Despite how much fun Bridgerton is, it’s always been a show that’s played a bit fast and loose with the minor details. Remember those suspiciously blood-free bare-knuckle fight scenes in Season 1? Well, Season 3 has taken the don’t-worry-too-much-about-the-logistics theme and continued to run with it.
The borderline plot hole this time around? Lady Whistledown. Or, more specifically, whether or not it’s feasible for Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) to moonlight as her secret gossip columnist alter-ego. Could she really get a full issue of Lady Whistledown printed overnight? Would it be possible?
Mashable dug through Season 3, part 1 and spoke to Jim Hamilton, Board Vice President at the Museum of Printing in Haverhill, Massachusetts, to find out.
What happens with Lady Whistledown in Season 3?
Throughout Season 3 there are plenty of times when Penelope appears to churn out an issue of Lady Whistledown’s society paper overnight. The pamphlets she writes in episodes 1 and 2 appear to be hastily scrawled in her room, post-ball, but we don’t get full confirmation that these are coming out the very next day until episode 5.
This episode starts with Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) leading Penelope into his house after the latest ball to announce their engagement.
“It is said that surprise is one part secrecy and one part speed,” says Lady Whistledown’s over-scene narration. “And last night, an announcement came with great speed indeed. Regardless of how it happened it is surely a wonderful time for the happy couple.”
The next shot is sunrise, and we see the same issue of Lady Whistledown being handed out, which Penelope’s family can then be seen reading over breakfast while she listens to their reaction from the hallway.
The takeaway? Penelope must have rushed home that night after Colin’s proposal, written the entire issue, then snuck out of her house and smuggled it to the printer. They would then have to have created the pamphlet in time for its dawn distribution.
So the question is, would that have been possible?
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From proposal to published in one short night.
Credit: Liam Daniel/Netflix
Could Penelope actually print an overnight issue of Lady Whistledown?
Bridgerton takes place in the early 19th century Regency period in England. This means, according to Jim Henson at the Museum of Printing, that the printing press being used to create an issue of Lady Whistledown would be a flatbed iron hand press.
“In some senses, yes, it could be done, but for others, definitely not,” Henson says. “It seems possible that the document could have been printed overnight, but that would be quite expensive, given that it would require the printer and staff to work through the night.”
Henson goes on to explain that each side of the sheet would be printed separately, and would require time to dry before cutting or folding. Things like size, number of pages, and whether both sides of a page were printed on would be important.
“These factors all play a role in how long the job would take. Say that an operator and a helper could print a sheet every minute, and the single, one-sided sheet was the entire document, then they could produce several hundred copies overnight. Assuming that the person typesetting worked pretty quickly.”
The process becomes more believable, Henson says, if the document is just a one-sided single sheet. But we know from the many shots of Lady Whistledown being read in the show that it’s bigger than this. In episode 5, for instance, the issue appears to consist of a large piece of paper with two folds and writing on both sides.
Lady Whistledown’s pamphlet is a double-sided, folded sheet with small type.
Credit: LIAM DANIEL/NETFLIX
So is Penelope’s secret life really possible?
From speaking to Henson it seems like a short pamphlet could, at a big push, still be printed overnight in the age in which Bridgerton‘s set. But what makes the whole thing harder to swallow, especially in episode 5, is the timeline.
When Penelope gets to the Bridgerton household it’s already dark, and it has been for a while. She then spends time speaking to Colin’s family, and it’s only when she’s finally back home at her own house that she can even begin writing the issue. If she writes the entire thing in an hour — which seems like a stretch — she then has to sneak downstairs, get in a carriage, and ride to the print shop across the Ton.
Are we really supposed to believe that the people working at the shop would then have had time to churn out all those copies of a double-sided issue and get it distributed in time for breakfast the next day?
Dear reader, we’re just not sure.
How to watch: Bridgerton Season 3 is streaming now on Netflix.
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Bridgerton