DRAMA
SPECIALSuranne Jones (pictured) returns to screens
this month in yet another departure for the
talented actress. Following stellar turns in
Doctor Foster, Save Me and Vanity Fair, she
takes on one of the most formidable women
of the 19th century – industrialist Anne Lister
- in eight-part period piece Gentleman Jack.
Lister famously diarised her lesbian relationship
with Ann Walker (Sophie Rundle), her extensive
travels and the tireless restoration of her ancestral
home Shibden Hall in entries that totalled some
four million words. However, it wasn’t until 1988
that the coded entries – deciphered and hidden
by a relative in the 1890s – were finally published.
“Her diaries have been described as the
Rosetta Stone of lesbian life because, until they
were decoded, there was no record of women
having [sexual] relationships with one another,”
says the show’s creator, writer and executive
producer, Sally Wainwright. “Her diaries allow
us to see the depth of female affection in
regency England in a whole new light.”
Described as brash and unapologetic,
Lister caused waves in 1832 England due to
the decidedly masculine way she dressed and
carried herself. The series title refers to the
nickname cruelly bestowed upon her.
“She could be all things to all people,”
Wainwright explains. “She was very charming,
a great player, a great conversationalist and a
great lover. She lived at a time when she couldn’t
be open and honest about being gay, and yet
she refused to conform to the way society
expected women to look and think and be.”
GENTLEMAN JACK
Stream* or watch from May 19, Sundays at
7.30pm on FOX SHOWCASE [115] available
in the DRAMA pack
BREAKING
boundaries
A new British period drama
turns the tables on the norm
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The eight-part drama, written by
Tom Rob Smith (The Assassination of
Gianni Versace: American Crime Story)
also stars Sarah Lancashire (Happy Valley,
Coronation Street) as ambitious British
MP Angela Howard.
Once she heard about the project,
McCrory, who is married to Homeland
and Band of Brothers star Damian Lewis,
was desperate to be involved.
“My agent called me to say there was
a fantastic project floating about, but the
only names that were reading it were big
film stars,” she recalls. “He couldn’t tell
me anything about it, nor were they
sending it to me, but his excitement was
palpable: ‘If I can get you into the room
I think you’ve got a chance... but I’ve
got to get you into the room first’.
“So we gate-crashed the auditions,
basically. I was being offered various
things during this process – I even declined
a lead role in another series purely on the
chance of getting this, because Tom Rob
Smith’s writing is brilliant and it is one of
the most original scripts I’ve ever read.”
MOTHERFATHERSON
Stream or watch new episodes from May 12,
Sundays at 8.30pm on BBC First [116]
available in the DRAMA pack
Helen McCrory
and Richard Gere
play ex-spouses in
MotherFatherSon