When Lady Whistledown’s voiceover finally kicks in during the opening episode of Bridgerton’s second season, asking “Did you miss me?” like an 18th century Gossip Girl, the answer will surely be a resounding ‘yes’ from the Regency romance’s millions of fans.
In the year and a half since we first cordially made the acquaintance of the Bridgerton family, their friends, rivals and love interests - most notably the Duke of Hastings, played by Regé-Jean Page, whose performance earned him the inevitable Bond rumours that trail after every good-looking British actor in a well-received TV show - the series has become an international phenomenon. Before it was dethroned by Squid Game last summer, Bridgerton was the most popular series in Netflix’s history, watched by 82 million viewers in its first 28 days. That feat was surely helped along not just by salacious headlines about its racier-than-your-average-period-drama sex scenes, but by its inclusive, colour-conscious casting.
