Suranne Jones is almost unrecognisable in her latest role.

The Doctor Foster actress, 39, stars in Gentleman Jack, an “unlikely love story,” on BBC1.

She plays Regency landowner Anne Lister, who is regarded as the “first modern lesbian”.

The BBC’s first-look image shows Jones alongside actress Sophie Rundle, playing Ann Walker, Lister’s lover, who she sets her sights on marrying.

A determined businesswoman, Lister dressed in black and was the first woman to be elected to the Halifax Literary And Philosophical Society.

Sally Wainwright’s new, eight-part drama, set in Halifax, West Yorkshire in 1832, is based on Lister’s decoded diaries, containing, in its four million words, the intimate details of her life.

Filming has begun in and around West Yorkshire.

A previous drama, The Secret Diaries Of Miss Anne Lister, starred Maxine Peake in the title role.