Bridgerton’s back, but will they or won’t they? That’s still the question
One of Bridgerton’s big secrets was revealed last series as Penelope Featherington’s identity as Lady Whistledown was revealed to her best friend, Eloise Bridgerton, resulting in a fiery fallingout. But Penelope doesn’t put down her pen and season three sees her resume her writing about all the goings-on in high society – though the burden seems to be weighing heavy on her shoulders. With many already condemning her a spinster, Penelope has something of a Cinderella moment, stepping into the year’s marriage market with a transformed look that’s sure to turn some heads.
“It’s really fun,” smiles Derry Girls star Nicola Coughlan, 37, who plays Penelope, of her new look.
“I hoped that we’d get to our season and that she was going to have this transformation, but I really loved the way they wrote it, in that she has this physical transformation, but then you realise that she’s done no inner work, so she has no confidence. She’s got no chat. It’s just an absolute disaster.
“I also love playing that side of her, how awkward she is with men… Because she’s only had two people that she’s ever really loved and wanted to be around in her life, Colin and Eloise. She’s lost both of them. So she’s a bit like ‘What do I do now?’”
Fans of the Regency romance series, which is based on the book series by Julia Quinn, have been getting hot under the collar about the fact that the new season will focus on the will-they-won’tthey relationship between Colin and Penelope, a pairing they dub “Polin”.
Setting this season apart from the two that have come before is the fact that fans already know and love the two people involved in the main romantic plot, which the cast say really ramps up the excitement this time around.
That said, it’s not all about Polin this season. Francesca Bridgerton, previously played by Ruby Stokes with Hannah Dodd taking on the role for season three, is making her debut in society and beginning the search for a husband.
Dodd, 28, says that fans are “going to learn a lot about Francesca – and equally, she’s learning a lot about herself as well”.
“It’s her first time on the season, so it’s a new environment for her, and she kind of has to step out from the shadows of her siblings and work out what it is that she wants, and whether that looks slightly different to how they’ve gone about it.”
Bridgerton returns to Netflix on Thursday.