A Q&A with creator & showrunner Sally Wainwright and actress Suranne Jones.

Moderated by Mara Webster, SAG-AFTRA Foundation Program Manager

From Sally Wainwright, this series tells a remarkable and unlikely love story, set in the complex, changing world of 1832 Halifax, the cradle of the industrial revolution, just as it begins. Starring Suranne Jones, it focuses on landowner Anne Lister and her determination to change the fate of Shibden Hall, her faded ancestral home, by re-opening the coal mines and marrying well. The charismatic, single-minded, swashbuckling Lister – who dresses head-to-toe in black and charms her way into high society – has no intention of marrying a man. True to her nature, she plans to marry a seriously wealthy woman, heiress Ann Walker. Every part of the story is based in historical fact, recorded in the four million words of the real-life Anne Lister’s diaries, which contain the most intimate details of her life, once hidden in a secret code that is now broken. Creator/writer/director Sally Wainwright executive produces along with Faith Penhale and Piers Wenger. Produced by Lookout Point for BBC One, and co-produced with HBO.