The PM and the Queen
Lazy, clever, and serving a Queen who had a crush on him: Rufus Sewell plays an enigmatic British Prime Minister,
There is little doubt that the young Queen Victoria was infatuated with her dashing Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne in a classic case of a rather naive teenager having a crush on an older man.
Their complex relationship is examined in new Brit period drama Victoria, starring Jenna Coleman in the title role. But Rufus Sewell, who plays Melbourne, says he didn’t believe in it when he first read the script.
‘‘I didn’t know anything about Melbourne and when I first got the script I thought it was wonderful but I thought it might have been kind of ‘souped up’ and that his relationship with Victoria wasn’t really that way,’’ he said. ‘‘It seemed too dramatic and I thought if their relationship had really been like that we would all know about it. But then I did my research and found that it was all true.
‘‘The pair hit it off right from the start. He was the first grown-up to respect her opinions and treat her as an equal and the first person to not try to manipulate her and she recognised that.
‘‘Victoria was 18 and he was in his mid- to late-50s. It was quite an interesting relationship because in a sense he was very in charge and incredibly intense and kind of all encompassing, and at the same time he was very fatherly.
‘‘I believe it was mixed up with romantic feelings and he was kind of confused at the time, as was she. He was incredibly protective of her and for Victoria it was a little complicated by the fact that she had led such a sheltered life and hadn’t really known many men.
‘‘It seems, if you read her diaries, which were heavily edited by her daughter, she was infatuated by him. Melbourne was urbane and witty, kind and stylish, much liked and admired and he gave her all of his attention. I think that was confusing for her. But he certainly didn’t manipulate her and had nothing but her best interest at heart.’’
Their closeness was the source of much gossip because Melbourne had something of a reputation with women. He liked them and they liked him.
‘‘He was very attracted to really bright, opinionated, independent, clever women,’’ says 48-year-old Sewell, star of many TV dramas, including Zen and Eleventh Hour. ‘‘There was a lot of talk about how much time he and Victoria spent in each other’s company and they would write each other letters 10 times a day when he was running a country and under much pressure to spend every evening at the Palace having dinner with her. And until Albert came along he was pretty much everything to her. And that’s what makes the relationship very touching and very kind of complex.’’
Earlier in his life Melbourne had been at the centre of a scandal when his wife, Lady Caroline, ran off with the poet, Lord Byron.
‘‘When that relationship ended she had a breakdown and she reached out to Melbourne for help and he nursed her through it. And he was vilified and ridiculed for that but he was very devoted to her. He didn’t care what the papers said about him. And then he had a long, scandalous relationship with Caroline Norton, the wife of lawyer Charles Norton, who went to court to sue Melbourne for £10,000.
‘‘Melbourne was Prime Minister for a long time and a very successful one in his way but he was famous for reputedly being the laziest PM in history! He was well liked and had a fervent dislike of people who had strongly held principles as he believed in people being malleable. Through charm he managed to get his own way all of the time. He was a slippery, charming person who appeared not to take any strong stances on anything.’’
Victoria, TVNZ 1, tonight, 8.30pm.