Oh gosh. Episodes Six and Seven of Bridgerton Season Two.

Apparently some people were remarking/complaining that there is far less sex in Season Two of Bridgerton. But this penultimate episode… oh my… oh gosh.

There’s a kind of pulse-quickening wide-eyed half-fearful gawping excitement to the way Bridgerton handles the most decisive sex scenes in both series.

When I was a lad, the idea of sexiness on screen began (and often ended) with reading the words “co-starring Jenny Agutter” in a late night film description in the Radio Times. These days, when screens can be filled with every permutation of sex with a few strategic clicks, the ability to actually get the heart racing with a sex scene is all the more remarkable. As a viewer, I feel I should be emerging from the bushes with bathrobes and hot drinks to sincerely applaud everyone involved. Well done all round.

Meanwhile Eloisa’s incipient romance with “radical” Theo Sharpe seems doomed at the outset. As I’ve already said, it seems impossible to integrate radical politics into Bridgerton without having some discussion of the material and political basis on which this strange society is based – and I think any such discussion would be like that 1970s coin which destroys the 1912 love affair in that intriguing 1980 romcom Somewhere in Time.

“Lady Whistledown” has been forced to denounce Eloisa’s bad choices just to remove her from Queen Charlotte’s list of suspects. She’s not happy with this decision. There are no good decisions, it seems.

Anthony appears at his very best, his very nicest, when confronted with the disaster that is the Bridgerton-Sharma ball. By inviting his youngest siblings to all come and dance, he creates a vision of a family that is, briefly, sufficient to itself, which stands in no need of the validation and respect of others – a little world unto itself. I have never liked Anthony Bridgerton and was inclined to believe that either Edwina or Kate could do better. But I loved him a bit at that moment.

I’ve been trying to think about dialogue and the need to “cut to the chase” when it comes to trying to communicate the meaning of small talk in contemporary drama (and Bridgerton is very contemporary drama). But I think I’ll save such meditations for my “concluding reflections”.