Jack The Lass

Suranne Jones plays a real-life lesbian landowner in a period drama…

- Caren Clark

TV&Satellite Week is standing in the flagstoned courtyard of Shibden Hall, a beautiful stately home just outside Halifax. Stepping inside, we are transported back 200 years to when the manor was home to remarkable 19th-century landowner Anne Lister.

We’re on set for BBC1’s Regency set period drama Gentleman Jack, created by Happy Valley and Scott & Bailey writer Sally Wainwright and starring Suranne Jones as Anne. The eight-parter explores how

Anne, who was dubbed ‘Gentleman Jack’ by her neighbours, defied the rigid conventions of the period by running the Shibden estate alone while having intense romances with a host of women.

As the series begins in 1832, Anne returns home from travelling and sets her sights on winning the heart of troubled heiress Ann Walker (Sophie Rundle).