Shout about her from the rooftops!
made her realise the influence Calderdale and Halifax had on her, resulting in work such as Sparkhouse, Unforgiven, Last Tango In Halifax, Happy Valley and Gentleman Jack all being set there.
Sally’s series debut, At Home With The Braithwaites and To Walk Invisible: The Bronte Sisters, were both also Yorkshire set and not too far away.
Growing up, apart from Granada TV and an honorary exception in the BBC’s Juliet Bravo, some of which was filmed in Todmorden and which featured a strong female lead, as a young woman she felt working in television meant having to go to London.
That had all changed, and a dream she had for the future was to see Calderdale as a base for training people who wanted to work in television.
“As a 16-year-old I couldn’t wait to leave Halifax.
“Now, 40 years on, I think Halifax is the most single magical place on earth.
“When I am in Halifax now, I feel so utterly alive, it really is the centre of the universe,” she said.
Her television inspiration growing up featured three strong women who made up the fictional rock band in
ITV’s series Rock Follies of
77, but it was reading author Jill Liddington’s book on Shibden Hall’s Anne Lister that brought her work back to Halifax.
“It changed my world and changed Halifax in my head. “She walked these streets. “I found out how amazing this woman was.
“I was stunned by the fact this woman was on my doorstep and I knew so little about her because she was hidden away,” said Sally.
Coupled with childhood memories of going on Shibden Park’s boating lake with her dad an dwithaloveof history, “something about Shibden Hall entered my soul – that sounds a bit flowery but I can’t think of a better way to put it,” she said.
Sally began pitching ideas for a series based around Anne Lister as far back as 2002-2003 and got nowhere, but the Shibden heiress was not going away for her and with her dramas increasingly heavily drawing on the language and landscape of Calderdale, she finally received the green light for what was to be Gentleman Jack in 2016.
Anne Lister’s time had come.
“Historically, Calderdale and Halifax has a lot to be proud of but for me Anne Lister and her diaries are the jewel in Calderdale’s crown,” she said.
Anne Lister was dynamic, athletic and a hugely inspiring influence to have in your life.
Now she was projected across the global stage, literally to every corner of the planet, said Sally.
“It is Anne Lister Halifax ought to be honouring, not me.
“Why? She was hidden away because she was Halifax’s dirty secret,” said Sally.
But times were changing, and in 2011 Anne Lister’s diaries had been recognised by Unesco as a unique document of British history, and one of the most important.
Many women’s lives had changed forever as a result of the show, she said.
“Can you imagine a world in which you’ve never heard of Shakespeare, and I mention them in the same breath, and discover him years later – that’s what has happened to Anne Lister.
“She has embodied diversity, talent and enterprise and what we now value.
“We should be shouting from the rooftops about her,” said Sally.
Halifax needed to take a lead in shaping Anne Lister’s memory, with tourism already boosted by the BBC/HBO production’s success.
“Sheisahugepartof Calderdale’s future – but as well as using her to bring people in, it should honour her too,” she said.