Gentleman Jack (2019-Present)

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.