MASTERPIECE
Victoria

Premieres Sunday, January 15, 8:00 pm

If your Sundays have suffered from a lack of masterfully written period dramas since the Downton Abbey finale, Masterpiece is here for you with a new series to fall in love with — Victoria. Jenna Coleman (Doctor Who) stars as the young Queen Victoria at the outset of her epic reign, which set the stage for an entire era that would be named in her honor.

Writer Daisy Goodwin depicts what it was like for an ill-educated, emotionally deprived teenager to wake up one morning and find that she is the most powerful woman in the world. Following Victoria from her accession to the throne at age 18, through her education in politics, courtship and marriage, Victoria paints a portrait of a monarch who was raised to be the pawn of her powerful elders but who wasted no time in showing the empire who was in charge. “People don’t know how unapologetically vivid and vibrant and romantic she was,” Coleman said.

There is a Hawai‘i connection to Queen Victoria through Hawai‘i monarch, Queen Emma. In the video below, Rev. Canon Dr. Malcolm Naea Chun of the Cathedral of Saint Andrew in Honolulu talks about the letters exchanged between the two queens – revealing a bond that was forged out of deep sorrow.