‘Bridgerton’ Season 2: Luke Thompson Broke 2 Pall-Mall Mallets While Filming
The pall-mall scene in season 2 of Bridgerton is one of the season’s highlights. The scene showcased how competitive the Bridgerton siblings can get and displayed their closeness as a family. The game was supposedly so intense that Luke Thompson, who plays one of the Bridgerton siblings, broke two pall-mall sticks while filming.
What is pall-mall?
Pall-mall is a game originating from France that resembles croquet. The first mention of the now obsolete game comes from an English traveler in France who talks about it in the early 17th Century. Pall-mall was brought to England in the second quarter of the century.
In Thomas Blount’s 1656 Glossographia, he describes it as “a game wherein a round bowle is with a mallet struck through a high arch of iron (standing at either end of an alley) which he that can do at the fewest blows, or at the number agreed on, wins.”
According to Blount, the game had a vulgar name back then, the pell-mell. However, the pronunciation became classic, and a London street was named after a pall-mall alley. Pall-mall mallets almost resemble those used in croquet, but the sticks in pall-mall have curved heads, while the ball is about six inches in circumference.
Luke Thompson broke two pall-mall sticks while filming
The pall-mall game is an important aspect of the Bridgerton novels. The scene is so crucial that Bridgerton series author Julia Quinn made the Netflix show creators promise to add it to the show. When the show was in its first season, Quinn, who consulted, was asked by Oprah Magazine what she would like to see the series do next.
She admitted that she hadn’t thought past the second book, The Viscount Who Loved Me. However, she said she wanted the show to incorporate the pall-mall scene. “I did make Chris Van Dusen [the creator] promise that if we get a second season, there has to be pall-mall,” Quinn said.
The author threatened to “consult the hell out of that” if they failed to incorporate the game. Luckily the Netflix show abided by the author’s request and added it, giving viewers one of the best scenes of the season, but the game was so intense that one of the cast mates had to be provided with more sticks even before filming concluded.
In a behind-the-scenes segment of the game, Jonathan Bailey, the star of the second season, said his onscreen brother, Thompson, put so much energy into the game that he broke his mallets. “Luke Thompson, he was so overpowering with his stick that twice, it snapped,” Bailey said.
The Anthony portrayer fondly recalled the incident saying, “That’s how strong he is.” Thompson, who plays the second Bridgerton sibling Benedict, on his part, claims he was the best pall-mall player — only if the rules weren’t considered.
The pall-mall scene was improvised
Looking at the pall-mall scene, everything appears so effortless and fun that it’s almost impossible to imagine that no one knew what they were doing. Bridgerton‘s production designer Will Hugh-Jones said in an interview that they visited the Museum of London before filming the scene to learn more about the game.
However, they found too little to go on as the rules were very vague, so they opted to let the Bridgerton siblings play their version of the 17th Century game. Luke Newton, who plays Colin, said, “We just set up in a certain shot, and it was all improvised.”
Claudia Jessie [Eloise] said, “Pall-mall is a game I do not and will never understand,” but admitted it was “fun and incredibly difficult.” Jessie accounted for the rest of the cast, saying, “You’ve got a mallet, and you whack a ball through some pegs until someone wins.”
