Sanditon recap: Everything you need to remember ahead of season 3

Sanditon is back for its third and final season, which has premiered on ITVX in full on Thursday, 17 August.

The adaptation of Jane Austen's unfinished book is set in the titular seaside town where it focuses on the stories of Charlotte Heywood (Rose Williams) and her friend Georgiana Lambe (Crystal Clarke).

Our heroines will return for one final outing that will hopefully give them satisfactory endings, but before viewers get stuck into season 3 they might need a refresher on what came before.

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Here is everything you need to remember from Sanditon seasons 1 and 2.

Sanditon recap

Sanditon begins with Charlotte arriving in the seaside resort with the intention of gaining new experiences as the town goes through its own social changes, but the heroine soon becomes entangled in the dramatic scheming of those that live there.

Not everyone is focused on climbing the social ladder though, Charlotte becomes fast friends with Georgiana and soon draws the eye of the handsome Sidney Parker (Theo James), though not for the right reasons.

Charlotte is rather blunt about how she feels about the town's leader Tom Parker (Kris Marshall) and this leads to some animosity between her and Tom's younger brother Sidney. However, where the angry sparks between them are soon stoked into the flames of romance.

Georgiana also enjoys a love story with her secret dalliance with Otis Molyneux (Jyuddah Jaymes), however by the end of season one the pair break things off.

Season 1 also ends with Sidney confessing his love for Charlotte but later being forced to instead marry wealthy heiress Eliza Campion (Ruth Kearney) in order to save his family financially, this shocking turn of events came after a fire destroyed an uninsured building in Sanditon. As a result, Charlotte leaves Sanditon.

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With actor Theo James bowing out of the series after season 1 it shouldn't come as a surprise that season 2 opens with the reveal that Sidney died offscreen, he was travelling in Antigua where he learned of a plot to rid Georgiana of her inheritance and also that her mother is still alive and hoping to reunite with her.

Following Sidney's death, Charlotte returns to Sanditon where she immediately attracts the attention of several men as does Georgiana, who draws the interest of rakish artist Charles Lockhart (Alexander Vlahos).

Regardless of the interests in her hand, Charlotte spurns the idea of marriage and decides to become a governess for widower Alexander Colbourne's (Ben Lloyd-Hughes) daughter and niece.

After taking on the position, Charlotte and Alexander find themselves inexplicably drawn to each other, and they even kiss, but the widower's anxieties over being an inadequate husband for his late first wife leads him to abruptly dismiss Charlotte.

Back in Sanditon, Georgiana feels she may have finally found a man who is not interested in her money with Charles, but this is soon revealed to not be the case and things sour between them.

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Season 2 goes on to end with a dramatic reveal: Charlotte is engaged to a farmer named Ralph Starling (Cai Brigden), who will play a key part in season 3.

Sanditon season 3 is out on ITVX now.