Victoria: Is Sunday night drama back with a royal seal?
Period dramas; always a bit of a tricky area, as there is so much to get right, and God help you, if you get any of it wrong.
Victoria
By Andy Simon
Period dramas; always a bit of a tricky area, as there is so much to get right, and God help you, if you get any of it wrong.
There are enough dedicated historians out there, that will rip you to pieces if you make a mess of historical facts to say nothing of what the TV & Drama critics will do when they get hold of you.
However: I suspect this new ITV Drama; Victoria,will have no problem worrying about such things.
It's bloody brilliant! This is what we want on a Sunday!
A drama dripping with attention grabbing scenes, brilliant costumes, splendid locations, a fantastic cast bubbling with talent saying lines that are superbly written, and all rolled together in a production that from the start, is brilliantly directed, and all of this done, using a 10 million pound budget.
Yeah; it's good.
I am no historian by any stretch of the imagination, but I do know a good drama when I see one, and for me, Victoria has already ticked a lot of "Plus" boxes.
And I've only just watched episode one.
Jenna Coleman (of Doctor Who fame) as the young Queen Victoria, clearly fits into her lead roll as beautifully as the costumes that fit her. And I have to admit; I like many others, are not used to seeing Queen Victoria, portrayed as a young feisty woman.
It's very refreshing; actually.
According to biographer A N Wilson, it was only her, "We are not amused" remark, that gave Victoria the grumpy and "No Sense of Humour' personae we have all come to know and love. The supporting cast appear to be shaping up nicely too.
Lord Melbourne, played by Rufus Sewell is charming, articulate and a touch intimidating as Vicky's private secretary to say nothing of his shall we say, "Smouldering Interest" in the young queen.
Most of the staff are pinching just about everything that can be pinched without anyone noticing, the royal watchers and hangers on's clearly don't think she's up to the job of Queen of England. Victoria's mother appears to me at least, as being rather thick and her uncle clearly wants to supplant the young queen and become king himself. Trouble is . . .
He's going to have to get her bumped off first, to achieve it. All in all; sounds like good Sunday Night Telly to me.
It's way too early to say whether or not this new drama will have the same level of success Downtown Abbey had but to be fair, I have only watched episode one of eight. It's early days.
But already Victoria is in my opinion, clearly shaping up to what could be described as the new Downton Abbey, only at 'Buck House" as Del Boy would put it.
And with a budget of 10 million, a rather small amount by TV production standards, some would say Victoria won't cut it. I dunno; I can't call this one, not yet.
However; as new and potentially great dramas go, I would say this new eight part series, has a fighting chance.
Bring on episode Two.
ITV's new drama, "Victoria', continues tonight at 9pm. Enjoy some 'Royal Escapism", on a Sunday Night.
Thanks for reading.
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There are 3 Comments
Hurrah for the return of Sunday night costume drama!
A very big welcome back to good old ITV Sunday night costume/historical drama!
I've just watched episode 2 of Victoria and it was just as compelling as episode one. Like all good dramas it had its heroes/heroines, a smattering of pantomime villains (I didn't recognise Peter Firth until the end credits on Sunday night), and a good assortment of supporting characters whose storylines will no doubt develop as the series progresses.
Jenna Coleman is superb as the young Victoria and Rufus Sewell is perfectly cast as Lord M. The costumes and scenery are great and OK, the 'exterior shots' of Buck House look a bit CGI (because they are), but this does not detract from the overall appeal of the programme.
Is it 100% historically accurate - who knows, who cares - it's great Sunday night TV and I for one am 100% hooked!
Episode 3 and it's getting better and better...
Episode 3 of Victoria and the series just gets better and better - I was completely mesmerised and couldn't believe how fast the hour went. Loving the relationship between Victoria and 'Dear Lord M' but not entirely convinced by the first appearance of Albert - however time will tell.
Yes, I know that Victoria wasn't as pretty as Jenna Coleman and Melbourne looked nothing like Rufus Sewell but artistic licence is a great thing! Oh how I wish history could be rewritten to give Victoria and Lord M the relationship they both wanted. Really looking forward to next Sunday's episode!
THE GREAT QUEEN VICTORIA,BUT WAS HER LOVE FOR LORD M..A MISTAKE?
By Andy Lloyd
As a general rule, I don't do period dramas. For instance, ten minutes of Downton Abbey was enough for me when I tried it once, due to having seen faster paced tortoises. Nor has Mr Darcy ever made me go weak at the knees I'm afraid to say ladies. Nevertheless, I was willing to try and get into 'Victoria' when it first aired on ITV1 some eight or nine weeks ago. ITV1 trailed it to death and I got this sense on social media that everybody else in the country was going to be watching it.
A week ago the first series came to a triumphant conclusion as we saw Queen Victoria (Jenna Coleman) give birth to her first child Victoria. It was a fitting end to a great series. Nevertheless, four episodes in and I thought it had the potential to be even better than this, to be one of the greatest things that I had ever seen. As the series progressed it ran out of steam a bit and got a tad boring in places. Once we saw Queen Victoria's affections for Lord Melbourne(Rufus Sewell) lessen, then so did my overall interest in the drama.
At the start of the narrative we saw the young newly appointed Queen Victoria, form a strong bond with her then serving Prime Minister Lord Melbourne (aka Lord M). Their relationship developed into this sort of forbidden love story which became intensely moving to watch. I thought Jenna Coleman and Rufus Sewell were exceptional in the performances that they gave together.
The scene that had the most powerful impact on me was when we saw Queen Victoria pay Lord M a visit in the grounds of his Brocket Hall estate. It was the one where she revealed to him her deep feelings of love for him. We knew he felt the same way but he could not allow himself to say so, due to him not thinking it was morally right. In his rejection of her and referring back to his wife that had since left him, he used this wonderful analogy with the local rooks. For example, Lord M said to Queen Victoria, ''like a rook, I mate for life''. This love story between them was totally engrossing, absorbing and really made for addictive viewing.
However, the problem of this love story between Queen Victoria and Lord M, was that I was I that taken with it that I did not want Prince Albert (Tom Hughes) to show up like he obviously did a bit later on. Furthermore, the narrative seemed to go from her fancying Lord M to then fancying Prince Albert. It was all a bit too much like a soap opera for a few of the middle episodes. I wanted to know more about Victoria's reign in general rather than it mainly just being about her love life. Eventually did this happen as slavery and the railways were subjects touched upon in the later episodes, but this courtship between Queen Victoria and Prince Albert was focused on for far too long.
As this was a drama rather than a documentary then of course not every narrative strand was going to be one hundred percent truthful. Nevertheless, it was quite surprising to read a few historians on social media being highly critical of the Queen Victoria and Lord M love story storyline. They claimed Queen Victoria NEVER proposed to Lord M as it depicted she did. It was also stated how she NEVER had those type of amorous feelings for him either.
At first, it did not bother me that writer Daisy Goodwin had used some creative license regarding the relationship between Queen Victoria and Lord M. However, as the series progressed I then found myself second guessing at what was truthful and what was not. This as a consequence started to effect my enjoyment of the narrative because this was supposed to be an accurate drama about the life of Queen Victoria. For instance, as I watched the final episode I wondered if the incident with the character Captain Childers(Andrew Scarborough) had actually happened, i.e. him approaching her horse carriage and saying that he could rescue her from her German tyrant Prince Albert? I also wondered if those rumours ever really existed for a time about Lord Cumberland (Peter Firth) potentially being behind an assassination attempt of Queen Victoria?
Even though I wanted Prince Albert to come down with a fatal case of scarlet fever or something so Queen Victoria could waltz off into the sunset with Lord Melbourne(I'm such an old romantic at heart), actor Tom Hughes does deserve praise for his excellent performance throughout as Prince Albert. Another new face that I had not seen in anything else before was actress Nell Hudson who played Miss Skerrett. She appears to be a great young talent and so expect to see her in a lot more TV shows soon.
Costume and set design were probably the most impressive things about this drama. Victoria's outfits for example looked both visually stunning and extremely authentic of that time. There was also this reoccurring amazing establishing shot of a Victorian looking Buckingham Palace in every episode. I am guessing it was done computer graphically and it looked very convincing.
Overall then, it was not perfect but there was a lot more to like about this drama than not to like. It is such a fascinating period of our nation's history that it deserves to be celebrated as it rightly was here. I am pleased that ITV1 have recommissioned 'Victoria' for a second series because it deserved it. Watching this has helped me get over my phobia of period dramas, WELL FOR THE TIME BEING ANYWAY! 4/5.