Bridgerton cast tease the Pall Mall scene — and which Bridgerton sibling broke two mallets!

Fans of Julia Quinn's Bridgerton novels have been anticipating one particular scene in the Shondaland adaptation as eagerly as the ton awaits a new missive from Lady Whistledown.

In The Viscount Who Loved Me, which is the source material for season 2 of the Netflix series, the Bridgerton family engage in a game of Pall Mall (a Regency version of croquet) with the Sheffield sisters (now the Sharmas).

The family competition rapidly turns vicious, with Kate (Simone Ashley) all too happy to join in on the fun, especially if it means playing with the infamous mallet of death and humiliating Anthony (Jonathan Bailey). "That's when you start to see the competitiveness, and the sportsmanship between Kate and Anthony comes to a head," Ashley teases to EW.

The team behind Bridgerton looked forward to the scene almost as much as audiences, with series creator Chris Van Dusen anticipating it ever since the series was announced. "Since the first time I read the second book, it's always been one of my favorite sequences," he tells EW. "It's quintessential Bridgerton. It's this really fun, ruckus game full of only the best and sharpest Bridgerton banter, played in this lush, beautiful English countryside in the shadow of this amazing estate. Who wouldn't fall in love with a scene like that?"

The cast confirms the Pall Mall sequences were every bit as delightful to bring to life as they are to watch (or read). "Any moment in the show where all the Bridgertons are brought together is supremely fun to film," Bailey says. "But then on top of that, something as competitive as Pall Mall is and how competitive the Bridgertons are with each other, it's a wild, relentless, buckaroo sequence. When we look back at filming series 2, that's going to be the montage to remember."

It also marked an opportunity for Phoebe Dynevor to return to the Bridgerton fold as Daphne, who has a fondness and aptitude for the game. "It was first time I'd really met Charithra [Chandran] and Simone," she recalls. "It was a really hot day, and we were all sweating and got very sun-burnt. But we had a great time doing it. Daphne's meant to be the best player, but I was probably the worst player. Charithra [as Edwina] is meant to be the worst player, and 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."

There was one Bridgerton who stood above all the rest, however. While most of the cast struggled to get the ball through a single hoop, Luke Thompson, who portrays Benedict, came ready to dominate. "The person who absolutely smashed it was Luke Thompson," Bailey says. "The very last thing is a hoop on a stick, a bit like a ring light, and you have to act as if you were using a putting wedge on the golf course. You have to get the ball up into the air with a flat mallet. It was one of the most glorious moments [seeing him make that shot]; it was like he defied gravity and everyone screamed."

Thompson wasn't without his own Pall Mall woes, though. Claudia Jessie, who portrays Eloise Bridgerton, reveals he broke not one, but two mallets in the course of shooting the sequence.

"He broke one, which was hilarious. Then he broke a second," she laughs. "We couldn't believe it. But he was so professional because we all burst out laughing the minute he snapped the second one. But he just kept going. Even though it was clearly half a mallet, all jagged wood, and the cameras are on. He was just like, 'Oh, I've broken a second one but I'll just give it a go…..' [Jessie mimes swinging a mallet]. The editing makes us look like we're all fantastic at the game. And we are not."

The cast may not be good at Pall Mall, but the Bridgertons certainly are — and audiences will finally get to watch them swing their mallets on March 25.

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