Adjoa Andoh MBE Bridgerton’s Lady Danbury sits down with Arts Editor Joy reflecting on the show’s extraordinary journey and the character who first drew her in.
Andoh recalls being struck by Lady Danbury’s voice when she first read the audition sides. The character’s sharp wit leapt off the page and she sensed the potential in a project that combined the storytelling world of Shonda Rhimes, the popularity of Julia Quinn’s bestselling novels and the global reach of Netflix.
Still, the scale of the show’s success caught many by surprise. When the first season arrived during the Christmas lockdown of 2020, audiences were hungry for something, perhaps romance and escapism. Within 28 days the series had been watched by 82 million households around the world. Reflecting on that moment, Andoh says simply, “Art gave us relief.”
For Lady Danbury herself, the coming chapter is more personal. In season 4 the character seeks a sabbatical, Andoh explains, in order to reconnect with the Sierra Leonean roots she has long been separated from. “To move forward, she must go back.” Andoh states.
Costume has played a major role in shaping the character’s presence on screen. Andoh says she has been closely involved in developing Lady Danbury’s Emmy winning wardrobe, gravitating toward the strong, masculine tailoring that gives the character such authority. Cultural touches, including Adinkra jewellery, are equally important to her. They feel, she says, like a kind of protection for Danbury, something close to daily armour.
Bridgerton. (L to R) Adjoa Andoh as Lady Danbury, Ruth Gemmell as Lady Violet Bridgerton Cr. Liam Daniel/Netflix © 2025
Beyond the series, Andoh is keen to encourage younger performers finding their way in the industry. She urges them to trust the gift they have for storytelling and to believe in the value of their voice. She also pays tribute to the trailblazing legacy of theatre director Yvonne Brewster and the work she built through the Talawa Theatre Company.
“Her path must be supported for the next generation,” Andoh says. The new season of Bridgerton Season 4 is now streaming on Netflix.
ALT: Thank you so much in advance for talking to ALT A REVIEW.
AA: That is okay. I appreciate it.
ALT: When you first saw the Bridgerton script, what made you say yes?
AA: Oh Joy, that is like ancient history! What made me say yes? You never get to see a script, you only get to see the sides. And what I was saying yes to was going in for the meeting, not yes to the job.
The sides I was sent were Lady Danbury talking and I just read it and thought, this is a character that’s interesting to me, I could do something with her. She’s smart, she is funny, she is sharp. And she was interesting. So that’s what made me want to go and take the meeting. And then it was down to them.
ALT: And could you predict the level of success of the show, eighty two million viewers in the first twenty eight days? What do you think the show owes its popularity?
AA: Well, I think initially what I did know was that it was going to be Shonda Rhimes, who is the queen of storytelling, as we know.
It was going to be based on a set of internationally best selling novels, so you’ve already got a built in audience straight away. And then it was going to be on this platform, Netflix. And if you think back, this was 2019.
Netflix then was not what Netflix is today. It’s grown and grown and grown. But even then, it was way ahead of everybody else in terms of a streaming platform.
So I knew that it was going to be broadcast around the world. I knew that it was going to be based on a set of books that already had an audience. And it was going to be created by Shonda Rhimes, who has a fantastic track record with all the other shows that she’s already had. So that is three very strong plus points to thinking the show might do well. But then, of course, it landed during lockdown. And I think nobody could have predicted that.
We had finished shooting the first season before we had to all stop. And it landed on Christmas Day in 2020. Do you remember? It was the Christmas where we were told we could have five days within our bubbles with our families.
And then it was three days, and then it was one day, and could you all be outside? So we were all living in the middle of such uncertainty and real sadness. You know, a lot of dead and very poorly people, and nobody really understanding what it was or what was going to happen to us. Were we going to work again? All that sort of stuff.
And then on Christmas Day, we suddenly had this show. It was fresh, it was different, it was inclusive, and it was fun. And there it was, this sort of joyous bubble to let people escape from the worries of their immediate circumstances and be transported away for a few hours into a different world.
So I think between those three big positives that I mentioned earlier, and then the circumstances within which the first season dropped, that gave people such relief, I think, and delight. I think that is what made it such an amazing success with such speed. I just think, you know, we were a captive audience all stuck in our homes, and here was something that was exciting and could transport us somewhere else.
And, you know, that is what art can do when we are in the middle of troubles. Art can sometimes provide us with that sort of relief. So I think that was a combination of things that made it be the success it has become.
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ALT: And fast forward to now, I was quoting Golda, who said how Queen Charlotte and Lady Danbury’s relationship is one of the great love stories of Bridgerton. So can you talk on that, how the two characters work so well, and what it’s been like working off set with Golda, you know, as the two leading actors?
AA: I think the thing about Danbury and Queen Charlotte is that they have a friendship that has lasted them for the majority of their life.
They met when Charlotte was in her late teens, coming to a foreign country. Shonda calls it the great experiment, where she came as this woman of colour to the court, to an English court, to marry their king. She was not welcomed.
And Danbury was somebody who had already been in that court for a while, but who was, now that her husband was dead, not going to be allowed to remain with any privileges as a person of nobility. So what Danbury was able to do with Charlotte was say, I will trade you my knowledge of how this court runs and how you will best survive in it and thrive. And for that, I want you to make sure that I have a title that goes to my son, that means that they will always be able to inherit their status as members of the English nobility rather.
So Danbury traded her knowledge for the Queen’s power. And that was how the two of them started their journey thriving within this court system. And so what started off as a way of survival for both of them became a friendship over the years.
And they have lived through all the difficulties and challenges and successes of that reign of Charlotte and George. So I think when Golda talks about it being one of the great love stories of the series, I think what she is talking about is those great long lasting friendships that you can have in your life that will sustain you through thick and thin. Somebody who will love you and support you and be there.
And not all love has to be romantic love. And I think this is an example of those great friendships that many people have in their lives. My own mother was at a funeral a couple of weeks ago with one of her dear friends who she met when she was at teacher training college.
And she is in her eighties now and they have been friends all these years. That is over sixty years. That is longer than any of the romantic loves that my mum has had in her life.
And I think those friendships can be really, really, really important to us. They remind us who we are. They are people who remember us when we were silly in our teens or in our early twenties. And they have been through everything with us. And they know us. And I think that is a really special thing between the Queen and Agatha Danbury.
As to me and Golda off set, well, we have never worked together before but we have known each other’s work. And it has been a real joy to bring all the skills that we have both acquired over the decades to set and to just be able to work freely with somebody, to be able to play and muck about and think deeply about the characters and do all those things. And then, you know, when the director shouts action to click straight into who these people are.
So that has been a real joy. And, you know, we live round the corner from each other in South London so we would always bump into each other in the park or whatever. So yeah, that has been a real treat.
ALT: So just really quickly still on Lady Danbury and Queen Charlotte. Can you quickly talk on the new dynamic now whereby the relationship has been tested in Series 4?
AA: I think that is one of the interesting things about long friendships. What happens when one of you wants one thing and the other one wants something else? And you are both really stuck on what you want.
How does the friendship survive that? I think that is one of the really interesting things about this season is seeing how they navigate that and what they can do to keep their friendship, because you want to keep your friendship if you can, but sometimes you need to do something else. And in this case, for many of us who have families from somewhere else, , there comes a point where you need to fill in all the gaps of your life. And for Danbury, she was brought over to England as a four year old to be raised ready to marry this old man with whom she had four children and then he died, for which she was very grateful and glad, frankly!
But who was she before the age of four? You know, what was the first voice that she heard? What was the sky? What were the smells? What was the food and the environment around her? Because, you know, a lot of who we are as human beings is created quite early on in our lives, but she does not know that. She does not remember it. So I think Agatha has got to that point in her life where in order to go forward in her life, she needs to go back.
She needs to go back to where she originally came from and understand who that little girl was and bring that little girl into her life now. Once her brother comes to the court and she is reminded of that earlier family life, I think she starts to think about it.
So, we are talking going back to season 3, to him coming to court and her starting to think about home. He calls her Soma at one moment when they are having an argument. Soma, is her given name from Sierra Leone, from the Bamenda tribe, which would have been her family tribe. So who was that little girl whose name was Soma and came from the Bamenda tribe? Who was she in relationship to Lady Danbury? She needs to understand all that so that she can go forward with her life.
So when she asks the Queen to allow her this sabbatical, this time away from court, to do what she needs to do to find out who she was, she knows it is a huge thing to ask the Queen because she has been by the Queen’s side all this time. All George’s health challenges, all the children, all the navigations of the court, Danbury has always been at her side. But now she needs to do something for herself and I think it is very hard for the Queen to accept that.
But also for the Queen to feel confident enough that she can go forward for a while without Danbury there. I think that is a really difficult thing to ask of her.
In part two of Season 4 we will see how that all washes out in the end.
ALT: I cannot talk about Bridgerton without the grand costumes. Can you tell us a bit about your experience with the wardrobe? Do you get your say in what you wear and are the costumes comfortable?
AA: We have an Emmy Award winning costume designer in John Glazer.
He has an amazing team. I have a wonderful woman called Melanie Carter who makes all Danbury’s costumes. They are super, super experienced but also they are very generous.
So I get to have the conversations about everything that I wear and the fittings, we will talk about fabrics, we will talk about tailoring. People may notice that Danbury is wearing jewellery now and little details in her costume that reflect Adinkra traditions. So she wears
Gye Nyame and she wears a Sankofa as part of the designs of her jewellery.
Gye Nyame and she wears a Sankofa as part of the designs of her jewellery.
So that is a little echo for her back to her African heritage. But also Danbury wears these fabulous hats. I wanted her to wear hats because she is a single woman.
She has no man in charge of her life. She is in charge of her own destiny. So I wanted there to be an element of masculine and feminine in her costuming.
So she has the cane but the cane is very like the swagger sticks that the men of the ton would have. She does not have a little feminine hat, she has quite a masculine hat. And she has great tailoring in her coats and her jackets and her dresses that are sometimes quite masculine in their cuts as well.
And I really wanted her to have that sense of she is a complete package in one person. And the costumes give me that sort of sense of her putting on her armour to go and do battle on a daily basis. As I think we all do with our clothes.
We all decide what is the outfit, what is going to be the look that I need for whatever. Visiting family or being at a work event or going out with friends. They all may be different.
So I think Danbury’s note is the same as everyone else in that regard. She dresses for the occasion.
ALT: And there is another one just around beauty. If you could put four items into Lady Danbury’s beauty bag or purse, which you could bring from this era down to that time, what would you put? Like the really important things that you cannot live without?
AA: Moisturiser, moisturiser, moisturiser. Moisturiser.
As you know, all black people must cream their skin. It is the law. And no different for Danbury. So who knows what she would have access to. I would have given her access to some shea butter. For definite.
Danbury is a great one for the eyes. So she would have the kohl and the eyebrow make up and all that sort of stuff, I think. Yeah, loads of things. But I think it would be mainly moisturiser.
ALT: Wonderful. Thank you so much. And three really fast questions. We have got about four minutes left.
What would the mature Adjoa of today say to the nineteen year old actor, the young actor finding her way in the industry?
AA: I was not anywhere near it at nineteen. I was more like twenty one. But I would say, trust the gift that you have been given, your sense of yourself as wanting to be a storyteller, an actor, to make work, to create work, to tell stories. Trust that instinct. It may not sound like it is going to be a great career, but it is the gift you have been blessed with. So trust that in the blessing of that gift, your life will work out.
ALT: Yvonne Brewster passed away sadly in October. What does her legacy mean to you personally? And how do you feel her influence lives on today?
AA: When Yvonne passed, I immediately posted about it because she was a woman of great significance in my creative life, but also in the creative life of this country, I would say. Yvonne was staging classics from Ibsen and Shakespeare, using actors of colour way ahead of anybody else. She was also celebrating the work of black writers in this country, forming Talawa as a theatre company, which still goes on today, still really bringing forward new writers. They have fantastic seasons on the radio. They have showcase seasons.
They are working with new talent coming up. Her legacy lives on. But she was a proper trailblazer. And I mean that in the sense that she blazed a trail for others to walk on that path. Her Black Jacobins production reminded us of the history of Haiti, but also of the wonderful work of the great writer C L R James, who was not only a cultural commentator and a historian but an academic. There are literary prizes that exist today because of Yvonne Brewster.
She was a great encourager. She was a great strategist. She used her humour and her wit and her beauty and her laughter to get the things that she needed so that young creators could work in our industry. And I really feel that we must honour her legacy, and she must not be forgotten. And the work of Talawa that continues must be supported so that that work can support young artists of colour coming into our industry.
ALT: Adjoa Andoh, thank you so much for talking to ALT A REVIEW.
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