‘Sanditon’ returns for a second season

Sundays at 8 p.m., beginning March 20
Mondays at 3:30 p.m., beginning March 21

Select Sanditon when you support Arizona PBS and get both seasons on DVD, a Jane Austen mug, as well as a copy of the novel based on the show.

Romance resumes at Jane Austen’s seaside town! This all-new season picks up the action nine months after the end of Season 1, when some hearts were left broken, some were soaring, and the town’s future was not so clear. But time tends to heal most wounds. The town of Sanditon is growing in popularity as new faces arrive on the scene to join our beloved seaside community.

“We’re delighted to bring more Sanditon to such a passionate and devoted fan base,” says “Masterpiece” executive producer Susanne Simpson. “We worked with an amazing UK production team, Red Planet Pictures, to make a second and third season as well. Audiences can expect romance, humor, and plenty of drama in the upcoming episodes.”

Commenting on the writing team, Sanditon’s co-executive producer Belinda Campbell, for production company Red Planet Pictures, notes that “Justin Young and Andrew Davies’s sensational scripts are relevant, timely and captivating. We can’t wait to share all the exciting new developments we have in store for our much-loved characters.”

In addition to Rose Williams as high-spirited heroine Charlotte Heywood  and Crystal Clarke as the independent West Indian heiress Georgiana Lambe, the returning cast includes Anne Reid (“Last Tango in Halifax”) as Lady Denham, the demanding chief investor in a scheme to turn sleepy, coastal Sanditon into a fashionable holiday getaway; Kris Marshall (“Death in Paradise”) as Tom Parker, the visionary behind the venture; Kate Ashfield as Tom’s levelheaded wife, Mary; and Turlough Convery as Tom’s amiable and underrated brother, Arthur.

Ceaselessly plotting for Lady Denham’s legacy are a duo of characters familiar from Season 1: Lady Denham’s dissipated nephew, Sir Edward Denham, and niece, Clara Brereton. Also returning on a mission of her own is Charlotte Spencer as Lady Esther Babington, another relative of the prestigious Lady Denham.

New faces include Alexander Colbourne, a handsome and enigmatic local recluse, dynamic Colonel Francis Lennox, Charlotte’s hopelessly romantic sister Alison, diffident Captain Declan Fraser, Captain William Carter and Sanditon’s Bohemian artist, Charles Lockhart.

Season 2 of Sanditon continues Jane Austen’s classic quandary of how independent-minded young women can make their way in patriarchal Regency-era England. Society insists that they take a husband, and some women, such as Charlotte’s sister Alison, can’t wait to find one. But others, notably Charlotte and Georgiana, have mixed feelings about matrimony.

Want to revisit the heartbreaks and triumphs of the first season? Stream it anytime with the PBS Video app.