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The BBC will screen a drama next week based on whom many regard as Britain’s first modern lesbian.

The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister, starring Shameless actress Maxine Peake in the title role, is based on the decoded diaries of Anne Lister - a Yorkshire landowner and industrialist who died in 1840 aged 49.

“Anne Lister was an extraordinary woman who up to recently has only really been documented in lesbian history,” said Peake.

“Hopefully with this film she will reach a wider audience, exposing them to this inspirational and formidable woman.”

Lister and her long-term partner Anne held one of the earliest recorded same-sex marriage ceremonies and lived together in Lister’s home, Shibden Hall in West Yorkshire - despite strong disapproval from her relatives.

Her 4,000,000-word journal was largely encrypted and not deciphered until the 1930s.

An 1820 diary entry read: “I love and only love the fairer sex and thus beloved by them in turn, my heart revolts from any love but theirs.”

“These remarkable diaries have shown that life and love in 19th Century Yorkshire was more varied and surprising than you might think,” said Janice Hadlow, Controller of BBC Two.

The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister will be shown on Monday 31st May on BBC Two at 21.00. Comedian Sue Perkins will present an accompanying one-hour documentary which tells the story of Lister and the decoding of her diaries.

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