Nicola Coughlan and Luke Newton Won’t Let Their ‘Nans’ Watch Steamy ‘Bridgerton’ Season 3 Scenes

Nicola Coughlan and Luke Newton’s Penelope Featherington and Colin Bridgerton will surely have some Bridgerton scenes that will shock the ton, but their families will not be privy to such moments.

“We won’t watch it with our nans,” Newton, 31, quipped to Australia’s The Sunday Project on Sunday, April 21, at the season 3 official launch down under. “That’s not going to happen.”

Coughlan, 37, agreed with her onscreen love interest.

“My mum watched some [of the show] the other day and I skipped a whole sizable chunk of it,” Coughlan said. “But maybe if you give [Grandma] a Bailey’s beforehand, then maybe she’ll be fine. I don’t know.”

According to the Derry Girls alum, she and Newton have both “seen” season 3 and don’t want to revisit it alongside their respective folks. “Absolutely not,” she exclaimed.

Colin, one of the eight Bridgerton siblings in Julia Quinn’s novels of the same name that inspired the Netflix series, steps into the spotlight for season 3. Following a friends-to-lovers trope, he will fall in love with Penelope.

Newton further teased to The Sunday Project that season 3 “gets very romantic” for Colin and Penelope, dubbed by fans as Polin.

“It’s fun to play out their story finally,” he added. “It feels like fans have waited a long time to see their friends-to-lovers romance sort of come through. We throw everything into this season, for sure.”

While few details of the period drama have been revealed, book fans can attest that Colin and Penelope’s journey gets steamy. Per the books, the characters have trysts in a carriage, in front of a mirror and Colin’s study. Newton and Coughlan have been vocal about filming the steamy scenes, however they will appear on the show.

“I was in my intimacy stuff and I said, ‘Nic, you’ve got to see what I am wearing before we start,’” Newton recalled to another outlet on Sunday’s red carpet. “And it’s just like a little cloth.”

Coughlan chimed in that it wasn’t “much clothes,” but that her wardrobe was the “worst.” She noted, “Mine was less than yours.”

Despite not wearing much, Coughlan and Newton trusted one another to remain professionals on set.

“I was terrified about them but then in the end they ended up being some of our favorite things to film,” Coughlan added to separate outlet on Sunday. “Because when there’s such a build-up to something and you feel like you’ve nailed it, you’re like, ‘Oh, this is great. And they’re written beautifully. The writing is gorgeous, it’s really romantic, it’s sexy, it’s funny. I think they capture everything people love about Bridgerton.”

The first half of Bridgerton season 3 premieres on Netflix on Thursday, May 16. The remaining episodes drop on Thursday, June 13.