On this episode of Bridgerton: The Official Podcast, hosts Gabrielle Collins and Annabelle Hood explore the many locations, fancy country houses, royal palaces, and historic buildings that made Bridgerton so beautiful. Production designer Will Hughes-Jones describes cross-country trips all over England, scouting London townhomes and Bath Assembly Halls for months; Annabelle tells us that “within the first five minutes” of the first episode, we see no less than five locations from Bristol to London to Liverpool. Actresses Adjoa Andoh and Golda Rosheuvel, who brought Lady Danbury and Queen Charlotte, respectively, to life, share how each of these historic places lent a special something to their performances. And historian Dr. Hannah Grieg gets into the history of the period, comparing the lords and ladies of Bridgerton to today’s A-list celebrities.
Wilton House, where the debutantes were presented, was a favorite location for many; Will says it gave both himself and director of photography Jeffrey Jur “goosebumps,” and Golda says that since a family actually still lives there (the production took place in one half of the huge house while the family lived in the other), “it felt like a home, even though it was grand and opulent.” Similarly, using a working royal building like Lancaster House lent her queenly performance a little something special. Adjoa’s favorite was Badminton House, where her Lady Danbury’s Den of Inequity scenes took place. She grew up nearby, and “would loved to have grown up knowing that Queen Charlotte was mixed race….and that she was in a massive house just a few miles up the road from where I grew up as a solitary Black girl.”
“The world of Bridgerton is a beautiful escapist world,” showrunner Chris Van Dusen says. He wanted “ridiculously lush surroundings….the most gorgeous, rich, aspirational English garden anyone has ever seen,” and Will “took that idea and ran with it.” Using fabric, food, and flowers, Will transformed every location into something beautiful and memorable, with an incredible eye for detail. Chris describes watching Will hand-paint hundreds of roses with a custom blue color to get just the right look “and I just fell in love with him right there.” All that detail matters, as Hannah tells us; aristocrats in the Regency period were known for their love of glamour and glitz, particularly George IV, who she said tried to “out-bling” Napoleon. Hear all these wonderful stories and more about bringing the popular Netflix series to life on this episode of Bridgerton: The Official Podcast.
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