MAKING THE DREAMS OF 'BRIDGERTON' FANS COME TRUE LUKE NEWTON SHARES HIS EXCITEMENT ABOUT HIS STEAMY ON-SCREEN ROMANCE WITH A CLOSE REAL-LIFE FRIEND

Bridgerton star Luke Newton ponders when asked why it has taken his character Colin Bridgerton three series to realise that Penelope Featherington is hopelessly in love with him. “He’s not the sharpest tool in the shed,” he says with a smile.

- GILL PRINGLE

Fans have fallen in love with Nicola Coughlan’s Penelope as she tries in vain to steer the couple’s relationship out of the friend zone and into the bedchamber.

But the long wait is over as Netflix’s hit show adapts Julia Quinn’s Regency novel Romancing Mr Bridgerton into a bodice-ripping romp.

The morning after the drama’s New York premiere, Luke, 31, is still thrilled by the audience’s ecstatic reaction, even though the first episode doesn’t show the pair’s long-awaited first kiss, let alone the clothes-off action that follows.

“Hearing them react to things you never thought they would – it’s wild,” he says. And the actor hopes that their close encounter – accompanied by risqué dialogue – will satisfy Colin and Penelope’s fanbase.