I enjoy watching Regency era costume dramas. Two recent televised programs caught my attention because of the presence of left-handers. Sanditon is a three-season drama that aired in the United States as a PBS Masterpiece Theater offering between 2020 and 2023. The series is adapted from an unfinished novel by Jane Austen and is set in the seaside town of Sanditon in the early decades of the 19th century. In episode one of season two, I noticed that the character of Alexander Colbourne, played by actor Ben Lloyd-Hughes, is writing with his left hand. Season three, episode three, featured another character, Edward Denham, played by actor Jack Fox, also writing with his left hand. An internet search revealed that Ben Lloyd-Hughes is left-handed. I could not verify Jack Fox’s usual writing hand, but I will assume he also is a habitual left-hander. Seeing these displays of left-handedness, I asked myself if the portrayal of left-hand writing during this early 19th century era is historically accurate?
My question was answered by the discovery of a paper published in 2007 that examined estimated rates of left-handedness in England through various eras of the 19th century.¹ The rates of left-handedness in the early portions of the 19th century were comparable to the 10% incidence of the present day. Rates of left-handedness decreased in the late 19th century and then increased again as the 20th century progressed. The authors speculate that this Victorian era reduction in the incidence of left-handedness was related to an increase in universal schooling, where writing with the right hand was often forced, and the introduction of machines with a right-sided bias as industrialization flourished.
Season three of another popular Regency era drama, Bridgerton, recently aired on Netflix in May and June of 2024. The Bridgerton stories are based on a series of novels by Julia Quinn. Each novel and each season of the series details the romance of one of the eight Bridgerton siblings. Season three is concerned with the story of Colin Bridgerton and his love interest, Penelope Featherington. I watched a video clip of a party celebrating the premier of Bridgerton season three and noticed that Luke Newton, the actor who plays Colin Bridgerton, was signing autographs with his left hand. This led me to wonder how Colin Bridgerton’s handedness would be portrayed as the episodes of season three unfolded. As indicated, left-handers were present in England in the early 19th century. Would the left-handed actor display his left-handedness on screen as was the case for the two actors in Sanditon?
Although Luke Newton is left-handed, in episodes five and six of Bridgerton season three, his character, Colin Bridgerton, is shown writing with his right hand. I conducted an internet search and discovered a video clip of Luke Newton commenting that he “pretends” to be right-handed in his role as Colin Bridgerton. Given the rates of left-handedness during this time period, it would not be unusual to find that one of the eight Bridgerton siblings was left-handed. However, unlike Sanditon, the series opted to have one of the lead characters hide his left-handedness in favor of right-hand use. There is a brief moment in episode six where Colin Bridgerton is holding the quill pen in his left hand. However, all the writing sequences are with the right hand.
There is plenty of research evidence indicating that population rates of left-handedness have remained fairly steady across the centuries at around 10%. For this reason, it would not violate historical accuracy for left-handed actors in historical dramas to display left-hand writing.
¹ McManus, I.C., & Hartigan, A. (2007). Declining left-handedness in Victorian England seen in the films of Mitchell and Kenyon. Current Biology, 17, R793-R794. DOI:10.1016/j.cub.2007.07.008
