The author of the books which inspired new Netflix drama Bridgerton has backed the decision to cast King George III s wife as black.
Queen Charlotte is played by British actress Golda Rosheuvel, 49, in the new period drama, which has been compared to the enormously popular Downton Abbey.
American author Julia Quinn, whose book series of the same name inspired the show, has backed the colour-conscious casting, saying that many historians believe Queen Charlotte had some African background .
The theory that Charlotte - who was born into an aristocratic German family - had African ancestry is partly based on how she looks in some portraits.
Golda Rosheuvel as Queen Charlotte in Netflix s Bridgerton
Credit: LIAM DANIEL/NETFLIX
It’s starting to become a habit. Netflix has found itself caught in another controversy over historical accuracy, this time over its romping Regency drama, Bridgerton.
At first blush, it seems the bodice-busting show has plumped for colour blind casting. It’s an established practice in theatre – and is starting to become more popular in films, such as Armando Iannucci’s recent Dickens adaptation, The Personal History of David Copperfield.
But the casting of black British actress Golda Rosheuvel, 49, as Queen Charlotte appears to have been a deliberate nod to a tenuous historical theory – that George III’s consort was Britain’s first black queen. This is especially telling as Queen Charlotte is the most prominent real-life figure in the show; the duelling families around which the drama swirls are fictitious.