Now with Basset gone and Daphne pushed to the periphery early in the new season,the soapy costume romance has never looked stronger. Characters old and new almost burst with vim,vigour,machination and comedic foible in every corner.
First into the breach is second Bridgerton sister Eloise (Claudia Jessie),a wonderfully feisty proto-feminist who is mortified at having to take part in theannual high-society matchmaking circus presided over by Queen Charlotte (the hugely entertaining Golda Rosheuvel).
That storyline looks like a real winner,but it’s overtaken by that of eldest Bridgerton boy Anthony (Jonathan Bailey),who has suddenly decided that he should take a wife. He even has a list of the necessary attributes:“Tolerable. Dutiful. Suitable enough hips for childbearing. And at least half a brain. And that last part is not so much a requirement,but a preference,in fact.”
It’s clear that the old “Rake with a capital ‘R’” (as Anthony is characterised here) is doing this for purely pragmatic purposes. In a gruelling series of dates in between trips to brothels,he employs a style of blunt interrogation.
Then he meets a woman he’s actually smitten with - and who has his measure on every level. It’s Kate Sharma (Sex Education’s Simone Ashley),who has just arrived from Bombay to escort her younger sister,Edwina (Charithra Chandran),through the ordeal of matchmaking season.