Jenna Coleman to star in ITV's epic period drama, Victoria

(Image credit: PA WIRE)

Filming will start on Victoria, a new eight-part epic drama about Queen Victoria starring Jenna Coleman, in October.

Jenna said: “I am delighted to be cast as Queen Victoria in this ambitious drama of her life. She is a vivid, strong, inspirational and utterly fascinating woman in British history and I can't wait to tell her story.”

The ambitious eight-part drama follows the early life of Queen Victoria, from her ascension to the throne at the tender age of 18, through to her courtship and marriage to Price Albert.

Victoria went on to rule for 63 years, and was our longest serving monarch until she was overtaken by Elizabeth II on 9th September this year.

 

Victoria will be made by Mammoth Screen, producers of Poldark (BBC1) and Endeavour (ITV), and the series is created and written by novelist Daisy Goodwin, in her screenwriting debut. The series will open with a 90-minute episode, followed by seven one-hour episodes.

The news comes following reports that Jenna had filmed her last scenes on Doctor Who. She's played the Doctor's assistant Clara Oswald for the past three years.

 

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.