The love scenes in "Fifteen Streets" are so passionate and touching, that I watched these scenes over and over again -- for an entire week -- after first seeing the movie. I would simply "fast-forward" to any scene where Mary Llewellyn (played by the lovely actress, Clare Holman) appeared, and watch those scenes only. It is fascinating to watch the way in which she meets John-the-dock-worker (the boatman), and then quickly falls in love with him, despite the fierce opposition of her family.The saying "Love is blind" is truly portrayed to perfection in this romantic story. Mary Llewellyn and John O'Brien are so very different from each other. Mary comes from a wealthy and refined family living in a mansion far from the shipyard docks, while John is a rough dock worker living in the worst of slums in the poverty of "The Fifteen Streets." The two of them meet because Mary is the finely-dressed, highly educated school teacher. And she has one of John's sisters, Katie, as her pupil in school. Mary finds out that John has been writing the romantic prose and poetry that Katie has been submitting as her own homework at school! Mary now understands that inside the rough exterior of this handsome dock worker resides a special soul of a man to whom she is specially attracted.The final scenes are especially touching, to see Mary disobey her wealthy parents, abandon her wealthy surroundings and beautiful dresses, trade her fine fashions for peasant's clothing, and literally sacrifice everything she has, just to be with her true love.If this isn't enough to awe and inspire you, to see "love conquers all," no matter how large the divide in wealth, social class, and education (and despite some of the shocking scenes of violence in this movie), then you may wish to choose a different movie. As for me, I watched the romantic scenes (skipping past the fighting scenes and family disputes of the slums), to see the story of a budding romance blossom into the beautiful flower of love, with the young couple finally united in a tiny, dirty room in the slums of "The Fifteen Streets."

This is a magnificent piece of work. It's human. It's happy. It's sad. It's tragic. It's an improbable love story set in the grim world of the Newcastle England docks around the turn of the twentieth century. I'm not familiar with the author of the book. But I recognize dedicated, creative film work. We have plenty of that here! This is a film made by people who love making movies. It shows in every frame. The characters are strong and they're real. The grim atmosphere of the brick and concrete tenement district has been caught accurately, both its human and inhuman dimensions. Yet there are many warm and charming scenes among those that are bleak or tragic. The subdued colour, the rain and the snow at times, probably are more effective than black and white would have been. I would have given it a 10 save for two things. The ending is a little silly. And, surprising in a film which is is so historically accurate, one of the shots at the dock shows a modern overhead crane. But it's a keeper and one of those stimulating films that trigger interesting discussions and arguments.

A very violent film in thought word and deed - indeed it starts with a brawl between the O'Brien brothers - and set in extremely austere and miserable surroundings. Add a continuously grey sky, damp wet streets and generally sordid surroundings and you are fast on the way to a recipe for instant suicide ! In spite of all this violence, poverty and austerity, there remains one glimmer of hope - the nascent love between one of the O'Brien brothers and the schoolmistress daughter of a local wealthy shipbuilder who is married to Billie Whitelaw - whose face has always scared the pants off me since I saw her in "Omen I". The misery is further compounded by a boating accident in which the cute little sister loses her life together with the grand-daughter of a new preacher neighbour and the person responsible for the accident is deemed to be the other O'Brien brother portrayed by the actor Sean Bean ( who also sports a mean countenance at the best of times ). So basically, in this whole awful quagmire, the only slender straw that the desperate spectator can clutch on is that which relays the love between our two turtle doves ! The film is extremely well acted but I was obliged to turn my head the other way during some of the violent scenes - it's as bad as that. If you enjoy this sort of stuff, you will have a field day, if not you watch this film at your own risk and peril !

Catherine Cookson is a great writer but she has not been well served by Tyne Tees who made this TV film from the book of the same name. I think I read the book once but you get used to this sort of thing in a film adaption,that vast chunks are omitted . In this one a couple of kids are drowned in a boat and there's hardly a mention, The ending is totally stupid and unreal. Maybe this is Catherine Cookson's poorest story as there's little drama anywhere.Just a lot of people arguing about nothing much at all other than a lack of money and some rather silly reasons for scrapping. The 15 streets are supposed to be the divide between the rich and the poor,a common enough theme in Catherine Cookson