Scandalous gossip, lavish Regency costumes and X-rated sex scenes… you’ve guessed it: Bridgerton is back on our screens.

The second part of series three of the Emmy award-winning Netflix hit has sent fans into a frenzy once more over its more passionate moments – with one in particular leaving fans hot under the collar.

After being promised the ‘steamiest season yet’, fans didn’t have to wait long before witnessing an explicit six-minute long sex scene featuring the show leads, Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) and Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton).

It’s been deemed the raciest moment to ever feature on the period drama – no mean feat given the programme has previously aired threesomes.

But just how was the skilfully acted out sex scene created? Here, FEMAIL explores the secrets behind the X-rated moment – from Nicola wanting to be ‘very naked on camera’ to a smashed chaise lounge and the very raunchy role of a netball.

NICOLA WANTED ‘VERY NAKED’ SEX SCENE

Viewers have been left in limbo for a month after the first part of the season ended on a cliffhanger, with Colin asking Penelope for her hand in marriage.

Fans of the fictional pair, lovingly dubbed ‘Polin’ and who went from friends to lovers, were therefore ecstatic when the couple not only became engaged but indulged in a passionate sex scene.

In the explicit scene, Penelope was being comforted by Luke after a row with her mother about her engagement, during which time they began kissing. Luke then undoes her corset and admires her naked figure.

The pair then moved to the chaise longue where Luke’s bare bottom was displayed before they touched each other intimately.

They checked in on each other constantly, with Penelope stating: ‘tell me what to do’, with Luke offering: ‘you could touch me.’

After warning his virginal bride that this ‘may hurt’ the pair then had sex, with Penelope asking at the end ‘can we do it again?’ to which Colin quipped: ‘give me 5 minutes, maybe 10.’

The racy scene lasted a total of six minutes – which was the combined length of all the steamy moments in part one.

Credit for the passionate moment seemingly needs to be given to Nicola, 37, who last month told how viewers should buckle up for one extremely revealing scene which she said was her idea and felt ‘very empowering’.

She revealed in an interview with the Radio Times: ‘There is one where I am very naked on camera and that was my idea, my choice.

‘It just felt like the biggest “f*** you” to all the conversations surrounding my body. It was amazingly empowering. Having now watched those scenes, I’m so proud of them.’

Nicola also told how the steamy sex scenes were her favourite part of the filming process.

She said of taking on the role: ‘It was definitely intimidating. Hundreds of millions of people watch the show. That’s really scary.

‘But [the sex scenes] was one of the things I enjoyed most. Luke and I had a real hand in what we did and how it came across.

‘Thankfully we had that physical comfort with one another, so it ended up being a really beautiful thing.’

Of the bodice-ripping action, she added: ‘It’s steamy! I was like, “Oh wow, are we really doing that?”.’

NICOLA AND LUKE BROKE THE CHAISE LOUNGE DURING FILMING

Nicola shared an Instagram post on Thursday, thanking fans for watching the second half of the third season and revealing a hilarious detail about the six-minute sex scene.

She shared a snap of the chaise lounge where the pair filmed before revealing that she and Luke managed to break the piece of furniture with their antics.

‘Part Two is out now, we put our heart and souls into it, hope you love watching it as much as we loved filming it #PolinForever,’ she captioned the photos.

The behind the scenes Insta snaps showed Nicola and Luke giving the camera a thumbs up as they posed with the damaged chaise lounge.

Nicola previously revealed: ‘I think we’ve won the sauciness for this series!’ as she teased that she and Luke had damaged the set with their onscreen romps.

She told Entertainment Weekly:  ‘We did break a piece of furniture while doing one scene. It’s a little bit like a stunt in which they’re like, “Okay, we’re gonna do this, this, and this.”

‘But then they gave us freedom and we had a lot of say in how we did those scenes and what we wanted to do. That makes you feel quite empowered.

‘So we felt super. They were actually really enjoyable. I didn’t think they would be. It was fun.’

Once on set, clever props were used to help the Bridgerton actors maintain a little bit of distance between the sheets: Mats, cushions and even – in some instances – a half-inflated netball.

Jonathan Bailey, who plays Anthony Bridgerton, previously explained the logistics to the Radio Times in 2022.

He revealed that he’d been instructed to use a half-deflated netball when acting out lustful scenes with the character of Kate Sharma, played by Simone Ashley, in season two of the show.

The semi-flattened sporting equipment, he said, enables actors to move against each other in a realistic manner, without intimate parts of the body touching.

Bailey explained: ‘It’s amazing how that whole industry has just come on, even in a year. There are new tricks to the trade – little cushions – and it’s amazing what you can do with a half-inflated netball.’

The actor elaborated on the use of the netball, saying: ‘If there are two people doing a sex scene, the rule is they must have three barriers separating them and there are certain acts where a half-inflated netball can allow for movement without having to connect physically.’

It wasn’t the first time the actor has lifted the lid on some of the show’s intimacy co-ordinators’ secrets.

Appearing on Lorraine to promote the first series in 2021, he told the daytime TV host how his underwear-covered derriere had been painted with flesh-coloured make-up for an al fresco love scene against a tree.

Other tricks commonly used to make raunchy scenes sing include aloe vera to prevent chafing – particularly if actors spend hours re-filming, breath mints to ensure kissing tastes palatable to both parties and nipple daisies to allow intimate scenes to take place with some modesty preserved.

Sex scene co-ordinator Vanessa Coffey, who worked with Billie Piper on Sky Atlantic series I Hate Suzie and Daisy Edgar-Jones in H. G. Wells’s War Of The Worlds, told the Mail in 2021 that there’s some poetry in organising intimate moments between actors.

‘Choreographing a sex scene is very much like choreographing a dance. The actors need to know exactly where hands are going, where body parts are going to be, what’s going to be visible or not visible on camera,’ said Vanessa.

‘Many have areas, whether that’s nipples or their intergluteal cleft (bum crack, to you and me) that they’re not comfortable showing on screen, so we have to respect and accommodate that with careful camera angling.’

Intimacy co-ordinator Lizzy Talbot, tasked with making the characters in Bridgerton comfortable in their close-contact scenes, told Sarah Rainey for The Daily Mail: ‘We had weeks before filming where we would break down every scene into single choreographed moments. People go, “Well, is it like a stunt or is it like a dance?”’

Nicola said of their sex scenes. ‘It’s more like giving you a framework to do it in the way you want to do it.

‘It’s not like: You kiss for three seconds and then you move your hand. We knew we had to hit certain points, but we were able to flow with it and make it seem natural and organic.’