‘Sanditon’s Writer Explains Why Theo James’s Big, Wet & Naked Scene Was an Homage to Mr. Darcy

“Miss Heywood, am I ever to get away from you?”
That’s what Mr. Sidney Parker (Theo James) cheekily says to Charlotte Heywood (Rose Williams) at the end of Sanditon Episode 2 on PBS’s Masterpiece. She has just stumbled upon him as he’s emerged nude from the sea, and well…it’s as sexually charged a scene as we’ve ever seen in a Jane Austen adaptation.

Charlotte and Sidney have spent the episode sparring. After last week’s tense ballroom encounter, Charlotte tries to apologize to Sidney, who rebuffs her, telling her he doesn’t care about her, period. It’s cold, mean, and enough to give Charlotte the guts to call Sidney out for being an asshole. (Well, she does it more eloquently than that, saying, “Only if you really don’t care, I wonder that take the trouble to be quite so offensive and hurtful.” As she walks off, Sidney looks taken aback, perhaps even chastised? And maybe turned on?)
For the rest of the episode, Sidney’s life gets worse. His ward, the biracial heiress Miss Caroline Lambe (Crystal Clarke), is chafing at expectations to conform to English’s polite (and racist) society. His older brother Tom (Kris Marshall) is pressing him for more funds, connections, and assistance in setting up the town. There’s an awful spectacle at a pineapple tasting party, and at said party, he tries to extend the olive branch to Charlotte only to be rightfully rebuffed. (She doesn’t want a third “tongue-lashing” from him, you see. And there’s definitely a hint of an amused smile on Sidney’s lips as he hears this.) Life in general is just stressful.

So by episode’s end, Sidney has to excuse himself for some fresh air and exercise. He decides to go for a swim, naked. What he doesn’t know is that Charlotte herself is returning from a walk along the beach. She stumbles first upon Mr. Parker’s clothes and then Mr. Parker, in all his glory, himself. It’s so steamy, sensual, and sopping wet that it not only brings to mind Colin Firth’s infamous wet shirt scene as Mr. Darcy, but blows it away.

Sanditon‘s first two episodes were written by its creator, the legendary British television writer Andrew Davies. For decades, Davies has been considered the foremost expert on adapting Austen since it was he who wrote the 1995 version of Pride & Prejudice starring Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle. He was not only meticulous in capturing the romantic essence of Austen’s celebrated novel, but he injected his scripts with her bitter wit and understated sexuality. Davies endeavored to make the subtext come alive for modern viewers, and in Sanditon, he returns to one of his most celebrated scenes — but makes it better.

“We do know that when men bathed in those days, they did used to go in naked. Somehow, we didn’t quite manage that in Pride and Prejudice, so it was good to set this straight in this show,” Davies said. “And also, that kind of thing seemed to go over very well in Pride and Prejudice so [I thought] we should definitely make that one of the goodies in Sanditon.”
Indeed, it’s well known that Davies initially wrote the Darcy scene to include a nude Colin Firth, but it was somehow poo-poo-ed by the actor, the BBC, or both. As Davies points out, historically, gentlemen of the time would swim nude. We just had to wait until 2020 to see it.
So, hell yeah, Charlotte Heywood saw Sidney Parker naked. Sanditon is bringing the spice.
Sandition Episode 3 will premiere on Masterpiece on PBS on Sunday, January 19.

Where to stream Sanditon