The Real Bridgerton

Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society

History Hit

Society, Sex, Scandal, Education, History

4.8 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 28 February 2023

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The first series of Bridgerton broke viewership records and became the biggest series on Netflix ever when it first came out. But a raunchy period drama is nothing new, shows with an eroticised view of the past have always been popular. Think Game of Thrones, The Tudors, Peaky Blinders...they’re all at it!

But can we even call Bridgerton history? How accurate is the series? From the fashion, to the sex, to the dental hygiene. Yep, we’re even going to be talking about dentures made from teeth taken from men who died at the Battle of Waterloo in this episode. Surprisingly the Bridgerton actors weren’t asked to rock a pair for filming the series.

Today Kate is Betwixt the Sheets with historian Catherine Curzon find out the real Regency history behind Bridgerton.

You can buy Catherine's book, Inside the World of Bridgerton: True Stories of Regency High Society here.

Produced by Charlotte Long and Sophie Gee. Mixed by Charlotte Long and Matt Peaty.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello my lovely petristers, it's me Kate Lister. I am here with your fair dues warning to protect
0:06.4	you from me, to protect you from yourself and certainly to protect you from today's guest.
0:12.6	We are talking about the real Bridgerton, the history behind the series, how accurate it is,
0:18.5	et cetera, et cetera, and inevitably we will be straying into some saucy subjects. You just
0:26.4	might not be in the space to listen to that right now, you just might want something a bit more
0:30.5	wholesome and nourishing and the absolute smut that you're going to be exposed to if you stick
0:35.5	around with us today. Are you still there? Are you still there? Okay for those of you that are still
0:41.8	there, I'm ready if you are. If anyone ever thought that the general public are not interested,
0:52.0	passionately interested in history, then the success of Bridgerton confirmed exactly the opposite.
0:58.6	We are very, very interested in history, especially if that history happens to be a juke
1:05.9	seductively looking a spoon or perhaps emerging from a lake, a nice historical muscular man,
1:11.5	perhaps in a soaking wet shirt. We're all history buffs then aren't we? But can we even call
1:17.6	Bridgerton history? How accurate is the series? From the fashion to the sex to the dental hygiene?
1:25.6	Yep, we are going to be talking about dentures. Specifically, dentures made from teeth taken from
1:32.0	the men who died at the Battle of Waterloo. Sounding less and less sexy as we go on, isn't it?
1:38.0	And surprisingly, the actors were not asked to put in a pair of those for the filming.
1:44.0	Today, we are finding out the real regency history behind Bridgerton.
1:53.2	What do you look for, a man? Oh, money, of course. You're supposed to rise when an adult speaks to you.
1:58.4	I make perfect copies of whatever my boss needs. I just turn him a knob and push him a button.
2:04.8	You're right! You're right! You're right! You're right! You're right!
2:10.8	Yes, social courtesy does make a difference.
2:13.5	Goodness, my parents are damn good enough to have nothing to do with it during.
	...

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