Gentleman Jack
BBC1

Would the 19th-century Yorkshire diarist Anne Lister, a more-or-less out lesbian before anyone had even coined the term, have been surprised by the interest now taken in her? One imagines she might have been baffled but quite pleased. After all, there aren’t many not-very-well-known historical figures who have been the subject of two recent BBC dramas. Maxine Peake donned a black riding habit to stride across the Yorkshire moors in 2010, and now it’s Suranne Jones’ turn in Gentleman Jack, a new drama series about Lister, a land and colliery owner and seasoned seducer whose diaries (her romantic adventures written in code) run to 4 million words. This latest drama is written and directed by the marvellous Sally Wainwright (Happy Valley, Last Tango in Halifax), which was enough to make anyone want to tune in in happy anticipation.