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uning into Bridgerton, Netflix’s new period series from super-producer Shonda Rhimes, feels like falling into a post-modern Jane Austen fever dream. A string quartet plays Ariana Grande’s Thank U, Next as revellers of all races file into a dazzling ballroom, while Julie Andrews, voicing acid-tongued society scandalmonger Lady Whistledown, dishes out bitchy zingers like Regency London’s answer to Gossip Girl. It plays fast and loose with historical accuracy, but makes for pacy, addictive viewing.
Much as we love to see Colin Firth emerging from a lake, costume dramas have never been the coolest, most innovative of genres. They’re the M&S of the telly world: comfortable, reliable, definitely not cutting edge. Now though, that’s changing. You can trace the beginnings of a shift back to Sofia Coppola’s 2006 film Marie Antoinette, an anachronistic confection that aimed to capture the queen’s teen spirit with its mad party scenes and post-punk soundtrack. Fast-forward a decade or so and The Favourite, starring Olivia Colman as Queen Anne, showed us historical poshos as we’d never seen them before, with dark comedy, lesbian sex and f-bombs.