An award-winning actor has been awarded an honorary degree from the University of York.
Suranne Jones won a Bafta for best leading actress in Doctor Foster, and has starred in dramas like Hostage and Vigil, as well as the BBC comedy Film Club.
She starred in Gentleman Jack as Anne Lister, a 19th Century diarist dubbed the “first modern lesbian”, filming at Lister’s actual former home of Shibden Hall in Halifax.
Before her speech at the university’s Central Hall, Jones noted the support students had given each other throughout the ceremony, saying: “It’s just unbridled joy. It’s infectious…it’s beautiful.”
Jones did not go to university as a young woman and said she had a chip on her shoulder about her education and “felt a little lesser for a while”.
“What I didn’t realise…was that I was already working really hard,” she said.
“I was sharing stories, meeting and working with different communities, working to build relationships and conversations within society, breaking barriers, representing those who needed their voices amplified, sharing experiences and ideas, showing courage, vulnerability, and above all, truth seeking.”
