A NEW TV drama by Sally Wainwright, with a cast headed by Suranne Jones, is filming at historic Little Germany in Bradford.

Gentleman Jack is an eight-part series about Anne Lister who, after years of overseas travel, returned to Halifax in 1832 to transform the home she inherited, Shibden Hall. Her story is drawn from her four million-word diaries containing intimate details of her life, once hidden in a secret code. Many diary extracts have been de-coded for the first time for the drama.

Described as a "remarkable and unlikely love story", Gentleman Jack is set in the changing world of Halifax and explores landowner Anne Lister’s relationships with her family, servants, tenants and industrial rivals, who use dirty tricks to bring her down. At the heart of the story is Anne’s relationship with heiress Ann Walker.

The series, a Lookout Point production for the BBC, co-produced with HBO, is created, written and directed by Sally Wainwright, whose acclaimed dramas include Last Tango in Halifax, Happy Valley and To Walk Invisible, filmed in Haworth at a replica set of the Bronte Parsonage.

Taking the role of Anne Lister is BAFTA-winner Suranne Jones, star of such dramas as Doctor Foster, Save Me and Scott and Bailey. The cast also includes Peaky Blinders star Sophie Rundle as Ann Walker; Gemma Whelan, star of Game of Thrones, as Anne’s sister Marian; Bradford-born actor Timothy West as their father, Jeremy Lister, and Gemma Jones as Aunt Anne Lister. Also in the drama is Stephanie Cole, Amelia Bullmore, George Costigan, Joe Armstrong, Jodhi May and former Doctor Who Peter Davison.

The Gentleman Jack crew is filming in a street in Little Germany. Other filming is taking place in Halifax and Copenhagen.

David Wilson, director of Bradford City of Film, said: "We've supported them with closing roads, traffic management and access to buildings. This is one of several high profile TV dramas filming in the city, I'm thrilled that a production of this calibre is here in Bradford.

Sally Wainwright said: “I’m delighted the story of Anne Lister has attracted such a talented cast."