Award winning director Sally Wainwright returns to York this week to continue filming for her new series ‘Gentleman Jack’. The BBC period drama focuses on the life of Anne Lister (played by the BAFTA winning Suranne Jones), on the eve of her return to England, as she aims to save her ancestral home ‘Shibden Hall’ from a certain demise. Today’s filming took place along Minster Yard, between the York Treasurer’s house and The Deanery College behind the Minster itself. Tents, tripods and teams of makeup artists swarmed the courtyard, providing a shield for the interior scene being filmed behind the Deanery’s double doors.
The set boasted two horse-drawn carts and a single rider, upon which the exterior shoot was focused. Tangled within a jungle of parked cars, the crew relied upon the ingenious use of camouflage to preserve the scene.
Anne Lister is recognised as one of the first women in England to receive blessing from the church to marry, the communion took place on Easter Sunday of 1834. The historic Holy trinity church, the site of Anne Lister and Ann Walker’s matrimonial engagement will become the set for the second day of filming. Crews have been seen moving vast amounts of studio equipment in and out of the small church courtyard, now hedged in by newer buildings the set remains closed and inaccessible.
