TROUBLE AT T’MILL FOR Gentleman Jack (and her wife)
Suranne Jones would sometimes wear a fitness tracker under her period costume while filming series two of hit BBC1 drama Gentleman Jack — and when she did, the device had its work cut out. Because as powerhouse landowner and pioneering lesbian Anne Lister, Suranne is endlessly on the move, striding hither and thither at dizzying speed, her manly tailcoat flapping behind.
Anne’s activity is matched only by her volume of ideas, from new business projects to thoughts on how to scupper her rivals. So it’s little wonder that playing her took its toll on Suranne, 43. ‘She’s five steps ahead of everyone else,’ she says. ‘It’s tiring, and if you don’t pace yourself you can easily get exhausted.’
Yet no one was more delighted than Suranne to be back on set filming Gentleman Jack, three years after the first series was greeted with acclaim. The 1830s-set drama is written by Last Tango In Halifax creator Sally Wainwright, who gives it a modern treatment by allowing her lead character some knowing glances to camera as well as the opportunity to address it directly. It’s based on the diaries of the real-life 19th-century landowner and intellectual, nicknamed Gentleman Jack by locals, who Wainwright describes as ‘one of the most exuberant, thrilling and brilliant women in British history’.
Anne not only detailed her ambitions in her diaries but also her lesbian relationships, and with over four million words in all, there was plenty of material for Sally to draw on. ‘The problem is not what to put in but what to leave out,’ she says.
The pressure was on too. The first series attracted an average five million viewers a week, eager to follow the adventures of the heartbroken Anne as she returned to her native Halifax in 1832 following rejection by her lesbian lover Vere Hobart. Taking on the management of her ancestral estate, Shibden Hall, she set out to rejuvenate its prospects, but it wasn’t long before she encountered wealthy local heiress Ann Walker (played by Peaky Blinders’ Sophie Rundle).
Over time, to the dismay of Ann’s family, the women’s friendship evolved into an intimate relationship, and the drama traced the unfolding of their turbulent affair as the younger Ann battled to come to terms with her sexuality. The first series, which took us up to 1834, culminated with the
pair exchanging vows and agreeing to live together as a married couple at Shibden Hall — but as we all know, real life tends not to deal in happy-everafters.
‘They had their romantic happy ending, but it’s a question of what next, and is it going to work?’ says Suranne of the new series. ‘There’s no child to bond them, no marriage certificate, so Sally looks at what it means for a samesex couple who are trying to navigate what society puts on them, and that’s where the fragility is.’ Sally adds, ‘I think the great thing about Anne’s relationship with Ann Walker is it was the only one that was tested, because Ann had the courage to move in with her, which none of her other lovers did.’ This portrait of a partnership is rooted in the history of the period. ‘It isn’t just about the relationship; it’s about a businesswoman, an entrepreneur, a polymath,’ says Suranne. ‘It’s canals, steam trains, coal.’
Nonetheless, Anne’s relationship, and her own conduct, kicks against the strait-laced norms of the era. She’s often viewed as ‘the first modern lesbian’, and while Anne does not announce herself as such, she purposefully eschews the feminine traditions of the time, sitting with her legs spreadeagled and gesticulating with all the vigour of the menfolk — to the dismay of Halifax’s more puritanical residents.
‘Even though everyone dresses in period costumes, you sometimes have to remind yourself it’s amazing for it to be set in 1834,’ says Suranne of her character’s manly attire and seize-the-day swagger. That swagger is ever more present in this series, with Suranne describing her character as a ‘supercharged’ version of the woman we met in 2019. ‘She’s got her wife and she’s setting up her life, fighting for what she wants, and that helps give us an Anne who’s different to the one in the first series,’ she explains. ‘She’s dangerous because there’s so much going on with her that she’s on the cusp of losing control, because she’s so excited with her life.’ It’s a different story for her lover, whose passion for Anne has put her at odds with her family. While Anne’s relations accept her for who she is, the orphaned Ann’s family are violently opposed to Lister’s presence in her life. But Sally Wainwright believes this was not necessarily rooted in homophobia.
‘Ann’s family would have been protective of her whoever she married because she was loaded,’ she says. ‘They would have seen protecting her from who they regarded as fortune hunters as just doing their job.’
Meanwhile the fragile Ann is struggling to come to terms with her sexuality. ‘She takes ten steps forward and ten steps back, and she’s constantly trying to be comfortable with who she is, and in this relationship,’ says Sophie Rundle. ‘Then she trips herself up, and that’s frustrating for Anne Lister, who’s already got there. But it’s enormous for her, and it puts a huge pressure on their relationship.’
Yet this emotional struggle is also matched by a burgeoning independence. ‘I think Ann’s been purposefully infantilised by her family because it allows them to keep control over her, and it’s not so much her they’re interested in, it’s her money,’ says Sophie. ‘She’s been stuck in this little cage, and it’s only Anne Lister that opens her world up for her.’
Despite these fraught themes, at heart the drama is not only warm but funny too, from Anne’s asides to camera to the vignettes of fractious family dynamics. ‘These are huge issues that we’re seeing here, and they’re beautifully drawn, but it’s funny because life is funny and these characters are too,’ says Suranne, who points out that we tend to project a formality onto characters in period costume that doesn’t reflect the reality of their day-to-day lives. ‘They would relax in private, they weren’t always leaning against a mantlepiece,’ she says.
The series has a committed fan base, not least in Halifax, where Suranne unveiled a statue of Anne Lister last year. And she believes Anne has much to say to a modern audience even though she lived 200 years ago. ‘During lockdown I wore a facemask with the words “What would Anne Lister do?”’ Suranne reveals. ‘It’s a useful guide.’
Suranne Jones on the bumpy times ahead for trailblazing lesbian industrialist Anne Lister as the hit period drama returns...
‘Anne’s on the cusp of losing control’