"Behind her back she's Gentleman Jack, a Yorkshire lady of reknown. Ever so fine, won't toe the line" - Gentleman Jack, O'Hooley & Tidow
Belinda O'Hooley and Heidi Tidow's closing theme for Gentleman Jack (series one initially screened on BBC1 in May, June, and July of 2019 and now available on the iPlayer, written and directed by Sally Wainwright with further direction from Sarah Harding and Jennifer Perrott) is something of an earworm. It's also highly appropriate for a drama that' set in Halifax, West Yorkshire in the year 1832.
It's a show of cobbled streets, horses and carts (or gigs), smoking chimneys, Madeira wine, mahoosive thermometers, stagecoaches, top hats for the well to do and gin aided backstreet abortions for the poor. Unsurprisingly, the rolling hills and dry stone walls of the countryside around Halifax look absolutely stunning.
It's also a tale of lesbian love. But don't watch it for kicks. That's what the Internet's for. Anne Lister (Suranne Jones) has left Hastings after being rejected by her aristocratic lover Vere Hobart (Jodhi May). Hobart has accepted a proposal of marriage .... from a man!
So Anne returns to Yorkshire to take over the management of the supposedly 'dilapidated' and 'modest' Shibden Hall. The Listers have a reputation for being "a bit odd" and Anne, perhaps, is the oddest of all of them. She almost always dresses in black, she is well travelled (and very prone to talking about it), she is supremely confident in her own ability but also given to drama, and she looks down, somewhat condescendingly, on her "shabby little family".
Particularly, it seems, her sister Marian (Gemma Whelan), who despairs at the fact that Anne always seems to be the number one topic of conversation in Shibden Hall. Marian is more typical of her time. She believes a woman should not do a "man's job" and she hopes to marry carpet maker John Abbott (John Hollingworth). A man, it seems, who never tires of the sound of his own voice.
When a chance events brings Ann Walker (Sophie Rundle) to Shibden Hall, Anne takes a shine to her and endeavours to take her as a 'wife'. Ann (a lot of people are called either Ann or Anne in Gentleman Jack, there seems to have been a dearth of available names in the early 19th century) is very withdrawn and she is inclined towards both anxiety and melancholy but she is also beautiful, intelligent, and highly 'eligible'. For which read rich.
She seems a little in awe of Anne Lister. She also seems to be falling in love with her. But every time they are about to kiss, at least to begin with, they are rudely interrupted. Obviously, and this is no spoiler - the whole show is predicated on their romance, they get there eventually but the course of true love never runs smoothly. Certainly not a true love that, in that era, dare not speak its name.
When neighbour Eliza Priestley (Amelia Bullmore) walks in on Anne and Ann during a moment of intimacy she accuses them of "playing with fire". She's not very happy about it and, unfortunately for the star crossed lovers, Eliza Priestley is an incorrigible gossip.
It's not the only problem thwarting Anne and Ann moving forwards. Ann receives a highly inappropriate marriage proposal from the recently widowed Reverend Thomas Ainsworth (Brendan Patricks). Ainsworth is a man of the cloth but Ainsworth is also a rapist who believes that Ann Walker owes him her hand in marriage because he has known her, against her will, in a manner you might generously describe as religously.
There are also obstacles in the path created by Ann's sister, Elizabeth (Katherine Kelly), and her husband Captain Sutherland (Derek Riddell) who take Ann to stay with them in Edinburgh during a period of convalescence. Anne Lister's ex, Marianna Lawton (Lydia Leonard), also reappears and it becomes apparent that that particular relationship is still far from closure.
It's not just in the arena of romance that things aren't running smoothly for Anne. The Rawson brothers, Christopher (Vincent Franklin) and Jeremiah (Shaun Dooley - the voice over guy), have been stealing from the Lister's coal mine but they may be persuaded to agree to a deal. Anne Lister strikes a hard bargain with the Rawsons who, just to keep it confusing, happen to be Ann Walker's cousins. Jeremiah has a reputation for being "decent enough" but Christopher, a local magistrate, is a bully and a crook.
Then there's Samuel Sowden (Anthony Flanagan). A tenant farmer who's not happy with the balance of power. But then Samuel Sowden, a violent and abusive alcoholic who turns up to work drunk, punches his colleagues, punches women, and messes his pants, is not happy about anything. Much to the disappointment of his son Thomas (Tom Lewis). Samuel ends up being tied to a chair and locked up in a pig sty overnight and that's far from the worse thing that happens to him.
Then there's Eugenie (Albane Courtois), Anne's French maid who can't speak English and soon falls pregnant and agrees to marry gardener John Booth (Thomas Howes). Even though he's not the father and can't speak more than one word of French. That doesn't seem destined to go well.
As for the on/off romance between Anne and Ann? Well, we're never quite sure where that's heading. There's lots of fourth wall breaking as Anne Lister narrates the tale as she writes the diaries upon which Gentleman Jack was based (a true story, I didn't know that) and there's lots of references to shillings, ha'pennies, thrupennies, being under the influence of opium, threats of horse whippings, gout, backgammon, and people who actually believe in, and fear, God.
There are, also, very fine performances from all involved. You can add to those mentioned above the likes of Rosie Cavaliero as Shibden Hall's cook and housekeeper Elizabeth Cordingley, Joe Armstrong as land steward Samuel Washington, Gemma Jones as Aunt Anne Lister (another Anne), and Timothy West as Captain Jeremy Lister.
Then there's Sofie Grabol as Queen Marie of Denmark (at one point Anne Lister visits Copenhagen), Peter Davison as Eliza Priestley's husband, William, George Costigan as James Holt, a man who helps Anne Lister manage her coal mine, Stephanie Cole as Aunt Ann Walker (another Ann), Daniel Weyman as Dr Kenny, and Elle McAlpine as Ann Walker's friend Harriet Parkhill.
The outfits and the performances, as well as the historical references to the Boston Tea Party, the Reform Act of 1832, and the French palaentologist Georges Cuvier, really ground Gentleman Jack in the late Georgian era in which it was set but for me there were two ways in which Gentleman Jack didn't quite work for me.
Anne Lister is not particularly likeable. She's selfish, she's manipulative, she's condescending, she's a snob (like the aunt whose name she shares), she's a show off, and she's a liar. That shouldn't be a problem. Heroes with feet of clay, or full on antiheroes, can often make for great drama. But not only is Anne Lister not particularly likeable, she's not particularly relatable either.
She sometimes comes across as a caricature rather than a fully rounded character and, perhaps because of this, I didn't find Gentleman Jack gripping and I didn't find it tense or even dramatic enough to warrant the eight hours of my time I gave it. I didn't laugh once, I didn't cry once, and I didn't even genuinely care one way or another what happened to any of the characters.
As such it was a slow watch rather than a binge as not once in the entire series did I feel an ounce of jeopardy or concern for anyone involved. I'll still watch the second series though. I've got a feeling it will get better. Watching television, it seems, is like love. You have to remain optimistic. Without hope there is nothing.
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