‘Sanditon’: Ben Lloyd-Hughes Reveals Colbourne’s Feelings Seeing Charlotte Again

It was the moment Sanditon fans had waited almost a year for: when Charlotte Heywood (Rose Williams) and Alexander Colbourne (Ben Lloyd-Hughes) would see each other again. The Sanditon Season 3 premiere pushed the former lovers together at a ball celebrating Georgiana Lambe’s (Crystal Clarke) 21st birthday. They lock eyes from across the room and it’s as if no one exists except the two of them. (Unfortunately, though, Charlotte’s fiancé Ralph [Cai Bridgen] is just off-screen.)

It’s a scene that is sure to make Sanditon fans swoon on their sofas and squeal like schoolgirls. Two star-crossed lovers are thrust together once more even as fate is set on keeping them apart. Sanditon showrunner Justin Young said he and the episode’s writer Joe Ainsworth worked hard on getting the exact dynamic of the scene right.

“You know, at what point are we gonna bring Colbourne in? At what point were they gonna cross? How much was he gonna know going into the scene?” Young said. “It’s about making sure that you’ve built up to that moment.”

What Colbourne doesn’t know leading up to this reunion is that Charlotte is indeed engaged. That means when he sees her once more there is still a shadow of a hope that perhaps they could be reconciled and then married and then together forever in a happily ever after-esque fashion.

Sanditon star Ben Lloyd-Hughes told Decider he loved working on this sequence precisely because it let him act with his eyes.

“Those [scenes] were the best. That’s why I loved doing Sanditon and that’s why I loved the character so much. Because there was so much storytelling with eyes,” he said.

Lloyd-Hughes was even kind enough to take Decider behind-the-scenes of his process shooting those passionate glances that pop up all over the Regency romance genre.

“Maybe everyone is very different, but I really think those thoughts…to think what is going through his head at the time as he’s seeing her,” Lloyd-Hughes said. “We all have those moments, don’t we? We see someone and it feels almost like our life flashes before our eyes, but we try and stay cool.”

“I mean, I’ve certainly been in moments where I’ve bumped into exes on metaphorical and literal dance floors and it kind of takes your breath away, doesn’t it? Your stomach lurches, even if you know, they might be there. I think sometimes it’s even more intense when you do know they’re going to be there because it’s the anticipation and the hype up and then you’re suddenly in that situation.”

“He’s probably been thinking about it for months and months, ever since he left Sanditon, of when will the next time I see Charlotte Heywood be? And it is that rabbit in the headlights feeling, but also quite emotional, I think. Probably you almost sometimes just want to run into the bathroom and cry,” he said.

The Colbourne we meet in Sanditon Season 3 might secretly want to run into the bathroom and cry, but he actually seems far more confident than the timid gentleman we met in Season 2.

“What we played with across [Season 2] with Colbourne was quite a clear arc of a man who shut himself away and was brought out of himself by, you know, the catalyst being Charlotte,” Justin Young explained. “So by the end of [Season 2], he’d come a huge way. He was willing to step up and be a father or father figure to these two girls, he was willing to rejoin society.”

“I think we were very clear with Ben that when Colbourne returns at the beginning of [Season 3], he’s been out in society. You know, he’s been bombarded with attention from various women who he is not interested in.”

The only woman Colbourne is interested in? Charlotte Heywood. Hence why the emotion of their reunion was so intoxicating to watch.

As it happens, Ben Lloyd-Hughes totally understands why Sanditon fans might be obsessed with the scene. Before Decider signed off with the actor, we apologized for asking so many questions about staring at his Sanditon co-star. Lloyd-Hughes smiled and said, “I can answer questions about staring at Rose and [redacted for spoilers] as much as possible.”

Thanks to Justin Young and PBS, you can watch a video comparing the Sanditon Season 3 Episode 1 script to what fans saw on screen at the top of the page.

Sanditon Season 3 is now streaming on PBS Passport. New episodes of Sanditon premiere Sundays at 9/8c on Masterpiece on PBS.