Victoria and Albert 2001 starring Victoria Hamilton, Jonathan Firth and Penelope Wilton

Victoria and Albert 2001 starring Victoria Hamilton, Jonathan Firth and Penelope Wilton

After watching the end of South Riding tonight on PBS, which I thoroughly enjoyed by the way, I popped Victoria and Albert in the DVD player. Penelope Wilton did an amazing job in both of these miniseries'. She is a true force of nature in this as Queen Victoria's mother The Duchess of Kent battling for control with her daughter, the future Queen of England.

Victoria Hamilton as Queen Victoria and Penelope Wilton as her mother The Duchess of Kent

Victoria Hamilton, as well as sharing her character's name, really seems to capture the young girl grappling with her transition from girl to Queen to wife. In one scene where she stands up to her mother the Duchess and Sir John Conroy, the grasping Irishman that The Duchess relied on, Victoria is shaking with anger and fear at her new found power. Woweee.

Jonathan Firth (yes, Colin's brother) and Victoria Hamilton in V&A

Jonathan Firth, the younger brother of the more famous period actor Colin Firth, does a fabulous job of conveying the trepidation with which he approached this marriage and his frustration to carve out a role for himself in Victoria's life and in service to his new homeland. The tenderness with which he bathes Victoria's temples on their wedding night really makes the heart skip a beat. No wonder Victoria never got over his death. They even fight with an undercurrent of sexiness. He may not have loved her at first, but they sure seemed to have developed a great relationship and this miniseries makes you feel as if you were a fly on the wall watching them fall in love. Oh, those Firth brothers!

Lord Melbourne played by Nigel Hawthorne

The supporting cast is a dream, with Nigel Hawthorne as Lord Melbourne, Victoria's first Prime Minister and advisor in her early days. David Suchet is brilliant as the Saxe-Cobourg family mentor and behind the scenes man Baron Stockmar, who pulled the strings to achieve the match between the famous pair.

Diana Rigg as Baroness Lehzen

Diana Rigg as Victoria's governess and friend Baroness Lehzen, Peter Ustinov as Victoria's uncle and predecessor King William IV (aka Billy the Sailor King) and even Crispin Bonham-Carter, everyone's favorite Mr. Bingley as Lord Frederick Standish...the list goes on and on.

So if you have never seen this wonderfully crafted miniseries, and you are still craving more royalty after that little wedding a few weeks ago, this one is a great one to see. Although the photography and costumes were better in the more recent film, The Young Victoria, this one has more heart.

For this and more of Queen Vicky, you can try these films, and by the way, I vote for Victoria as the name of the firstborn of William and Catherine. What say you to that? OK, not if he is a boy. How about Albert for a boy's name?????