Sophie Rundle was "desperate" to star in 'Gentleman Jack' when she heard Sally Wainwright had written the period drama.
Sophie Rundle and Suranne Jones in Gentleman Jack
The 31-year-old actress plays Ann Walker in the BBC One show, which tells the story of her character's relationship with industrialist Anne Lister (Suranne Jones), and Sophie was keen to appear in the programme after reading about the "most extraordinary love story" in the scripts.
She said: "I got an email from my agent saying that there's this new series written by Sally, who I'd worked with before on 'Happy Valley'. She said she'd like me to come in for Ann Walker and sent me six scripts.
"Having read them all I remember thinking this is one of the most extraordinary love stories I've ever read, regardless of the fact that these are two women it is just a beautiful love story.
"Plus Sally Wainwright's name is synonymous with the best drama we're producing in this country, so obviously I was desperate to do it."
The period drama, which began on Sunday night (19.05.19), is set in Halifax, west Yorkshire, in 1832, and Sally says Suranne "blew [her] away" with her audition as no-nonsense landowner Anne.
She said: "For a long time I couldn't imagine who would be Anne Lister because in my mind she's just this epic, epic woman and I couldn't imagine who could ever bring enough to it. Suranne came in to read and she just blew me away right from the start.
"It was clear she'd thought about it a lot and there was something special about her energy. So by the time we had started filming it felt very well formed because Suranne had put a huge amount of work in.
"I think she has captured something really extraordinary; all of Anne Lister's passion for life, the humour, her physical energy."
Suranne added: "I remember Sally saying at my audition, 'I don't know how I'm going to find someone who's going to do this part because they need to be big, energetic, they need to be fun, they need to be dark, they need to be Heathcliffian...'
"She went on and on and then said, 'Anyway, do you want to have a read?' I thought, 'How am I going to do all that?' I don't know if I've done it but Sally is happy enough and that's good."
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