BBC One’s historical drama, Gentleman Jack, starring Suranne Jones, returned to our screens last weekend.
The period drama, which follows the life of Anne Lister, an English diarist famous for revelations that later earned her the title of ‘the first modern lesbian’, featured Liverpool as a backdrop in season one. Filling the city’s Town Hall and Falkner Square with stunning Georgian costumes and 19th century carriages, the show transported viewers back to 1832, a time in which LGBTQ+ representation and equality was nowhere to be seen.
Gentleman Jack is based on Anne Lister, a woman who was renowned for her charm and dressing head-to-toe in black. Coming from a wealthy minor landowning family in Yorkshire, Anne was known for challenging 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.
