Victoria

[Chickenpie9]

Is anyone else looking forward to the return of Victoria on Sunday ? I will miss Lord Melbourne as I haven't read Rufus Sewell is returning but I can hope

Nine children is such a horror I'm amazed anyone could forget after hearing it once!

There were contraceptive devices in use, crude yes, but you'd think anything would be worth a try and sponge was even said by doctors to be helpful as a barrier method. But if you don't know about victoria this show is a weird introduction, the Victoria we see on screen at present doesn't seem a woman who would be against female suffrage. I wonder how long they've planned out the shows.

I wish they wouldn't mess around with the facts so much. The Duchess of Buccleuch was in her 30s when appointed and she and Victoria got on very well. What on earth is the point in depicting her as an old battle-axe? It just casts doubt on the accuracy of everything else in the programme.

I feel like they introduced the older version of the Duchess as Victoria's answer to the Dowager Countess in Downton.

Ceto, thank you for letting us know
I appreciate it's historical fiction but I would like some accuracy! Of course I know there's no evidence for the Lord M feelings either but what a strange depiction of the Duchess in that case.

Do you have any recommendations for her biography? There's so many to choose from.

Actually that's interesting, yes she was 30 and they were good friends. I wonder why they changed it so much, I'd also have preferred some accuracy.

whats with the old woman? wouldnt the real Vic have told her to know her place? hate this character- if she was ever real. the fact I cant stand Diana Rigg help too! .

In RL if anyone knows did Ernest marry? and who? yes, duchesses neice is next in his line I bet!

Chefs got the hump with skerrit atm eh?

couldnt stop laughing everytime helmets were mentioned! (me and my dirty mind).

Toddlerteaplease thank you will take a look

I'm just watching & thought that Baroness Lehzen had been dismissed.

Also that Francatelli decided to leave?

Lehzen was not dismissed until later in real life, so I expect we will see that. I think it was blooming Albert who dismissed her. Sigh.

I want a Lehzen in real life!

Yes Francatelli left, you'll see why he returns when you've watched the whole episode.

I was sure that I had seen last series that Albert had made Victoria dismiss Lehzen!

Victoria was completely anti women's suffrage. This seems common among queens regnant like Marie Antoinette's mum Empress Maria Theresa who basically did whatever she liked but told Marie Antoinette her job was to submit entirely to the will of her husband.

I did find the helmet talk rather excessive. I didn't know the Duchess of Buccleuch was a young woman, WTF is the point of mucking about with her age?

Diddl, Albert was unhappy that Lehzen hasn't told him - but had told Victoria- about the man who wrote letters saying he would "rescue" her and then threw a bunch of violets into the carriage.

One of the funniest moments of series one was the Duke of Cumberland saying "do you really think I would attempt regicide using a half wit from south of the river". Can you tell I'm a north Londoner but I did wonder of there was a history, even then, of OMD south of the river. I asked my south London friends and they said it was do with poverty but I'm not convinced. There was poverty everywhere!

I do love their exterior Palace shots, I'd love to see the set.

I think the scriptwriter set them a challenge with all that helmet talk!

Just watched it tonight - thought it was a good episode (although agree re too much helmet talk). Why was Victoria anti Women's suffrage?

She felt it violated the natural order of things, that men and women were different and women (er, except her) intended to serve men.

" I am most anxious to enlist everyone who can speak or write to join in checking this mad, wicked folly of 'Women's Rights', with all its attendant horrors, on which her poor feeble sex is bent, forgetting every sense of womanly feelings and propriety. Feminists ought to get a good whipping. Were woman to 'unsex' themselves by claiming equality with men, they would become the most hateful, heathen and disgusting of beings and would surely perish without male protection."

The best biography I know of is Elizabeth Longford's, but I'm no expert.

There's information about the Duchess of Buccleuch here. It says:

In 1841 she succeeded the Duchess of Southerland as Mistress of the Robes to Queen Victoria. The new prime minister, Robert Peel, personally selected her to be a member of his newly formed ministry.... Her husband was a staunch Conservative and became Lord Privy Seal in Peel's ministry from 1842 to 1846; the Duchess used the connection to help her brothers gain patronage.

The Duchess of Buccleuch and Queen Victoria were lifelong friends, with the monarch describing the Duchess as "an agreeable, sensible, clever little person."

Thank you Ceto
Strange casting indeed!

I'm in Ireland, and I can't find it on any if the channels, we don't have utv Ireland anymore, and it doesn't seem to be on the replacement channel b3, hopefully just running a week late over here,

I found it a bit soapy. I like my BBC dramas gritty, and the more 1970s the production values, the better lol. A miscast Rigg is supposed to be this show's answer to Maggie Smith but I think she'll be good value. Some of the dialogue jarred, and the queen is a bit too modern. However, there is great chemistry between the leads. The acting is very strong. The sets and costumes are fantastic, I liked the juxtaposition between the kitchen and Victoria's rooms.

Scrabbler it's not BBC.

Not sure what 1970s production values means but I find stuff from then ofte feels stilted and dated. I agree this is soapy but it is the Sunday night thing.

I got the A.N. Wilson biography in the end, it was in the library.

Not loving it as much as I did last time but we will see if it picks up

Euphemia, the Mexican American war was after? I thought.

the biog and a very quick search online don't mention any words said by Victoria at the launch (HMS Trafalgar,1841).

She might not have made a speech at all? interestingly, the biog I'm reading has other HMS listed from her reign but not that one. The answer is bound to be online somewhere. Or you could Tweet at Daisy Goodwin who has answered questions about historical accuracy this week.

Was so happy to see Lord M back last night !

I don't seem to be enjoying it a much as last season either. I'm a bit bored already with the below stairs stuff. Did the thieving urchin story even go anywhere? I do like Jenna Coleman and Tom Hughes. Glad they haven't romanticized her attitude to motherhood or the pressures on women when they had no control of theirvreproduction, through Victoria and Ada Lovelace.