Who was your favorite Queen Victoria? Annette Crosbie in the BBC series EDWARD THE SEVENTH (or EDWARD THE KING) or Judi Dench from MRS. BROWN?
shareDench by far.
You can always trust a dishonest man to be dishonest - honestly!
Dench did a fairly good job exploring Victoria's emotional angst. However; based on historical descriptions of Victoria's speaking voice, I think Crosbie NAILED that domineering soprano tone that could pierce through anything!
shareI think Dench gave Victoria a much more humane quality. Crosbie was fantastic when showing her prowess and somewhat fierce demeanor, but Dench revealed her sensitivity and made her a more well-rounded historical figure.
shareI think Dench's portrayal is too sympathetic. And I cannot forgive the way the Prince of Wales was written. This film was too one-sided; its aim to portray an almost fairy tale-like love story between the two leads was just ridiculous (Brown and Victoria against the world...ugh). It was a Hollywood bastardization, but done by the BBC.
shareAnnette Crosbie had more time to develop and explore the character. I felt I got to know the character better in Edward the King. Dench had much less to work with - primarily Victoria's grieving over the death of her husband and bonding with Brown.
I thought both actresses were very good.
Miriam Margolyes in "Blackadder's Christmas Carol" ;)
She definitely had the best figure for this part.
I never saw the BBC production with Annette Crosbie playing Queen Victoria; I've neverheard about it. If it was shown here in America, I never heard it announced, otherwise I would have probably watched it.
I did see "Mrs. Brown," and Judi Dench was very good, though I think that some of the criticisms in this thread of her portrayal are legitimate. There was another wonderful movie about her called "The Mudlark" (released in 1950), which gave similarly strong attention to historical accuracy about her character (there may have been some historical inaccuracies in the plot, but I am not an expert in that aspect of English history during that period). Irene Dunne played her incredibly well, and though she was an American, I could not detect that from her portrayal. Indeed, she was so well made-up to presumably look like Victoria that I was incredulous that the part was played by Dunne -- she was virtually unrecognizable, in facial features (undetectable as artificial, which is a technically astonishing achievement for the era in which it was made) or in her voice. I had to study her portrayal for several minutes before I could discern very subtle things that made me realize that Miss Dunne was actually playing that part.
Of the movie portrayals I have seen, I think that Irene Dunne is the best Victoria. If you have not seen "The Mudlark," you should do that, because you may find that your opinion of the best movie Queen Victoria may change.
I recently finished watching Victoria and Albert. It was very good. . .I recommend it.
shareNeither. Emily Blunt from "The Young Victoria" was the most entertaining Victoria of them all.
If you haven't seen the movie, shame on you.
The costumes in TYV are amazing, but I can't say much about the script other than describe it as a sappy, schmaltzy fairy tale taking huge liberties with history.
shareI beg to differ. That was a shallow, inaccurate and silly portrayal. Way too many liberties were taken with the real story which imo is superior and dramatic enough without the tripey Mills & Boon aspects added by Julian fellowes.
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