Before Gentleman Jack became a global phenomenon on HBO, there was a scrappy, moody, and deeply intimate BBC film that first broke the seal on Shibden Hall's greatest mystery. If you haven't seen The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister movie, you’re missing the blueprint for how we talk about "the first modern lesbian" in the 21st century. It’s gritty. It's often heartbreaking. Honestly, it’s a lot less polished than the high-budget TV series that followed, but that’s exactly why it works.
Anne Lister wasn't a saint. She was a land-owning, coal-mining, mountain-climbing force of nature who happened to love women in an era that didn't even have a word for it. When this film dropped in 2010, it wasn't just another period drama. It was a revelation of a life lived in code.
The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister movie: A Raw Look at the Code
Most people know the broad strokes now. Anne Lister wrote millions of words in her journals, about a sixth of them written in a "crypthand" code of her own invention—a mix of Greek letters and algebraic symbols. She wrote about everything from the price of coal to the most explicit details of her sexual encounters. The 2010 movie, directed by James Kent and starring Maxine Peake, treats these diaries not as a gimmick, but as a lifeline.
Maxine Peake plays Anne with a sort of restless, nervous energy. She’s constantly moving, constantly calculating. You can see the gears turning behind her eyes as she navigates a world that wants her to be a quiet spinster. But Anne wanted more. She wanted a wife. She wanted an estate. She wanted legacy. The film focuses heavily on her relationship with Mariana Lawton (played by Anna Madeley), a woman who loved Anne but lacked the courage to live outside the bounds of "respectable" society.
It’s painful to watch.
Mariana marries a man for money and status, leaving Anne devastated. The movie captures that specific brand of 19th-century grief where you have to stand in the same room as the person who broke your heart and pretend nothing is wrong. There’s a scene where they’re in a carriage, and the tension is so thick you could cut it with a quill. It feels real because it was real. These weren't invented dramas; they were pulled directly from the decoded pages of Lister’s journals.
Why Maxine Peake’s Performance Matters
While Suranne Jones gave us a swaggering, Fourth-Wall-breaking Anne Lister in the later series, Peake gives us an Anne who is arguably more vulnerable. She’s tough, sure, but she’s also deeply isolated.
In the 2010 film, the stakes feel smaller but more dangerous. You feel the cold of the Yorkshire moors. You feel the weight of the social isolation. When Anne walks through Halifax in her signature black attire, she looks like a crow among pigeons. The film doesn't shy away from the fact that people thought she was "odd." They called her "Gentleman Jack" behind her back, a derogatory term that she eventually wore like armor.
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The Mariana Problem
The heart of The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister movie is the tragic cycle of Anne and Mariana. It’s a cautionary tale about what happens when one person is ready to burn the world down for love and the other is too afraid of what the neighbors will think.
- Anne: "I am my own mistress."
- Mariana: "You are a freak of nature."
That line from Mariana isn't just movie dialogue; it reflects the genuine internalized homophobia and fear that Lister recorded in her journals. The film does a brilliant job of showing that Anne wasn't just fighting the men who wanted her land; she was fighting the women she loved who couldn't see a future where they could actually be together.
Fact-Checking the Drama: What Really Happened?
If you’re a history buff, you’re probably wondering how much the movie took liberties. For the most part, it sticks to the timeline of the 1810s and 1820s.
Anne’s relationship with Mariana Lawton did indeed span decades. They were "married" in their own minds long before Anne met Ann Walker. The movie portrays the heartbreak of Mariana's marriage to Charles Lawton with stinging accuracy. Anne really did visit them at Lawton Hall, and she really did suffer through the indignity of watching the woman she loved live as another man's wife.
However, the film compresses a lot. Anne Lister’s life was dense. She traveled to Russia, she was the first woman to officially climb Monte Perdido in the Pyrenees, and she ran a complex business empire. The movie focuses more on the interiority—the "secret" part of the diaries. It’s a character study first, a history lesson second.
The Ann Walker Transition
Towards the end of the film, we see the introduction of Ann Walker (Christine Bottomley). This is where the story shifts from tragedy to something resembling hope. Ann Walker was the wealthy heiress of nearby Crow Nest. She was shy, prone to bouts of depression, and seemingly the polar opposite of the bold Anne Lister.
But as the movie shows, they found something in each other. Anne found a partner who was willing (eventually) to move into Shibden Hall and take the sacrament with her at Holy Trinity Church in York—an act they considered a legal marriage in the eyes of God, if not the state.
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The Production Style: No Glitz, Just Grit
One thing you'll notice about this film is the lighting. Or lack thereof. It’s dark. It’s shot with a lot of natural light and candlelight, giving it a claustrophobic, authentic feel. It doesn't look like a tourism ad for Yorkshire. It looks like a place where people lived, worked, and died.
The costumes are also notably understated. Anne’s wardrobe is famously monochromatic. She made a conscious choice to wear black—it was practical for her travels and it set her apart. The movie uses this to great effect, making her a visual outlier in every room she enters.
Why You Should Watch It Even If You’ve Seen Gentleman Jack
It’s easy to think of the 2010 movie as a "lite" version of the 2019 series, but that’s a mistake. They are different beasts entirely.
The movie feels like a secret you’re being let in on. It’s quieter. It lingers on the moments of silence in the library or the scratching of a pen on parchment. If the TV series is a bold statement, the movie is a whispered confession.
Also, Maxine Peake’s interpretation of the "crypthand" scenes is phenomenal. You see the physical toll it takes to live a double life. There is a specific kind of exhaustion that comes with translating your soul into symbols just so the servants don't find out who you really are.
How to Explore the Legacy of Anne Lister Today
If the movie sparks a deep dive—and for most people, it does—you aren't just stuck with DVDs and streaming. The legacy of Anne Lister is a physical thing you can still touch.
Visit Shibden Hall
Located in Halifax, West Yorkshire, Shibden Hall is the ancestral home where Anne lived. You can walk through the same rooms where she wrote her diaries. The house itself is a character in the movie, and seeing it in person makes the history feel startlingly contemporary.
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Read the Transcriptions
The West Yorkshire Archive Service has been working for years to digitize and transcribe the diaries. You can actually read the raw words Anne wrote. Some of it is mundane, but then you’ll hit a passage of such raw longing or biting social commentary that it takes your breath away. Helena Whitbread, the historian who first cracked the code in the 1980s, has published several volumes that are essential reading.
The Holy Trinity Church, York
This is where Anne and Ann Walker "married" by taking communion together on Easter Sunday in 1834. There is now a blue plaque there, famously the first in the UK to use the word "lesbian" in its inscription. It’s a pilgrimage site for many who were moved by the film’s ending.
Moving Forward With the Story
Watching The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister movie is a bit like looking at an old photograph of a friend before they became famous. It’s the origin story of our modern understanding of Anne. It reminds us that behind the "Gentleman Jack" persona was a woman who was often lonely, frequently misunderstood, but absolutely refused to be anyone other than herself.
To truly appreciate the scope of what Anne Lister achieved, you have to look at the work of historians like Jill Liddington, who has spent decades contextualizing Anne's political and business life. The movie gives you the heart; the history gives you the bones.
Next Steps for the Anne Lister Enthusiast:
- Watch the 2010 film on a quiet evening to appreciate the atmosphere and Maxine Peake’s nuanced performance.
- Compare it to the documentary The Reveal, which often accompanies the film and explains how the diaries were hidden behind wood panels for years to protect the family’s reputation.
- Read "I Know My Own Heart" by Helena Whitbread. It’s the edited version of the diaries that covers the period shown in the film.
- Follow the Shibden Hall Twitter/X or Instagram accounts for updates on the physical preservation of her home and new discoveries in the archives.
Anne Lister once wrote, "I love and only love the fairer sex and thus bound by heart to them alone, I could not love a man." Whether through a movie or a diary, her voice remains one of the most unapologetic in history. It’s worth listening to.