Gentleman Jack

Halifax is the Lourdes for lesbians,” said producer-director and former Chair of RTS Yorkshire Fiona Thompson at “Celebrating Gentleman Jack: Changing lives”.

Not a sentence many would have anticipated hearing, but this is only one of the consequences of the so-called “Gentleman Jack effect”.

Anne Lister, Sally Wainwright’s eponymous Gentleman Jack, born in 1791, was a Halifax industrialist, landowner, diarist and self-assured lesbian, and hero of possibly the most important TV drama of recent times.

If you look at the schedules, it would be reasonable to assume that everyone in Yorkshire goes about their day-to-day life followed by a camera crew. It seems we have every profession covered, including vets, farmers, midwives, shepherdesses, auctioneers and airport workers.

In addition, Yorkshire continues to inspire writers like me to write shows such as Gentleman Jack, Ackley Bridge, Hullraisers, Happy Valley and, of course, Emmerdale, which recently celebrated 50 years of being filmed in the region.

When you write a show, you hope you’ll get good viewing figures, you hope people will like it. But the global response that we’ve had, this huge emotional response – you don’t expect that when you write telly.”

This was the visibly moved writer of Gentleman Jack, Sally Wainwright, interviewed for a sensitive and poignant new observational documentary, Gentleman Jack Changed My Life, made by Leeds-based Screenhouse Productions.

The drama follows Anne Lister, dubbed “the first modern lesbian” for having the courage to love and live openly with Ann Walker in the 19^th century.

Since first airing in 2019, the series has inspired many to embark on their own journeys of self-discovery, reassessing their sexuality and coming out to themselves, their children, parents and grandparents.

Emma Loach, BBC Commissioning Editor, says: “It has been so exciting to hear the positive impact that the story of Anne Lister has had on so many people around the world.

There are also new images of Suranne Jones, Sophie Rundle and Lydia Leonard as characters Anne Lister, Ann Walker and Mariana Lawton.

Set in 1834, the series will return to Yorkshire where the newly wedded Lister and Walker are making a home together at Shibden Hall.

The two aim to combine their estate in the hope of becoming a power couple, but Lister’s entrepreneurship frightens the locals as much as her unconventional love life. And as Halifax is on the brink of revolution, her high profile endangers them both.

The new series will see Suranne Jones return to her role as Anne Lister, with Sophie Rundle reprising her role as Anne Lister’s now wife, Ann Walker. Based on the real-life diaries of Anne Lister, some of which were written in code, Gentleman Jack’s second series will follow the couple as they set up their home together at Shibden Hall as wife and wife, in Yorkshire 1834.

Suranne Jones will be reprising her role of Anne Lister, with Sophie Rundle returning as Ann Walker.

The series will pick up in Yorkshire, 1834, where Anne Lister and Ann Walker are enjoying married life together at Shibden Hall. Determined to combine their estates, Anne Lister’s entrepreneurial zeal when paired with her unconventional love life begins to stoke fear and fury in the locals.

With Halifax on the brink of revolution, Lister’s refusal to fade into the background becomes dangerous and provocative.

It is doubtful whether Sally Wainwright’s writing has ever been described as inauthentic – her TV drama is populated with real people, speaking natural, colloquial English. “My imagination doesn’t seem to click in if what I’m writing doesn’t feel real, or if it’s phoney, or if something feels a bit cheesy or sentimental,” she told Endemol Shine UK COO Lucinda Hicks, who hosted an RTS webinar with the writer in May.