# Gentleman Jack on HBO **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 5, 2019, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gentleman-jack-on-hbo/833498 "2019-05-05T04:04:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2019, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gentleman-jack-on-hbo/833498/21 "2019-06-17T17:05:41Z")
Watched it, loved it. Not every part of it, but enough so that I’m somewhat exited about a second season, even if I think it will be less enjoyable. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2019, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gentleman-jack-on-hbo/833498/22 "2019-06-18T05:16:46Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > my wife, teenage son and I all agreed that her usual hairstyle - with the curls on each side - looked a bit ridiculous. Hairdos of the past often do. Who knows what people will say of ours in 200 years’ time? It’ll be intriguing to see how many lookalikes turn out for the Pride parade in London in a couple of weeks’ time. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2019, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gentleman-jack-on-hbo/833498/23 "2019-06-18T08:53:41Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > Hairdos of the past often do. Who knows what people will say of ours in 200 years’ time? > > It’ll be intriguing to see how many lookalikes turn out for the Pride parade in London in a couple of weeks’ time. Ooh yes, I know a few striking girls who would rock this look, and luurve to wear the long tail coat. ---
**Author:** ![Dublin11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Dublin11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dublin11)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2019, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gentleman-jack-on-hbo/833498/24 "2019-06-19T21:54:47Z")
I am a bit late to the party, but then I do like Suranne Jones and Sally Wainwright, which is why I watched this. The recoil and complete look of nausea and fury on her Miss Lister’s face when the (_allegedly_) Reverend Ainsworth said that Miss Walker was more or less gagging for it was immense. Drama students should study Suranne Jones with a microscope, because she has mastered her craft, and no mistake. Also fairly interested in the idea that moneyed landowners at the time had some sort of sense of moral responsibility towards their tenants. Outside of that, anything that Sally Wainwright does is absolutely worth a look. Last Tango in Halifax, Happy Valley, that thing with the two women police officers,whose names have escaped me. ---
**Author:** ![Hatchie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hatchie/32/3983_2.png) [@Hatchie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hatchie)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2019, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gentleman-jack-on-hbo/833498/25 "2019-06-20T23:20:42Z")
Some questions: Did the real-life Anne Lister write her diary in code? (I seem to recall some passing reference to her script being unreadable.) Will she be hiring children to work in her coal mine, as was common at the time? (I imagine the hard-nosed businesswoman vs. the nascent humanist, who cares about a little boy who lost his leg, will come into conflict.) What kind of misery will Uncle Ben (brother of pig-eaten Samuel) inflict on Thomas and his new bride? And, of course, who the heck is “Gentleman Jack”? Nobody here by that name! ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2019, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gentleman-jack-on-hbo/833498/26 "2019-06-21T05:51:48Z")
> [@Hatchie](#): > > Did the real-life Anne Lister write her diary in code? (I seem to recall some passing reference to her script being unreadable.) Yup! As per [Lister’s entry on Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Lister#Diaries): > [@](#): > > In addition to her handwriting being incredibly difficult to decipher, around one-sixth of the diary is encrypted in a simple code Eliza and she had devised, combining the Greek alphabet, zodiac, punctuation, and mathematical symbols, and it describes in great detail her lesbian identity and affairs, as well as the methods she used for seduction. > > … > > The code used in her diaries was deciphered by the last inhabitant of Shibden Hall, John Lister (1847–1933) and a friend of his, Arthur Burrell. When the content of the secret passages was revealed, Burrell advised John Lister to burn all the diaries. Lister did not take this advice, but instead continued to hide Anne Lister’s diaries behind a panel at Shibden Hall. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2019, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gentleman-jack-on-hbo/833498/27 "2019-06-21T07:41:24Z")
> [@Hatchie](#): > > Some questions: Did the real-life Anne Lister write her diary in code? (I seem to recall some passing reference to her script being unreadable.) Answered already, but yes, she certainly did. At least the passages she didn’t want people to read. > [@Hatchie](#): > > Will she be hiring children to work in her coal mine, as was common at the time? (I imagine the hard-nosed businesswoman vs. the nascent humanist, who cares about a little boy who lost his leg, will come into conflict.) She’s still a woman of her times, when working children was normal (and generally seen as beneficial for household finances), so I imagine she would. > [@Hatchie](#): > > And, of course, who the heck is “Gentleman Jack”? Nobody here by that name! I read that this was the nickname that locals gave her at the time (behind her back). ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2019, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gentleman-jack-on-hbo/833498/28 "2019-07-26T11:40:00Z")
> [@Miss\_Mapp](#): > > I caught an episode of it when I was in the UK a couple of weeks ago. I didn’t realize it was HBO–I thought it was a British show and was hoping I’d be able to find it on DVD eventually to buy and watch the whole thing. Updating myself: BBC has released a DVD set of the series for anybody who missed it; I preordered it and it arrived here just a couple of days ago. I watched most of the series yesterday. The theme song at the end is very catchy, but the lyrics are ominous. I was afraid something horrible was going to happen to Anne. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2019, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gentleman-jack-on-hbo/833498/29 "2019-07-26T14:06:44Z")
> [@Miss\_Mapp](#): > > Updating myself: BBC has released a DVD set of the series for anybody who missed it; I preordered it and it arrived here just a couple of days ago. I watched most of the series yesterday. > > The theme song at the end is very catchy, but the lyrics are ominous. I was afraid something horrible was going to happen to Anne. I love that song! The lyrics are kind of hard to work out, with the clearest being “nobody likes a Jack the lass”. After looking them up, it’s clearly a song of praise \*for \*and warning _to_ Anne, but the tone of it always made me feel like it’s about her badassness. Like as if it’s the \*townspeople \*who need to watch \*their \*backs 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2019, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gentleman-jack-on-hbo/833498/30 "2019-07-27T20:46:23Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > I love that song! The lyrics are kind of hard to work out, with the clearest being “nobody likes a Jack the lass”. After looking them up, it’s clearly a song of praise \*for \*and warning _to_ Anne, but the tone of it always made me feel like it’s about her badassness. Like as if it’s the \*townspeople \*who need to watch \*their \*backs 😉 It was that “watch your back” part that worried me, knowing that this was based on a real person–and real life stories don’t always have happy endings. Anne \*was \* attacked by that hired goon in one episode, although she did fight him off admirably. ---
**Author:** ![Hatchie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hatchie/32/3983_2.png) [@Hatchie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hatchie)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2022, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gentleman-jack-on-hbo/833498/31 "2022-07-07T03:11:41Z")
Gentle Cafe Society, I beg your indulgence, I’d clean forgot the existence of this thread, now lain fallow for three years minus a fortnight, but I am more than happy to be the engine of its revival. It has been a longer wait than anticipated for the return of _Gentleman Jack_ to the television-machine, owing to the unpleasant pestilence that has inconvenienced us all, but back she has come and I admit I’d near forgot the circumstances we left our favorites in - Miss Lister (the “Gentleman Jack” of the title, tho’ it took till the fourth installment of the new season for that sobriquet to be spoken aloud), Miss Walker (called “Adny” to what purpose I cannot fathom), the sundry Listers and Walkers and Mrs. Lawton, and fair too many townfolk and business associates to keep track of, all living in places called Shipton House and Lawton House and Bally-well-something-else House, I am afraid I was quite confused with much of the goings-on and many of the personnages; I well suspect many of you in the Society will find themselves similarly stumped at the intricacies of it all. But we cannot - we must not - resort to re-watchings, that is my recommendation at least. Better to dive in and catch-as-one-can; once your toes are wet you will find that most of what matters will come to you, what doesn’t, matters not. I shan’t speak of the details of the many plot threads paraded before us, in deference to those to whom such unasked-for details might prove a barricade to the natural pleasure of discovery on one’s own terms. (I myself have viewed the latest series up to No. 5 - where, if it is not talebearing, it is only because I speak in the most general of terms - things get two shades darker.) So please, fans such as may be, do chime in; those who have yet to experience HBO’s _Gentleman Jack_ we welcome you to sample it at your leisure and, perhaps, pleasure. For the gratification of the faithful (and a reward for the patience of you all; I regard the dignity with which we carry ourselves even in the face of denial as a true Marker of our Class - Hear! hear!) - my personal transcription of the words to Gentleman Jack: _Gentleman Jack, Gentleman Jack, she walks around with a big tall hat,_ _She wears a coat, she carries a cane, she wears black boots and other stuff,_ _By George, she is a Lesbian! That’s why they call her Gentleman Jack!_ _She walks around and goes inside, and slams her fist on the fellow’s desk,_ _She talks real fast and gets her way, a Force of Nature is what she is,_ _But by the way, did I happen to say, she’s actually a Lesbian!_ _Lesbian, lesbian, she likes ladies, she doesn’t like men,_ _Though no one ever says the word, everyone knows but she don’t care._ _That’s the story of Gentleman Jack!_ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gentleman-jack-on-hbo/833498.md?page=1)