‘Victoria’ Episode 5 review: ‘An Ordinary Woman’

Frustrating relatives continue to frustrate this week in the wonderful world of Victoria, coupled with the usual condescending attitudes of all and sundry, and added political nonsense.

Oh, how it makes one grateful just to have met a friend of a friend with a kind smile and married them with no interference from anyone at all.

I suppose it’s a good thing that Bert and Ernie (sorry, Albert and Ernest, I guess) came to visit after all, as Victoria, in an entirely expected turn – again, history and all that – decided she quite likes Albert after all, and they’re going to get married.

No, don’t show us so much of Lord M’s face when he gets the news that Vic is getting hitched to Bert! It hurts me to see Rufus Sewell in pain: look, I know it’s all make-believe and he’s acting, but what I’m trying to say is that he does a jolly good job of it, to the extent that I’m invested in M’s well-being and do worry for his poor, hopeless heart. I despair a little every time I see him standing in the background trying not to be sad, but also so proud of her and, I think, in quiet awe of her strength. Life is unfair.

I’d forgotten Peter Bowles was in this! And here he is, decidedly doing unpleasant politics.

Meanwhile, back in the old country, Ernie takes Bert to visit some very friendly young ladies, and honestly, this is the most I’ve liked him: of course we knew he wasn’t going to leap into bed with a naughty lady of the evening, but the fact that he picked up a pen and paper and asked her to give him some notes is admittedly endearing. But even as they’re apparently deliriously in love, Bert is a bit of a difficult fellow.

It’s a testament to lovely Jenna Coleman that she’s able to be so convincingly regal and authoritative, but also so young and still quite innocent in some ways. Indeed: they are apt to remind us just how young the parties involved here are, full of youthful ideals and optimism. It’s sweet.

There is no way that writer Daisy Goodwin doesn’t ship Vicky and Lord M quite a lot: that little scene between them, just before she departed for her honeymoon, was luminous with emotion, so sweet, and so sad.

I would be remiss not to acknowledge the costume department too: Vicky looks equally super cute in her bonnet as she does in her flower crown, and I want what she’s wearing in pretty much every scene.