MINISERIES PREMIERE: This new HBO limited series is a sort of
Masterpiece Theatre with an HBO sense and sensibility. It stars Suranne Jones from
Doctor Foster as Anne Lister, an accomplished, well-traveled, landowning woman in early 19
th-century West Yorkshire. She’s given the name “Gentleman Jack” because she comports herself (and, in some ways, dresses) more like a man. She also has designs on the young woman who lives next door, an old romantic trope given a new spin with this period lesbian approach. Sophie Rundle plays Ann Walker, the object of Anne’s forbidden desire in this surprisingly fact-based, diary-supported costume drama.
For a full review, see David Hinckley's All Along the Watchtower.