‘I’ve Always Loved Period Pieces, but Never Felt I Had a Place in Them’: How Queen Charlotte’s Bridgerton Spin-Off Has Broken Down Barriers for Black Viewers
[image credit: URBAN]By Amran Abdiqadir Mohamed
No need to panic – this article does not contain any spoilers for those of you who have yet to see the Netflix spin-off. Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story is a show that delves into the tales behind many of our favourite characters from the world of Bridgerton.
Set in the Regency era, it follows the relationship between Queen Charlotte and King George III through the ‘Great Experiment’, which entailed a royal interracial relationship so that British society became united. This prequel explained a lot of ‘present day’ Bridgerton, specifically the diversity of their society.
As a massive fan of Bridgerton, I was counting down the seconds until this spin-off series was released. One of my main reasons for being so excited was that it would be my first time seeing a black British Queen. I was also very aware that Netflix had chosen to invest in a character study of a black British Queen. Don’t get me wrong, I am not dramatic enough to have felt that my story as a black woman was being told in the series. However, this representation is a huge deal and I value its creation.
Period dramas have always felt personal. I spent a lot of time watching them with my mum and little sister growing up, and they’re associated with some of my favourite familial memories. For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved the world of period pieces, but I’ve never felt like I have a place in it. As such, watching films and tv shows from that genre feels both homely and foreign. Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story has altered my relationship with the genre and it promises a better future.
I think there’s something unique about watching this show as a British person of colour. The culture is familiar, and yet this is one of the first times I’ve properly seen myself in it. Although I took geography at GCSE level, I still remember quite a bit from my history classes; it is difficult to articulate how I felt knowing that I would finally be able to identify with the history that I was forced to learn in school (to an extent – I’m no aristocrat).
There are layers to the representation in Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, and I am going to touch upon some of the ones that meant a lot to me personally. The first is the hairstyles. I found myself pleasantly surprised with the variety of black hairstyles throughout the show. At the Los Angeles premiere, Golda Rosheuvel, who plays the older Queen Charlotte, spoke about her unique experience with the hair department. For some of her pieces, the stylists teased her hair out to use as the front line of the wig. Rosheuvel’s natural hair being used within a character’s look is something she had not previously experienced. She said that it made her feel seen as both an actress and a person of colour, so much that it moved her to tears.
In the same interview, Arsema Thomas, actress for the younger version of Lady Agatha Danbury, mentioned how the department used pictures of Lauryn Hill as a reference point for her hairstyles. Thomas went on to explain how she valued that the team had used a dark-skinned black woman as a reference point to help create the essence of her character. The wigs were so varied: there were dreads, braids, afros… the list could go on. As a viewer, I was over the moon to see black hairstyles celebrated and fit for royalty.
I would also like to discuss the importance of this show being centred around a romantic storyline where a black woman is the main love interest. This is definitely something that is not seen often, though other programmes/films have shed light on the struggles black women face when dating (Love Island springs to my mind). In Western society, where standards of beauty are purely Eurocentric, black women are normally found at the bottom of the dating chain. Alongside this, we face inappropriate stereotype projections and fetishisation that brand black women as undesirable.
In the media, we are seen as the ‘funny best friend’ but hardly ever the main character. This is something that Shonda Rhimes (executive producer of the Bridgerton series) has consistently pushed back against in her other TV shows: ‘Olivia Pope’ and ‘Annalise Keating’ are viewed as beautiful women who are deserving of a romantic relationship, and ‘Queen Charlotte’ is no different in combating this narrative.
Of course, I could never discuss a series from the world of Bridgerton without mentioning its soundtrack. In celebration of the song’s 20th anniversary, Alicia Keys performed ‘If I Ain’t Got You’ alongside an orchestra that was exclusively made up of women of colour. It was led by Ofentse Pitse, the first black South African woman to conduct an orchestra. The soundtrack showcased other brilliant black female artists: Beyonce, SZA and Whitney Houston to name a few. It is wonderful to see Shondaland Productions represent women of colour both on and off-screen.
I was beyond excited for the show to release. Everything it offered and all of the unsaid promises meant a great deal to me, and I am glad to say that it did not disappoint. In fact, I have a flatmate who has already begun rewatching it! I am sure you will love the series; and after reading this, hopefully you will have a better understanding of the barriers that are being torn down, the narratives that are changing, and why the show means so much to black women globally.
Amran Abdiqadir Mohamed is a final year student at SOAS, University of London. She is interested in writing about a range of topics, including commentary pieces on film/TV, identity, diaspora experiences, news and politics. Amran is the 2023–2024 Culture Editor of The SOAS Spirit.