This script has been lightly edited for clarity

Jace Lacob: I’m Jace Lacob, and you’re listening to MASTERPIECE Studio.

Amidst the sunshine and sea air, an excited and slightly despairing Charlotte Heywood returns once more to the bustling holiday destination, Sanditon. But this time, she arrives with her future more certain.

CLIP

Charlotte: I’ve never seen so many visitors. Tom must be delighted.

Georgiana: Charlotte! I’m so happy you could come.

Charlotte: Happiest of birthdays Georgiana.

Georgiana: And I’m glad to see you too, Mr. Starling.

Ralph: It was kind of you to include me on the invitation, Miss Lambe.

Georgiana: How could I not? You’re about to marry my dearest friend.

Jace Lacob: Charlotte is back at the beachside resort to celebrate Georgiana’s much anticipated 21st birthday. And Charlotte hasn’t returned to Sanditon on her own this time. She’s accompanied by farmer Ralph Starling, her childhood friend and now fiancé.

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Ralph: I do hope I shall make a good impression. I should hate to let you down. 

Charlotte: You have nothing to worry about.

Jace Lacob: But Charlotte isn’t the only one back in Sanditon after some time away. She is soon alarmed to hear that her former employer and love interest Mr. Alexander Colbourne — along with his daughter and niece — has returned from Bath.

CLIP

Leonora: Miss Heywood!

Charlotte: Oh! I thought you were in Bath?

Augusta: We were. Uncle packed up Heyrick Park soon after you left.

Charlotte: Lady de Clemente, this is Mrs. Wheatley, Miss Markham and Miss Colbourne.

Augusta: How do you do, my Lady.

Leonora: Why did you leave so suddenly? You never even said goodbye!

Charlotte: Oh, Leo, I so wanted to, but it was … difficult.

Jace Lacob: As Sanditon kicks off its third and final season, actor Rose Williams joins us to discuss Charlotte’s impending marriage, and what Mr. Colbourne’s return to the seaside might mean for Charlotte’s future.

Jace Lacob: And this week we are joined by Sanditon star Rose Williams. Welcome Rose.

Rose Williams: Thank you so much for having me back. Lovely to be talking to you again about our final season.

Jace Lacob: Final season, can you believe it? Season three. It seems just like yesterday we were sitting down to talk about series one before it even aired, which seems like a lifetime ago.

Charlotte begins each season by coming to Sanditon for a different reason. In Series one, it’s for adventure. In series two, it’s the death of Sidney Parker. And in series three it’s for Georgiana’s coming of age. And each time we also get to see a different aspect to Charlotte Heywood. How would you describe the Charlotte that we meet when we pick up with her again at the start of series three?

Rose Williams: That’s something that I love so much, is the coming back to Sanditon and the consistency with the seasons. I really appreciate that and it felt quite special to shoot those scenes feeling into the progression in the chapters one, two, and three.

But Charlotte coming back, she is older and wiser, wizened through experiences, emotional experiences, particularly of the heart. She’s returning with her fiancé in tow, who, as Alison had never been outside of Willingdon, the same goes for Ralph, Charlotte’s dearest, oldest friend, childhood friend, and beau and new partner.

So she’s bringing him into this world that she knows and loves so much, and I think she’s quite hesitant in the mixing of those worlds wanting, on the one hand to bring Ralph into a place that she adores and to meet—well, he’s met them at Alison’s wedding, but to really introduce him to Sanditon feels good and scary at the same time. So she’s a little bit on edge, I’d say.

Jace Lacob: She is on edge. I mean her engagement to Ralph came as a shock at the end of series two. And as you say, we get to meet him more thoroughly here as he’s, as you said, sort of introduced to the world of Sanditon and he’s in this new world. But what do you feel drew these two childhood friends together and is this an engagement of, if not convenience, let’s say, maybe of routine more than romance?

Rose Williams: There was a draft at one point where Charlotte explains that her father had described Ralph and Charlotte’s marriage as a foregone conclusion. It’s something that had always been on the cards.

In my imagination, in conversation with the writers and directors and Cai, we were of the understanding that Charlotte and Ralph grew up together. Their families were very close friends. His family also had farmland. They would help each other out. They played together. Ralph’s younger and older siblings were like younger and older siblings to Charlotte. Their families were very much intertwined and the two children got along very well, and were of the same age. Ralph feels like home to Charlotte. He feels like family and he feels like an avenue of a path that she had once thought was all that was possible until she came to Sanditon.

So that’s their backstory. They’ve just known each other forever and ever. And she does love him. She does adore him. But the world in which they come from and the world in which their relationship exists is so far from the version of herself that she discovered through spending time in Sanditon and meeting the Parkers and Georgiana and all of the adventures that she’s had. So they’re different worlds.

Jace Lacob: So Charlotte obviously has been changed by her time in Sanditon. Over the first two series, we saw her transform in many different ways. We saw her solve problems, she offered up vision and insight. If she hadn’t have come to Sanditon, if that chance encounter with the Parkers had never happened at the beginning of series one, do you think that perhaps Ralph might make her happy?

Rose Williams: Absolutely, absolutely. As described by her father at one point in time, their relationship was a foregone conclusion. She had always envisioned their life together. She was looking forward to following in her mother’s footsteps and being in support of the farm with the secret dreams of the outside world.

That’s something me and Olly Blackburn, our first director at the very beginning, talked about was the fact that Charlotte from a young age would’ve found newspapers and read books and been inspired by the outside world and had secret dreams of a trip to London, or you know, an experience outside of her village. But ultimately those were consigned to dreams, and she had always been under the assumption that her life would be with Ralph.

So it’s a very conflicting place for her to be engaged to him through kind of feeling indebted to her family. They’ve had a hard couple of seasons. They’re struggling financially. Her younger sister has got married, which is very unconventional. Normally the eldest daughter would, of course, marry first. So she does feel this pressure from her family, and she does feel a pressure from Ralph’s family. She’s pleasing others and not herself.

Jace Lacob: She is this sort of people-pleaser here and I feel like, as you say, it sort of makes sense, not necessarily sort of romantic grand love sense, but it makes sense. I also think that there is this sense that he’s sort of the safe choice, particularly after Sydney Parker and Alexander Colbourne, that this woman who is so drawn to adventure at the start of season one would then sort of choose safety after having her heart broken repeatedly.

Do you think then that Charlotte maybe does crave safety out of the sense of self-preservation, of protecting herself, but as you say, protecting her family and doing what she needs to do in order to make things easier on her family?

Rose Williams: I wouldn’t say that she craves that element of safety and security. I’d say that it comes down to her family and feeling like that’s what she has to do to protect the farm and create structure within her own family and within the village, and to be financially secure, which will help her younger brothers and sisters.

I don’t think that flame and spark of inspiration to be adventurous and explore is ever fully extinguished. I’d say that she just finds herself in a position as many, many, many women of the time and in ways across the world still today, they’re having to compromise. It’s not from a want, it’s from a kind of unfortunate combination of elements.

But Charlotte being Charlotte, always sees the best in people and sees the best in the situation and, as you say, she definitely has had her heart broken now more than once. So there is that fear, but I’d say it more comes down to her feeling like it’s the best for the family.

Jace Lacob: Nice metaphor, by the way, about her sort of adventurous spirit, the flame not being extinguished. I like that.

Rose Williams: It’s just a little ember. It’s still there, it’s still there. It’s just not as burning bright.

Jace Lacob: It’s still there. I want to be clear that there is affection and kindness on the part of Charlotte towards Ralph, and I love the scene of the two of them in the opening of this episode when they’re riding the carriage as Charlotte excitedly points out the sea to Ralph. There is this notion perhaps that maybe Charlotte is looking at the trip then as a way of opening up Ralph’s world in the same way that her first trip to Sanditon opened up a wider world for her, that maybe they could sort of kindle that spark of adventure together.

Rose Williams: Absolutely, that is her intent. 100 million percent. That’s absolutely how she’s feeling. And she adores him, he is her best friend. Georgiana is her dearest friend, Parkers are her dearest friends, but her childhood oldest, dearest friend would be Ralph. They know each other inside out. They’ve spent hours and years together. He’s an extension of her in a way, and an extension of her past, and she feels the utmost comfort with him.

So she feels free enough to express her emotions in a way with him more so than she might with the Parkers in a way, I always kind of thought. That thing of like, with a sibling or a partner that you’ve been with for a really long time, being able to be completely comfortable to express how you really feel and I think that she has that with Ralph.

And to your point, absolutely. She wants to show him this world. He’s been skeptical, slightly skeptical of it. Charlotte’s disappeared for months on end here and there, and he’s heard the stories and he’s curious, I think, himself, to experience these people that she’s come to love so much.

Jace Lacob: She hasn’t totally been honest with him. There are elements of her time there that she has sort of kept to herself. We see that in the scene where they play Snapdragon and Ralph burns himself on the raisin, and he learns that Charlotte was at a masked ball in London, and sort of questions, you know, you were in London?

CLIP

Arthur: We plan to build an indoor pleasure garden for our guests, Miss Heywood.

Charlotte: Heavens!

Tom: And what guests they are. Not only her grace, the Lady Montrose and her son, the Duke of Buckinghamshire, but we await the arrival of your friend Lady Susan de Clemente.

Charlotte: I shall be so pleased to see her again.

Ralph: Lady de Clemente?

Tom: Yes, they met at a masked ball in London, did you not, my dear?

Ralph: When were you in London, Charlotte?

Georgiana: She and the late Mr. Parker journeyed there for my benefit.

Charlotte: It’s a long story.

Jace Lacob: What goes through Charlotte’s head here? Why has she kept so much of her time away from Willingdon a secret even to Ralph?

Rose Williams: I think that Charlotte, not so much wanted, but had to keep her experiences precious and secret for fear of the reaction from Ralph. I always imagined her going home after the end of series one and being very quiet on her experiences just because she was so heartbroken and through maternal intuition and sisterly intuition her mother and her sister might have picked up on it. But I don’t think that she would’ve explained, to the full extent, to Ralph all of the adventures. And she definitely wouldn’t have told him about Sydney because I kind of always imagined that Ralph had always had a crush, there had always been this kind of sparkle between them, nothing explored.

So it wouldn’t have felt appropriate for her to talk about Sydney with Ralph, and telling everybody that she’d been to London would open a can of worms. I think her father would probably go ballistic. But that one was, um, that one was definitely kept a secret.

MIDROLL

Jace Lacob: Charlotte runs into her friend Lady Susan de Clemente, who we haven’t seen since series one. Given how much has changed for Charlotte, has the way that Charlotte perhaps sees Lady Susan changed as well?

Rose Williams: Oh, I was so, so happy that Lady Susan came back. Sophie Winkleman is absolutely heaven. We talked about this. I really like how that dynamic hasn’t actually changed, and we always kind of said that with Lady Susan to Charlotte and Charlotte to Lady Susan, it’s the only person where they could speak their absolute truth, unencumbered with no fear. It’s like the precious way that they met, almost like on a night out when you meet a stranger and you feel like you could pour your heart out, or in a taxi or an Uber, those really incredible conversations that you have with people that are complete strangers and you find all of the answers because there’s that freedom in expressing exactly what’s going on in your life because it’s a complete stranger and they don’t know anyone that you know.

And I think the purity of that connection, how that then blossomed into a friendship creates this dynamic where they’re at utmost peace with each other and feel totally free to tell the truth. So that dynamic kind of remained from the moment that they met. This really sincere and pure friendship has remained and continues.

Jace Lacob: I love that lady Susan, as you say, they can be honest with each other. She’s pretty blunt here. She says,

CLIP

Lady de Clemente: I’m thrilled that you’ve found so much contentment. Though I confess, this is not the life I would’ve expected for you, that you’d marry a farmer and return to your village.

Charlotte: Why not? It’s been good enough for my parents. Why should it not be good enough for me?

Jace Lacob: Is she chafing against perhaps class differences here, that Lady Susan would say, well, can’t you just marry whomever you want? Can’t you do whatever you want? And again, sort of reasserting that fact that she has an obligation to her family, and her 8,000 siblings, that she has to do what is expected of her in a way that Lady Susan has the freedom not to do.

Rose Williams: Yeah. I mean, I don’t think there’s a separation with them. I don’t think that Charlotte would’ve perceived it as coming from somebody that can’t put herself in her shoes, because there is this kind of flow of trust and honesty between the two women. I think Lady Susan is speaking to what she really feels and senses from Charlotte, which is that truth that, is this the life that Charlotte is okay with?

And oof, I don’t know, it’s heavy. It’s heavy for me to even talk about now because I think it was so…I feel uncomfortable talking about it because Charlotte was so uncomfortable in it, and I think it was just so heartbreaking and it really makes you think about all the people that do have to compromise for outside factors and all of the women that did have to compromise. And I think she just made that headstrong Charlotte decision of, “I’m putting my family first and that’s it.” Try to put the emotions in a box, but unfortunately Lady Susan’s razor-sharp vision could kind of spy through that wall and make her kind of question things.

Jace Lacob: No, she’s got Superman’s x-ray vision.

Rose Williams: She does. She does.

Jace Lacob: She can see all. I love the moment where Ralph presents a copy of Keats’s newest work all tied up in a ribbon to Charlotte. It’s really sweet. It’s also really heartbreaking. It’s very clear just how insecure to me Ralph is, especially now that he is in Charlotte’s world of Sanditon.

CLIP

Ralph: Charlotte!

Charlotte: Ralph, may I introduce, Lady de Clemente, Mr. Ralph Starling.

Ralph: How do you do my lady?

Lady de Clemente: Many congratulations Mr. Starling. You’ve made an excellent choice of wife.

Ralph: I have bought you a present. It is Mr. Keats’s new work.

Charlotte: You had no need to do that.

Ralph: I wanted to. I thought we might read it together.

Jace Lacob: What does she make of his present and his sort of puppy doggish efforts here to please her?

Rose Williams: I think she just, she loves him. She really loves him. She appreciates his effort. It’s slightly heartbreaking that they’re just not on the same level anymore. Not to say that Charlotte has surpassed him, more that her world has expanded and she isn’t the same Charlotte that she once was. And I think that interaction and the feelings that it conjured in her is just a reminder of the separation when she wants nothing more than for them to be connected. So I think there’s an appreciation, but this kind of constant nagging reminder that they are worlds apart, although she’s trying her absolute best for it to work.

Jace Lacob: To me, she’s in an interesting position within Sanditon as she’s able to mix with the wealthy despite not being one of them. She says at one point to Mary, “I always thought in an irony that the very people that built Sanditon and who serve its visitors should live so humbly themselves.” Do you think that Charlotte’s position as an outsider allows her to see that inequity here, that sort of gap between the haves and the have nots?

Rose Williams: Yeah, I mean, absolutely. I think what I’ve always really liked about Charlotte is that she’s practical and she’s pragmatic, and she’ll observe a person or a situation or a place such as Sanditon or a party such as the one that she meets Lady Susan at in series one or a household such as the Colbourne household with the same value system. She’ll cast her eye over any scenario and see the injustice, kind of disinterested in what society says about the person, and she’s more interested in the quality of that person’s heart, if they have integrity and how they kind of move and operate. That’s something I’ve always liked about Charlotte, is that pragmatism and fairness that she moves with.

Jace Lacob: I mean, she says that to Ralph, that she needs to keep her feet on the ground, she says, which I think connects to that notion of her pragmatism. And later at Georgiana’s party, she admits to Lady Susan how nervous she had been at her first party when they first met, “Look at how far you’ve come,” Lady Susan says. Does Charlotte see Ralph as an anchor to her old life, one that she could leave behind, or a connection to her past self that she wants to strengthen even as she changes?

Rose Williams: I think a combination of the two. I think at Georgiana’s party, Ralph is a comfort to her. There’s something simply comforting in having him there with her because there is always a whisper and sense, despite her kind of seeing things as they are. Whenever she’s in an environment such as a ball, I’ve always kind of imagined that she can’t help but feel out of place because it’s not the kind of world that she grew up in. So the fact that Ralph is there with her is extremely supportive. And that comment from Lady Susan, I suppose that’s Lady Susan’s perspective on how far you’ve come. I suppose she’s talking about confidence, but Charlotte doesn’t really measure things in the same way.

Jace Lacob: As Charlotte is about to embark on a journey that would take her to become a wife, most likely to become a mother, I’m curious about how Charlotte sees Mary Parker. We see in this series, particularly Mary Parker, sort of noblesse oblige that she sort of indulges in, that she makes these charitable visits, she wants to find a role for herself other than a wife and a mother which is sort of the track that Charlotte is being put on now with this engagement to Ralph. How does she see Mary Parker? Is she a cautionary tale or is she something to aspire to?

Rose Williams: I think she’s always admired Mary. I think she, in the early doors, admired and appreciated her hospitality, her warmth, how loving she was towards Charlotte, how she showed her friendship in the form of a kind of a big sister or an aunt, how much she adores the children, her relationship with Tom. There have been some really gorgeous scenes between Mary and Charlotte, especially in series one, those walks where they gently talk about life and relationships and marriage, and I think Charlotte’s always admired and looked up to Mary’s sense of peace. And then with her new inspiration in the pursuit of social justice on behalf of the original townsfolk, I think that admiration expands and she kind of sees another avenue within this woman that she knows and loves that only cements the fact that she’s somebody that she really holds as a role model.

Jace Lacob: So Charlotte is at Georgiana’s party, she’s there with Ralph, everything seems fantastic, wonderful in this moment, she’s celebrating her friend, and of course she’s going to come face to face with Alexander Colbourne for the first time since they both left Sanditon. What does she feel in the moment where she sees him once again before the spell is broken by the Montroses?

Rose Williams: You know, in any case, we’re all human beings. There’s what your head wants and then there’s what your kind of heart and your body wants. And I think that she has so attempted to put the experience with Colbourne in a box somewhere and push it down into the depths of her subconscious and when she sees him, her body lights up, her stomach flips, all of those emotions come flooding back, and she’s trying very quickly to regain control of herself and conceal that in front of her fiancé.

Jace Lacob: What can you tease about what lies ahead this series then for Charlotte Heywood?

Rose Williams: There’s so much that lies ahead within this season. Further exploration of who she is, who she wants to be, turmoil in relationships, realization within relationships, the pursuit of self-discovery, I suppose, in a new way than we’ve seen before, further connection with her friend Georgiana, joining Georgiana on her own journey. I’m really excited for audiences to see Georgiana’s arc across the third season. Self-discovery, self-discovery theme, really, I would say.

Jace Lacob: Rose Williams. Thank you so very much.

Rose Williams: Thank you.

Jace Lacob: In two weeks, Georgiana Lambe prepares to defend her right to her inheritance against unscrupulous fortune hunter Charles Lockhart.

CLIP

Mr. Parish: Miss Lambe. Mr. Parish, representing Mr. Lockhart. He would prefer to settle this matter now and will offer you £5,000 to spare you the humiliation of a trial which, in all likelihood, you will lose.

Mr. Colbourne: Have you no shame?

Jace Lacob: Actor Crystal Clarke joins us Sunday, April 2 to discuss Georgiana’s quest to hold onto her inheritance and what it means for her sense of self.

MASTERPIECE Studio is hosted by me, Jace Lacob, produced by Jack Pombriant, and edited by Robyn Bissette. Elisheba Ittoop is our sound designer. The executive producer for MASTERPIECE is Susanne Simpson.