REIGN DANCE
JENNA COLEMAN AND TOM HUGHES TALK ROYAL DUTY AS VICTORIA RETURNS TO THE THRONE…
Inside TV is on set for the second series of
Victoria, and we’ve taken advantage of a break in filming to have a wander round the palace when something very strange happens: completely without warning, Jenna Coleman glides past in full Queen Victoria costume. We’re taken aback – should we bow and curtsey? In the end we settle for a polite wave, but our confusion at the whole situation just goes to show how convincing everything about this hit ITV drama is.
The original series brought us up to the birth of Victoria’s first child, but what will happen when she returns to her royal duties afterwards? Stars Jenna Coleman and Tom Hughes
(aka Albert) reveal all…
What kind of thing can we expect from series two?
Jenna We cover nearly six years this series, which is bananas! I think in the last series, because we had the Lord Melbourne story and Albert coming in, we haven’t really yet delved into their married life at all. I reckon that series two gives us the opportunity to really get into the power shift and the clash of wills and the love between Victoria and Albert.
Tom There is a definite growth in Albert. It’s important to remember that he and Victoria are only in their early twenties at the end of series one. Series two picks up only a few weeks later, so they are still these two young spirits and there is a freshness, a vitality, perhaps an idealism in them.
Can you tell us a bit more about the tensions in their relationship?
Jenna That’s pretty much where we start – Victoria has been in confinement, as they believed that once women had babies they should lie horizontal for a month and not move, basically, so that’s what she’s been doing! She’s not in the best of tempers, having been babied and fussed around for a month – and then she comes back to work and sees that Albert has effectively taken over, and obviously she doesn’t really like that.
Tom I think that naturally the more time one spends in an environment, the more at ease one feels within it – or the more one understands of it, at least. That is true of Albert, but circumstance has it that others may not be quite as comfortable with this growing stability and strident expression of his!