Queen Victoria ruled the British Empire for sixty-three years and gave her name to an entire era of supposed moral restraint. But the real Victoria was a woman of volcanic emotions — passionately in love with Prince Albert, devastated by his death into decades of reclusive mourning, drawn into a scandalous intimacy with her Scottish servant John Brown, and wielding political influence with a stubbornness that drove prime ministers to despair.

This episode traces Victoria from her isolated childhood through her marriage to Albert, the grief that nearly ended her public life, and the imperial reign that made her the most powerful woman on earth.

• Victoria's controlled childhood under the Kensington System and her accession at eighteen
• The passionate marriage to Prince Albert and the partnership that shaped early Victorian Br ...