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BONKING MAD
Sex-mad Bridgerton couple Daphne and Duke of Hastings must bonk more in series two, demands author Julia Quinn
THE author of the Bridgerton series wants sex-mad couple Daphne and the Duke of Hastings back for more bonking in season two after she sidelined them in her later books.
Julia Quinn, who is a consultant on the Netflix phenomenon, urged bosses to deviate from her best-selling novels after the couple, played by Phoebe Dynevor, 25, and Rege-Jean Page, 31, captivated viewers with their passionate love story.
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Asked if Daphne and the Duke would return, despite her second book The Viscount Who Loved Me focusing on Jonathan Bailey's character Anthony, Julia, 51, said: "I hope so. They do show up in the book.
"The series doesn't follow the book word for word - and I don't think [it] should.
"The story of each book plays out in a season, but it's not the only story.
"So I hope so, for no other reason than Daphne has the right to interfere with Anthony's life. To deny her that chance would be criminal. I think it would be lovely to see."
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Teasing further what viewers can expect from season two, Julia said: "I haven't seen the scripts yet so I don't necessarily know what they're going to do, but I did write the story so I know a little bit about it.
"Anthony is going to get it bad. Jonathan Bailey played him so well; you still love him, but he needs to be taken down a peg, and he is going to be taken down so many pegs. It's awesome."
Netflix announced last month that Bridgerton had become its most-watched series ever after 82 million households tuned in following its release in December.
But incredibly, Julia - who has sold over 10 million novels during her career - was told by her agent, friends and even her own father that the show would never be made after she was first approached for the rights in 2017.
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She revealed: "This came out of the blue for me. People said to me later, 'tell us how you shopped this around, how did you sell it?' It just fell in our lap.
"My agent warned me, 'just remember most of these things don't come to fruition'.
"And it's true, I have a friend who writes more general fiction and she said to me, 'oh, everything I write gets optioned and nothing gets made' and that's very typical.
"You manage your expectations and you say, 'I'm not going to be disappointed because at least I got a little cash from the option, I didn't have that before'.
"My dad used to work in Hollywood and I'd be talking to him, and again he'd be trying to manage expectations, and I'd be saying, 'but dad, it seems really promising'. And it just kept getting better."
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Julia, whose original Bridgerton book The Duke and I has spend three weeks on the Sunday Times Best-Sellers List 21 years after it was first published, also revealed the raunchy show is a huge hit with pensioners.
She said during a Fane talk with Lady Danbury actress Adjoa Andoh, 58: "My mum said she talked to her brother on the phone for two hours and he's recently moved into an assisted living home, and he had said he's the most popular guy there.
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"Suddenly Uncle JJ is the most popular guy in the assisted living home because his niece wrote Bridgerton.
"So I sent off a pack of autographed books to hand out to the nurses to ensure his popularity forever. It just cracks me up."
Julia added of the "heartwarming" response to Bridgerton: "At a time when we are all searching for connections... from every corner of my life I'm getting lovely messages from people saying, 'thank you for bringing us something at the end of this horrible year' or 'it's so nice to know good things still happen'."
Bridgerton's Duke Simon Basset licks a spoon seductively in the Netflix period drama
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