Love & marriage

Rose Williams returns for the final season of the Jane Austen-inspired drama

-  STEVEN PERKINS, VICTORIA WILSON

Sanditon From Thursday 17 August, ITVX

Bonnets, beaches and broken hearts are in store as lavish period drama Sanditon - inspired by Jane Austen's unfinished novel of the same name - arrives on ITVX this week for its third and final season.

When we last visited the fictional seaside resort that gives the show its title, heroine Charlotte Heywood (Rose Williams) realised that her stoic employer Alexander Colbourne (Ben Lloyd-Hughes) was unable - or unwilling to admit that he shared her feelings for him.

Charlotte left Sanditon to return to the small farming village of Willingden, where she grew up, and later shocked her friends with the news that she had accepted a marriage proposal from her childhood friend, Ralph Starling (Cai Brigden).

'She knew her dearest friends would be surprised at her decision to settle down,' says Williams. But Charlotte has always loved Ralph; they grew up together, and their engagement was described as a "foregone conclusion" by her father.