Liverpool has and continues to be a hotspot for all sorts of filming thanks to its classical backdrops and gorgeous buildings.
The city, which currently can be seen in Matt Reeves' The Batman in cinemas across the globe, is most often used to transport viewers into another century for a period drama.
Besides Peaky Blinders, Netflix’s The Crown and War of the Worlds, one series that is often forgotten, despite only having been filmed in the region in recent years, is Gentleman Jack.
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The BBC One drama, which starred Suranne Jones, took Liverpool back to 1832 and used the Town Hall and Falkner Square in the Georgian Quarter to do so.
The popular locations were filled with stunning Georgian era costumes and 19th century carriages amongst other period props.
Gentleman Jack follows the life of Anne Lister, an English diarist, famous for revelations which later dubbed her as ‘the first modern lesbian’.
Anne was from a wealthy minor landowning family in Yorkshire but despite this was renowned for her charm and dressing head-to-toe in black.
She challenged the status quo by rarely taking part in activities that, in society’s eyes, were for women and quickly became known as ‘gentleman Jack’ to locals.
Anne’s lesbian lifestyle, however, remained one of the best kept secrets of her time.
At the age of 15, she began writing personal diary entries, a tradition she carried on till her untimely death from a prolonged fever contracted from a nasty insect bite.
It is believed the extremely detailed stories totaled more than four million words with the earliest of entries documenting her first love, a fellow pupil, Eliza Raine.
This passionate love affair wasn’t the only one recounted in her diary with others being included, particularly the relationships she enjoyed from her school days onwards, which often led her astray on long trips abroad.
One-sixth of Anne’s diary is said to have been written in a code she created herself. The code, which Anne referred to as her ‘crypthand’ was based on a combination of algebra and the Greek alphabet.
The coded sections contained some of her more sexual encounters and Anne was convinced that no one would ever be able to understand. However, it would later be decoded twice.
The first time occurred several decades later in 1887, when a descendant of her family discovered the diaries and debunked the code.
The family member, John Lister, was gay himself and didn’t want to draw attention to his own sexuality so decided to rebury the evidence, leaving Anne’s remaining a mystery for a few more years yet.
Anne’s sexuality was finally discovered when Helena Whitbread, a university student, wandered into the archives looking for a research project in 1982.
Helen had no idea that she would soon decode the diaries of one of the most fascinating characters of the 19th century.
The life that Anne lived captured the admiration of today’s modern audience so much so that it has been retold in movie, book and tv form.
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