'Gentleman Jack' Season 2 Filming Has Begun
Production on the second season of the critically acclaimed period drama Gentleman Jack is officially under way in Halifax.
The show tells the story of Anne Lister, a 19th-century British landowner, lesbian, and all-around unorthodox woman who was wildly ahead of her time in many respects. In its first season, the show primarily tells the story of Lister's love affair with neighboring heiress Ann Walker, as well as her attempts to revitalize her family coal mines.
Gentleman Jack first premiered in the spring of 2019, to widespread critical and viewer acclaim.
Set in 1834, Season 2 will see Lister and Ann Walker set up house together at Shibden Hall and live together as a true married couple. Despite the expected rules of their time, the pair is determined to combine their estates and become a nineteenth-century power couple. But Anne Lister’s entrepreneurial spirit frightens the locals as much as her unconventional love life and, with Halifax on the brink of revolution, her refusal to keep a low profile becomes provocative and dangerous.
The series' second season will once again be comprised of eight episodes, and will once again be based on the real-life diaries of Lister, who left behind a massive collection of journals containing over 500,000 words about her life. Many of them were written in code, ostensibly to protect herself by disguising the details about her sexual exploits with women.
“I'm more thrilled than I've ever been about anything that we're returning with a new series of Gentleman Jack," creator Sally Wainwright said in a statement. "We've had such an extraordinary response from so many viewers all over the world about the first series, and I can't wait to show them what we've come up with this time."
Suranne Jones will return as Anne Lister, alongside Jamestown's Sophie Rundle as Ann Walker, and a cast that includes Gemma Whelan, Gemma Jones, and Timothy West.
“I’m so happy to be back in beautiful Yorkshire, back with my favorite team, back with Sophie and this amazing cast and of course I’m so honored to be returning as Anne Lister," Jones enthused. "Sally’s scripts are detailed and wonderfully human as ever.”
As you can see from the (amazing) new photo released to celebrate the start of filming, the new season of Gentleman Jack is being produced in full consultation with independent health and safety consultants, in consultation with industry partners and the local authorities to make sure that all government guidelines on COVID-19 are being followed.
(I would like to know where to get that mask, is what I'm really saying.)
Since production has only just begun, there's no real timeline as yet for when we might see Ann and Anne return to our screens on either BBC One or HBO, the show's U.S. home. But fingers crossed it's sooner rather than later.
Are you looking forward to more Gentleman Jack? Let us know in the comments!
