Bridgerton prequel Queen Charlotte ticks all the boxes

A biracial foreigner who marries a British royal, who is then boxed in by what she can and can’t do and say?

Thankfully, Netflix’s latest show, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, a prequel that explores the love story between King George III and his wife, comes with the warning that it’s “fiction inspired by fact” to avoid confusion.

The six-part series is inspired not only by real events from the 1760s, but also by the modern day descendants of George and Charlotte, and it feels particularly relevant as we head towards the coronation.

It’s a reminder of the monarchy’s timeless struggles, but the world depicted is pure Bridgerton – a wonderfully light-hearted mix of romance, outrageous fashion and lavish homes.

“I’ve always been obsessed with Queen Charlotte, she’s a fascinating character,” said Shonda Rhimes, the Bridgerton producer who penned this new series.

The delightfully gossip and imperious Queen Charlotte didn’t actually appear in Julia Quinn’s original Bridgerton books, but she became a staple of the hugely successful Netflix series when she spearheaded “The Ton,” as the cream of the crop. salmon of 18th century high society. cried on the show.

“We’re very clear that while it’s about Queen Charlotte, a real historical figure, this isn’t a history lesson,” Shonda added. “I’m telling the story of Queen Charlotte of Bridgerton, not Queen Charlotte of England.

“You’re going to see the story of a woman who hasn’t come into her own power yet versus the real command that the Queen Charlotte of Bridgerton has times.” It’s exciting to watch.’

The story begins with German princess Charlotte (India Amarteifio) on her way to meet her betrothed, King George III (Corey Mylchreest). She is not happy as she hoped to marry for love and she tries to run away.

But when she and George meet, there is an instant attraction – though just as quickly Charlotte realizes that George is not well.

“Charlotte thought George would be a really old man but he’s a really cool dude and he’s calm and reliable at first and everything is great,” says India, who first rose to fame as Roz Huntley’s daughter in Line Of Duty. “But then it starts to fall apart.”

The traditional Bridgerton theme of true love conquering all is ramped up as the brutal reality of George’s mental health struggles emerge. “I am very happy that we can investigate something serious in a respectful way,” said India. “George’s mental state is unknown because there wasn’t that much knowledge about medical science at the time, and a few scenes felt really heavy.

“From Charlotte’s point of view, there is miscommunication in their relationship, but they do share an unconditional love. There is one sentence: ‘Let him be angry, if he is crazy,’ sums it up: she is his comfort and she knows she can help him.

The series takes place over two timelines. The first follows young Charlotte and Bridgerton favorites Lady Agatha Danbury and Lady Violet Bridgerton as they fall in love and navigate politics and sometimes troubled marriages.

The second timeline takes place at the point the Bridgerton series has now reached, with Golda Rosheuvel, Adjoa Andoh, and Ruth Gemmell all taking on their roles as Queen Charlotte, Lady Danbury, and Violet, respectively, and Charlotte calling Violet to her help make her mistake. children to marry and procreate to secure her legacy.

In real life, George and Charlotte’s 15 children fathered many illegitimate babies, but there was no legitimate heir among them until Prince Edward, the Duke of Kent, married Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and had a daughter who would become Queen Victoria.

Of course, since this is a Bridgerton prequel, there’s plenty of sex, and Golda Rosheuvel has said it’s a “more intimate” show than the rest of the franchise. Completely naive, young Charlotte must show what is expected of her with a series of racy drawings created by Agatha, the young Lady Danbury, whose overweight husband is sex-obsessed. Charlotte can’t wait to put the drawings into practice.

“Agatha is essential to Charlotte and George’s relationship,” says Shonda. Many of the moments between them wouldn’t have happened without her. She teaches Charlotte what she needs to know, both in bed and in the world they live in.”

Shonda took advice from Polly Putnam, a curator at the Historic Royal Palaces, in deciding what facts to include in the story and what to embellish. “One of the historical facts I decided to put on the show was that King George was a farmer,” says Shonda.

“They called him Farmer George and Farmer King then. There is also the idea that he is very into astronomy. He really built one of the first observatories of its kind. And we’ve taken a few liberties with Queen Charlotte’s ‘baby race’ to have one of her 15 children produce an heir.”

In one major departure from the fact, Shonda also introduces the idea of ​​the “Grand Experiment,” which explains Bridgerton’s multiracial world. The idea is that when Charlotte (who is said to have mixed cultural heritage in real life, mainly because her doctor described her as having a “true mulatto face”), appears at court clearly “dark,” the king’s mother Princess Augusta (Michelle Fairley from Game Of Thrones) suggests it was always part of the plan to create a tranche of black nobles.

“The big experiment is one of the big things I wanted to explore,” says Shonda. “We talk about how Queen Charlotte and King George are making this new England possible, a fully integrated society where everyone has titles. I wanted to show that this society we know so well in Bridgerton was once an experiment.’

In preparation to play George in his first major TV role, Corey Mylchreest looked into the real-life history of one of the most enigmatic characters in British royal history. “The most important thing to me was that 20,000 pages of his personal papers were released in 2017 for the first time since his death,” he says.

‘King George III’s historical view was immediately turned on its head. He was previously thought to be quite power-hungry and autocratic, but he was actually incredibly empathetic, warm-hearted, and interested in improving the lives of the people.

“A man called hideous was probably our best king. He was very intelligent and very self-confident, and very interested in science and agriculture. But this was also a man who knew his own shortcomings and was constantly looking for ways to better himself and better serve his people.”

As with Bridgerton, the show is a visual delight. Costume designers Lyn Elizabeth Paolo and Laura Frecon created 1760s-style undergarments for the cast, then let their imaginations run wild. “Our pitch to Shonda was that we were going to do a runway show,” says Lyn Elizabeth. “This is our take on what would happen if Vogue’s Anna Wintour said, “OK, next year’s theme will be the 1760s!”

They focused on Dior’s “new look,” which is said to have been inspired by Georgian fashion, and even commissioned Dior cobbler Roger Vivier to make shoes for the young queen. One of Charlotte’s wigs, meanwhile, is a whopping 27 inches.

Blenheim Palace doubles for Buckingham House, the home of the King and Queen (the real George and Charlotte are said to have been inspired by Blenheim when they revamped Buckingham House).

Other historic houses used as sites include Belton House in Lincolnshire, which represented Kew Palace. The royal wedding was filmed at Merton College in Oxford, and a replica of the real bed Queen Charlotte slept in at Buckingham House was made: it had three to four mattresses and she needed stairs to get into it.

But for Shonda Rhimes, this is essentially a love story. “The main thing I want people to take from this series is that this is what happens to real love,” she says. “Love is hard, it has many layers and marriages can be complex. But the idea of ​​the happy ending doesn’t have to be self-evident.’

• Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, out May 4, Netflix.