COVER STORY PAGE 4: Victoria returns but Jenna Coleman says her reign as the British monarch may be coming to an end.
With revolution in the air, Victoria fears for her safety as the British period drama returns to TVNZ 1 this week. Jenna Coleman talks about what lies ahead and why her time as Victoria could soon be over. Jim Maloney reports.
As Victoria returns for a third season, the young monarch is unsettled to the point where she thinks she may be de-throned.
It’s 1848 and with the French King overthrown, riots in Berlin, and civil unrest and protests in London, the monarchy in Europe is more fragile than ever.
Worried for her safety, the Queen’s advisers persuade her to leave the turbulent capital for the relative safety of Osborne House, her home on the Isle of Wight.
On top of this, Victoria’s marriage to Albert is also on shaky ground. She is pregnant yet again, hating it as much as ever, and increasingly blaming her husband for continually putting her in this position.
“She has considered herself secure and known from when she was a young girl that she was going to be Queen,” says Jenna Coleman who plays her. “Suddenly to realise that perhaps she may be disposable and her relationship with the people not
what she thought, gives her a huge identity crisis.
“She’s also eight-and-a-half months pregnant at this point and hates the limitations this puts on her. It’s quite an interesting way to kick off the show.”
With Albert (Tom Hughes) engrossed in his plans for The Great Exhibition, showcasing industry and manufacturing, the two are drifting further apart from each other. And helping to distance them further is Victoria’s half-sister Theodora, played by Kate Fleetwood.
“The pair grew up together at Kensington Palace and Theodora later married a German prince,” says Coleman.
“She and Victoria haven’t seen each other for years and when she turns up there is tension between them – a resentment.
“Theodora is smart and wheedles a plan to drive a wedge between Victoria and Albert. She positions herself as Albert’s confidante and
he and Victoria are becoming more and more disparate and can’t find their way back to each other.”
Also joining the cast is Laurence Fox (Lewis) as the Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston and John Sessions as the Prime Minister John Russell.
Portraying someone with such emotional extremes has been an enjoyable challenge for Coleman, 32.
“What is clear from her diaries and the biographies about her is that she is a complex character,” Coleman says. “One moment she is stubborn and impatient with an authority that she is always right but at other times she has an utter lack of confidence in herself.
“Also, Albert has made such a sacrifice to be with her and she wants to be his wife but, at the same time, not relinquish control of being Queen.
“So she is incredibly contradictory and has always got these conflicts and battles going on inside.”
But having played Victoria in three series, in which she has aged from 18 to 32 by the end of this run, Coleman is mindful that she cannot play her to the age of 81. And it is possible that there might be only one more series with her in the role.
“We have been making the progression in showing her ageing,” Coleman says.
“This series I was conscious that we needed to make her costumes bigger so that she looked heavier. I had a slight bit of padding but it was more about not having those tight corsets. There are so many petticoats and it’s so heavy this season. She’s also wearing a lot of lace, which had come into fashion. “Make-up is stripped back this season. There is no foundation and that has the effect of making her look more tired and older. “But, going forward to another series, there would need to be further progression, maybe in some form of subtle prosthetic. “There is going to have to come a point – and probably very soon – where I stop playing her because it just wouldn’t be realistic. But it’s going to be a very hard thing to give up because I do feel that, especially as she is getting older, she is becoming more complex and interesting. It would bring a lot of interesting challenges as an actor.” So who might fill Jenna Coleman’s shoes? “I think about that a lot,” she says wistfully. “Emily Watson would be amazing, Imelda Staunton fab, Helena Bonham Carter, but she’s obviously busy right now (portraying Princess Margaret in The Crown). Helen McCrory, perhaps. And Olivia Colman is so good in The Favourite. Any of them would be wonderful.”
“There is going to have to come a point – and probably very soon – where I stop playing her because it just wouldn’t be realistic.”
– Jenna Coleman