Gentleman Jack
- Director: Sarah Harding; Jennifer Perrott
- Writer: Sally Wainwright
- Producer: Sally Wainwright
CGiii Comment
Perhaps, a few liberties have been taken with the original story...and, for all the intentions and purposes...those liberties serve this version of the facts rather well.
This is a jollier-than-imagined escapade...with a gleamingly-sharp edge. Suranne Jones gives Anne Lister a most-assured boldness...as the predatory, shameless [& shamelessly wealthy] lesbian...who [privately] seduces and cajoles...and, publicly, she stands her ground firmly with a resolute single-mindedness and - in so doing - neither fears nor looks-up-to any man!
She is a woman to be admired, to be feared...who has become the butt of malignant gossip...it's like water off a duck's back. But...that's just one-side to this Anne Lister...there's the vulnerable, the angry, the frustrated...and, the lonely...and, the provocateur. What a character!
This is period drama with a bite...the music choices are unexpected and inspired...and, it all jogs along at a jolly pace. Just like the protagonist, conventions are screwed...this is a contemporary re-telling with cheeky straight-to-camera asides. It may be a little tongue-in-cheek at times...but, it certainly drives home the despotic patriarchy that existed in those days.
Anne Lister: Love her, loathe her...you simply can't ignore her!
Trailer...
The(ir) Blurb...
Set in the 1830s, the historical drama will be co-produced by HBO and follow Lister after she returns home from a lengthy trip of social climbing and work.
Now an established society presence, she sets about transforming her dimming ancestral home, broadening her business interests and finding herself a wife.
While Lister was linked to a handful of women – discovered after historians cracked the code in which she penned her diaries – her relationship with heiress Walker is perhaps her most notable relationship.
It is said that Lister owned several diaries and wrote up to around four million words as she detailed her romantic and sexual relationships.
The code in which she wrote them was derived by both algebra and Ancient Greek and wasn’t deciphered until the 1980s. Gentleman Jack was her nickname around the town that she lived in.
Cast & Characters
Joe Armstrong as Samuel Washington
Jessica Baglow as Rachael Hemingway
Amelia Bullmore as Eliza Priestley
Rosie Cavaliero as Elizabeth Cordingley
Stephanie Cole
Albane Courtois as Eugénie Pierre
Peter Davison as William Priestley
Shaun Dooley as Jeremiah Rawson
Vincent Franklin as Christopher Rawson
Thomas Howes as John Booth
Ben Hunter as Joseph Booth
Gemma Jones as Aunt Anne Lister
Suranne Jones as Anne Lister
Lydia Leonard as Marianna Lawton
Tom Lewis as Thomas Sowden
Jodhi May as Vere Hobart
Sophie Rundle as Ann Walker
Mason Sutcliffe as Alf Sowden
Timothy West as Jeremy Lister
Gemma Whelan as Marian Lister
Saul Marron as James Mackenzie
Joel Morris as William Hardcastle