Victoria
ITV
★★★
Revolution is in the air and the personal and the political are inextricably intertwined – the third series of Victoria recreates the mid-19th century in handsome detail yet again and if you’ve been missing the epic period dramatics of Les Miserables, this easily digestible history – one of ITV’s most successful exports– is a treat.
Jenna Coleman returned as the impeccably PC monarch, and spent much of the opener coping with the effects of the wave of revolutions which swept Europe in 1848. The dispossessed monarchs and nobility fled to Britain, giving writer Daisy Goodwin the chance to introduce some new Special Guest Aristos – Vincent Regan as the exiled French king Louis Philippe (adding a new overdone foreign accent to the series’ already impressive array) and Kate Fleetwood as Princess Feodora, Victoria’s long-lost (and somewhat envious) half-sister.
This caused resentment among the populace and the Chartist reform movement. But Victoria kept her finger on the pulse of public opinion in the tried and tested way – consulting the servants who provide the “downstairs” element of the drama. Seamstress/Chartist activist Abigail (Sabrina Bartlett), duly reassured her that it weren’t Her Majesty wot the people had the quarrel with, but “a government that gives the working man no voice in his own affairs” (the script really is that clunky).
Meanwhile Prince Albert (Tom Hughes) was trying to be a bit more hands-on in the political arena, chuntering at the newly-published Communist Manifesto before going on a fact-finding mission to the London slums. “Zey liff like vermin!” he warned his wife as the unrest grew, encouraging her to flee to the Isle of Wight for safety, but she insisted on staying in London to be a symbol of solidity to her divided nation.
Before you could say “Brexit parallels” a Chartist mob at the palace gates caused her waters to break – another bit of fast-and-looseness with the facts that nevertheless made for a cracking episode climax, proving once again that in its best moments this series is classy, pacy prime time drama.
Director Geoffrey Sax kept it all looking sumptuous, from the lovely frocks to the handsome interiors – and moving along briskly. And it did shed light on some figures and incidents from history that I hadn’t been aware of – such as the mixed-race Chartist agitator William Cuffay (CJ Beckford), pressing for more violent, direct action rather than the rallies and petitions favoured by the movement’s more moderate leadership.
Best of all, it continued to provide regular employment for character actors keen to give an eye-catching turn as Victoria’s ministers. This time around John Sessions was unctuous pragmatism personified as her latest PM, Lord John Russell. And Laurence Fox channelled Swiss Toni from The Fast Show as the rakish, populist foreign secretary Lord Palmerston – assuring his sovereign that the British public was “like a beautiful woman” that only he knew how to handle. Their sparring could prove to be one of the highlights of the series.
