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While “Bridgerton” scribe Penelope Featherington (played by Nicola Coughlan) may be full of secrets as the infamous gossip queen of England’s Regency Era, it’s really Adjoa Andoh’s Lady Danbury who holds all of the ’Ton’s skeletons.
Andoh has earned much praise on the critically acclaimed Netflix series as the sharp-tongued yet perceptive Dowager Duchess and caretaker to the sizzling Simon Basset, played by Regé-Jean Page, who departed the show after the first season.
Ahead of the Season 2 premiere on Friday, the 59-year-old British actress spilled the English breakfast tea — or Earl Grey, whichever beverage tickles your fancy — to The Post about the show’s seemingly overnight legacy, the sophomore season’s central star, Jonathan Bailey, and his quest to find love, as well as her character’s mission to stay on top of British high society.
Season 2 will focus on Bailey, 33 — who portrays Lord Anthony Bridgerton — as he becomes entranced by the newly-arrived Sharma girls, Kate and Edwina (played by Simone Ashley, 26, and Charithra Chandran, 25, respectively).
“Anthony Bridgerton is the eldest son, the man of the family, so he’s carrying huge responsibilities and now has the added [obligation] this season to get married,” Andoh explained. “So viewers will see how he steps up to the plate — and who will quicken his heart.”
And Andoh promised that fans will be satisfied with the sizzle created by Bailey’s character in the new episodes.
“Don’t worry that you’ve been robbed of steam with the leaving of Regé,” she assured fans. “There are other people [on the show] that can generate equal amounts of steam!”
Page, 34, exited the show in 2020, reportedly due to creative differences with creator Shonda Rhimes and her team. He famously sexed up the romantic period drama with his NSFW, intimate scenes and viral moments — including seductively licking a spoon.
The theater actress noted that she longs for Page, whom she calls a “pal for life,” and misses the “For the People” actor personally. “I would always love to work with Regé again and I know that in the future we will work together at some point,” she said.
However, she said she “doesn’t miss him in terms of the internal story for this season.”
Regarding that new, tension-filled storyline, “The Witcher” star Andoh zeroed in on Bailey’s character Anthony, noting that various people — including Lady Danbury, Queen Charlotte and his own mother, Lady Violet Bridgerton — will “push him into the direction that is required of him.”
As viewers will remember, Anthony had a sexy, scandalous and ill-fated romance with an opera singer named Siena in the first season. However, the upcoming episodes will shine a new spotlight on the “female gaze” during love scenes.
To help move things along, series stars Phoebe Dynevor, Luke Thompson, Ruth Gemmell, Polly Walker, Luke Newton, Coughlan and Golda Rosheuvel are returning to the show, and new cast members include Shelley Conn, Rupert Evans and Calam Lynch.
Andoh also touched on what her own role in the show is now that Page’s character is gone like the wind since Lady Danbury acted as a motherly figure to Simon, a k a the Duke of Hastings, and brought him up in society.
“Lady Danbury has always been a high-flyer at court and she has been a friend of the Queen ever since she came to England,” Andoh said. “So she has her own status separate of Simon Basset in terms of the world of the story. But she is also a good friend of Lady Bridgerton and has been [around] since the [Bridgerton kids] were young.
“And so the matters of the heart that happen within the members of the ‘Ton are always going to be of interest to Lady D,” she cryptically predicted.
And where does Lady Danbury find herself amidst the colorful chaotic drama? Even though Andoh’s character is a widow, she’s still pretty bloody “brilliant,” she declared.
“[Because] she’s a Dowager Duchess, she doesn’t have to answer to men who held all the power at this point in time,” the mother of three stated. “She’s completely independent and she’s part of the top social circles.”
But that doesn’t mean life will be a breeze.
“As a woman in this era, Lady Danbury has as much freedom as possible to have — and because she’s a loyal subject to the queen, she’s free,” she continued. “There are things this season that are really challenging for her. We will see her having to deal with complications and challenges that are different [from the previous season].”
A major plotline in the upcoming season will be the possible reveal of Lady Whistledown (voiced by the ever-iconic Julie Andrews), a woman who hides in the shadows and writes about the people in the ’Ton. While her identity was unmasked in a dramatic and ironic twist in the last few minutes of the first season finale, her face was only disclosed to viewers.
“The audience knows something that the characters in the show don’t know. It’s a cat and mouse [game],” Andoh observed.
“What will happen if they do catch on and [vice versa]? Penelope Featherington has melted into a puzzle of her own making,” Andoh said of the character, who was exposed as an 1800s version of “Gossip Girl.”
One person looking to solve the mystery was inquisitive Bridgerton sibling Eloise — portrayed by Claudia Jessie, 32 — who was on a quest throughout last season to uncover Whistledown’s real façade. But through the end of Season 1, she remained in the dark that her bestie Penelope was the one in disguise.
“If [the characters] do discover, what would be the consequences of that?” Andoh asked rhetorically about the “tension” created by the mystery. “When will the other characters catch on? These are hypothetical questions [that will be answered].”
Die-hard “Bridgerton” fans are surely ready for answers. The series was released on Christmas Day 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic and quickly became one of the streamer’s most-watched TV series, offering “excitement, glamour, fabulousness” and, of course, “intrigue,” Andoh said. The global phenomenon — already renewed for a third and fourth season — even garnered much love from famous fans, such as Kim Kardashian.
The show is based on a series of books by Julia Quinn, whose second novel, “The Viscount Who Loved Me,” serves as the basis for the latest installment — which, according to Andoh, will be just as heated as the last.
“Season 2 knows what it is and so it hits the ground running. In the new season, [fans] will get everything you got in Season 1 — you’re going to get it fast, furious and fabulous!” Andoh said.
“The show is going ‘Oh, yeah, we know what we are! Buckle up — we’re coming back,’” she added. “The series has that excitement and confidence.”
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