Jace Lacob I’m Jace Lacob, and you’re listening to Making Sanditon, a special presentation of MASTERPIECE Studio.

At the end of the first season of Sanditon, Tom Parker’s plans for a modern seaside resort hit a dead end, pushing the entire Parker family to financial ruin.

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Tom Parker Something made me feel I had to make a name for myself, I had to make Sanditon into a place of fashion, what a silly, vainglorious fool I have been!

Jace It’s entirely possible you’ve forgotten what else happened at the end of the first season — it’s been a while, we know — so we’ll fill you in.

Ambitious young farmer’s daughter Charlotte Heywood spends an adventurous summer in the growing seaside resort of Sanditon, making new friends and charming more than her share of admirers.

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Sidney There you are I was beginning to you think you’d made your escape.

Susan Might I presume you are Mr. Sidney Parker? We were just discussing you.

Sidney Well, I was wondering if Miss Heywood might like to dance, if I’m not interrupting you.

Susan Not in the least.

Jace She falls in love with the mysterious Sidney Parker, who at first seems unwilling to return her affection, but who ultimately captures her heart in a touching, private moment.

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Sidney I am a good deal less than perfect. You have made me all too aware of that. But for whatever it is worth, I believe I am my best self, my truest self, when I am with you. That is all.

Jace But when a devastating fire destroys his older brother’s seaside promenade, Sidney is forced to marry his wealthy former lover in order to save his family and the town itself.

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Charlotte What is it?

Sidney Charlotte – my dearest Charlotte. I had hoped, when I returned, to be able to make you a proposal of marriage. But that cannot be. The fact is that I have been obliged to engage myself to Mrs Eliza Campion. Please believe that if there was any other way to resolve Tom’s situation I would…

Charlotte I understand…I wish you every happiness, excuse me..

Jace Charlotte leaves town and returns to her father’s farm in pastoral Wilingden — and we’ve all been waiting to hear what happens next.

Sanditon returns to your screens on March 20, 2022, and on these special Making Sanditon episodes of MASTERPIECE Studio, we’re taking you behind the scenes to hear how and why we’re bringing back Sanditon, what it felt as a cast and crew to revive the series, and what stories and romances await Charlotte, Georgiana, and all their friends by the English seaside.

Series creator Andrew Davies — who has written more than 25 programs for MASTERPIECE in our 50 years on air, including the original House of Cards, Bleak House, and dozens more —  readily admits that the hardest part of returning to Sanditon was figuring out how to write out series lead, Theo James, who played the dashing — if often stormy — Sidney Parker.

Andrew Davies The biggest challenge was that we weren’t going to have Sidney anymore. And you know, the first season ended with when the premise that he was going to come back, but he’s not. And so that opens up a whole lot of new possibilities.

Jace And those possibilities build upon the foundation that Davies and his team — including the second season’s new head writer Justin Young — set up in the first season of the series.

Justin Young Series one was very much Jane’s characters. She gave us the characters we ran with them. We invented a few characters, but but we were pretty faithful to her world and her characters. Y ou know, we felt with series one that we were setting out on quite a long term vision for the for the story. And so we ended where we thought we were with some ending halfway through the story. And then of course, what happened is everybody knows is our show got canceled. And so the audience were understandably quite frustrated that our story ended halfway through.

Jace Young and his writers are looking forward to continuing that story, anew.

Justin Young So coming back to Series two has been such an unexpected pleasure because we’d really we’d mourned the show when we learned it wasn’t happening, we kind of let go and we moved on with our lives. And then this miraculous resurrection happened and there were some adjustments because so much time had passed. Certain actors weren’t available to come back. So the plans we had, the original plans we had for where the story was going…we had to reconsider and reconfigure.

Jace That reconsideration extends beyond the storyline. Back in mid-2020, when it originally seemed like there wouldn’t be a second season of Sanditon, the set itself was torn down — which, while gutting for fans, had a silver lining in leaving the entire town’s design a blank slate for the series’ production team when it sprung back to life in 2021.

Justin Young By the time they struck the sets, we knew it was over….And what this hiatus gave us, this reinvention was the chance to look at everything objectively…just because we did things a certain way in series one, it’s been two years. Is there not a better way of building a set? Could we not look at the way the show, the visuals of the show and approach it differently?

James North It’s always nice as a designer to come in and being having the opportunity, I suppose, to to upgrade the world slightly and make it feel a little bit brighter and a little bit sunnier is what our brief was. 

Jace James North is the production designer for Sandtion’s second and third seasons, which are currently wrapping up production in England. The view from the series’ producers was for North and his team to create something new and altogether different to what viewers saw in season one.

James North The brief was for me was to upgrade Sanditon and to make it feel aspirational and desirable, and that’s what we sort of aimed to do. We’ve left behind some of the slightly more, more gothic stroke Deadwood references from season one, and we brightened everything up a little bit. We’ve opened up the world and we’ve allowed more light coming through windows we’ve allowed brought in taller ceilings, we brought in the lighter colors.

Justin Young I think the pastel palette probably comes from research as much as anything else that I think it feels. It feels to me more like a real place than a sort of hypothetical place in series two visually.

Jace A brighter, airier promenade. New colors, new characters — a new journey to the seaside town we know and love.

James North You can imagine that as time goes on, it does become more and more of the place to be. You know, maybe one day you’ll be able to go there by rail. Maybe one day there’ll be gas lamps on the promenade. You know, it’s still got room to grow, but it definitely feels like a fun, interesting and exciting place.

Jace Before we hear more, let’s take a quick break to hear a word from our sponsors…

Jace Despite the notable absence of Sidney Parker, Sanditon is indeed still an exciting — if tumultuous — place for Charlotte Heywood — played as always by Rose Wiliams.

Andrew Davies Charlotte is at first really deciding that, you know, she wants to live for herself to get on with her life. She’s not looking for another romantic relationship. For her, she feels, you know, she’s had love, it’s over now. She wants to find some way of being useful in the world.  

Jace We won’t give too much away in these podcast previews — you’ve got to wait for the second season, of course! But as Young, Davies, and their team of writers look ahead to the next two seasons of the show, they can promise viewers at least one thing: a resolution to Charlotte’s story. Austen’s original novel may have been a fragment, but this new continuation won’t be reduced to an unfinished, one-season fragment, after all.

Justin Young I’ve always seen these three series as a sort of trilogy. I think that the Charlotte Heywood Trilogy, series one, two, three — by the time we get to the end of Series three, it’ll feel like that’s the end of one novel. And whether there are subsequent series, we shall have to wait and see.

Jace And while Charlotte may not be looking for love by the seaside this season, her younger sister, Alison, most definitely is.

Justin Young Alison is so idealistic and romantic and believes that life should be one great big romance and Charlotte’s more pragmatic and more wary and more cautious. And you kind of hope that each sister will take something from the other. And so I think it also allows us to kind of relaunch the show, because Alison’s our newcomer, she’s our way in.

Jace Alison Heywood is played by Rosie Graham — and her optimism and energy bring a new light to Sanditon — and to her older sister, too.

Andrew Davies Alison is a full-on romantic girl and quite silly with it. She’s got a good heart and she’s lovable and attractive and. Has goes crazy when she sees an officer in a red coat. And of course, one of the new things is that a regiment has taken up camp in Sandton.

Jace You’ll hear from a few of those soldiers (and others) in the next episode of our Sanditon preview miniseries — but for now, we’re staying focused on Charlotte, Alison — and naturally, Georgiana Lambe.

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Charlotte He said he felt his truest self when he was with me.

Georgiana  Why would he say that?

Charlotte I’ve been asking myself the same question. I couldn’t sleep last night thinking on it.

Georgiana Oh no. You aren’t in love with him? Please say you are not.

Jace The beautiful Miss Lambe — Austen’s first character of color, played here by Crystal Clarke  — is a wealthy heiress from Antigua, now under the guardianship of the Parker Family and waiting for her opportunity to fully claim her inheritance.

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Lady Denham Miss Lambe! What are your views on matrimony? An heiress with a hundred thousand must be in want of a husband, I think?

Georgiana I don’t care to be any man’s property, Lady Denham.

Lady Denham Oh! Hoity toity! I should have thought someone like you would be quite used to being a man’s property! Was not your mother a slave?

Georgiana She was. But being used to a thing and liking it are not the same, my lady.

Jace As a woman of color in a mostly white Sanditon, Miss Lambe must deal with both the petty racism of her fellow townspeople and the money-hungry opportunism of everybody else.

In the second and third seasons of the series, Young, Davies, and their team of writers were eager to give Miss Lambe a larger and more developed storyline.

Justin Young We’ve tried to find ways to tell stories that aren’t just about white characters, that broaden the diversity of the of the of the cast, but also in a way that is, it’s true to life. You know, the story is about how Georgiana maneuvers as a woman of color in 1820 in England and in, you know, and not not in London or a big city where there would be cultural diversity and ethnic diversity.

Jace And that broadening extends to behind the camera, too, with new writers, directors, and costumers of color working on the series.Having creators of color contribute to telling the story of a woman of color adds nuance and realism to the narrative.

Taking on this kind of work is important to everyone in the production, Young said.

Justin Young We were aware that we didn’t do as well as we could have done in series one. I think all of us are constantly trying to look to, you know, look at where we can do better in that where we can, you know, make sure that people are represented. And actually, it’s made the show a lot better.

Jace Hiring people of color in key positions — such as director Ethosheia Hylton and others on staff — is a small but vital part of an ongoing mission on all MASTERPIECE productions, says MASTERPIECE executive producer Susanne Simpson.

Susanne Simpson It’s really important for MASTERPIECE going forward to make a commitment to diversity and not only the stories and the actors on camera, but also with the people behind the scenes, the writers, the directors, the heads of department and other crew members and Red Planet worked very hard to create that kind of diversity in a team for season two of Sanditon.

Jace Representation on the series extends beyond matters of diversity, equity, and inclusion. For head writer Young, that approach moves well into questions of equality, empowerment, and feminism, too.

Justin Young Listen, we are a feminist show and I say that unapologetically. Charlotte is a feminist hero and I’d love this show to be a series that my, you know, my daughters can watch when they’re a bit older and go, ‘Yeah, we really aspire to be Georgianna and Charlotte and these women are empowered and smart and opinionated, and they don’t just exist to be wives and mothers, and the men that they fall in love with have to be worthy of them, they have to deserve them. And it’s not enough for the men they fall in love with. Just be the kind of, ‘Right look like I’ve ot a big house, and you’re going to be my little one. You know, I need I need the men to be whoever Charlotte ends up with. I need to know is somebody who’s going to respect her ambitions and her voice.

Jace So… who will Charlotte end up with? And who misses the mark?

You’ll have to wait and see… and hear, too, in the next episode of our Making Sanditon miniseries.

Rose Williams I’m Rose Williams and I play Charlotte Heywood in our show, Sanditon.

Jace Coming up next… Charlotte Heywood herself.

Rose Williams Number one, I think she missed her friends, all those relationships that she built, as much as she adores her home, and also I think wants her sister to have that experience, she wants Alison to see what it’s like outside the farm as well. I think that’s one of her motivations, definitely, for coming back.

Jace Rose Williams takes us back to Sanditon. Sunday, December 12, only here on MASTERPIECE Studio.

MASTERPIECE Studio is hosted by me, Jace Lacob. This episode was produced and edited by Nick Andersen. The executive producer of MASTERPIECE is Susanne Simpson.