Ex-‘Doctor Who’ star rules as ‘Victoria’

By John Crook

Zap2it writer

In her native England, actress Jenna Coleman has been working in television since her teens, but she became an international star in 2012, when she joined the current reboot of “Doctor Who” as Clara Oswald, one of the Doctor’s traveling companions. Working first with Matt Smith and then with Peter Capaldi, Coleman played a multifaceted and ferociously smart young woman who was ready for anything the Doctor and his multiverse wanted to throw at her.

Those same traits stand the actress in good stead as she undertakes the title role in “Victoria,” a new “Masterpiece” series premiering Sunday at 9 p.m. on PBS. As the British monarch who took the throne at age 18 and put such a stamp on her time that an entire era would bear her name, Coleman – who turned 30 in 2016 – has both the dewy beauty to pull off her early scenes as the teenage Victoria and the inherent gravitas and fire to embody this petite woman who stood up to several male figures all too eager to claim her throne.

Written by Daisy Goodwin, who adapted her own popular book, this series is part historical novel, part romantic fiction and – OK – part slo-mo shampoo commercial, but it’s seldom less than compelling. There are multiple subplots and ancillary characters (many of them fictional), but the main story chronicles how Victoria ascends the throne largely through the ill fortune of several uncles who failed to produce legitimate heirs.

Victoria’s youth invites older male adversaries to underestimate her, to their serious disadvantage. Among the few men who recognize her promise is the British prime minister Lord Melbourne (Rufus Sewell), who becomes her father figure and devoted friend (among the few false notes in this series is the strained attempt to portray Victoria and Melbourne as star-crossed lovers, although both Coleman and Sewell walk a fine, subtle line in their scenes together).

Only a little later, Victoria finds a mate who will turn out to be the great love of her life in her German cousin, Prince Albert (Tom Hughes), a handsome but socially awkward young man whose introverted demeanor masks a keen intelligence, wit and passion for social justice.

Other familiar faces in “Victoria” include Alex Jennings, who played the Duke of Windsor in Netflix’s “The Crown,” as Belgian King Leopold I, who played matchmaker for Victoria and Albert; David Oakes (“The Borgias”) as Prince Ernest, Albert’s devoted brother; Peter Firth (“MI-5”) as the Duke of Cumberland, yet another of Victoria’s uncles who are conspiring against her; Peter Bowles (“To the Manor Born”) as Lord Wellington and Eve Myles (“Torchwood”), as a member of the palace staff.

The physical production of “Victoria” is large in scale, although it relies heavily on effective use of CGI technology and the extensive use of wigs and costumes faithful to the period.

Obviously aimed, with a very keen eye, at the “Downton Abbey” crowd, this series – which already has been greenlighted for a second season in the United Kingdom – takes events through the birth of Victoria and Albert’s first child.

Clearly, if audiences follow along, there’s ample material for several more seasons to come.