Adapting a book, comic, or any other kind of physical media for the big or small screen is no easy task. After all, a book has been written to be read, not to be watched, and not all novels can be well adapted for the grandeur of the movies. But, with that being said, when filmmakers get it right, such masterpieces as No Country For Old Men, The Zone of Interest, or Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining are created.
Now, we’re not comparing Bridgerton series three to such aforementioned masterworks, but the return of the beloved series is certainly long-awaited, with many considering it to be a glorious piece of TV in and of itself. Two years since it last hit Netflix, Bridgerton is, indeed, back for a third series, with the likes of Adjoa Andoh, Nicola Coughlan and Luke Newton all returning for more.
Telling the story of the eight siblings of the Bridgerton family who are each searching for love while living at the cream of the crop of high society, the show has long been a hit for the streaming service, even sparking a spin-off show, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, in 2023. The latest season of the show, based on Julia Quinn’s book series of the same name, will be adapted from the fourth novel, Romancing Mr. Bridgerton.
Yet, just like almost each and every adaptation of a popular book, the new series of Bridgerton significantly departs from the events of the novel.
The differences between the book and the show in Bridgerton season three:
The presence/lack of the Queen
Queen Charlotte is one of the greatest assets to the Bridgerton series, with Golda Rosheuvel helping to make the character such a memorable one. Yet, the Queen herself is not referenced at all in the books. It’s one of the greatest changes in the whole show, however, with the Queen being a key character who forces much of the delicious conflict between the bickering families.
Speaking about the role, Rosheuvel told Elle: “Queen Charlotte is a very easy role to understand because she is my mother. That essence of Englishness and etiquette and wicked sense of humor…it’s my mother”.
The scandal sheet
The gossip newsletter in Bridgerton is one of the show’s most beloved features, with Penelope secretly writing the scandal sheet under the pseudonym of Lady Whistledown, well, until the end of season one, at least when the viewer discovers that she is the author. While, in the TV series, the sheet is genuinely scandalous, revealing secrets that rock high society, in the books, they’re not as explicit.
In the series, the scandal sheets are catalysts for a lot of the show’s dramas, with the newsletters surprisingly being based on real-life gossip columns about celebrities that thrived in the past. Such ‘fashionable world’ columns detailed the clothes and jewellery that the upper classes wore and flaunted.
Eloise
Now, Eloise isn’t entirely fabricated for the series, but much of her storyline in the latest season has been considerably added to when looking at the comparatively thin literary version. While she remains Penelope’s best friend in the book, there are no fights between the pair in the novel as there are in the series, and she also never doggedly tracks down the identity of Lady Whistledown.
Played by the excellent Claudia Jessie, Eloise is one of the show’s most cherished characters, but read the books and you might find yourself disappointed at how little she is actually mentioned.
