The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister

2010 ""

The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister

7 | 1h30m | en | Drama

A lesbian in the 1800s who keeps a detailed account of her life written in coded diaries attempts to live independently while juggling an affair with a married woman.

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7 | 1h30m | en | Drama , Romance , TV Movie | More Info

Released: March. 01,2010 | Released Producted By: Oxford Film and Television , Country: Budget: 0 Revenue: 0 Official Website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00snjmd

Synopsis

A lesbian in the 1800s who keeps a detailed account of her life written in coded diaries attempts to live independently while juggling an affair with a married woman.

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Cast

Maxine Peake , Anna Madeley , Susan Lynch

Director

Richard Downes

Producted By

Oxford Film and Television ,

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Trailers & Images

Cast

Maxine Peake

as Anne Lister

Anne Rules of the Game The Real Anne: Unfinished Business Fanny Lye Deliver'd The Delivered Be Still My Beating Heart Peterloo Gwen Funny Cow

Anna Madeley

as Mariana Belcombe

Sitting in Limbo Deadwater Fell All Creatures Great & Small Patrick Melrose The Nutcracker and the Four Realms The Mercy The Little Stranger The Child in Time The Ones Below

Susan Lynch

as Isabella Norcliffe

Here Are the Young Men Ready Player One The Secret Scripture Apple Tree Yard Away National Treasure Unforgotten Sleaford Mods: Invisible Britain Common

Reviews

arinryu I agree with review by Karien Van Der Westhuizen. I am very disappointed that despite the progress we have nowadays, none of historical movies can honestly depict historical butch/ftm characters as whom they really were. I am sorry but Anne Lister was not a feminine lesbian as depicted here. I know that TV shows and movies hate butch lesbian/transgender/intersex characters but to distort historical figures again and again is unforgivable. Another example is the feminizing of Queen Kristina's hair and dresses in the movie "The Girl King". Both Queen Kristina and Anne Lister are among the most interesting masculine queer historical figures. Anne was a butch lesbian/ftm, while Queen Kristina was intersex/butch/ftm but both are re-characterized and suppressed to fit the typical Hollywood-styled cisgenders' feminine-lesbian fantasy. Having read about real Anne Lister's lives, I find these movies hard to watch. Otherwise, this movie is fine.

Irishchatter I really did like watching this television movie because it was interesting to see what a real persons life was like back in the 19th century when being a lesbian was a shocking thing to be (rubbish). I have never heard of the real Anne Lister before, I had read about her life on Wikipedia and it was even more grimly in real life then the movie. Her life was full of people talking absolute nonsense about the way she was dressed and how she was harassed many times by dirty men who needed to mind their own business. It must've been scary for Anne even as a landowner! It was too bad during those times about who you should really love and not go for the one you don't love!Anyways back to the film, Maxine Peake did such an amazing performance on Anne Lister. She really did make a great effort being in character and she would just blow you away!I think this movie is definitely something you should give to your partner on Christmas or valentines day!

jegpad This true story had me glued. To see how the women in Austen's time could pursue gay relationships and benefit financially just blew me away. Miss Anne Lister would be considered a 'groomer' in modern society. But the fact she did what she did back in the early 19th century is a gutsy delight. With the luxury of being rich she was able to move within society with a liberty untethered by convention. It just shows how financial independence for women is the true liberation from the tyranny of conventional society. Big high five to women doing it for themselves!

gregorywilliams This superb film for TV deserves the widest possible audience: it tells a gripping and true human story that surprises all those like me who thought they know the era of Jane Austen. Maxine Peake acts out of her skin as Anne Lister, the lesbian diarist whose story remained hidden form the wider public until Helen Whitbread's groundbreaking 1992 book. The film is excellent on many levels: for its up-close portrayal of the emotional and sexual lives of (lesbian) women in an era when the concept of such love (and lust) was more or less unknown; for its sure-footed cinematography that creates a just-familiar-enough epoch; and for its wonderful script by Jane English. Apparently it took 18 days to make - unbelievable. Probably the best value drama for the licence money that BBC has ever achieved. Well done to whoever commissioned this. My favourite thing: the great way interior light and 30+something skin tones are worked: women shown as women rather than constructs of the advertising-consumer nexus. My least favourite thing: what happens to Anne's final partner after Anne dies.