Chancellor Rishi Sunak: I’m a Bridgerton fan

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has revealed he has spent “a lot of time” watching hit period drama Bridgerton.

He also told the Radio Times he is an “enormous fan” of the BBC as he discussed his viewing habits with the magazine.

Mr Sunak said his “tastes are probably not quite the same” as some of his Cabinet colleagues.

He added: “Like Emily In Paris, I’m not sure how many others watched that. I’ll check.”

He also said he has spent “a lot of time” watching Netflix’s hit period drama Bridgerton, which was released in December.

Mr Sunak told the magazine what he would watch on television as a child.

“We were never allowed to eat in the sitting room, but Saturday nights were the exception,” he said.

“We would spread a plastic picnic blanket out and I’d go with my dad to pick up either Pizza Hut or KFC from Portswood in Southampton, and we – Mum, Dad and my younger brother and sister – would eat on this picnic mat and watch The A-Team, Baywatch and Blind Date, which were on one after the other.

“That was a special part of our growing up.”

Mr Sunak also described the creative industries as “one of the UK’s crown jewels”.

“It’s something we do better than most other countries; we export it round the world,” he said.

“We should be enormously proud of it, and it’s part of our soft power and brand. Brand Britain.”

Mr Sunak also said the BBC must “take every step possible” to ensure lessons are learnt following Lord Dyson’s report into the 1995 Panorama interview with Diana, Princess of Wales.

However he said he is “an enormous fan” of the broadcaster, adding: “It probably comes from living in the States for a very long time.

“When you’re abroad, the BBC is your connection with home.

“I was living thousands of miles away in California, and the BBC was still my homepage. There’s an emotional attachment to it.”

Read the full interview in Radio Times, out now.