ROLE REPLAY: Queen Victoria

With Judi Dench back playing the long-serving Queen (centre) in Victoria & Abdul (8pm, Sky Premiere), we look at other actresses who have taken on the role of the monarch… Peter Sellers in The Great McGonagall

(1975)

In this humorous biopic of Scottish poet William McGonagall, Sellers plays a Queen with voracious appetites. The film was a flop, and marked a low point in Sellers’s career.

Kathy Bates in Around The World In 80 Days (2004)

Victoria has made less obvious appearances, including in this film of Jules Verne’s classic tale, played by American actress Bates.

Emily Blunt in The Young Victoria (2009)

Downton Abbey’s Julian Fellowes penned this lavish biopic of Victoria’s early life in Kensington Palace, living under the beady eye of her mother’s private secretary, Sir John Conroy. Emily Blunt (far left) jumped at the role: ‘I had to be quite pushy about getting them to cast me.’

Jenna Coleman in Victoria (2016-present)

The former Doctor Who assistant (right) takes the lead in ITV’s hugely popular drama, written by Daisy Goodwin, which follows the early life of Victoria, from her ascension to the throne at the tender age of 18 to her courtship and marriage to Prince

Albert (Tom Hughes).