When this
BBC/HBO co-production aired this spring, my list of shows to watch was packed,
so I didn’t get a chance to sit down and watch it until more recently, even
though the premise excited the hell out of me, the trailer looked great, and
Suranne Jones has been in my “always trust” pile since she played the TARDIS in
“The Doctor’s Wife.” Finally, though, I’ve had a chance to finish the first season,
and I’m all about this show.
In the
1830s, Anne Lister is the heir of Shibden Hall, her family’s manor house in
Yorkshire. With her unconventional style, bold manners, and habit of seducing
ladies, she’s the talk of wherever she goes. But even though she leads an
exciting life of travel and enterprise, she longs for a woman to settle down
with, someone who won’t get married and relegate her to the side. When she
meets gentle, delicate Ann Walker, Anne starts to think she may have found that
woman.
I always
appreciate good LGBTQ content in period pieces, and this one is based on a true
story (Anne at times addresses the camera in the words of the real Anne
Lister’s diaries.) It’s refreshing to find reminders that queer people, of
course, weren’t invented with Stonewall; they’ve always been. In Anne and the
ladies she romances, we see a secret world that’s conducted in Victorian
drawing rooms and coaches, through afternoon calls and correspondence.
Anne
herself is an enormous draw to the show. Suranne Jones plays her splendidly, by
turns forceful, bold, soft, and yearning, a woman who seeks to make her own way
in a world where she knows she can never play the one role that’s been laid out
for all of her sex. It’s cool to watch her stride confidently into places where
people think she doesn’t belong and take charge, going toe-to-toe with men who
assume they can walk all over her in business negotiations. And when she meets
Miss Walker! Wow, Anne is just everything – she’s disarming, she invites
confidences, and she’s flattering, giving you the notion of a player who’s made
countless conquests, but by the same token, she falls hard and fast, and she’s
forever conscious of the fact that, unlike so many of the women she’s loved,
she really doesn’t have the option of hiding behind a marriage to a man.
She’s
certainly the show’s best asset, but she’s far from its only one. There’s also
her rich relationship with Miss Walker, the excellent portrait of women’s roles
among many of the female characters, the gorgeous scenery and production
design, and the splendid cast. Miss Walker is played with quiet care by Sophie
Rundle, who was Lucy on The Bletchley
Circle, and the show additionally features Gemma Whelan (Game of Thrones’s Yara Greyjoy, in a very different role,) Fifth Doctor Peter
Davison, Gemma Jones (a great Mrs. Dashwood in the Emma Thompson/Hugh Grant Sense and Sensibility,) and Timothy
West.
Warnings
Sexual
content, language, drinking/smoking, scenes of violence, and thematic elements.
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