‘Gentleman Jack’ creator says Season 2 has ‘lots of interesting material to explore’

The writer of Gentleman Jack has hinted what to expect when it returns.

Based on the diaries of remarkable Regency landowner Anne Lister, the BBC’s hit period drama series is set in Halifax, West Yorkshire in 1832.

After the first episode became the most successful launch for a new BBC drama in 2019 so far, the commission of a second season was announced this summer.

Gentleman Jack will be back with another eight episodes next year on BBC One in the UK and HBO in the USA.

Following the marriage of Anne (Suranne Jones) and Ann Walker (Sophie Rundle) at the end of the first season, the show’s creator Sally Wainwright has revealed what’s next for the pair.

Wainwright discussed the “real interesting power dynamic” between the couple with Radio Times magazine.

She explained: “Nobody wanted them to be together except themselves, and that gives us lots of interesting material to explore in the second season.”

Wainwright added: “As soon as people knew that they’d moved in together, there was a lot of opposition to it. And it had an effect on them – it was always going to be a difficult marriage, it was always going to be tricky.”

Having previously said she’d love to dramatise Anne Lister’s diaries “all the way to the end of her life,” the writer now admits that it would mean Gentleman Jack will have a rather sad ending.

She told Radio Times: “It’s quite a tricky thing to do. I’m worried people might get cross if I kill her off… that’s a conversation I will have to have further down the line!”

The second season of Gentleman Jack is expected to begin filming in early 2020.

Season 1 is available to watch on Amazon Prime.