Series / Lace

"Incidentally. . . which one of you bitches is my mother?"

— Lili

A two-part American miniseries that aired on ABC Television on February 26 - 27, 1984. The miniseries was an adaptation of Shirley Conran's 1982 novel of the same name. Told in flashback form, it follows the lives of three former schoolmates from their days in a Swiss boarding school to adulthood. In the present day, they interact with a young actress, Lili, who, unbeknownst to them, is the daughter that one of them had out-of-wedlock while at the boarding school. She is determined to find out which of the three is her mother and to exact revenge on all of them for abandoning her as a child.

One of the classic miniseries of The '80s, Lace was a sweeping epic that spanned two decades of time and five countries over three continents (not counting a brief detour to Vietnam). In keeping with the Conspicuous Consumption of the times, it featured lots of haute coture fashion, exotic cars, and elegant interior shots of palaces, chateaus, country manors, and hotel suites. A glamorous cast of characters included Arab oil sheikhs, French champagne barons, and Greek shipping tycoons.

The cast features Bess Armstrong (Judy Hale), Brooke Adams (Jennifer "Pagan" Trelawney), and Arielle Dombasle (Maxine Pascal) as the schoolmates and Phoebe Cates as Lili. Angela Lansbury, Anthony Higgins, Anthony Quayle, and Herbert Lom appear in supporting roles. The strong ratings by the miniseries led to sequel, Lace II, which aired in 1985.

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Lace contains examples of the following tropes:

• Adaptation Distillation: The miniseries puts greater focus on the mystery of who is Lili’s biological mother, with a much more dramatic reveal of her identity than in the original novel.
• Adaptation Name Change
  • Judy's surname is Jordan in Conran's book but Hale in the miniseries.
  • Judy's magazine is named Verve! in the book and Lace in the miniseries.
  • The fictional name the girls give for Lili's mother is Emily Post in the book and Lucinda Lace in the miniseries.
• Advertised Extra: Honor Blackman is one of the top billed actors, but only appears in three short scenes during part two of the miniseries as a token Psycho Lesbian.
• Broken Bird: Lili. She was conceived out of wedlock, was abandoned by her mother to foster care, was told that her mother would eventually come back for her but never did, was taunted at school for having no mother or father, saw her foster parents killed at 6, spent the next 10 years in a prison camp where she was groped and made to scrub toilets and floors, got pregnant at 16 shortly after escaping the prison camp, left by her boyfriend on the news of the pregnancy, forced to work as nude model to earn money to pay for a back-alley abortion, was thrown out on the streets while still trying to recover from the abortion, turned to prostitution to survive, and became a porn actress. On top of that, she unknowingly commits incest with her father (not revealed in the original miniseries but mentioned in the book and the sequel miniseries). She turns into a bitter, obnoxious Jerkass hell-bent on seeking Revenge against her mother and her friends, even after she becomes a successful international celebrity.

  Lili: They made their schoolgirl pact and sent me to hell, I’ll teach them what I learned there.

• Brownface: English actor Anthony Higgins plays Prince Abdullah, supposedly of North African/Middle Eastern descent, and his complexion is darkened accordingly.
• Cat Fight: Lili and Maxine have it out after Lili seduces Maxine's son.

  Maxine: Not in my house! Not with my son!

• Dirty Communists: Lili's foster family is massacred by Soviet Hungarian Socialists, who then capture her and hold her in a prison camp for ten years until she escapes.
• Drowning My Sorrows:
  • Pagan numerous times. After all, she is a Lady Drunk.
  • Judy, Maxine, and Pagan after their final confrontation with Lili in her hotel room.
• Fanservice: Phoebe Cates topless but with a handbra during a photo shoot and in a leopard-print bra on the set of a porn movie.
• Fat Bastard: Judy, Maxine, and Pagan have a chubby nemesis at their boarding school who they nickname “Piggy.”
• Fictional Country: Sydon, the oil-rich home of Prince Abdullah. It is located in the Qurac region as it was never made clear whether it was located in North Africa or the Middle East. It is a monarchy that suffers from both internal and external political tension. Hence the forced breakup of Abdullah and Pagan and the Arranged Marriage between Abdullah and Serah.
• Flashback: How most of the story is told. Part 1 follows Judy, Maxine, and Pagan during their boarding school days, how one of them got pregnant, and the plan they come up with to deal with the pregnancy. That is to show How We Got Here as the three interact with Lili in the present. Part 2 follows the three schoolmates after they graduated and went on to loves and careers.
• Fluffy Fashion Feathers: The closing sequence has Lili sleeping in an outfit that includes a feathered top garment. At one point, she moves her arms in a flapping motion, which, combined with the feathers, gave her the appearance of a bird.
• Foreshadowing: The miniseries contains numerous subtle (and not so subtle) clues to the identity of Lili's real mother:
  • Judy is the first of the girls introduced in the initial flashback.
  • Out of the three girls, Judy was the only one who didn't cheer when Doctor Geneste announced the pregnancy wouldn’t show until after they graduated, instead she just closed her eyes and sighed with relief.
  • The first time Doctor Geneste meets the expecting mother without her two friends, he notes she was the one he "least suspected." Judy is portrayed as more level-headed and sensible than Pagan and Maxine.
  • Overall, Judy was always the least jovial about the secret pact to hide Elizabeth (Lili).
  • Judy has the most sentimental attachment to Elizabeth. She is the only one who kept a framed drawing from the little girl and the first one to receive new photos of her.
  • When Lili pushes the three women to betray the pact in the end to save their own skin, Judy is the one who lowers her head and sighs in defeat, fully expecting Pagan and Maxine to finally give in and reveal her as Lili's real mother. When the camera next turns to Maxine, she gazes off for a moment and then glances in the direction in which Judy is sitting.
  • At the end of the film, Judy is the one who decides to end the pact and asserts that, for the first time, Elizabeth's real mother must make things right on her own.
• Good Girls Avoid Abortion: The girls talk about getting an abortion to solve the problem, and Judy is particularly adamant that abortion should be legal. But they eventually decide against it. On the other hand, Lili gets one from a Back-Alley Doctor.
• High-Class Gloves: The girls during the Valentine's Day dance at the boarding school and Pagan during some of her high class outings with Abdullah in London.
• Honor Before Reason: Even after a bitter falling out, being backed against the wall with blackmail, and risking complete ruin, the three women still refuse to reveal which one of them is Lili's real mother.
• I Gave My Word: The three women keep their word for over two decades and never gave away the true identity of Lili/Elizabeth’s mother, even after a particularly ugly falling out and years worth of mutual resentment. The truth is only revealed when Lili’s actual mother decides to end the charade and tell the truth herself.
• Intrepid Reporter: Judy as a war correspondent during combat in Vietnam.
• It's All About Me: Needless to say, the girls’ genius plan to hide Elizabeth until one of them becomes financially secure quickly falls apart as their personal lives constantly get in the way and they make one excuse after another to avoid getting the girl until it’s too late and tragedy strikes.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Serge, the sleazy pornographer who initially exploits teenage Lili's hopeless situation, ends up taking her in no questions asked and nurses her back to health after she becomes homeless and almost dying from a botched abortion.
• Just a Stupid Accent: Numerous times as many actors were playing a Fake Nationality:
  • American Phoebe Cates used a much commented on bizarre European accent for Lili. In the sequel she wisely dropped the accent.
  • Englishwoman Angela Lansbury used a French accent in playing Maxine's Aunt Hortense.
  • Englishmen Anthony Quayle used a French accent in playing Dr. Geneste.
• Lady Drunk: Pagan after she was dumped by Abdullah.
• Luke, You Are My Father: Gender Flipped as Lili reveals this to her potential mothers with one of the most memorable lines in television history:
  • "Incidentally. . . which one of you bitches is my mother?"
• Meaningful Appearance: While the miniseries was filled with fabulous clothes, there was not much emphasis on the shoes, even though Judy had a passion for them in the book. But they did play an important role in the closing sequence. The women all wore the same shoes (black pumps) to the hotel meeting with Lili. The final sequence has Lili's mother walking up the stairs to Lili's room. To prolong the mystery, only her shoes and the lower part of her legs were shown. Because the women wore the same shoes, it was uncertain who Lili's mother was until The Reveal.
• My God, What Have I Done?: When Judy, Maxine, and Pagan receive news about the accident, they blame themselves (and each other) for Elizabeth's alleged death, completely ruining their friendship.
• My Greatest Failure: Maxine, Pagan, and Judy have been secretly haunted by Elizabeth’s alleged death for years and blame themselves for not taking the girl back sooner.
• Nature Abhors a Virgin: One of the big elements of the first part of the miniseries was the girls seeking to lose their virginity during their boarding school days. The metaphor used by Lucinda Lace, the protagonist in Judy's novel, was "crossing a bridge."
• One Name Only: Lili. It was never revealed when, how, or why she adopted that name.
• One-Night-Stand Pregnancy: Each of the three schoolmates has sex just once with the potential father of Lili but one of them gets pregnant.
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: American Brooke Adams lapsed in and out of a British accent in playing Pagan.
• Pragmatic Adaptation: The book had a fourth potential mother, Kate, who was a magazine editor with a significant other named Tom. In the miniseries, Kate was combined with Judy to form a Composite Character.
• Pretty in Mink: Pagan wore mink several times, while Maxine wore one in the rain after the Lace celebration.
• Psycho Lesbian: Selma, Pagan's mother's new business partner, openly hits on Pagan, and when the latter refuses her sexual advances, proceeds to passive aggressively drive a wedge between Pagan and her mother to drive her away.
• Really Gets Around: One of the reasons Monsieur Chardin wants to expel the girls, complaining "You chase every pair of pants in town!" they reply "So do you!" And they have evidence which they use to stay in the school.
• The Reveal: In the last moments of the film we finally find out that Judy Hale is Lili’s mother.
• Rich Bitch: Pagan after graduating from the boarding school. She was the only one of the three friends who didn't have post-graduation plans. Upon her return to England to live on her mother's estate, she spent much of her time horseback riding and going to parties. She was also arrogant, calling the weight-loss clients who were given her room "obesities" and "fat blubbers." She eventually turned to philanthropy after her marriage to Sir Christopher Swann.
• Scenery Porn:
  • The boarding school sequences at times included spectacular views of the Swiss Alps.
  • There were glamorous urban scenes in New York, London, and Paris.
  • Spain was used as a substitute for North Africa or the Middle East.
• Smoking Is Cool: The girls smoked in secret during their boarding school days and continued into adulthood. While commiserating in the hotel bar at the end, Judy even lit Pagan's cigarette with her own lit one.
• Surprise Incest: Averted in the miniseries. But in the book and in the sequel miniseries Lace II, it is revealed that Judy became pregnant with Lili after being raped by Abdullah and not by having sex with Nick Cliffe, as implied in the original miniseries. This was unknown to Lili when she had an affair with Abdullah, which was also then Parental Incest.
• Unusual Euphemism: Judy likens losing her virginity to “crossing a bridge.” Also a Sexual Euphemism.
• We Used to Be Friends: The girls were extremely close during their boarding school days, so much so that two of them agreed to the wild plan to hide the pregnancy of the third and to even raise the child if one of them succeeded before the others. They even had a motto that was used throughout their lives: "Through thick and thin." They had a falling out though after they got news that Lili had been killed, which turned out to be untrue. That schism lasted 10+ years and resulted in the women not talking to each other, even at the funeral for Maxine's Aunt Hortense.