Bridgerton legends explain "juvenile" season 4 feud for Queen Charlotte and Lady Danbury

This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine.

“There’s a little bit of an upset with our best mate, Lady Danbury,” is Golda Rosheuvel’s description of the trouble at the top in Bridgerton series four. (And note the appropriate use of the regal plural – Rosheuvel has been playing a Queen for six years now and speaks fluent majesty).

“She comes into the season thinking that she has a lovely new toy in Whistledown (Nicola Coughlan), that they’re going to be best mates and she’s going to be able to control the gossip. And then she’s wrong-footed by Danbury asking to leave.”

“Danbury’s hit that time in her life,” explains Adjoa Andoh, “where she wants to know all of who she is. We have to remember that Danbury was sent over from Sierra Leone to the UK to marry an old git. As we saw from the Queen Charlotte series, she had a loveless marriage, four children and then he dies. Phew, thank goodness. Now I’m independent.”

In series three, her brother Marcus returned and the issue of her family and background re-emerges. “And at a certain point she realises there’s a piece of the jigsaw in her life that she doesn’t have available to her, and that is: ‘Who was I in Sierra Leone?’ I know from friends who have been fostered or adopted that there’s something about filling in a gap that – at a time in your life – becomes more necessary.”

Danbury’s announcement that she is off to find herself forces a schism at the top. “The Queen is lonely,” says Rosheuvel. “She needs her best friend by her side. She’s terrified of what the outcome will be for their friendship.” Predictably, the Queen doesn’t take it well.

“She says, ‘I’m the Queen, so you have to do what I say,’” say Andoh. “And Danbury goes, ‘Well, if I have to do what you say, I won’t be your friend.’” Cue juvenile squabbling. “How they’re going to resolve that in a satisfactory way is their story arc throughout the season.”

It’s a tale of significant friendships and how they mature – and sometimes falter – over time. Something both women are familiar with. “I have a great friend who was in America and she’s just moved here,” says Rosheuvel. “Years ago, when someone asked me out, she was the person I phoned and went, ‘What do I do?’ She was like, ‘You don’t have to marry her, just enjoy what you’ve got.’ It was great advice – because I’d been on my own for five years at that point. And 12, 13 years later, I’m married to that person.”

Andoh’s closest friend is her younger brother. “He’s a musician and he lives in LA so he’s not around the corner, but we share a sense of humour being from the West Country – ‘All right poo face, you look like s**t.’ ‘You don’t look much better’… that kind of thing.

“If I’m in LA, I go back to my brother and I’m in a grounded place immediately. He’s always been in bands – I was a punk; I got him into it. In fact, that’s all I ever wanted to do – be a bass player in a punk band.” Which both is and isn’t very Lady Danbury, all at the same time.

Read more:

• Bridgerton season 4's leading couple talk about their Cinderella story and steamy river scene: "It was cold in the water, though"
• Bridgerton season 4 star reveals Lady Violet's sexy new romance as a mature woman: "We're not dead!"

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Bridgerton season 4 part 1 premieres on January 29th and Part 2 on February 26th, both on Netflix. Seasons 1-3 are available to watch on Netflix now. You can buy the Bridgerton book series on Amazon.

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