Bridgerton is back for a new run of episodes with more dramatic romances, extravagant costumes and even bigger wigs.

The second half of season four follows bohemian Benedict Bridgerton as he continues his search for the mysterious Lady in Silver, after meeting her at a masquerade ball, not realising she’s actually Sophie Baek, who a maid he has also fallen for.

As the love story between Benedict and Sophie – played by Luke Thompson and Yerin Ha – unfolds, the pair must overcome a societal divide in order to be together.

With season four proving just as popular with Netflix users as ever, we’re going behind the scenes to find out how the team brought Julia Quinn’s books to life – and how the actors made those steamy love scenes look so realistic…

Australian actor Yerin Ha has admitted she was surprised to land the role of Sophie because she thought her attempts at a British accent were “terrible.”

Speaking to InStyle, she said that even after she landed a chemistry read with Luke Thompson over Zoom, she still thought there was no way she’d get the role.

“I just assumed that he probably had a day full of auditions, and he must be tired,” she recalled. “So I didn’t want to waste his time. I didn’t even really have chit-chat. I just got straight into the scene.”

Fortunately, Luke didn’t share her feelings about the Zoom call, and remembers their chemistry read very differently.

“I just remember feeling, despite the artifice of an audition, the Zoom delay, and shaky internet connection, that we were actually talking to each other,” he explained.

In Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton book series, Sophie’s surname is Beckett. In the show, they switch it to Baek to honour Yerin’s own background.

Yerin revealed that the showrunner Jess Brownell asked the actor if there were any Korean names that start with B, so there was still a connection to the character from the books, with the actor offering up Baek, feeling it was a seamless swap.

“I was just super appreciative of her changing the last name so that it fits with my identity and my culture and how I look,” Yerin told Elle.

“For some people, it might feel like a small thing, but for a production of that size to mold a character to me really empowered me.”

The costume designer added some Korean influences to Sophie’s outfits in a special shout-out to the actor’s heritage.

“Her necklace is based on an Asian necklace that’s amethyst, which is the stone of Korea. That’s a little tiny Easter egg to her history that her mother gave her,” costumer John Glaser told The Kit.

Yerin added to Refinery29: “The fact that the costume department even thought about that and nailed the details, it just goes to show how much thought goes into everything, from the set to the costumes.”

In the past, when a Bridgerton brother becomes the main focal point of a series, they usually get a glow-up and a new wardrobe to make them more leading-man-ready.

For Benedict, this transformation was more subtle than those of his brothers – although there were some subtle shifts.

Costume designer John Glaser told The Kit that Benedict’s wardrobe was inspired by 1980s New Romantics, making use of sheer fabrics and frilled collars.

“This season we’ve taken the men and we Gucci’d them up,” he joked.

In an interview with Vogue, Glaser explained that his wardrobe was also inspired by Joseph Fiennes in Shakespeare In Love.

“Because we’ve gone forward in time a little bit in the show, the men’s silhouette has become softer and a little more open,” the Emmy winner explained. “And Benedict specifically, we’ve pushed him into the future a bit so that he’s not as restricted as the other men on the show.”

Sophie’s “evil” stepmother Araminta Gun (played by Katie Leung), does something no woman has ever done before in all four seasons of the period drama.

“As far as women in Bridgerton, she’s our first character to wear black,” Glaser told The Kit.

The decision to dress Araminta in black was not because she was supposed to come across as evil, though. Instead, her dark attire represents the fact she’s a widow, who feels separated from the rest of society.

“Her shape and silhouette aren’t Regency – it’s a little 1820 mixed with 1970,” Glaser told Vogue. “We gave her as much texture and subtle sparkle as possible – it’s like this reflective shield that she’s wearing, it’s her armour.

“She has a stronger silhouette than other characters and we never see her skin.”

Showrunner Jess Brownell compared Araminta to Anna Wintour, telling Vogue: “Anna, when you see her walking down the street, you know right away who she is. You’re not afraid of her, but you’re going to respect her. You see her coming and you better be ready. She’s a strong person.”

While their masquerade ball meeting was what set the ball rolling for their characters, this was not the first time that Yerin and Luke were on set together.

In fact, episode three’s kite-flying sequence was the first scene the duo filmed together, something they have admitted to feeling relieved about, because it allowed them to let their walls down and relax into the characters.

“The weather was beautiful. I was wearing Daphne’s borrowed dress. I felt really beautiful. I felt like Cinderella,” Yerin told Town & Country.

“That’s really where Benedict and Sophie’s relationship blossoms,” she also told Tudum. “It’s a parallel between Luke and me, because that’s where our friendship started to blossom as co-stars. I have a nostalgic, sentimental attachment to that place now.”

The scene of Benedict and Sophie’s first meeting was an elaborate feast for the eyes, with Bridgerton’s resident costume designer creating more than 172 costumes for the scene.

Costumer John Glaser has opened up how they put together the looks for the masquerade, telling Town & Country: “We actually thought the people from the town would come to the ball, so it would be a mixed match of everything, which is what we tried to do.

“We just thought of each person that would come, what they would make up at home. It’s not a Halloween party, but at a Halloween party, everybody has made their clothes or borrowed clothes. It’s just a mismatch stuff. And we wanted it to be exotic.”

As for the wigs, the team made 160 in total for the scene, with the most elaborate one being worn by Queen Charlotte.

Her elaborate design featured “a heart-shaped outer cage crafted from hair and adorned with silver leaf, and inside sits a replica of the nuptial crown that George gifted her – also made from hair”.

This was a nod to the queen’s late husband, and the Bridgerton prequel Queen Charlotte which followed the couple in their younger years.

It wasn’t just the costumes that the team put immense detail into for the ball scene.

The production designer, Alison Gartshore, themed the masquerade set around William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, adding lots of drapes to the dream-like setting alongside white florals.

Gartshore explained to Town & Country that the flowers were meant to feel like “the servants had gone out into the estate and just got whatever they could find – ivy, twigs, birds’ nests, the odd horn here and there, and they really kind of woven these garlands together from their own land”.

“All the florals had to be white because we wanted to look sort of moonlight flavour to it,” she continued. “It ended up looking really quite magical.”

Bridgerton is known for its sex scenes, and season four was no different.

In the first half of the season, Benedict and Sophie have in an intimate moment in a stairwell – in what served as a metaphor for the class divide between them.

This may have looked steamy on screen, but the atmosphere on set was apparently a lot less sexy.

“What we actually did is we both got ill. But different scenes. We kept falling ill!” Luke told E! News.

Yerin added: “We were very mentally a little bit weak, a little bit nervous, my immune system was down…”

Benedict and Sophie’s bathtub sequence was one of the most anticipated moments of Bridgerton season four.

Luke and Yerin have admitted that the scene was an especially slippery one to film – namely because production kept putting oil in the water.

“We were like two seals, because they kept pouring in this thing to make it milky, but I think it had oil in it,” Luke explained to Refinery29.

Yerin also revealed that, at just 5’2”, the long bathtub prop presented its own issues, with Luke joking: “She kept floating down the river. We had to sort of brace a little bit.”

It wasn’t just oil and the depth of the bathtub that caused issues for the actors, though.

“I put baby powder all on me because I was told it would help dry my skin to put the intimacy wear on with my tape,” Yerin recalled to Capital Breakfast.

“And then, basically, the next day, after the bathtub, I got hives all over my body, and I got folliculitis, so I needed steroid cream!”

Sophie and Benedict take refuge in Benedict’s sizeable countryside estate, imaginatively named My Cottage.

In real life, the scene where the couple has breakfast together was shot at Loseley Park. The Grade I listed manor was built in the 1560s and is closely linked to the Tudor family.

You can visit this 1,400 acre Surrey estate in person as it’s open to the public. You can even stay in one of the cottages on the estate – although sadly, it does not include a Bridgerton brother.

All four seasons of Bridgerton are now streaming on Netflix.