Phoebe Dynevor had no idea whether Bridgerton would be a success when the original first series aired. “When we were rehearsing, we actually didn’t know how it was going to turn out,” she confesses.
But of course, she needn’t have worried, as the romantic Regency series took the world by storm – making a star out of Phoebe and her co-star, the dashing Regé-Jean Page.
Now the second instalment is starting and we can’t wait to see what happens – although sadly we won’t be seeing the meltingly handsome Duke of Hastings (Regé-Jean) who bowed out after the first series.
The show is based on an adaptation of Julia Quinn’s bestselling novel and with eight books, there are sure to be more series to come.
And Phoebe can’t wait to make more – because of the great friendships formed on set. “The most amazing thing about Bridgerton is the people. We all formed such close bonds and it really is a heavenly job in many ways. I’m drawn to people who make me giggle, and there was such a lot of giggling on set –which is probably why we all got along so well.”
Nevertheless, she adds firmly that she has no desire to live in the past permanently. “I would have hated living in 1813!” she declares emphatically. “It wouldn’t have been my cup of tea at all. It’s astonishing to learn how little women back then knew about sex – they were told nothing and they knew nothing. They would marry and they’d have no idea how to make a baby or even what sex was.”
The 19th Century dating scene? Nope again. “In those days you would know when a man liked you because he’d come to your house with a big bouquet of flowers, so that would have been nice. But it was a much more complicated time – a very different world from the world we live in now. And the problem was that if a young woman didn’t marry, there was no other route for her to take. The only thing she could do was marry and have a family. It was impossible to think of any other sort of life – as a working woman myself, I find that quite heartbreaking.”
The daughter ofCorrie actress Sally Dynevorand writer and actor Tim Dynevor, Phoebe Dynevor always knew she wanted to go into acting. “My whole family is in the industry – including my grandparents – so it was always being talked about around our house. I was fascinated by it.
“I think I’ve wanted to be an actress for as long as I can remember - it’s hard to remember ever wanting to do anything else, so I think my parents probably knew quite early on that I was going to be following them.”
Of course, the series is renowned for its raunchy scenes. Mum Sally, who is very proud of her daughter, has admitted that she struggled to watch some of them. And Phoebe has said if the pair sat down to watch it together she had full control of the remote control. “I had to sit there and fast forward on high alert. We managed it just about,” she said recently. While she may be just 26,
Phoebe is already something of a veteran. She had her first role at just 14, playing rich girl Siobhan Mailey in the BBC drama Waterloo Road followed by recurring roles in Prisoners’ Wives and Dickensian before moving to America in 2016 to appear in the comedy- drama Younger.
She is grateful to her parents for preparing her for the challenges of acting. “They were super-supportive, but they told me when I went in, just keep going. It’s not an easy industry and there’s a lot of rejection – I knew that quite early on, which was great, because I’m sure a lot of people go into this industry quite blind as to what it will be like. But I did know it wasn’t going to be easy, so I was prepared for it to be tough. And as I went on in my career, I ended up just falling in love with the craft of it. It’s worth it in the end.”
A disappointment for her – and for many of us –is that Regé-Jean Page left, feeling that the Duke of Hastings’ story has been told. However, this still leaves Phoebe’s very good friend Jonathan Bailey, playing Daphne’s sometimes authoritarian elder brother, Anthony.
“Jonathan and I are very, very close, which is a paradox to the relationship in the show, where his character really infuriates me. But in real life, we talk every day – even when we’re not working together. And when we are working, he makes me laugh so much that we can hardly do scenes together because I’m in hysterics all the time.”
The new series of Bridgerton is released on Netflix on March 25.
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