Fans have been looking forward to Shondaland bringing more of Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton books to life on-screen. But we’d argue that few scenes are as anticipated as the Bridgerton family playing a brutally competitive game of pall mall. Season 2, inspired by Quinn’s second novel, The Viscount Who Loved Me, follows the story of eldest Bridgerton brother Anthony (Jonathan Bailey) as he seeks a wife. That brings him into the orbit of the social season’s latest diamond, Edwina Sharma (Charithra Chandran), her protective older sister, Kate (Simone Ashley), and her mother, Lady Mary (Shelley Conn). 

The fan-favorite scene arrives in the third episode of the season, as the Bridgerton family retreats to their country estate, Aubrey Hall, to host their annual ball. Before the full crowd of London socialites follows them out of the city, the younger Sharma women join the eldest Bridgerton siblings, including Anthony, Benedict (Luke Thompson), Colin (Luke Newton), Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor) and Eloise (Claudia Jessie), in a rousing pall mall game. 

Watch the Cast of Bridgerton Try to Beat Each Other at Pall Mall 

Observing the competition are the Dowager Viscountess Lady Violet Bridgerton (Ruth Gemmell), the Sharmas’ sponsor for the season, Lady Danbury (Adjoa Andoh), and Kate and Edwina’s mother, Lady Mary. Much like croquet, the game involves hitting balls through targets with a mallet. But the Bridgertons don’t play this polite garden-party activity like the genteel, well-to-do 19th-century family they appear to be. No, the Bridgertons aren’t afraid to resort to unscrupulous methods to win. In fact, it’s less about winning pall mall and more about making sure your siblings don’t win. 

Below, the scene’s key players, Bailey, Thompson, Newton, Dynevor, Jessie, Ashley, Chandran and Andoh, reveal exactly what went into bringing that special scene to life:

The players

The notorious pall mall game begins with the Bridgerton siblings, plus Edwina and Kate, choosing their mallets. In the book, Daphne’s husband, Simon (Regé-Jean Page), also plays, but the Duke of Hastings is away tending to business matters this season, so Eloise joins instead. The mallet-choosing process is contentious, with the black “Mallet of Death” being Anthony’s favorite. Naturally, the very competitive Kate would choose that one for herself, leaving the well-mannered Anthony with a lovely pastel pink.

Jonathan Bailey: As we know, the Bridgertons are a very competitive bunch, as are Anthony and Kate, so it’s a great way to further their relationship. And a lot happens in the episode.

As the siblings play, their mamas — Lady Violet, Lady Mary and Lady Danbury — keep watch under a mercifully shaded picnic area.

Adjoa Andoh: There was a lot of mucking about, a lot of eating fake cake, drinking tea, trying to make them laugh and just bad behavior. You leave actors sitting around for too long, it’s a recipe for disaster. So there was a lot of that going on. There were balls flying hither and yon. It was like, “Duck! Incoming!” 

The rules

Pall mall originated in France before spreading to Scotland and England. Played mostly in the 16th and 17th centuries, the game had fallen out of favor by the time of Bridgerton — and unfortunately, there aren’t enough historical records to get a full picture of the official rules. But that’s fine, because the Bridgertons have their own particular way of playing anyway. 

Claudia Jessie: Pall mall is a game I do not and never will understand, but it was fun and incredibly difficult. I still don’t really know how to play it, but you’ve got a mallet and you whack a ball through some numbered pegs until someone wins.

Charithra Chandran: Pall mall, to my knowledge, is an earlier version of croquet where you’ve got to get a solid ball through various hoops in a specific order, and the first person to get through all the hoops wins.

Bailey: Pall mall is basically croquet with a bit of Quidditch at the end, because it’s a hoop where you have to hit the ball through.

Luke Newton: The endgame is there’s a ring you’ve got to get it through that’s, like, the height of me, and no one’s managed to do that yet. I’m really glad we don’t have to film the ending of the game, because it could’ve taken us a few weeks in real time.

The shoot

The intricacies of pall mall meant the shoot would take about a week. But when the first shooting day arrived, it was — predictably, as this is England — dark and rainy. Instead, production pushed to later in the week when the sun was shining. But perhaps it was a little too sunny, as the British summers don’t typically get that sizzling. 

Phoebe Dynevor: I remember it was boiling hot, and we were all sweating and got very sunburnt at the end of the day, but we had a great time doing it.

Andoh: A pall mall scene would easily take a couple of days to shoot because you’re shooting it from all different angles. There are people who are not in the game, and the game is going on in the distance; there are the people who are watching the game, and then you’re watching them watching the game. There’s the bit when little Newton [the dog] comes out, so there’s all that stuff as well. And then you’ve got the game itself. “Do it again. It’s got to go through the hoop. You nearly killed the cameraman. Let’s do that one again.” 

Newton (the actor, not the dog): I was really slapped around the face with hay fever that week. That was crazy. Hopefully you can’t tell, but there’s a point where myself and Claudia are really struggling just to keep, like, all the fluids inside our face. But other than that, it was just so much fun.

The game

Unlike other complex scenes in the show, there was no rehearsal period for pall mall.

Jessie: We started practicing it that morning and none of us could do it, but Luke Thompson did. It felt like carnage. We get really giddy when we’re all together, so it’s all of us really hyperactive. I’m not sure if I really understand the game, but we all did pretty well by the end of it.

Bailey: There was so much going on there because we were doing all the flashbacks, and I think the bros and the sis managed to get a bit of extra time practicing. Luke Thompson, aka Benedict, was the only one to flick the ball through the hoop.

Dynevor: Daphne’s meant to be the best player; I was probably the worst player. Charithra is meant to be the worst player, and she was by far the best player. She had to pretend to hit balls in the wrong direction, and they’d go straight in. She was really bad at being crap at pall mall. 

Andoh: I think Phoebe was about as good as me, which is enthusiastic, not always 100% accurate. You can’t be perfect, can you?

Newton: I think everyone’s going to say Luke [Thompson] is the best player because he did this, like, crazy trick shot when we were practicing. No one’s going to say me, but I’m going to back myself because there were points — granted, no one else was around — when I was with second unit and just had to do a couple of shots. Most of the crew were just cheering me because I was either getting it through or almost getting it through the hoops, which is a lot harder than it looks.

Luke Thompson: I think everyone was great. I was terrible to start with, certainly. But if you take away the rules, I was hands down the best, I think. It’s probably going to come across as arrogant, but this sort of thing never happens to me: There’s this quite high hoop where you’re supposed to [hit the ball], which sounds mad. It’s sort of impossible. So I tried getting the ball between my legs and flicking it, and it went through. On that level, I guess I’m the only one that did that, and I think that’s how you finish the game, so [the best player] must be me. 

The characters

While the actors all had a fun time playing together, they still needed to integrate their characters’ dynamics in the game. 

Chandran: Everyone else’s priority is to be competitive and have fun and play the game, whereas I think Edwina’s priority is to still be the diamond and be on show. So she can’t fully enjoy the game like everybody else can.

Bailey: The pall mall sequence for Anthony and Kate is a really big moment. That really is the moment where there’s a massive moment of release for both of them. All these psychological barriers start to thaw, and I think something like sport, for Anthony and Kate, really takes them away from their cerebral thought. They have a real moment of intimacy and vulnerability with each other, and that really sets the ball rolling. That sequence really is game on for those two, and I think it’s where they cross a line in terms of how much they can stop denying what’s really going on. 

Simone Ashley: They’re both incredibly competitive. It forces them to forget about their responsibilities and to just play with one another. That’s when they find these moments of laughter and falling in the mud and finding common cause. That’s annoying when there’s someone like, “Oh, I actually really don’t like you, but then you’re making me laugh and you’re making me loosen up,” and they are forced to let go of all of that. 

The finished product

The actors all knew the fans were looking forward to seeing pall mall brought to life, but it was also a fun bonding experience. 

Dynevor: It was the first time I’d really met Charithra and Simone, so to do that scene with them was a lot of fun, and we all just had a blast.

Bailey: Having read the book, we all were suspicious and hopeful that there would be a pall mall segment. And just getting all of us together is the dream. I think the fact that we have so much fun in something like that means that we can actually put all of our real-life joy into it, and hopefully that will come through.

Andoh: I would’ve liked to be whacking the balls. But I did get to sit in the sun, chatting to my friends and laughing, and that was my job. I’m not complaining.