Huddersfield street transformed into Victorian scene as filming for BBC period drama begins

Filming has begun in Huddersfield on a new drama about one of Britain's first 'modern' lesbian women.

Queen Street was transformed into an 1830s market scene today and extras dressed in period costume could be seen as the Gentleman Jack shoot began.

The joint BBC and HBO production tells the story of Calderdale landowner and heiress Anne Lister, who was openly gay in an era when homosexuality was hidden.

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Anne lived at Shibden Hall, near Halifax, and her 'Gentleman Jack' nickname referred to her love of stereotypically male pursuits such as shooting. Her diaries and correspondence contain references to a number of same-sex relationships and she never married.

The drama - due to air in 2019 - will focus on her relationship with another wealthy woman, Ann Walker, from 1832 onwards. The couple even got engaged and attended a church in York to take communion together.

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They were travelling through eastern Europe when Lister died from complications caused by an infected insect bite at the age of 49.

Lister's scandalous and erotically-charged diaries, which were written in code, were hidden behind a panel in Shibden Hall by a relative after her death, and were not discovered until the 1980s.

Gentleman Jack will be shot on location in both Yorkshire and the Danish capital of Copenhagen. Suranne Jones will star as Lister with Sophie Rundle as Walker, and Happy Valley's Sally Wainwright will direct.