Victoria (British TV series)


Victoria is a British historical television drama series created and principally written by Daisy Goodwin, starring Jenna Coleman as Queen Victoria. The series premiered in the United Kingdom on ITV on 28 August 2016 with eight episodes, and in the United States on PBS on 15 January 2017; PBS supported its production as part of the Masterpiece anthology.
A second series was broadcast on ITV in 2017, including a Christmas special that aired that December; PBS broadcast followed starting in January 2018, with the special belatedly airing in March. In December 2017, Victoria was renewed for an eight-episode third series, which premiered on PBS on 13 January 2019, and on ITV on 24 March 2019.

Premise

The first series depicts the first few years of the reign of Queen Victoria, from her accession to the British throne at the age of eighteen, to her intense friendship and infatuation with her favourite advisor Lord Melbourne, to her courtship and early marriage to Prince Albert of Germany, and finally to the birth of their firstborn child and eldest daughter, Victoria, Princess Royal.
The second series follows Queen Victoria's struggles to balance her queenly role as the youngest monarch with her duties to her husband and children, various dramas within the English and German branches of the royal family, international relations with France, and such crises as the Anglo-Afghan War and the 1840s Famine in Ireland.
At the beginning of the third series, Victoria and Albert have six children and are approaching their 30s while navigating difficulties in their marriage; as the series progresses, these tensions ebb and flow. Subplots in the third series include Albert's ongoing efforts to find his place, culminating in The Great Exhibition of 1851, and his efforts to mould his eldest son into a king; Victoria's political relationship with the charismatic Lord Palmerston; the sudden arrival of Queen Victoria's estranged maternal half-sister, Princess Feodora, at the palace; and a forbidden romance between one of the Queen's ladies and a footman.

Cast

Main

The below actors are credited in the opening titles of single episodes in which they play a significant role.

Series overview

Series 1 (2016)

Series 2 (2017)

Series 3 (2019)

Production

Development

The series was announced in September 2015, following Coleman's decision to leave Doctor Who to join the cast as Queen Victoria. Daisy Goodwin said in October 2016 that a Christmas special episode for the 2016 series had been proposed and was rejected by ITV; one was subsequently commissioned for 2017 after the rising ratings popularity for Victoria.
In September 2016, ITV renewed Victoria for a second series, followed by a Christmas special. In December 2017, Victoria was renewed for a third series, with Coleman and Hughes set to return. Beyond the renewal, ITV administration reportedly expects Victoria to run for a total of six series, although whether Jenna Coleman will remain as the lead actress as the series moves into depicting Victoria's later years is uncertain. After the conclusion of the third series, Coleman stated that the programme will "take a break" from transmission, and creator Daisy Goodwin confirmed that a fourth series of Victoria is in development.
Producers Mammoth Screen picked Screen Yorkshire's Church Fenton Studios which is in Tadcaster North Yorkshire, as the central base for the recreation of Buckingham Palace. Church Fenton Studios recently launched, so Victoria subsequently became the first production to film there. It is the first time Yorkshire has needed a large scale studio space to host a major drama. Mammoth Screen spent seven months filming the first series in Yorkshire.

Filming

Much of Victoria is filmed in Yorkshire. The interiors of Castle Howard double as Kensington Palace, Harewood House stands in for Buckingham Palace, with Bramham Park and Wentworth Woodhouse also being in use for both royal residences. Carlton Towers is in use as Windsor Castle, while Beverley Minster replaces Westminster Abbey. Other locations include Raby Castle, Allerton Castle, Newby Hall and Whitby pier. Church Fenton Studios, a converted aircraft hangar at Leeds East Airport near Selby, was in use to recreate some interiors of Buckingham Palace. Parts of Liverpool's Georgian quarter were used for exterior locations for the filming of the third series.
Filming for the third series began in May 2018, after filming for The Cry, another series that Coleman starred in, commenced in Australia in February 2018, and concluded in May 2018, so that production on the third series of Victoria could commence.

Music

The theme song is by Martin Phipps, sung by the Mediæval Bæbes. Phipps also wrote and conducted incidental music for the early episodes. For later episodes the conducting role was undertaken by Ruth Barrett. An official soundtrack for the first series was released on 12 January 2017. On 23 February 2019, Barrett has posted via her instagram, she will be releasing a second official soundtrack to accompany the second and third series. The second official soundtrack was released 22 February 2019 via Amazon for the United States and will be released at a later date for the United Kingdom.

Release

Broadcast

The eight-episode first series premiered on ITV on 28 August 2016 in the UK, and on PBS on 15 January 2017 in the United States as part of Masterpiece. The series premiered on 4 April 2017 in Canada on Vision TV, and January 2019 on ViuTV6 in Hong Kong.
The eight-episode second series premiered on ITV on 27 August 2017, and on PBS on 14 January 2018. The second series premiered in Canada on 26 September 2018 on Vision TV.
The eight-episode third series was broadcast on PBS from 13 January to 3 March 2019, before the series was broadcast in the UK, where it aired on ITV from 24 March to 12 May 2019.

Home media

In Region 2, the first series of Victoria was released on DVD and Blu-ray on 10 October 2016. The second series was released on DVD and Blu-ray on 13 November 2017. The 2017 feature-length Christmas Special was released on DVD 26 December 2017.
In Region 1, the first series of Victoria was released on DVD and Blu-ray on 31 January 2017. The second series of Victoria was released on DVD and Blu-ray on 30 January 2018.

Reception

Critical reception

The critics' reviews of the first series have been positive. On Rotten Tomatoes, the first series holds a rating of 80%, based on 40 reviews, with an average rating of 6.77/10. The site's consensus reads, "Strong performances by Jenna Coleman and Rufus Sewell hint at Downton-esque potential for Victoria, but the narrative falls just shy of that soapy mark". The second series holds a rating of 87%, based on 15 reviews, with an average rating of 6.17/10. The site's consensus reads, "Victoria's sophomore series finds this striking period drama returning with a second batch of episodes that are just as absorbing as its first." On Metacritic, the first series has a score of 67 out of 100, based on 22 critics, indicating "generally favourable reviews". Mehera Bonner of Marie Claire wrote, "Stunning, addictive...and ridiculously romantic." Matthew Gilbert of The Boston Globe wrote, "Captivating unforgettable."

Historical accuracy

Victoria's writer Daisy Goodwin said that the drama was inspired by real events, "whether they are assassination attempts, the repeal of the Corn Laws, or the terrible potato famine. All the big building blocks of the series are true."
The story lines are a blending of history, historical inaccuracies, and characters invented for dramatic purposes. In some cases, the historical figures are indistinguishable from invented characters in all but name, with the traits, actions, and experiences having little to do with the real lives of those supposedly portrayed. For example, Dame Diana Rigg was cast to play an elderly and curmudgeonly Duchess of Buccleuch even though the real woman was in her 30s when at court, and older sister Feodora is made into a spiteful schemer living for an extended period of some years with Victoria and Albert, though letters reveal the sisters seemingly had an affectionate bond that made them faithful correspondents across years and distance, with visits relatively rare.
The Duchess of Sutherland is inaccurately depicted as carrying on an improbable romance with prince Ernest of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, who is also inaccurately depicted as being unmarried at the time. Margaret Clunie told RadioTimes.com: "Harriet Sutherland had a famously happy marriage with the Duke of Sutherland and they had these 11 children and lived happily ever after. So we have slightly deviated away from the truth."
Robert Peel's Private Secretary Edward Drummond is shown as having a relationship with Lord Alfred Paget, but there's no evidence that either of the men were gay or had any same-sex relationships. Drummond was fatally shot in 1843. Alfred Paget became the Queen's Chief Equerry in 1846.
Frances Mulraney wrote on IrishCentral that "Faith, Hope & Charity" episode "overplays the extent to which Queen Victoria sought to aid the famine Irish in the 1840s, exaggerating her interest in Ireland." English-born historian Christine Kinealy, founding director of Ireland's Great Hunger Institute at Quinnipiac University, who has studied Queen Victoria's diaries and the writings of Prime Ministers Peel and Russell, said that "There is no evidence that she had any real compassion for the Irish people in any way." Irish clergyman Robert Traill, who wrote a letter that makes it to the newspapers, had never met Victoria. The creator of the show, Daisy Goodwin, said: "I thought story would be a good way to illustrate the terrible way in which the Irish were treated by the British government."

Accolades