‘Brood mare’ Victoria is back, undermined and rather underwhelming
‘The Queen’s struggle to reassert her independence might have been more convincing if the script hadn’t been peppered with clunking statements’
Two heavyweight dramas went head-tohead last night. Victoria, the royal drama starring Jenna Coleman, returned for a second series on ITV 1 at 9.05pm while the new crime drama from JK Rowling ran in the same slot on BBC One. Strike: The Cuckoo’s Calling is a new drama from the Harry Potter author based on the first book in her murder mystery trilogy, which she wrote under the name Robert Galbraith. Here, and on our television pages, we review both shows... By Gerard O’donovan ITV’S sumptuous reimagining of Queen Victoria’s early years, Victoria, took our screens by storm last year, hurtling former Doctor Who star Jenna Coleman to household name status.
Just four episodes in, millions were left bereft by the extinguishing of the newly crowned monarch’s unrequited teenage crush on her splendidly handsome prime minister and mentor Lord Melbourne (Rufus Sewell).
Unfortunately the series took a dip when Victoria’s subsequent romance with Prince Albert (Tom Hughes) didn’t quite live up to that standard of enrapturement.
Largely because Albert was portrayed not as so much as a romantic hero as an insufferably self-righteous Teutonic prig.
Returning for a second series on ITV, then, the opening episode was beset by much the same problems.
Having given birth to her first child, the young Queen was struggling to bond with her newborn and chomping at the bit to return to her state duties, only to be undermined at every turn by her control-freakish husband and just about every other puffed up pesky
politician in her court.
The Queen’s struggle to reassert her monarchical independence might have been more convincing if the script hadn’t been peppered with such clunking statements of the obvious as “What my country needs is a Queen, not a brood mare”.
Nor did the script’s repeated insistence on male approval being the only signal – from Albert, of course, but from the fathomlessly paternalistic Duke of Wellington (Peter Bowles) as well – accepted by Victoria that she was doing anything right.
Still, the sad military debacle a long way away at the Khyber Pass gave occasional reminders that what we’re watching was grounded in historical fact, and Diana Rigg provided much needed light relief as Victoria’s new mistress of the robes, the Duchess of Buccleuch.
Overall, then, a slightly underwhelming start to this much anticipated return, though the visuals remain as stunningly rich and impressive as before.