BRIDGERTON IS BACK

As our favourite period drama returns, Claudia Jessie aka Eloise talks betrayals, betrothals, and breaking through as a working class actor

- Hanna Woodside

Tiaras at the ready: After a two-year wait, we’re finally back in the ballroom for a third season of Bridgerton. And much to fans’ delight, in a deviation from Julia Quinn’s novels, this season will focus on the romance between Penelope (Nicola Coughlan) and Colin (Luke Newton), or ‘Polin’, as the fandom has affectionately dubbed them.

“Everybody wants to watch romance. There’s a thirst for it,” says Claudia Jessie, who plays the wonderfully acerbic, protofeminist Eloise Bridgerton, Penelope’s (former) BFF. “When you add the backdrop of the early 1800s, there are horses and carts and balls and beautiful dresses, which just bolster the romance. You can really float away and dream with it.”