaway pots and pans, they had bits and pieces which were handed down through the generations, so nobody had anything modern."
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Taff Batley has 35 years' experience in the television industry.
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His credits include Ghost Squad, The Cops, No Angels and Girls Night, a feature film starring Julie Walters and Brenda Blethyn.
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AF
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