'Gentleman Jack' Season 2, Episode 1 Recap: "Faith is all"
Finally, Jack is back.
Anne Lister (Suranne Jones, Scott & Bailey), industrialist, writer, explorer, and LGBTQ+ champion, bursts once more onto our small screens with Gentleman Jack Season 2. Add a wife to that list of accomplishments since she and Ann Walker (Sophie Rundle, Peaky Blinders) exchanged vows and rings at a quiet ceremony in a York church. It's not your typical 1830s love story, but Lister was a woman way ahead of her time in so many ways. Her frank, coded diaries form the basis of this series from director/writer Sally Wainwright (Happy Valley, Last Tango in Halifax). Add gorgeous vistas (check out the Riveaulx Abbey scene), fabulous clothes, a witty script, and superb acting (Jones and Rundle are outstanding), and it's the whole package.
Dapper in masculine-inspired black, with a cane and top hat, Lister approaches Crow’s Nest, Ann Walker’s house. She turns on her heel and addresses us directly: “You’re here. Good,” before paying a call on Aunt Ann Walker (Stephanie Cole). Aunt Ann is fuming over her niece, becoming besotted with the scandalous, unnatural Miss Lister instead of trusting her own family. Even a trip to Scotland to visit her sister Elizabeth (Katherine Kelly) and her unscrupulous husband, Captain George Sutherland (Derek Riddell), did not help. Lister drops the bombshell. Ann gave £1,000 to Sutherland, and, by the way, Lister is now executor of Ann's will. Aunt Ann splutters in indignation. Why? “She likes me,” Anne smirks.
Back home at Shibden Hall, Lister’s family complains about “all this banging,” which accompanies home improvements made for her bride’s comfort, anticipating her move into the house. Innovations include flush toilets. Soon, but probably not in his lifetime, everyone will have one in their home, the plumber comments, awestruck at the technology.
But there are problems at home too. Lister and sister Marian (Gemma Whelan) aren’t fighting quite so much, maybe because Marian isn’t well, but runs after Lister, trying to keep up with her manly strides, to tell her that there has been impropriety among the servants. Their housekeeper Elizabeth Cordingley (Rosie Cavaliero), was embracing one of the footmen, and it’s not just the disparity in ages that’s problematic. However, the family, particularly Lister, are very keen on servants knowing their place, and a relationship between an upper and lower servant is highly inappropriate. The footman is leaving, but is Elizabeth to be trusted?
Lister conducts a series of hilarious interviews with possible footmen — one doesn’t talk enough, another talks too much, one is too young, another too old. But there are other problems to deal with. Lister started a coal mine only to find that the two good old boys of Halifax, brothers Christopher (Vincent Franklin) and Jeremiah Rawson (Shaun Dooley), offended by a woman adopting manly pursuits, are now robbing her coal seam. She offered to sell the mine to them, but they refused. She’s sinking another shaft but finds that her coal steward, James Holt (George Costigan), did not include a drift in his plan, as required, to control drainage. “Sort yourself out,” Lister tells him.
