GENTLEMAN JACK RETURNS THIS SPRING - FIRST LOOK IMAGES AND CASTING REVEALED

A set of first-look images from the new series of Sally Wainwright’s Gentleman Jack have been released, ahead of the hit drama returning for eight new episodes on BBC One and BBC iPlayer this Spring.

Suranne Jones returns as the remarkable Anne Lister, pictured in the brand-new images alongside Sophie Rundle as Anne Lister’s now wife, Ann Walker.

Gemma Whelan (Marian Lister) and Lydia Leonard (Mariana Lawton) also appear in the new selection, while Joanna Scanlan – who joins Gentleman Jack as guest cast for series two – can be seen as Anne Lister’s outrageous former lover Isabella ‘Tib’ Norcliffe for the first time.

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.

Series two will again use the real life diaries of Anne Lister - part of which were written in code - as its source, with every part of Lister’s story based in historical fact and the five million words she wrote in her journals.

Also returning to Shibden Hall for Gentleman Jack series two are Gemma Jones as Aunt Anne Lister, and Timothy West as Jeremy Lister. They are joined by many returning cast including 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).

Gentleman Jack series one was a hit for BBC One and iPlayer, averaging 6.8 million viewers across its eight-episode run.

Gentleman Jack will return to BBC One and BBC iPlayer this Spring. Series one is available to stream in full on BBC iPlayer.