‘Gentleman Jack’ first look: 10 brand new pics from Season 2

The BBC has released a set of promotional images from the second season of Gentleman Jack.

Set in Halifax, West Yorkshire in 1832, the BBC’s hit period drama series premiered nearly three years ago.

Gentleman Jack was swiftly renewed another season after it became the most successful launch of 2019 for a new BBC drama.

However, inevitably delayed by the coronavirus pandemic, filming only began in the north of England in November 2020.

The eight new hour-long episodes are once again based on the real life diaries of Anne Lister, which were partly written in code, with every part of Lister’s story based in historical fact and the five million words she wrote in her journals.

Suranne Jones (Vigil) and Sophie Rundle (Peaky Blinders) are back as Anne Lister and Ann Walker.

Also reprising their roles from Season 1 are Gemma Whelan (Game of Thrones) as Marian Lister, Gemma Jones (Last Tango in Halifax) as Aunt Anne Lister, and Timothy West (EastEnders) as Jeremy Lister.

Other returning cast members will include Jodhi May (Lady Vere Cameron), Katherine Kelly (Elizabeth Sutherland), Derek Riddell (Captain George Sutherland), Stephanie Cole (Aunt Ann Walker), Peter Davison (William Priestley), Amelia Bullmore (Eliza Priestley), Vincent Franklin (Christopher Rawson), Shaun Dooley (Jeremiah Rawson), Rosie Cavaliero (Elizabeth Cordingley), Joe Armstrong (Samuel Washington), Anthony Flanagan (Ben Sowden), and George Costigan (James Holt).

Lydia Leonard is back too as Mariana Lawton.

Joining the cast for Season 2 is Joanna Scanlan (No Offence, The Thick of It).

Most recently seen as Ma in ITV’s The Larkins, Scanlan is playing Anne Lister’s outrageous former lover, Isabella ‘Tib’ Norcliffe.

The official synopsis for Season 2 reads: “Yorkshire, 1834. All eyes are on Anne Lister and Ann Walker as they set up home together at Shibden Hall as wife and wife, determined to combine their estates and become a power couple.

“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.”

Gentleman Jack creator Sally Wainwright commented last year: “I’m more thrilled than I’ve ever been about anything that we’re returning with a new series of Gentleman Jack.

“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.”

Wainwright added: “I’ve been in a little bit of heaven once again spending so much time deep in Anne’s diaries as I’ve written the scripts, and can’t wait to see the fabulous, joyous magic and detail that Suranne and Sophie will bring to it all.”

Season 2 is set to premiere in March or April on BBC One in the UK.

HBO has also hinted that it’ll arrive in the US soon for HBO subscribers, tweeting last week: “#GentlemanJack returns this spring to @hbomax.”

The complete first season is available for UK viewers to stream on BBC iPlayer already.

Sally Wainwright is incredibly busy right now, with the final season of Happy Valley currently filming in Yorkshire, and a sixth season of Last Tango in Halifax to write.

She’s also working on a new 18th Century adventure series for Disney+ titled The Ballad of Renegade Nell.

The eight-part drama will follow “swashbuckling highwaywoman” Nell Jackson as she begins a life of robbery after being framed for murder.

Gentleman Jack is available to watch on Amazon Prime Video.