Suranne Jones has been a trailblazer throughout her acting career and says she relished portraying a woman who helped shape sexual history.
Next month, the actress will play 19th-century landowner Anne Lister – known as the “first modern lesbian” – in BBC series Gentleman Jack.
And the star of Doctor Foster, Scott & Bailey and Coronation Street hopes the period drama will make Anne a modern icon – for everyone.
The Yorkshirewoman was no ordinary Regency lady. She walked like a man, dressed head to foot in black and was clever in business.
After years of exotic travel, mountaineering and social climbing, she was determined to transform her fortunes by marrying well.
But rather than hooking up with a man, Anne met local heiress Ann Walker (played by Bodyguard actress Sophie Rundle) and while they weren’t able to, by law the pair “married” in a ceremony involving vows and the exchange of rings – much to the horror of their neighbours.
(Image: Granada Television)
Every part of Anne’s story is based on historical fact, recorded in her diaries and written in a secret code that has now been broken.
Suranne, 40, is thrilled to bring Anne to life and feels she speaks not just for the gay community but for anyone trying to break through social norms or confound expectations.
She said: “Why I got involved is for fair and equal representation of members of society.
“For young lesbian girls that are thinking about their sexuality, I think that’s an amazing reason for this show to be aired.
“But then for people who aren’t within the LBGTQIA community, I think we have a trailblazer, someone who stands for wanting to be themselves, for authenticity, for having a voice no matter what your gender, no matter what your place is in society, if you’re working class… who wants to be educated.
“She stands for a right to be heard, so everyone has a voice. So, I think even in 2019 it’s a very, very modern story. There are many reasons to watch it for many different people.”
(Image: SHARED CONTENT UNIT)
The eight-part series focuses on Anne’s desire to transform the fate of her faded ancestral home, Shibden Hall in Halifax. She inherited the home from her aunt and took a hands-on approach to the estate.
Penned by Sally Wainwright, who created Happy Valley, it breaks the fourth wall to give a nod to the diary origins of the story – and tells of Anne’s meeting with wealthy heiress Ann.
Gentleman Jack was a derogatory term used by the people of Halifax. “Gentleman” because she was seen as a social climber and aloof. And “Jack” was a derogatory slang word for a lesbian.
The series will show the tenderness between the two women, although Anne’s previous love life will be shown in raunchy flashback. The drama, to be shown on BBC1 next month, was shown in the US this week and critics focused on the sex scenes of episode one.
Suranne said: “I think from that one flashback, you get the idea – OK, she likes sex and she likes women. I think we shot more but it just didn’t need to be there.
“But the sexual content is really quite small. As Sue Perkins said in the documentary she did about her, there are 70 things that are interesting about Anne Lister and that is just one of them.”
Suranne lives in London with husband Laurence Akers and their three-year-old son. She didn’t hesitate to take on the role of a courageous gay figurehead.
She said: “I was very aware of the conversation around straight actors playing queer roles. Firstly, I auditioned and was given the part, so it wasn’t just me that was responsible.
(Image: ITV/Red Productions)
“Being a lesbian was just one part of Anne. I had to be able to portray every aspect of this character. I’m just the face of Gentleman Jack. There was a team around me that held my hand – Anne Choma, our historical adviser, Stella Merz, our script editor, and Phil Collinson, our producer, are all gay. And they helped me – and Sally as she was writing.”
Suranne and Sally teamed up in 2007’s Dead Clever, 2009’s Unforgiven and Scott & Bailey, which ran for five series until 2016.
It has taken Sally 10 years to get the Anne Lister project off the ground but it’s not the first time the landowner’s story has been brought to life.
Maxine Peake played her in the 2010 film The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister and in the same year, Sue Perkins presented a documentary on BBC2, Revealing Anne Lister.
But many viewers will never have heard of her – and Suranne admits she didn’t know anything about her until she was given the script.
But she added: “I fell so hard in love with her.
(Image: Daily Record)
“It’s hard enough to do what she was doing now, as a woman.
“The conversation of #MeToo in the last two years has been amazing. But can we continue the conversation and show characters as fully formed as Anne Lister on TV and film? Let’s hope she makes an impact – quietly or not.”
The cast includes Game of Thrones actress Gemma Whelan as Anne’s disapproving sister, Lydia Leonard in the role of Anne’s aristocratic lover Marianna Lawton, Timothy West as her father and Gemma Jones as
her aunt.
The series shows that a loving family dynamic helped Anne to go on and be the person she wanted to be.
Suranne had to wear corsets for the part as well as a shirt, waistcoat, jacket and overcoat. That’s a lot when you consider they filmed last year in one of Britain’s hottest summers.
Laughing, Suranne said: “I loved the way it looked but I was really hot. It was like being in my own personal sauna every day.
“I had welts because you’re not meant to behave like that in a corset. So, they had to make me a ballet dancer’s corset. Then I could move.”
:: Gentleman Jack will be shown on BBC1 next month.
