Bridgerton Exclusive Interview + Chelsea Flower Show

‘I lived a whole life before Penelope’

Taking centre stage in the third series of Bridgerton, Nicola Coughlan talks female emancipation, the politics of sex and how Derry Girls changed her life for ever

Bridgerton is the period drama that ripped up the rule book and turned Regency England’s high society into the perfect breeding ground for love, lust and steamy sex. Forget shy glances across ballrooms, this is a series punctuated by desire – male leads in billowy shirts climbing out of ponds (dripping wet, of course) and couples who can’t keep their hands off each other (whether it’s in the library, the dining room, the garden…).

The racy goings-on have captivated global audiences: the first series broke records when it was viewed by more than 82 million households in its first four weeks, and the second surpassed that as the most watched English-language Netflix series. Now in its third instalment, this season will focus on Colin Bridgerton (back from his travels with a six-pack, tan and noticeably buffer) and Penelope Featherington (the overlooked spinster and secret author of Lady Whistledown’s gossip sheet). Set on finding her match, Penelope ditches the gaudy, citrus dresses and goes about reinventing herself. Stepping firmly into the limelight as Penelope is Nicola Coughlan, the 37-year-old Irish actor who landed the role after just one audition. “I met the casting director’s assistant – I read for him and I thought I did a fine job,” she explains. “But I knew it was a Shondaland show for Netflix and thought, ‘This is going to be months of auditions. It’s going to be so protracted and terrifying – you’ll meet the execs, get to the table read and then get fired!’ You hear all these horror stories. So, I certainly didn’t expect anything from that first audition. Two weeks later I got a call offering me the job. I thought, ‘Where’s the catch?’”

Fans of the show have long been obsessed with Penelope and Colin’s will-they-won’tthey relationship. When it was recently teased that the actors had broken furniture while shooting an intimate scene and that Coughlan had a clause in her contract that means her parents get sent a PG-version of the show, it sent the internet into a tizz. Was Coughlan apprehensive about filming sex scenes with Luke Newton, who plays Colin?

“Oh my gosh, it was definitely intimidating,” she confesses. “Hundreds of millions of people watch the show – not five. That’s really scary. But it was one of the things I enjoyed most. Luke and I had a real hand in what we did and how it came across. We decided what we wanted to show and how we wanted to choreograph the scenes. People often imagine intimacy coordinators saying, ‘Put your hand here’ or ‘Do this’ – and certain people do it like that, but I can always see it on screen.

“We had agency and we could let it flow. Thankfully, we had that physical comfort with one another – so it ended up being a really beautiful thing. Luke is a dream to work with. We really had each other’s back. Having now watched those scenes, I’m so proud of them.”

Part of Bridgerton’s success is down to its focus on the female gaze; it portrays sex that prioritises women’s pleasure. Are we in an era where ▷

◁ content can be unapologetically female?

“Romance is the most read genre of fiction in the world – but people always undermine it. This show broke so many records when it came out. People were asking, ‘What could be [behind its success]?’ Well, it’s really angled towards women and what women like to watch.

“It’s funny because people just don’t seem to want to get it. They’re like, Barbie was good,’ so maybe we should make another doll film? It’s not about the dolls!” she exclaims – having had a small role in the film as ‘Diplomat Barbie’. “It’s about women’s stories in whatever guise they present themselves! It’s just bad business sense not to invest. The proof is in the pudding!”

Bridgerton might be set in the 1800s but there are still many similarities with today’s society. Although the series celebrates female sexuality, the women are still consumed by finding a match, while the male characters are afforded much more leeway with their promiscuity. Is that still relevant?

“It’s more insidious now. Men can sleep with as many women as they want, but women can’t do the same. It’s not seen on an equal footing. We like to think that we’re so liberal and open, but I think the world is still far more judgemental towards women having agency with their sexuality than it is towards men.

“Penelope’s also the most modern heroine we’ve had because she doesn’t just want marriage and love – she also wants a career. I think everyone can relate to the love story – but for women it’s hard to have it all. There should be no shame in her wanting everything.”

Coughlan has, in the past, taken to social media to ask fans and press to stop commenting on her body. Does she feel pressure to look a certain way? “I feel very lucky for all the different roles I’ve got to play. I put that down to having an incredible female team around me. I have a brilliant agent who never wants to pigeonhole me. I think that’s the way forward

‘ This industry can be narrow-minded but I won’t be hemmed in’

and how we’ll break through boundaries in this industry – women buoy other women up.

“This industry can be very narrow-minded. Within reason, anyone can play anything. I would never feel like I couldn’t do something. You can change your accent. You can change your hair. You can change your build! If I’m going to play a bodybuilder, I’m going to go to the gym and get hench! People can feel hemmed in – but I feel like I’ve refused to be thus far and I’m going to continue to do so.”

Coughlan grew up in Galway, with her stay-athome mum and father who was in the army. She fell in love with acting after watching The

Wizard of Oz and secured her first professional job, aged nine, when her drama teacher sent her to an open audition of a James Brolin movie. What did her parents make of her career choice?

“I’m sure it was slightly baffling for them! I went to university, which was the sensible thing to do. Then I applied to drama school. That’s when it got very real – drama school is expensive and there were loans to be taken out. With my English degree I could have gone into teaching – but I knew in my heart of hearts I couldn’t do that. My passion for acting was too strong. I’m sure there were points where my parents were thinking, ‘Why is she still trying to do this?’”

And breaking into the industry was no small feat. “Moving to London was hardcore because I was really broke. I was in debt. I had to work every hour of the day to afford to live there – but that meant I had no time to audition. I didn’t last terribly long that first time in London –probably six to eight months.”

Coughlan moved back to Galway and worked at an optician’s. It was only when she saw an open casting call for a play at the Old Vic in London that things started to change. Out of 1,500 actors who auditioned she was cast. Did that feel like a breakthrough at last? “I had thought it many times before – what if this is the one that turns everything around? I was insanely lucky. There’s always the neat way of telling things – but in reality, it was a year from doing

the rehearsal reading, to the play being put on, to me then signing with my agent, to then getting Derry Girls. I had to go back to work in the optician’s in the gaps! Nothing happened quickly.”

Coughlan invited every agent in London to see her performance – but only one came, a representative from Curtis Brown. “She decided to sign me!” she beams. “It felt like a huge turning point. It opened doors for me that had never been opened before.”

When her agent kind of roles she’d like, Coughlan suggested a Channel 4 comedy. Soon afterwards, she was cast in Lisa McGee’s hit sitcom Derry Girls as nerdy Clare. It was the role that made her a household name.

“The scripts were absolutely incredible on that show. When we were making it, it felt like some thing special. But, there’s some times a lot of backlash to women in comedy – so I didn’t see it being the big thing that it became. It happened so quickly – it captured the zeitgeist and my life changed overnight.”

Does she keep in touch with her Derry Girls pals? “Yes, I’m obsessed with Renegade Nell. Louisa’s amazing. I love Big Boys – Dylan is doing brilliantly. And then for Siobhan to win her Bafta, that was just so mega.”

The fame that came about from Derry Girls must have been a precursor to the heights of celebrity she would reach with Bridgerton What does that feel like? “There’s no handbook for that. Losing your anonymity is a really odd thing to experience. Mostly it’s lovely – people are so kind – but it’s [tough] if you just want to go to the shop on your own or to the doctor! I remember once taking a friend to A&E and someone came up and asked for a picture and I was like, ‘Not today!’ I never normally say no. It’s hard because there’s no off switch.”

That constant noise is amplified by social media – and the proximity it has provided for fans to reach their favourite celebrities. “It’s a very difficult balancing act with social media. I feel very grateful to the fans, and I want to try and give back – whether it’s with behind-the-scenes pictures or by noticing fan art!

“I used to put my day-to-day life out there but I don’t do that any more. I’ve realised what’s precious to me and what needs to be private –like my family and my friends from home. I used to love Twitter and then I really got the ‘ick’ from it and left. I didn’t think it was a nice environment. Some people said I was bullied off of it – but I wasn’t.”

‘It was like disrobing in front of family’

How did you get the role of Colin?

I actually first read for the part of the Duke [played by RegéJean Page in the first series].

Eventually they said they thought I was more suited to Colin. I came out of the audition and felt I’d done everything I could. Then I got the call and they said I’d been booked!

You’re the Bridgerton family member leading this series, what was that like?

How did you go about creating the on-screen chemistry with Nicola Coughlan?

We asked if we could sit next to each other in make-up and get ready together. That’s a good couple of hours spent having cups of tea, running lines and chatting. It meant our energy was aligned!

What’s it like twirling around on the dancefloor in costume?

Perhaps it was finding fame in her 30s that has enabled Coughlan to have such a strong sense of herself and her priorities. Despite her huge success in Derry Girls , Bridgerton and the recent Channel 4 comedy drama Big Mood with Lydia West, Coughlan seems entirely grounded.

“My 20s were such a struggle –it’s really hard not to be doing the thing that you want so desperately. But I think fame then would be hell, so I wouldn’t go back and change it,” she says. “I’m sure 22-year-old me would kick me for saying that – but you get to live your mistakes. Scrutiny is difficult but it’s easier when you get older to shut certain things out. I lived a whole life before any of this happened. I worked a million different jobs, lived in different places, lived in terrible house shares with mould on the walls.

“It’s funny because people see you at fancy events and think you must be fancy. No, no, I was making frozen yogurt in Westfield not long ago. This is not normal for me!”

What’s so special about the show is it’s so much about an ensemble of characters that I never felt an overwhelming sense of pressure to lead. I enjoyed diving more into Colin and Pen’s story — in previous seasons it’s been a lot of gossiping in the background! I also got to watch two previous seasons and saw how people navigated their way through.

Did Jonathan Bailey, who plays your fictional older brother Anthony, give you any tips? Johnny and I are really close and he did give me some wise words, passed down from Bridgerton to Bridgerton!

Colin returns from his travels, more enlightened and more handsome. How did it feel to have the Bridgerton glow-up?

I wanted it to be like he’d been on a gap year — like when lads go away for a summer and then come back to school six foot four, with a beard and their voice has broken!

I wanted to embody that in season three. I relished the challenge of the physical change — and I also worked closely with costumes, hair and make-up.

Dancing was difficult — especially with her dresses! There’s also quite a dramatic height difference between us. I’m six foot so they’d normally have a little box for her to stand on for our scenes together — I loved that moment when they’d bring out the box.

You and Nicola are friends off-screen. Did that make filming intimate scenes easier? We’re such good friends! When filming, we have a closed set and a really great team of intimacy coordinators and directors who we’ve worked with over previous series. But the crew becomes like family and then you’ve got to de-robe in front of them — which feels slightly uncomfortable at times. The scenes with Nicola feel very honest and genuine, and people will resonate with them. It wasn’t just sexy for the sake of being sexy.

Did you have any idea how much the series would change your life?

After I got the job, I found out it was based on the books — and there were eight of them! I thought, this could mean eight seasons — the cogs started turning and I began thinking about the future. I spoke to my mum — who is very good at keeping me down to earth — and she said, “Enjoy the first season and see what happens after that.”

Her Regency retreat

Inspired by Bridgerton, garden designer Holly Johnston has created a secluded sanctuary for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show

It’s a late April afternoon and garden designer Holly Johnston is sitting on a bench in north London’s Hampstead Heath, trying to ignore the icy drizzle. She carefully removes an A3 sheet of paper from a plastic folder. “This is my design for the Bridgerton Garden at the Chelsea Flower Show,” she says, beaming. “I was a huge fan of the first two series – it’s so indulgent, so over the top, so gloriously delicious. I had a very clear idea of the story I wanted to tell, which perhaps helped me get the job.”

The Bridgerton Garden is the first time a streaming service, in this case Netflix, has sponsored a garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Of course, as a fan of the series, Johnston, who left her job in corporate journalism after lockdown to pursue a career in garden design, knew that the third series would focus on Penelope Featherington and her alter ego, the gossip-

sheet writer Lady Whistledown. “I love the fact that Penelope has both light and dark within her and I wanted to create a secretive and secluded garden that reflected her coming-of-age story.”

Johnston, a native New Zealander, who has never designed a garden for Chelsea before, had the brilliant idea of building a moongate flanked

‘I envision Penelope sitting there, writing the secrets of the Ton’

on either side by multi-stemmed silver birch trees. “The moongate is a portal that leads to another world,” she explains, pointing at the A3 masterplan layout. “You step through the gate and walk towards a sunken seating area with a three-tiered reclaimed stone fountain inspired

by the Regency era, with a gently trickling pineapple shape on top. A ring of four Ulmus minor elms surrounds the sunken area, offering secrecy. Half of the garden is a shaded space covered in hedges, trees, ferns, grasses and ivy, suggesting a tapestry of secrets. The other half is a riot of colour –shrub roses, climbing roses, irises, digitalis – all alluding to Penelope finding her true self.”

I tell her that I can imagine Penelope sitting in the sunken garden, quill in hand.

“Yes! In fact, there’s a concealed trinket box of quill and parchment in

one of the stone benches; I envisioned Penelope sitting there, writing the secrets of the Ton.”

At the back of the garden is a sculptural monolith that symbolises change. Johnston, who pitched her design ideas to Netflix, who then took them to Shondaland [the American company behind Bridgerton], proudly shows me a photo of the work in progress on her phone. “The hand-carved sandstone will carry an inscription. I can’t say what it is, but it acknowledges that it’s time for Penelope to step into the light.”

Is it, I ask, something akin to the maxim on the series three poster, “Even a wallflower can bloom”? Johnston laughs, “You may just have figured it out, yes. That is the crux of the entire garden.

You don’t have to be a woman from Regencyperiod England to be going through that kind of metamorphosis. It reflects my own journey, too, of coming to England, finding my feet and building my own community.”

Johnston enjoyed a bucolic childhood, but always knew she would leave New Zealand. “I grew up very close to where Hobbiton [in The Lord of the Rings movies] was set, and it’s all undulating landscapes, huge lakes and native bush. My childhood home is surrounded by kiwi fruit and avocado orchards.” At 19, she went to university in upstate New York and after graduating, moved into corporate journalism.

In 2019, she moved to north London to be with her now-husband. When the pandemic hit, she found herself wandering around Hampstead Heath in general and the Pergola and Hill Garden, where we meet in the icy drizzle, in particular. “I love this space; it feels secret and hidden away. I kept coming back to it during lockdown.” Johnston filled her balcony with plants, started following gardeners on Instagram and eventually left her unfulfilling job. After graduating from the English Gardening School at the Chelsea Physic Garden, Holly Johnston Design hit the ground running – she’s currently working on a Queen Anne restoration in upstate New York, a project in south London and, of course, the Bridgerton Garden.

Sustainability is at the heart of everything Johnston does. When asked about the plastic wisteria that covers the Bridgerton family’s home in the series, her reply is straightforward.

“Well, I’m a horticulturalist so I believe in real plants for everything. I’m very blessed to come from New Zealand, where we have such strict laws around flora and fauna.”

Her Bridgerton Garden uses upcycled gravel, drystone walls to provide habitats for lichens, mosses and invertebrates and a product called Carbon8, which accelerates carbon capture for the sub-base. “We’ll use lime instead of cement, which is also period-appropriate, of course. It doesn’t mean the garden will be simple. Regency gardens were opulent and highly detailed, which we will be acknowledging using their building techniques.”

The great challenge of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show is making gardens look as though they have been there for decades – or, in the case of the Bridgerton Garden, a few centuries. “We have just over two weeks to create this period garden on site and then, after the flower show has ended, it will be relocated.” Where to? “I can’t say! But the public will have full access to it including, I hope, children – I love the No Adults Allowed garden at Chelsea, which has been designed by primary-school kids. The RHS has extended the takedown period, which was previously around four days. We’ll have to

be very careful to unplant everything and ensure nothing is damaged before it’s replanted in its new location.”

In an attempt to warm up, Johnston takes me on a brisk tour of the Pergola and Hill Garden, marvelling at the intertwined roots of real wisteria and wondering if the plants will survive what’s been a wet, cold spring. Most of all, she likes the twists and turns of the garden, which have inspired her own debut at the Chelsea Flower Show. “The Bridgerton Garden isn’t a neat Regency garden; it’s meant to be a little overgrown because it reflects the messiness and complexity of human nature.”

CHELSEA ON TV HOW TO WATCH

This year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show, with Monty Don, Sophie Raworth and Joe Swift (below) among the presenters, will be on BBC1 and BBC2 from Sunday 19 to Friday 24 May (with highlights following next weekend). Coverage will include live commentary and advice from the experts, moneysaving tips to get the best from your gardens and the annual visit by members of the royal family. Raworth and Swift host a launch show on Sunday at 6.15pm on BBC1, where they will be delving into some of the most eagerly anticipated show gardens and revealing this season’s best blooms in the Great Pavilion. Then Swift joins Don weeknights at 8pm on BBC2 when viewers will be able to ask the duo gardening questions. Nicki Chapman and Angellica Bell present weekday coverage at 3.45pm on BBC1 Among the gardening experts who will be popping in across the week are Adam Frost, Frances Tophill, Arit Anderson, Nick Bailey, Toby Buckland, Carol Klein, Rachel de Thame, James