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‘Sanditon on Masterpiece’ returns March 20 – watch the season 2 preview!
March 14, 2022 Leave a Comment
The plot thickens at an English seaside resort in the early 1800s as Masterpiece continues its hit series expanding on Jane Austen’s unfinished final novel. Rose Williams (The Power) returns as the high-spirited heroine, Charlotte Heywood, with Crystal Clarke (Ordeal by Innocence) as the independent West Indian heiress, Georgiana Lambe. Sanditon season 2 premieres 8 p.m. Sunday, March 20 on PBS Wisconsin.
In addition to Williams and Clarke, the returning cast includes Anne Reid (Last Tango in Halifax) as Lady Denham, the demanding chief investor in a scheme to turn sleepy, coastal Sanditon into a fashionable holiday getaway; Kris Marshall (Death in Paradise) as Tom Parker, the visionary behind the venture; Kate Ashfield (A Confession) as Tom’s levelheaded wife, Mary; and Turlough Convery (Killing Eve) as Tom’s amiable and underrated brother, Arthur.
Ceaselessly plotting for Lady Denham’s legacy are a duo of characters familiar from Season 1: Jack Fox (Riviera) plays Lady Denham’s dissipated nephew, Sir Edward Denham; and Lily Sacofsky (Dalgliesh) is Lady Denham’s niece, Clara Brereton. Also returning on a mission of her own is Charlotte Spencer (Cinderella), as Lady Esther Babington, another relative of the prestigious Lady Denham.
In new principal roles are Ben Lloyd-Hughes (Industry) as Alexander Colbourne, a handsome and enigmatic local recluse; Tom Weston-Jones (Shadow and Bone) as dynamic Colonel Francis Lennox; Rosie Graham (Outlander) as Charlotte’s hopeless romantic sister Alison; Frank Blake (Normal People) as diffident Captain Declan Fraser; Maxim Ays (Still So Awkward) as Captain William Carter; and Alexander Vlahos (Versailles) plays Sanditon’s Bohemian artist, Charles Lockhart.
From left: Captain Carter (Maxim Ays), Colonel Lennox (Tom Weston-Jones) and Captain Fraser (Frank Blake). Photo by Joss Barratt.
Season 2 of Sanditon continues Jane Austen’s classic quandary of how independent-minded young women can make their way in patriarchal Regency-era England. Society insists that they take a husband, and some women, such as Charlotte’s sister Alison, can’t wait to find one. But others, notably Charlotte and Georgiana, have mixed feelings about matrimony.
Another Austenian theme is the allure of military men. During the Napoleonic Wars, young officers moved around the country with their troops, providing eligible women dashing dance partners, who were usually more romantically experienced than the local lads. Sanditon features just such an enticing encampment of potential husbands and heartbreakers.
Sanditon is filled with other delights as well as pointed social commentary. As the series depicts, English ladies really did organize a sugar boycott to protest the evils of slavery connected to the sugar trade. In Sanditon, Georgiana has more than enough reasons to lead the banner in this cause.
Want early access to new Sanditon episodes? Join PBS Wisconsin Passport and get access to the next episode a week early beginning March 20!
