SPOILERS ALERT!!!

Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

For the past three months, I’ve been enjoying another Christmas present from last year, which is the ITV series ‘Victoria’, starring Jenna Coleman as Queen Victoria. I found this a very well-made historical TV drama, and Jenna Coleman is amazing as Queen Victoria. 🙂

This isn’t my first encounter with seeing Queen Victoria dramatized in a TV and film production. On the contrary, I’ve seen the ‘Victoria & Albert’ TV serial from 2001, starring Victoria Hamilton and Jonathan Firth. I’ve also seen ‘The Young Victoria’ with Emily Blunt.

So, I was familiar with how the story goes concerning Victoria’s early life along with her meeting and marrying her husband, Prince Albert. The ITV series ‘Victoria’ provides a fresh perspective on Queen Victoria, especially in the way that Jenna Coleman plays her.

For many, Jenna Coleman is well-known for playing Clara Oswald in ‘Doctor Who’. It was nice to see Jenna in a different role compared to what I’d seen of her in ‘Doctor Who’. And ‘Victoria’ as a series was made shortly after Jenna’s departure from ‘Doctor Who’ in 2015.

‘Victoria’ lasted for three seasons from 2016 to 2019, and the series has a Christmas Special called ‘Comfort and Joy’, which was broadcast in December 2017. Funnily enough, my parents and I watched the Christmas Special first before seeing the TV series.

Annoyingly, the Christmas Special isn’t included in the DVD box set containing Series 1 to 3. Why that is, I don’t know. Maybe the series will be reissued on DVD and will contain the Christmas Special in it. As is, I currently have the Christmas Special on a separate DVD.

As well as Jenna Coleman as Queen Victoria, the series stars Tom Hughes as Prince Albert. I greatly appreciate the love story going on between Victoria and Albert, as the series showcases how much they loved each other even when they had their arguments.

You can feel the passion Victoria and Albert have for each other in the series. It helped that Jenna Coleman and Tom Hughes were in a relationship at the time this series was made. It’s amusing that Victoria and Albert had a lot of children when they were married. 😀

The rest of the series’ cast is very good and there are some big names too. There’s Peter Bowles (well-known for being in ‘To the Manor Born’) as Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. 🙂 There’s also Catherine Flemming as the Duchess of Kent, Victoria’s mother.

There’s Daniela Holtz as Baroness Lehzen, Victoria’s governess in the first two seasons, Nell Hudson as Nancy Skerett, Principal Dresser to the Queen, Ferdinand Kingsley as Mr. Francatelli, Royal Chef to the Queen, and Adrian Schiller as Mr. Penge, the footman.

Tommy Knight (who I’ve seen as Luke Smith in ‘The Sarah Jane Adventures’) stars as Archibald Brodie, Bell Boy to the Queen. Eve Myles (who I’ve seen as Gwen Cooper in ‘Torchwood’) stars as Mrs. Jenkins, Senior Dresser to the Queen and is in Series 1 only. 🙂

There’s Rufus Sewell as Lord Melbourne, Victoria’s first Prime Minister of the UK in Series 1 to 2, Nigel Lindsay as Sir Robert Peel, Victoria’s second Prime Minister of the UK in Series 1 to 2, and there’s David Oakes as Prince Ernest, who’s Albert’s brother in Series 1 to 2. 🙂

Paul Rhys stars as Sir John Conroy, the Duchess of Kent’s comptroller in Series 1, Peter Firth stars as King Ernest August of Hanover, Victoria’s uncle in Series 1 to 2, and Alex Jennings stars as King Leopold I of the Belgians, Victoria and Albert’s uncle in the series.

Jordan Waller stars as Lord Alfred Paget and, in Series 2, Bebe Cave stars as Lady Wilhelmina Coke, who becomes Lord Alfred’s wife. There’s Margaret Clunie as Harriet, the Duchess of Sutherland, the Queen’s lady-in-waiting and Prince Ernest’s love interest in the series.

Tilly Steele (who’s been in the ‘Doctor Who’ episode ‘The Witchfinders’) plays Miss Cleary, Junior Dresser to the Queen in Series 2. Anna Wilson-Jones (who’s been in ‘Monarch of the Glen’) plays Lady Emma Portman, Lady of the Bedchamber to the Queen in the series.

Diana Rigg (who previously played Baroness Lehzen in the 2001 ‘Victoria & Albert’ TV serial, and well-known in the 1960s’ ‘The Avengers’ TV series) plays Matilda, Duchess of Buccleuch in Series 2. And there’s Leo Suter as Mr. Drummond, Sir Robert Peel’s private secretary in Series 2.

In Series 3, Nicholas Audsley stars as Charles, Duke of Monmouth and Lily Travers (who played Polly in the ‘Doctor Who’ episode ‘Twice Upon a Time’) stars as Sophie, Duchess of Monmouth. 🙂 There’s David Burnett as Joseph Weld, a footman at Buckingham Palace.

Sabrina Bartlett (who was in the ‘Doctor Who’ episode ‘Robot of Sherwood’ and Series 1 of ‘The Larkins’ and its 2021 Christmas Special) plays Abigail Turner, who becomes the Queen’s Lady’s maid. There’s Kate Fleetwood as Princess Feodora, Victoria’s half-sister.

There’s King Louis Phillipe I of the French, who was played by Bruno Wolkowitch in Series 2 and Vincent Regan in Series 3. John Sessions plays Lord John Russell, Victoria’s third Prime Minister of the UK, and Laurence Fox plays Lord Palmerston, the Foreign Secretary.

I was saddened by how ‘Victoria’ as a series ended with a cliffhanger, as Albert, whilst talking to Victoria, suddenly collapses onto the palace floor and is unresponsive when Victoria calls to him to wake up. Clearly, that was to set up Series 4, which hasn’t happened yet.

At this point, ITV stated in 2021 that there were no plans to film another season of ‘Victoria’, even though it’s stated that the possibility of revisiting the TV series won’t be ignored. I don’t know if it’s possible for Series 4 to happen with the amount of time that has passed.

Plus, Jenna Coleman and Tom Hughes aren’t a couple anymore, as Jenna is currently in a relationship with director Jamie Childs. So, I’m not sure if Jenna and Tom would be willing to work with each other again as Victoria and Albert. It doesn’t seem to be very likely at present.

Regardless, I’m very pleased that I’ve seen the ‘Victoria’ TV series with Jenna Coleman at last! It was worthwhile! 🙂 I’m happy that I’ve seen Jenna in something else other than ‘Doctor Who’. In fact, I’ve enjoyed Jenna more in ‘Victoria’ compared to seeing her in ‘Doctor Who’.

The fact that Jenna is a very versatile actress clearly shows in her performance as Queen Victoria throughout the series. She’s so mesmerising to watch and I’m sure there’ll come a time where I’ll be revisiting ‘Victoria’ on DVD. I’m looking forward to when that will happen. 🙂

Thanks for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim 🙂