HAND – MEET MRS GENTLEMAN JACK

HE last time we saw Sophie Rundle she was in danger of getting blown to bits in Bodyguard as screen husband Richard Madden’s finger hovered over a detonator. Now she’s facing down the fury of Victorian society in unconventional period drama Gentleman Jack. It’s fair to say Rundle’s getting used to explosive situations.

The 31-year-old actress is a lively, chatty interviewee but what feels like a straightforward question prompts a pause. ‘No,’ she muses. ‘I don’t think I’ve played a lesbian before. You’d think I’d remember, wouldn’t you?’

In what’s set to be an unforgettable performance, Rundle plays Ann Walker, a demurely respectable society lady who the title character, the (very far from demure) mould-breaker Anne Lister, sneeringly dubbed Gentleman Jack by