Nicola Coughlan on what to expect from Bridgerton's second season

The second season of Netflix period drama is now streamxjmtzywing to the delight of fans who became hooked on the series during COVID-19 lockdowns.

The show, set in a fictionalized recreation of London’s Regency era, imagines a racially diverse aristocratic society. Irish actor Nicola Coughlan, who portrays Penelope Featherington on the show, said she and her castmates are "so excited" to keep telling the story.

"When season one came out, it was in the middle of the global lockdown. And then three months later, we got into filming season two. We were just so happy to be, like, out of our houses and be allowed back to work as we hadn’t been around to celebrate the show coming out," she told CTV’s Your Morning on Monday.

Near the end of the first season, the identity of the anonymous gossip writer known as Lady Whistledown was revealed to be none other than Penelope. In season two, Coughlan said she had to take a slightly different approach to playing Penelope, now that the audience knows of her character’s schemes.

"In season one, it was a lot about playing (Penelope) as this, sort of, very quiet wallflower. But you know when you find out at the very last moment that she is Lady Whistledown, it sort of changes your perspective on her," she said. "It was so fun for me going back in and getting to then play all of the unseen parts from season one."

‘s second season also introduces South Asian cast members for the first time, with Simone Ashley and Charithra Chandran playing the Sharma sisters. Coughlan says inclusivity and diversity is something that has become "such an important part of ."

"We were really excited, to be honest, to invite them," she added. "We had an amazing writer in the writers’ room called Geetika Lizardi who is also South Asian and was able to infuse all these wonderful elements that you don’t normally see in a period drama. And then Simone and Charithra are coming in and completely blowing it out of the water. It’s just been great."

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