Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit was a critically acclaimed 1990 BBC television drama

BBC television drama

BBC television dramas have been produced and broadcast since even before the public service company had an officially established television broadcasting network in the United Kingdom...

, directed by Beeban Kidron

Beeban Kidron

Beeban Kidron is an English Film Director known for her much-lauded adaptation of Jeanette Winterson's autobiographical novel Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit and for directing Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason...

. Jeanette Winterson

Jeanette Winterson

Jeanette Winterson OBE is a British novelist.-Early years:Winterson was born in Manchester and adopted on 21 January 1960. She was raised in Accrington, Lancashire, by Constance and John William Winterson...

 wrote the screenplay, adapting her semi-autobiographical first novel of the same name

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit is a novel by Jeanette Winterson published in 1985, which she subsequently adapted into a BBC television drama...

 (published 1985). The BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 produced and screened three episodes, running to a total of 2 hours and 45 minutes. The series was released on DVD in 2005.

Storyline

Charlotte Coleman

Charlotte Coleman

Charlotte Ninon Coleman was an English actress best known for playing Scarlett in the film Four Weddings and a Funeral , Jess in the television drama Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, and her childhood roles of Sue in Worzel Gummidge and the character Marmalade Atkins...

 starred as Jess, a girl growing up in a Pentecostal evangelical

Evangelicalism

Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...

 household in Lancashire

Lancashire

Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 in the 1970s, who comes to understand that she is a lesbian

Lesbian

Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...

. The allegorical fairytales that are woven into the novel do not appear on the screen. Miss Jewsbury's love-making with the underage Jess, which appears in the novel, was also excluded. Even with these cuts the series caused controversy when shown due to the remaining lesbian sex scenes and its portrayal of the Elim Pentecostal

Elim Pentecostal Church

The Elim Pentecostal Church is a UK-based Pentecostal Christian denomination.-History:George Jeffreys , a Welshman, founded the Elim Pentecostal Church in Monaghan, Ireland in 1915. Jeffreys was an evangelist with a Welsh Congregational church background. He was converted at age 15 during the...

 faith.

Awards

The series won the BAFTA

British Academy of Film and Television Arts

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is a charity in the United Kingdom that hosts annual awards shows for excellence in film, television, television craft, video games and forms of animation.-Introduction:...

 award for Best Drama.

Further reading

• Hallam, J. & Marshment, M. "Framing Experience: Case Studies in the Reception of Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit" Screen No. 36, 1995: pp. 1-15
• Hinds, H. ([1992] 1996) "Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit: reaching audiences other lesbian texts cannot reach" In: J. Corner & S. Harvey (eds) Television Times: A Reader London: Arnold, pp. 98-110; ISBN 0-340-65233-0

External links

• Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit at the British Film Institute
  British Film Institute
  The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...