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Critic Reviews
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Anyone who has followed Victoria knows that it puts history through a soap opera wash with exotic floral fabric conditioner. Yet what comes out at the end is usually entertaining, if often perfumed and melodramatic. This opener brought the same lip-glossed, high-production values, but was a bit samey-samey and would have felt flat without the shot in the arm that was cocksure (literally) Lord Palmerston, played by Laurence Fox.
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As ever, it all hinges on Jenna Coleman’s performance as Victoria and her ability to conjure up a portrait of this queen as understanding, sympathetic, kind and decent, even under unimaginable and possibly imaginary pressures. It might not be elegant and it might not survive the strain of putting its plot points to the search engine test, but as diverting drama it gets the job done.