Jack’s back... and it’s going to get steamy
Suranne’s still scandalising 1830s Britain – as she cashes in on the age of steam
PICK OF THE WEEK GENTLEMAN JACK Sunday, BBC1, 9pm
Yorkshire, 1834: the wealthy Anne Lister (Suranne Jones) refuses to be cowed by any notions of the weaker sex as she goes about her business dealings. Instead, this indefatigable woman is determined to conquer the man’s world of her era, fulfil even the loftiest of her many ambitions and conduct her private life exactly as she pleases.
After an acclaimed debut three years ago, the hit costume drama from writer Sally Wainwright (Last Tango In Halifax, Happy Valley) is back for its second season (after production was delayed on the follow-up by the pandemic), still drawing on the voluminous diaries of the real-life figure of Lister as inspiration for the story.
Jones dominates the new eightpart series with a true star performance. Her Lister strides briskly along, energetically wielding a cane and wearing a top hat at a jaunty angle, an imperious figure who clearly means to take no prisoners in the cut-throat milieu of Northern landowners in the early 19th Century.
Seemingly impervious to any suggestion of scandal, she is setting up home at her estate of Shibden Hall together with the beautiful Ann Walker (Sophie Rundle, above right with Jones, centre, and Lydia Leonard, left), the object of her affections, with whom she exchanged vows in church in an extraordinary scene at the end of the first series.
Using their combined fortunes, Lister has grand plans for the estates and coal mines she owns and is looking to the future with its game-changing rise of the steam engine. But while her investments draw the occasional raised eyebrow, it’s her private life that really has jaws dropping, at a time when a sexual relationship between two women was beyond the wildest imaginings of conventional society.
Naturally there’s a hostile reaction from some of the more conservative, fastidious locals – not least Walker’s scheming aunt Ann (Stephanie Cole) – but this series will see the two lovers escape the constraints of Britain, at least temporarily, for the freedom of the Continent on trips to Paris and the Alps.
It all looks wonderful, and there is an outstanding supporting cast too – including Katherine Kelly, Peter Davison, Rosie Cavaliero and Timothy West – to help ensure that this historical drama with a twist remains essential viewing.
Wainwright’s storytelling is as boldly unconventional and compelling as Lister herself, while Jones is simply a captivating presence, seductively charming the viewer as, every now and then, she glances to the camera with a mischievous glint in her eye.