Insights into 'Sanditon' Season 3: Fiancée Troubles and Emotional Filming.
Sanditon showrunner Justin Young revealed that Charlotte's alternate love interest in Season 3 was supposed to be Samuel, Colbourne's brother, who was envisioned as a foppish Hugh Grant-y kind of love interest. However, Masterpiece nixed the idea and opted for Ralph, a lamer love interest, to represent obligation to family duty. Young explained that the audience would have been frustrated if it had been another love triangle, and bringing in a third man that Charlotte had strong romantic feelings for would have made her look fickle.