Netflix made Sally Wainwright’s “Happy Valley” accessible to U.S. audiences, and it looks like HBO will do the same with the writer’s new show, “Shibden Hall.” According to Deadline, the series about trailblazing landowner Anne Lister will be produced by Lookout Point for BBC One and co-produced with HBO.
The eight-episode drama, set in 1832 West Yorkshire, is based on Lister’s diaries. “Returning after years of exotic travel and social climbing, Anne determines to transform the fate of her faded ancestral home, Shibden Hall, in Halifax,” the official synopsis details. “To do this, she must re-open her coal mines and marry well. But the charismatic, single-minded, swashbuckling Anne Lister — who walked like a man, dressed head-to-foot in black, and charmed her way into high society — has no intention of marrying a man. True to her own nature, she plans to marry a woman.”
Lister has often been referred to as “the first modern lesbian,” and was nicknamed “Gentleman Jack” in her hometown.
In addition to writing, Wainwright will executive produce “Shibden Hall” with Lookout Point’s Faith Penhale and BBC One’s Piers Wenger. Filming will begin sometime in 2018.
“Anne Lister is a gift to a dramatist,” Wainwright emphasized in a statement. “To bring Anne Lister to life on screen is the fulfillment of an ambition I’ve had for 20 years. Shibden Hall is a place I have known and loved since I was a child.”
President of HBO Programming Casey Bloys added, “We are thrilled to partner with the extraordinarily talented Sally Wainwright on this epic story and delve into the exceptionally unique life of Anne Lister. We are also pleased to continue our long and successful relationship with the BBC [HBO and the BBC previously collaborated on the miniseries ‘Parade’s End’ in 2012].”
Wainwright is the recipient of the 2016 Wellcome screenwriting fellowship, which she used to fund her research on Lister. The prolific Wainwright, who won the Best Drama Writer BAFTA for “Happy Valley,” has previously penned series like “Last Tango in Halifax,” “Scott & Bailey,” and “The Amazing Mrs Pritchard.” She is also the writer-director of the TV movie “To Walk Invisible: The Bronte Sisters,” which centers on Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Bronte (Finn Atkins, Chloe Pirrie, and Charlie Murphy). The siblings wrote “Jane Eyre,” “Wuthering Heights,” and “Agnes Grey,” respectively. “To Walk Visible” will air March 26 on PBS.
