In the latest series of Gentleman Jack, Anne Lister and her lover Ann Walker continue to navigate their romantic lives together while facing social pressures as well as Ann's fragile mental state.
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Following Ann's medical treatment in Scotland at the end of season one, it's clear to viewers that she is prone to bouts of anxiety. Since the show is based on Anne's real-life diary, how close was Miss Lister's mental illness to the truth?
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Anne kept dozens of diaries throughout her lifetime detailing her day-to-day life as well as her rendezvous with women, including her most committed relationship with Ann Walker, the focus of the BBC show.
According to biographer Anne Choma in her 2019 book Gentleman Jack: The Real Anne Lister, although Anne and Ann eventually married, Anne Lister's untimely death left Ann's already delicate health unbalanced, and she was eventually committed to an asylum after her mental health deteriorated following her wife's death.
Ann's mental health deteriorated following her wife's death
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The excerpt reads: "Ann Walker returned [Anne's] body to Shibden in a process that would take six months, the last act of devotion to a woman who had altered the course of her life. Ann Walker continued to live at Shibden. Sadly, her mental health deteriorated in the period following Anne's death, and following concerns for her safety she was removed from the hall a few years later. Staying for a time in an institution in York, she eventually returned to live at Cliff Hill in Lightcliffe. She died in 1854."
The show is based on the life of Anne Lister
Ann had a tragic early life after her younger brother William died shortly after childbirth, her other young brother John Junior died on his honeymoon aged just 25. Her parents and her sister, Mary, died when she was 19, leaving her and her only surviving sibling, Elizabeth, as orphans. She died aged 51.
Gentleman Jack continues on Sunday nights at 9pm on BBC One.