Top dramas take over Sunday primetime! New: CALL THE HIDWIFE, New: Sanditon on MASTERPIECE and New: MARIE ANTOINETTE - March 19th - WOUB Public Media (2023)

Sanditon, Season 3,
The last season
with Rose Williams and Crystal Clarke in MASTERPIECE

Sundays, March 19 through April 23, 2023 at 9 p.m. on PBS

Wedding bells are ringing, but for whom?

Jane Austen's final, incomplete novel comes to a glorious conclusion in the third and final season of Sanditon, MASTERPIECE's acclaimed continuation of the story and characters created by Austen in her fascinating fragmentary work. Sanditon Season 3 condenses the storyline into six satisfying episodes to air from March 19 to April 23, 2023 at 9 p.m. ET on PBS.

"We regret to say goodbye to this wonderful series, which has all the wit and joy one would expect from a Jane Austen-inspired drama," said Susanne Simpson, executive producer of MASTERPIECE. "We know viewers will be excited as the final pieces fall into place."

Added Belinda Campbell, Joint Managing Director of Red Planet Pictures, "It has been a pleasure to tell the stories of these austenitic heroines over three seasons - their journeys, hopes, dreams and romances have resonated with fans around the world. The characters have grown as beautifully as the town of Sanditon itself, and we're delighted to present the charming seaside town one last time."

Set amidst the romantic intrigue of an early 19th-century English seaside resort, the MASTERPIECE series has been called "a mild retreat" (Salon), "lush and fun" (New York Times) and "perfect escapist fare" (Indiewire). . .

True to themes from other Austen novels, the first two seasons have thrown up and shattered various marriage prospects for the heroines, played by Rose Williams (Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris) and Crystal Clarke (Empire of Light).

Williams stars as Charlotte Heywood, a young country woman who fate has thrust into the social scene of Sanditon, which is vying to become the spa for fashionable aristocrats and royalty. Though her father intends her to marry local farmer Ralph Starling (Cai Bridge, Summer of Rockets), Charlotte has attracted the attention of some of Sanditon's most eligible bachelors - including the enigmatic Alexander Colbourne (Ben Lloyd-Hughes, The Crown), a landowner with a mysterious past.

Clarke's character, Georgiana Lambe, faces a very different problem. A multiracial heiress from the West Indies, she cannot trust any of her suitors because they are likely only interested in her wealth. The two women bond over these courtship dilemmas as well as their determination to forge their own destiny.

Romance possibilities are expanded this season with new cast members, including Emma Fielding (Cranford) as the financially troubled Lady Montrose, who comes to Sanditon to find matches for her grown children: Lydia (Alice Orr-Ewing, The Theory of Everything) , who is an independently thinking young woman; and Lord Henry Montrose (Edward Davis, Emma), a duke whose title alone is an attractive selling point when perhaps less apt in other respects. James Bolam (The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner) plays Rowleigh Pryce, a dour investor whom Tom Parker is courting to fund a new hotel in Sanditon, subject to Lady Denham's approval. It turns out that Pryce and Lady Denham share a very interesting past.

And there's Liam Garrigan (The Pillars of the Earth), who stars as Alexander Colbourne's brother Samuel, a London barrister whose legal assistance is crucial as the plot nears its climax. A suitable bachelor himself, Samuel is caught up in the Sanditon marriage market. Fascinated by this once sleepy village that has become a place of hidden passions, he sees a new acquaintance and reflects, "There are so many interesting things happening in Sanditon that need to be watched carefully."