Peake practise

This is based on the true story of Anne Lister – a well-off Yorkshire landowner, diarist, traveller and someone often called “the first modern lesbian”.

Maxine Peake, who plays her in the BBC2 film, points out that British life at the turn of the 19th Century was not all parlour games and church visits. She should know, having read the four million-word diaries to prepare for the role. ‘‘I was surprised at how modern they sounded; you think everything was so restrained,”

she says.

‘‘Obviously, she was an exception and lived her life by different rules to most people. But when you read about the everyday social existence, the parties and the drinking, you think, ‘wow it wasn’t as stuffy as I always thought it was’.

“You see Austen and that’s become our perception of that time now, based purely on one view of it.’’ Lister eschewed the social norms of the time and, rather than settling down to marriage and housekeeping, pursued relationships with women. She enjoyed activities such as coal-mining and shooting, and became the first woman to climb Mont Perdu, in the Pyrenees.

‘‘I heard about the role through a friend of mine. He knew nothing more about her, apart from she was a traveller and an industrialist, and he said they were doing a drama of it up in Yorkshire,’’ the Bolton-born actress explains.

‘‘So, I got on to my agent. I thought, ‘that sounds brilliant, a strong female character’. It’s so nice to hear of parts for women which aren’t just about chasing men, shopping and eating lettuce.’’ Peake launched herself into researching the role, ordering every book about her that she could find, and meeting historian and Lister expert Helena Whitbread.

The actress was amazed that she hadn’t known of the landowner before.

‘‘I did have a couple of lesbian friends who’d heard of her through lesbian literature, but I hadn’t. It’s weird that it’s just been assigned to lesbian and gay literature, and you think, ‘why is that?’ It’s got broad appeal and especially as we’re lacking in positive female role models at the moment. If Anne Lister wanted to do something, she just went and did it – she’s truly inspirational,’’ she says.

Being different came at a price. Lister was hounded and referred to as Gentleman Jack by her Halifax neighbours, and the love of her life, Mariana Belcombe, left her for the financial, and social, security of marriage to a man.

The relationship between Lister and Belcombe, which is charted explicitly in the diaries, albeit in a code which took 150 years to decipher, is central to the TV drama. Peake was conscious of the interest that would be generated by a straight actress playing a lesbian.

‘‘She’s such an important figure and because she is very much part of the lesbian and gay culture and you want to do a good job, you’re representing a group of people, so I wanted to get it right.’’ The film reunited her with Dean Lennox Kelly, who played her on-screen husband in Shameless. “Kev and Veronica reunited,” she says. “It was great to work with Dean again, we haven’t worked together since Shameless, playing completely different characters.’’ Peake claims that the lesbian love scenes were far easier to tackle than what she had to do on Shameless where, apart from the obligatory sex scenes, Veronica’s many exploits included digging up a dead body and trying to buy a baby in Romania.

‘‘I found the intimate scenes as Anne Lister absolutely fine,’’ she says. “Anna Madeley, who plays Mariana, was brilliant and we just went for it. After Shameless I’m not particularly frightened of doing anything really, so it was no problem at all.’’ She also loved roaming around the Yorkshire Moors, armed with an old fashioned rifle and shotgun, during filming.

‘‘It was cold and freezing being up North, but it was beautiful being up on the moors,’’ she recalls.

‘‘Anne was quite an active woman, so there was lots of mud. I remember being dirty a lot, running down hills and over moors. It was fantastic – I just wish it had been longer.’’ ■ The Secret Diaries Of Miss Anne Lister, Monday, BBC2, 9pm