What links Bridgerton to the Stone Roses?

Shondavision

Hold on to your bodice: Netflix’s smash hit Bridgerton has returned for more Regency romance with a modern touch. Following Inventing Anna – see Grifter TV – it proves again that this is super-producer Shonda Rhimes’s world (Shondaland, if you will), and we’re just, well, watching it. In slickly produced, high-camp instalments in the case of Bridgerton.

Bridgerton is back, produced by Shonda Rhimes … Photograph: Getty Images

Washington monuments

Kerry Washington was the star of the previous Shonda hit, Scandal (Disney+). Outside murky Washington (DC) manoeuvres, Washington (K) is married to Nnamdi Asomugha. In 2017, he was in Crown Heights (Amazon Prime Video), alongside LaKeith Stanfield, with the latter’s Atlanta co-star Brian Tyree Henry also appearing.

… whose previous hit Scandal starred Kerry Washington, who is married to Nnamdi Asomugha, who was in Crown Heights with LaKeith Stanfield, who was also in Atlanta … Photograph: Shutterstock

Atlanta beckons

Atlanta (Disney+) has finally – finally! – returned for a third season. Its distinctive style is born of a collaboration between creator Donald Glover and director Hiro Murai . The director also worked on pandemic dystopia Station Eleven (Starz), from the novel by Emily St John Mandel, winner of the 2015 Arthur C Clarke award. Also nominated that year was Michel Faber for The Book of Strange New Things.

… which was directed by Hiro Murai, who also worked on Station Eleven, based on the Emily St John Mandel novel that stole the 2015 Arthur C Clarke award from The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber … Photograph: Getty Images

Eric’s at the wheel

Faber’s 2000 sci-fi Under the Skin was adapted into a Scarlett Johansson-starring film made by Jonathan Glazer (rent widely). In 1997, the director took Eric Cantona to play among amateurs in Hackney Marshes for a Nike ad. After football, Cantona pivoted to acting. He played himself in Ken Loach’s warm 2009 drama Looking for Eric (Amazon Prime Video), alongside Steve Evets. For more fact merging with fiction, Evets and Lesley Manville were put-upon parents of Stone Roses fans in Spike Island.

… whose Under the Skin was made into a film by Jonathan Glazer, who worked on a Nike ad with Eric Cantona, who was in Looking for Eric with Steve Evets, who was in Spike Island with Lesley Manville … Photograph: Shutterstock

Back into the Shondaverse

You’re never far from a great Lesley Manville performance: she was Oscar-nominated in 2018 for Phantom Thread (rent everywhere). She was also in the TV series Harlots (Starz). Featuring briefly in that show was Nicola Coughlan, one of the Derry Girls (Channel 4), who has remained in costume as a Bridgerton girl. You’re never far from Shonda.

… who was in Harlots with Nicola Coughlan, a Bridgerton girl. Photograph: BBC/Monumental

Pairing notes

Read Georgette Heyer remains master of Regency romance. Last year, the Folio Society published a new edition of her 1958 novel Venetia.

Eat Numerous Bridgerton scenes were shot in Bath: one building stood in for the Modiste dress shop. In reality it’s the Abbey Deli cafe – its orange and pistachio cake comes recommended.