Product: Victoria & Albert: A Royal Love Affair [VHS] (2001)
Rating: 5.0
The Best Since A&E/BBC's Pride and Prejudice
I didn't expect much from this miniseries but I was hooked within the first five minutes. My husband and I watched the entire series from start to finish with few pauses and only the quickest breaks possible. We were engrossed by the story and the wonderful actors. I realized as I watched the film that while I know a lot about Victorian England, I didn't know very much about Victoria and Albert themselves. This series made me hungry for more information. The high moral values the couple espoused are presented to modern audiences with sincerity and an utter lack of severity.Victoria Hamilton plays the queen with finesse and ages wonderfully from a teenaged princess to a middle-aged queen. Her Victoria is far from perfect, but wonderfully flawed with a frame of steel. Jonathan Firth is frustrated, intelligent and ultimately devoted as Albert. He is also sexy and appealing. The supporting cast is great with stellar performances from Diana Rigg, Jonathan Pryce and Nigel Hawthorne.I haven't enjoyed a miniseries so much since "Pride and Prejudice" aired on A&E years ago. My only complaint is that I could have watched two more hours instead of just four.One of the best lines: "How can you expect him to be afraid of you if he wasn't afraid of Napoleon?" Or something close to that in reference to the Duke of Wellington's impertinence to the king.