BRIDGERTON - BRISTOL V2.qxp_Layout 2 23/02/2022 12:00 Page 1
TELEVISION All images courtesy of Liam Daniel/Netflix Anthony Bridgerton is a lot darker this season in his colour palette; Kate Sharma dresses in the dual colours of India and the ton
Regency thrills are back The global phenomenon of Bridgerton returns this month. The first installment of the West Country-filmed production became the most-watched series on Netflix, with over 82 million households bingeing all eight episodes. Writer Chris Van Dusen describes the latest release as “romantic, fraught, charged and transporting” – can records be broken? asks Melissa Blease
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ust off your ballgowns, powder your wigs, double-lace your corsets and prepare to swoon: Bridgerton – the super-steamy, super-sumptuous Regency-era high society drama series that gave us more melodrama and gossip than any other period-setting TV series before or since – is back for a second season this month. Based on American author Julia Quinn’s multi-million selling novels, the first series of Bridgerton became the most-watched on Netflix at the time of its premiere, and remains the second mostwatched on the platform with a viewership of over 82 million households. Can the second series break new records? Picking up where we left Lord Anthony, Lady Danbury, the Featheringtons and all the other related (or are they...?) lords, ladies and licentious tittle-tattlers hanging, and introducing several intriguing brand new characters to the labyrinthine, behind-the-scenes machinations that keep those high society wheels rolling, the odds are that the second series of Bridgerton could be brighter, bolder and even more addictive to watch than the original one was... As an extra-added bonus for those of us who live in the West Country, you’ll spot many familiar locations (including the Holburne Museum in Bath and many more of the city's highways, byways and historic squares) all given a Bridgerton makeover to offer a living, breathing glimpse of our heritage and surroundings in a way that we've never seen them before. 22 THE BRISTOL MAGAZINE
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MARCH 2022
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No 208
Without giving too much away, the second series follows English nobleman Lord Anthony (Jonathan Bailey) Bridgerton’s search for a suitable wife. Things aren’t going too well for Lord A until Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley, Sex Education and Broadchurch) and her younger sister Edwina (Charithra Chandran) arrive from India. But when Anthony begins to court Edwina, Kate discovers the true nature of his intentions (which we have no intention of revealing here) and does everything in her power to stop the union. But in doing so, Kate and Anthony’s verbal sparring matches take a very interesting turn. Meanwhile, on the other side of Grosvenor Square, the Featheringtons must welcome the newest heir to their estate – and we all know that that won’t be a task that comes without all manner of challenges. Alliances are forged, vows are made and swiftly broken; secrets are revealed and swiftly covered up again; frocks and breeches are flung off faster than they’re laced up; tongues are wagging in all the places that tongue-wagging really shouldn’t happen... but rest assured, narration courtesy of the scandal-hungry, infamous gossip columnist ‘Lady Whistledown’ will once again keep us all up to date at the back. “I love the fact that you can enjoy Bridgerton on many different levels,” says Adjoa Andoh, who we all know and love as the series’ indomitable dowager Lady Danbury. “If you like a good costume drama, or love a historical romp, or are thrilled by a romantic will they/won’t they saga, it’s for you. But if you want to look for
