All language subtitles for BBC Victoria and Albert The Royal Wedding with Lucy Worsley

in 1840 two 20 year olds

became the most famous couple on earth

dearly beloved the marriage of queen

victoria

to prince albert of sax cobo was a

pivotal moment in british history

what began as an arranged marriage

became the greatest royal love story of

all time

victoria sees this vision of male beauty

it was pure beautiful gobsmacking love

we're going to reconstruct the big day

to tell the story of a queen

and a prince who desperately needed to

win their people's hearts

it was romance and politics this

marriage had to stave off

revolution the monarchy was very close

to extinction

and people were throwing bricks and

stones through the palace windows

it's only by recreating the wedding that

we'll see the meticulous stage

management that went into every moment

and understand the genius behind this

19th century

public relations coup it's going to be a

big challenge

i'm calling on a team of experts to

recreate every aspect of the ceremony

they'll investigate the incredible

wedding food

and uncover the details of victoria's

legendary wedding dress

they'll open albert's wardrobe and

search for the elusive wedding music

together we'll step back to february

1840

to see how this wedding saved the crown

this event is the first example of the

royal wedding machine

in action it was the birth of a brand

the myth the powerful legend of victoria

and albert it was the wedding of the

century

and this time we're all invited

the briton victoria was born into was

the richest nation

in the western world home to 14 billion

people

most of them living in poverty the

average

citizen was young and died that way

during victoria's 63-year reign

the population of britain had doubled in

size

suburbs blossomed so did the railway

network

and a queen who was born by candlelight

lives to see electricity

not very much of the britain victoria

grew up in survives

our story is set in the remains of the

regency world she was born into

in palaces and castles in fragments

[Music]

this pocket handkerchief of a square is

a jewel

it's clinging on just behind what's now

the modern victoria station

the square was built the year she became

queen

at the start of victoria's reign

everything was smaller

the houses the carriages even the people

but

expectations were great

the pressure on this tiny girl was

gigantic

she'd only be 18 years old when she

became

queen she had a special lightweight

crown made to sit on her little head at

her coronation

but despite her youth clearly she needed

to get married

and babied up

is the story of the royal wedding

machine

first created to get princess victoria

to the altar

it was set running the very day that she

was born

early in the morning at the 24th of may

1819

victoria was born here at kensington

palace in that first floor drawing room

her father was king george iii's fourth

son

edward duke of kent and her mother was

princess

louise victoire of sax coburg now

duchess of kent

we know a huge amount about queen

victoria because she left us her

thoughts 141 volumes of them

this room is queen victoria's childhood

bedroom

from the age of 13 here at kensington

palace she'd been keeping a daily

diary a journal the originals of these

volumes are at windsor castle today

but anyone in the world can read them

because they've all been put online

she wrote about where she'd been who

she'd met

her hopes and her dreams the weather

as a child she'd had very little freedom

her mother controlled every move driven

by the need to make sure she survived to

become

queen initially she was very resistant

to the idea

of immediately marrying victoria's

priority was

to spare herself the inevitability of

marriage and producing

a line of little babies to succeed and

be in line to the throne

she felt that onerous responsibility

victoria always knew that she was

destined for an arranged marriage

to her cousin prince albert of sax

coburg and gota

a small german family with a big place

in history

they were connected with all the great

royalty

and all the huge dynasties of europe and

they'd been connected with

the great historical events of europe

victoria's mother was a coburg

princess this union was designed to

strengthen the bloodline of the british

monarchy and introduce progressive

continental ideas

the plan to marry the cousins was

hatched when they were babies

their first meeting was in london at

victoria's 17th birthday party

the court held their breath according to

the plan romantic sparks would fly

victoria wasn't terribly impressed by

albert she thought albert was rather

um too plump um and he kept falling

asleep

well this is very nice in here andrew

wilson is one of victoria's biographers

andrew what do you think happened the

first time they were in the same room

he was very very shy he was an awkward

teenager

he had hardly known any female

companionship

he had almost no females near him

throughout his upbringing

so he had 16 years of an all-male all

german

atmosphere the other thing is albert had

permanent diarrhea when he first met her

the entire german party who came over

had dreadful gastric attacks so it

wasn't a very successful first encounter

i find it very striking that in her

journal entry for that day she describes

meeting albert

then there's a whole lot more about this

parrot that

she gets given as a present if she falls

in love with anybody that day it was

with the parent exactly

three years later the princess had

become queen victoria

and albert returned from germany for a

second visit

the love story began for real at windsor

castle

victoria knew her duty but remembered

her

unimpressive cousin albert was her

intended

but she wanted her freedom she didn't

like the idea she didn't want her babies

so soon

she just didn't want to drive all

gobsmacking love victoria is a real

romantic

she she loved romantic novels when she's

young

when she saw him she writes frankly

she's not somebody who makes up these

things in her journals

she adores him she wrote it was with

some emotion

that i beheld albert who is beautiful

albertano stayed for several days and on

the 11th of october he

danced with her for victoria it was

love love at second sight

four days later the queen faced a

difficult task

a monarch can't be proposed to so she

had to ask the big question

she wrote i said to him that i thought

he must be aware

why i wished them to come here that it

would make me

too happy if he would consent to what i

wished

to marry me once again

victoria's journal reveals the depth of

her feelings

i feel the happiest of human beings

the engagement of victoria and albert

was the first step towards the altar

and a wedding meticulously planned to

make it the pr

coup of the century the wedding was so

groundbreaking we still feel the effects

today

every modern white wedding dress is

descended

from the one worn by queen victoria she

was the first to popularize

white for brides like all these women

we're starting our journey to victoria's

big day

with the dress victoria's own wedding

gown is kept in our queen's private

collection

the challenge is to recreate this iconic

garment

using pictures from 1840 the artist

george hater was actually at the wedding

for this painting

i'm taking that challenge to historical

costumier harriet waterhouse

who's in windsor with more reference

materials

now harriet does the thought of making

the wedding dress give you any

particular

problems challenges well i'm going to be

sewing everything by hand but actually

once you get used to doing it by hand

it's you can be quite quick

if you're an expert the dress is quite

simple it's expensive and beautiful

and romantic but it's not it's not

showy it was said at the time that that

victoria's dress

and all the bridesmaids being in white

set them apart

from everyone around them and made them

really shine it's also said that they

look

more simply dressed well if you look at

a previous royal brides dresses

traditionally a very

encrusted and glittering the lack of

embellishment of a metallic sort is

really very striking

so she really did break the mold

like all royal women the young queen's

clothes were closely observed

there were clues to her tastes at her

first home

these rooms at kensington palace where

victoria grew up a stuff

full of vital research materials for our

project

including her clothing this dress

is from her early rain people looking at

it often say

but it's tiny and she does here have a

24 inch waist and you can really see

that she wasn't very tall

five foot one and a quarter inches

people who met her though often

commented on her shapeliness

one american visitor to the palace said

that like all english women

she had a very good bust i've come here

today

in search of one particular very

precious garment

okay glove song gloves on curator

claudia aycott williams

has in her care a tiny petticoat that

belongs to queen victoria

more than that it's rumored to be the

one she wore

at the wedding so this is an unusual and

quite rare survival

from her early reign it's quite simple

in its design

but it's the quality of the textile and

the kind of masterful construction which

show us that it was made for a queen so

on her wedding day she would have had to

have worn

something underneath and this is well it

was possibly even this one wasn't it

possibly i mean we can't sort of confirm

that but it would have been something

very very similar to this

we're going to remake her wedding dress

for this project and i know that the

dimensions of this petticoat

match the wands of the wedding dress

itself that's right

this would follow very much the line of

the dress so we get a real sense of her

shape

and her stature at this point there's

nothing like seeing a person's

underwear to give you a sense of who

they really were

yes exactly

at her home costumier harriet prepares

her work room

historical clothes are not just what you

see in the painting

the stuff underneath makes the shape

this petticoat would have been worn over

a chemise

corset a couple of petticoats and a

crinoline

the important thing is that everything

looks proportionally

like the painting in the hater picture

it's a gentle sort of bell

shape there's a sort of a lace collar

made of honeyton lace i've got a variety

of different laces

queen victoria wanted to reinvigorate

british industry

so all her lace was manufactured in

devon

it's a thing that the royal family still

do today but up till that point

people were wearing what they wanted and

often it was foreign

thankfully i've got quite a collection

of different antique laces

this is fragile i'm going to have to do

a little bit of mending on it

but it's uh it's a wedding veil it's

probably

around the right date it's not quite as

magnificent

as queen victoria's but it's a similar

size and she wore it just on the back of

her head

sort of bearish and it just hung

so it's quite quite a minimal thing but

she was so

so fond of her wedding veil authenticity

demands harriet works in antique

measurements

i really love this this is a yardstick

the yard is divided

it's in quarters you see there's a pin

for each quarter this quarter at the end

is divided in half

and that's a finger the finger is

divided in half

and that measurement there is a nail

this

little remnant of a pin there that was

an inch

subtly not quite a whole inch as we

understand it now

[Music]

harriet isn't just making the wedding

gown she's also dressing our guests

in authentic clothing that will help

them think and feel

18 40. it's very exciting i've got a

whole range of really lovely rocks

getting a load of dresses together is

like creating someone's life

victoria was 20 a slip of a girl

quite unlike the more matronly figure

she'd become

that fits nicely i like that albert was

a strapping lad who enjoyed outdoor

pursuits

but he was extremely bookish and even by

victorian standards

he was pretty straight-laced among the

guests

the man closest to the queen before she

fell for albert

of advisor and prime minister lord

melbourne he

would be wedding planner in chief but it

was going to be painful

for melbourne lots of people suspected

that he

himself was in love with victoria

also at the fitting the most important

woman in victoria's life

the queen mother victoria couldn't

forgive her for the strict upbringing

she'd endured

and they rarely spoke the queen mother

spent years

plotting the marriage of her daughter

and albert she

understood that this wedding was about

public relations and how essential that

was

because she had given birth to victoria

to solve a royal image crisis

for decades the people of britain had

been fed up with their kings the

hanoverians

to survive the monarchy must adapt

work with parliament and the people but

that called for a new kind of ruler

public fury was at its worst when

victoria was a child

on the throne her uncle george iv was a

vain

drug addicted adulterer the monarchy was

very close to extinction

and there were revolutionary rumblings

in britain if you'd had another person

like george iv

sitting on the throne you could have

seen the monarchy

being tracked out of the window king

george had done one thing right

with carolina brunswick he produced a

legitimate heir

charlotte she was the darling of the

people

a fine decent queen in waiting but in

1817

she died in childbirth she was

the only legitimate grandchild of king

george iii he had lots of grandchildren

but most of them were illegitimate

except for princess charlotte

so she was the only possible heir to the

throne and her death was

a sort of national calamity you know

this was

a possible sort of turning point for the

monarchy i mean

it was so unpopular george iv died

without a legitimate child

though his brother william became king

but none of his surviving children were

legitimate

either the crown was in danger

brother number four edward married

german princess victoire

specifically to produce a legitimate

heir to the throne

like charlotte victoria must win the

people's hearts

marry well and be a new kind of monarch

her father died soon after her birth

leaving her in the tender care of her

mother

whose task was to keep her alive

victoria grew up here at kensington

palace

under a strict set of rules that became

known as

the kensington system this is partly

about her safety

she wasn't supposed to walk up or down

stairs without somebody holding her hand

in case she fell

but it was also about mental control

and surveillance her mother

even read her diary the rules and

regulations

made victoria hate her mother and her

mother's right hand

man john conroy the kensington system

sounds ridiculously rigid to us but

there was a point to it

had little princess victoria fallen down

the stairs

or fallen off her horse or died that

really would have been curtains for the

british monarchy

when victoria became queen the nation

once again

felt hope she was the modern decent

ruler they'd waited for

and then a few months before she met

prince albert and fell in love

it all went wrong in the summer of 1839

the palace is tense the new queen

has been doing some quite surprising

things

she's been testing the limits of her

power

some of the things she's done have made

her advisors

wince enter

victoria's inexperience combined with

her temper

created two scandals that rocked the

palace

outraged the press and endangered the

monarchy itself

scandal number one was just the latest

battle in the ongoing war

between victoria and her mother they

used to spend

every waking hour together but now her

mother lived in a remote part of the

palace

and victoria only communicated with her

by letter

victoria's frostiness also extended to

the queen mother's

staff lady flora hastings

was a lady in waiting to victoria's

mother

and she was known to have ridden by

herself in a carriage

with john conroy shortly after this

lady flora's belly mysteriously started

to swell

victoria and her side of the court

assumes the very

worst lady flora hastings

was suspected of being pregnant and

possibly pregnant by

john conroy john conroy was

a banger and a cad all the gossips of

london everybody at court

assumed that conroy's hold

over the duchess of kent and hence over

queen victoria

was sexual poor

lady flora had to undergo an intrusive

degrading really horrible medical

examination

queen victoria had made this appalling

blunder

it was no justification for the way she

behaved at all

that she wasn't pregnant she was in fact

suffering from cancer

the court was horrified how could anyone

have fought ill

of this innocent melbourne made victoria

go to her bedside

she couldn't shake off this hatred of

her mother

that by proxy she also hated flora

hastings

her family releases letters that get

into the papers

of how she was accused and how she was

humiliated

and the press really turned against

victoria

in july 1839 flora finally died of liver

cancer

the queen's carriage was his stat in the

streets

she turned into an object of

vilification and people were throwing

bricks and stones through the palace

windows and smashing the windows

it was a public relations disaster but

it was as

nothing compared with the other scandal

of that summer

a constitutional crisis some people said

it was caused by victorious naivety

others said worse her arrogance

at this time britain had two main

political parties

the progressive whigs and the more

conservative tories

in may 1839 the whig party almost lost a

crucial vote

and prime minister melbourne resigned

this triggered a change of government

the queen was horrified when power

passed to the tories that she loathed

and their leader sir robert peale whom

she disliked she was

furious as a token of her confidence

robert peele wants her to dismiss some

of the

ladies of the bedchamber ladies in

waiting who are married to wig peers

because he thinks the queen is too close

uh to the wigs

and queen victoria says um no i won't do

that she stabs her foot peel said

if that's your attitude then i'm not

going to be a prime minister

and she thought that she'd won that

round not realizing of course that it

shows that

the government of the country couldn't

go on unless the politicians not the mum

had control melbourne's wig party

returned to government but was seriously

weakened

the queen had disrespected parliamentary

process

like a high-handed hannah varian

the proper workings of the

constitutional process were being

messed with by just a little girl

melbourne was thought to be egging her

on like a lovesick old fool

people important people began to think

that she really needed a man

to stop her from doing this sort of

thing she needed

a husband

melbourne in particular realized that

they needed something

they needed to manage the news they

needed some propaganda moment

and a little bit of magic this was the

reason

albert came back the hope that a

romantic story

would provide the public relations

solution

love conquers all but could it prevent

rebellion as soon as the engagement was

announced

melbourne began to plot the wedding day

he deliberately chose

a small rather plain venue for this

people-friendly

couple the chapel royal inside st

james's palace

our challenge to find a venue that feels

like that chapel

seen here in george hater's painting of

the event

could the city of winchester hold the

answer

jasdeep singh is a military historian

with a special interest in prince albert

he's trolled dozens of churches to try

to find the right place for our

reconstruction

you've seen this one online it looks

great i've got a good feeling

go on

[Music]

now this looks pretty good i would say

it's perfect

do you think that the search could be

over it's got the feeling isn't it

just imagine

richard ii was on the throne when

winchester college

a boys boarding school was established

this fabulous paneling

this will be a very grand royal stand-in

winchester college dapple dates from

1395

so it's older than st james's but the

proportions of it seem

exactly right it's long and narrow

just what we want

every wedding needs music so we've

called in composer nick ryan

to investigate ours but he's come up

against a hurdle

victoria and albert famously loved music

but what was chosen or composed for

their ceremony

is hard to discover

the music is such an important creator

of atmosphere and emotion

at a wedding i want to find out what

music was played

who selected it and why to oxford

and the christchurch college music

library

[Music]

matthias hi dr matthias raj

is an expert in royal ceremonial music

we're trying to reconstruct this wedding

and

there's very little information about

the wedding music

well the royal household just didn't

keep records really

but then we do know what other reports

tell us that when

prince albert approached the chapel

there is some idea that

music could even see the conquering hero

comes by handle

indeed it was so well known at the time

so just hearing the tune

people would have associated with those

words see the conquering hero comes

that seems a bit odd the idea of him

being a conquering hero

well he conquered the queen didn't he

yes but we do have one report

for when the queen entered and that

tells us that the ordinance of the

chapel roy

included fenders chorus a virtuous wife

her soft and fortune's frowns

again sort of apt choice in music for

the bride

she's declared to be a virtuous wife a

melodic line

on the just on the organ albert was a

great musician he was a composer

what involvement did he have in the

wedding he was the bridegroom

obviously because we don't know anything

of his involvement in the wedding

do you find it a bit strange he must

have been absolutely desperate

to be involved it's the queen is the

sovereign the head of state marrying

some

foreign prince they wouldn't have

thought of asking him anything

we do know for certain two pieces which

we see on the table here two coral

pieces

the so-called dios miseriato and the

anthem

nothing specially composed for the

wedding but plain repertoire music

so this was actually in popular use yes

yeah

up and down the country in cathedrals

and bigger parish churches where they

had a choir and what about the second

piece

there's one verse for four voices and

then there's one for

two voices fantastic both riches and

honor

come of thee come of thee lovely

even the music was propaganda bride and

groom ended her music with a message

his heroism her virtue

and two cool pieces means nick must now

find us

a choir the royal couple celebrated with

the most

lavish wedding breakfast more than a

hundred dishes

dreamt up by the best chefs in britain

food historian annie gray

is taking up the challenge of recreating

the feast

she's found the original menu not just

fit for

any old queen but seemingly created with

this one's appetites in mind

what was queen victoria's favorite food

food in general was something that she

would embrace

one of her ladies in waiting recounts

are sitting down to an afternoon tea at

one point

and putting away several slices of toast

and cake and scones

and getting to the end looking with

regret and going i suppose i should stop

now

and what was food in general like then a

lot of butter

a lot of cream a lot of brandy the meat

is often larded so that's sowing strips

of fat

through the flesh of animals this is a

recipe book written by

charles almeid francatelli who was the

cooked queen victoria after william ball

who was the mastermind behind the

wedding

so we are fairly certain that his

recipes must have reflected the kind of

thing he was serving for the queen

the menu for that day it's enormous

there are i think about 100 or so dishes

you've got lamb cutlets which have been

fried

fried bird chicken um red bird

fried bird that's what they said nando's

isn't it

on the opposite page an outlandish dish

which looks

like a pile of eyeballs and this

is a tan ball of macaroni which is

tremendously complicated that involves

little tubes macaroni cut up put round a

mold

then there's a moose in the middle and

then there's chopped up chicken breasts

and then that's been steamed

and then turned down to the mold

perfectly i look at that and think i'm

not sure how it will come out of the

mold

or indeed how you would go about

building it the most challenging thing

is this gato or fuentage

it's 10 or 11 pieces of puff pastry that

need to be piled up on top of each other

with the outside then masked with

meringue and then a sort of meringue

steeple on top the risk is you end up

with a sort of leaning and terrapisa

effect as it slowly slides to one side

i'm glad to hear there are a few

surprises and challenges thrown in for

you though

well yes

and he isn't going to cook all the

dishes only the most difficult ones

mr ball head chef at buckingham palace

sourced locally where possible

annie's based close to the norfolk

border and will do the same

much to the surprise of her regular

suppliers

so i'm recreating victoria and albert's

wedding feast

well i can't say i'm not apprehensive

it's quite a long menu

you've got mutton fillets bird fillets

larded sweet breads which we're going to

load so we need some lardons as well

actually

and the thing with the roast they're all

served with their heads and legs on

can i get a hair and i need to whole so

that i can

skin it and leave the ears on there was

a lot of meat

a lot of alcohol so i need

probably about a gallon of brandy well

it would have been a whole dessert

course

cakes bread pudding jellies i need about

two stone of sugar i do fear that this

may have been the meal that broke mr

ball the chief

cook because he retired a month later

oh it's quite heavy but it could also

have been perhaps his swan song

the pinnacle of his career so perhaps if

i hold on to that thought it would be a

little bit less

daunting

for our experiment the sumptuous

interiors of holcomb hall in norfolk

are doubling for buckingham palace built

in 1764

it's only a little bit younger and

suitably grand

to recreate the wedding breakfast annie

and her team

must resurrect dishes from the distant

past

at speed in the georgian kitchens

i'm gonna see how disastrous his pudding

is rehearsals

are vital every recipe must be tested

this is experimental uh i'm not quite

sure if the amounts for this mold or

whether the whole thing will split apart

so what i want to do is i want to test

it

so there are no nasty surprises on the

day i'd hate to serve

queen victoria and prince albert are

kind of split pudding

it's looking good addy's next big

challenge the wedding

cake nine feet in circumference 300

pounds in weight

there were smaller cakes sent out to

friends relatives and embassies but the

main cake

was such a monster it had to be baked in

sections the first problem is the lack

of original giant baking tins

the solution victorian metalwork

specialist david lavercia

copper has always been the best material

to use for

cookware because of the way it transmits

heat i try to see how

people within those time work with

copper they weren't making everything

machine perfect

the tin was quite large so we're

assuming it's made

in two sections two d shapes 170 years

ago

they would have been doing what i'm

doing here they'd mark it out probably

with chalk

cut it by hand it's quite soft

all hammered together tightly when the

dish is finished it has to be coated

with tin to prevent the copper from

oxidizing when it's in the oven

copper will oxidize and poison anyone

that eats the

cake eventually

the half moon tin will have to be filled

eight times to build the towering

edifice

once we found our baker

[Music]

in the winter of 1839 melbourne plotted

the make or break

matrimonials that had to launch a new

kind of royal family

the day had to go without a hitch 18

months earlier

lack of stage management had made

victoria's coronation

a bit of a farce victoria's coronation

was a sort of

comedy of errors it's an exhausting long

ceremony of

five and a half hours queen victoria was

constantly wandering around nobody had

told her during the ceremony

where'd you go to the lavatory the

archbishop of canterbury

made a dreadful error with the ring of

state the archbishop put the

ring on the wrong finger and jammed it

on so she had

an agonizing time another bishop

accidentally turned over two pages of

the order of service

leaving the queen in the wrong place and

then poor lord roll

an ancient 82 year old pierre um

who came up to pay homage to the queen

till of course lordro failed that was

down the steps and people thought he

died

and victoria breaks with protocol stands

up

helps him up and this is actually the

big story of the day

headlines told how the young queen had

leapt from her throne

to save a pensioner and the coronation

disaster became a pr

hit melbourne knew that good press

had to be integral to his stage

management

what he planned was stupendously

audacious

he had the idea of inventing a new

tradition

to use the wedding to distract the

british people of many thoughts of

rebellion

or revolution and this would be vital

for the future of the monarchy

and given melbourne's personal feelings

it was a sacrifice

for him he was making a gift of love to

victoria

melbourne's wedding plan involved three

separate

carriage journeys after the terrible

summer the popularity of the monarchy

was at a

new low the people had to see

their queen to fall back in love with

her

it wasn't just the queen who needed

better public relations

albert was in trouble as well the tax

code bugs are not popular with the

british

and there's a lot of talk about you know

german beggars and princelings coming to

sort of help themselves to english

queens

in the press you will see cartoons of

him as a

german sausage shop owner shuttering up

his sausage shop

in order to come over to britain to take

take advantage

really of this wealthy young woman

one result of this is that albert has

voted a rather insultingly low

allowance by parliament which victoria

um is most annoyed by she wrote

stevenson came from denison to lord m

wishing it to be reduced to 30 000. i

was frantic

lord m feels like me about the meanness

of all this

the queen believed that field marshall

the duke of wellington

a leading tory politician was the person

behind the salary

in justice her request to have albert

made an

honorary field marshal the highest rank

in the british army

might soothe the prince's hurt pride but

young albert

had no military experience how must he

have felt

historian jasdeep is a curator at the

national army museum

the museum holds over 80 000 pieces of

uniform

and equipment it's one of the best

collections

available

i'm really interested in uh the psyche

behind albert the

the thought process that albert was

going through

but to explore that through uniform

explore that through clothing

the british officer's red coat it's

iconic

even now when we put any uniform or

clothing on it transforms a person

but if you're wearing the field

marshall's coati you're wearing

something right at the top of the the

army rank structure what might have that

done to a man of 20

new to the country keen on making an

impact in a statement

this is our sword store in any age there

are very few

field marshals so surviving uniforms are

rare

but jasdeep has access to 180 year old

elements at the kind of uniform

albert wore oh

albert went to his wedding knowing he'd

be surrounded by

senior soldiers among them the most

famous field marshal

alive these actual epaulettes belong to

the duke of wellington

worn on his shoulders albert knows he's

unpopular with the press

he's unpopular with the british public

he's german

he is stepping into the highest position

in the army

with no experience he's got grand old

dukes like the duke of wellington

uh standing over him and judging him and

when he wears this uniform

there's a sense of albert having to not

just don

the role of the field marshal but also

to fit

that expectation and that's a tall order

but i'm a bit surprised by the size it

just looks tiny to me it just looks so

small all the living field marshals were

little old men

so strapping albert couldn't have

borrowed a uniform

where did he get it from this company on

london's savile row

were albert's tailors but a bespoke suit

takes weeks to make and albert was 48

hours from the altar

albert only had the best but could he

have had

a complex military uniform made in

double quick time

it's possible that this tailoring house

stepped in

curator james sherwood has the proof

that albert was at least in the order

books straight

after the wedding suggesting a

relationship

this is the earliest letter that we have

touting for business to prince albert

for april 1840.

so just after the wedding yes they

acknowledge that he's been made the

colonel in chief of the 11th assar's

so he's only been made to fear marshall

a couple of days before the wedding

what could the turnaround for a field

marshal's uniform

be well because hawks and co were such

great military tailors they know exactly

what they're doing

the house would have had an absolute

legion of out workers

so a tunic could be made within 24 hours

there wouldn't be any problem with that

so yes it's entirely possible that that

could be done

all resources being thrown into this it

would be all hands to the deck for

prince albert absolutely

the final preparations for our royal

wedding in winchester college are

underway

having discovered that there were two

sung pieces of music for the service

nick ryan has enlisted a choir

[Music]

can i just say thank you thank you so

much these choristers aren't from

winchester

they're in the nearby town of romsey and

their well-seasoned veterans have many a

wedding

here at ramsey we have around 40

weddings a year we've not

had these two pieces as requests before

the interesting thing i suppose is the

amount of handle which was in this

ceremony

handel had such an effect on music in

england

and he really was the top of the charts

handel was so good so popular that no

one else really wrote much

isn't that why england was known to

germany as the land with no music

precisely so it's almost like english

music

froze from handel all the way up to the

late 1800s

and elgar so your crying must sing all

sorts of different kinds of music

how has it been for them to sing these

two pieces

i mean i think it's a bit of a miracle

that you can get today's kids 21st

century kids singing music from the

18th 19th century 17th 16th century

but actually they don't care if

something's 500 years old if it's good

it's good

so we're days away from the performance

uh the reconstruction of this wedding

are we getting there i think so yes

[Music]

it's so exciting it's the first wedding

dress that

is iconic it's the mother of all wedding

dresses this one

in in every way harriet waterhouse

still has several miles of saturn to sew

this is a fantastic

dress to make because this is duchess

satin

it has a lovely sheen to it but not

shiny it's particularly lovely

you do find when you're sewing that you

have a feeling about the people who

worked on it

i shall be sewing and thinking about the

seamstresses

[Music]

with just 48 hours before the start of

our royal wedding

the huge tin has been delivered to

smith's the bakers in kingsland

they will be taking on the big bake but

then they do have the royal warrant to

pervade cakes to the queen

when she's at sandringham now they're

working for her great

great grandmother

there's over 200 eggs going in the

completed cake

64 pound of burger which is 128 packs

cherries currants and plenty of brandy

if anyone left the reception super i'd

be surprised

what's worry me is the size and the

weight of it

because it's going to take eight of

these tins to

to make full size cake if it weighs

anything like

the original one which was 300 pounds

that is not easily moved about

we've got to get it right

the tin will be filled seven more times

before paul can begin building the cake

the challenge then will be getting it

into our buckingham palace holcomb hall

[Music]

the mechanism melbourne had constructed

for just this moment

was now running at full speed

today we're all used to the concept of

royal wedding

fever but then britain was in the grip

of it for the very first time

there was the press speculation there

was a gossip

charles dickens wrote a satirical piece

but then in private he admitted

that he too really was in love with the

queen

we all know how to participate in a

royal wedding

and we imagine the ceremonial processes

as well as those

those celebratory traditions have been

laid down for centuries well

they're really only as old as 1840 and

they were constructed by

melbourne and victoria and the people

around them

and really what you get is the creation

of this machine and it's a machine for

producing spectacle

it's a machine for in a way encouraging

a national participation in this event

it makes it hard to ignore melbourne

worked

with the press he kept the public

informed of the wedding schedule

the haughty hanoverians never dreamt of

such openness

melbourne insisted that the wedding

should take place in daylight

it was a completely new event royal

weddings in the past

had um been in palaces uh usually

late at night they've been very very

private this was a royal wedding for the

people

as the big day loomed the buckingham

palace cooks laboured round the clock

in our holcomb hall kitchen annie gray's

team is hard at work

on the first course at the wedding

breakfast

dishes not seen in any kitchen for

centuries now come to life

the macaroni tembale that alarmed annie

is coming together at speed the garden

soup

peas cabbage and turnips was the opening

gambit chosen

by the royal chef mr bull it'll go at

one end of the table

mirrored at the other end by the fish

and

what a fish it is the mighty turbot was

a rare treat

this one weighs in at eight kilos

this particular turbo is going to be

served very simply turbot

londles english turbot so it's just

going to be boiled having been rubbed

with some salt and lemon juice and serve

the very simple lobster sauce it's

really deceptive isn't it because i mean

you just think oh well anyone can cook

that

lemon salt whatever but ruining

something like this your life wouldn't

be worth living

criminal even now and of course it has

to be done

exactly at the point of serving and

victoria are now but usually late for

dinner

one of the most time consuming processes

is larding

sowing strips of bacon in this case

through sweetbreads

the neck glands of a sheep in 1840

buckingham palace was no place to be a

vegetarian

amongst the first wave of dishes there

was a lot of mutton

a favorite of her majesties mr bull's

team

larded multiple saddles of mutton with

fat

and braised them and glazed them and

served them with mash

could have a bit of carbohydrate for

balance no victorian party would be

complete without that

classic 19th century dish the raised pie

mr balls pigeon pies were made in the

traditional manner

stuffed full of pigeon breast forced

meat stuffing and then in this case

a few little feet poking out of the top

just so the diners knew what the pie was

in case they were still in doubt the

other pie will have a full

pigeon in flight sticking out at the top

taxidermy heaven

on the cold wet night of sunday february

the 9th

1840 the palace kitchens were a hive of

activity

upstairs there was also work going on

in her room the queen shared her

thoughts with her journal

she wrote it was my last unmarried

evening

which made me feel so odd then she

recalled seeing lord melbourne who'd

been

as emotional as ever again she wrote

i took his hand and pressed it and

thanked him for all his kindness

which i hoped he would continue

melbourne

knew his work was done he had

to let her go

as the queen retired the palace

clockwinders began

their work citizens all over the country

did the same

[Music]

when the nation's clocks were next wound

britain would be a different place

changed by the union of two young people

who together would put her on a new

course

[Music]

the queen wakes up at 8 45 and at 11

she begins to dress preparations that

will affect the way

so many bright in the future appear

before their public

just hours before the wedding albert

writes to the woman he knows best coburg

duchess caroline amelie

she's actually his grandfather's second

wife but the person he loves

trusts and calls grandmama

[Music]

albert had a great affection for his

grandmother and

clearly was very upset at having to

leave her behind

he wept when he left coburg when he had

to say farewell to everyone

it was all uncharted waters for him

it's time the big day is here at last

it's a wedding day

and we're all invited here at winchester

college when we step into the chapel

it will be the 10th of february 1840

and the weather couldn't be more perfect

just as it was that

it's really cold and wet

[Music]

for our ceremony the chapel at

winchester college is almost ready

the wedding cake begins its journey to

the dining room at holcomb hall

our buckingham palace the original

set a fashion for rich fruit cakes for

royal weddings to come

a tradition only recently broken by

megan and harry with their lemon and

elderflower cake

[Music]

our guests are also preparing

i'm very pleased with the fake hair i'm

going to get

i couldn't miss the chance to dress up

for a royal wedding

silk stockings lovely

what's this oh i quite like the look of

this

yes i thought you might i and those

people will get the chance to experience

it's near as firsthand as is possible

that wedding ceremony how exciting

it's brilliant isn't it it is so jealous

are you jealous that you're not dressing

up too absolutely

at the palace albert has bathed and is

helped into his bespoke uniform

fresh from his mayfair tailors

victoria is in her dress she's assisted

by the very stylish duchess of

sutherland

the doctor's stage vanished as far as

the clothes

she was a kind of progressive she was in

favor of reform

and she certainly would have filled

queen victoria's head

with the idea of progress this morning

the duchess is no doubt pleased that the

dress has a political message it's put

bread on the tables of british artisans

victoria wanted to help british crafts

and impoverished british tradesmen who

had they not had that fantastic

commission over those winter months

before the wedding

what would all have been literally

starving

[Music]

12 o'clock prince albert his father

ernst the first and his brother ernst ii

are in the first carriage to go to st

james's palace

they're bound for the private chapel

inside

[Music]

our performers represent wedding guests

who've been traveling some of them for

days to get here

most of these guests have money and

they have dressed to impress the queen

their sporting wool linen perhaps silk

woven by huguenots in east london and

some

may be wearing more exotic fabrics

imported from

india and china by the east india

company

wellington the iron duke hero of

waterloo

is one of the few tories the queens

invited and then

only because melbourne insisted victoria

dislikes these conservatives

all of her friends and of course

melbourne himself are members

of the more progressive wig party nick

ryan

and jasdeep singh have joined me to

observe

from the 21st century

the guests await the arrival of the

queen and her prince

just as they did on that cold february

morning

among them foreign potentates including

one couple whose presence demonstrates

the international significance

of this wedding the american ambassador

and his wife is amongst the audience you

know in spite of the fact

that america had become independent and

even more recently that

in the war of 1812 the british had

invaded

the united states

now victoria begins her carriage journey

to st james's

less than a quarter of a mile from

buckingham palace

at the center of the district is st

james's park now

full of loyal citizens

[Music]

in the park itself even the trees were

full of people

and occasionally a branch would break

and they'd tumble into the mud causing

great hilarity

but it wasn't just here in the capital

the entire population of britain

was in a state of romantic delirium

prince albert has arrived before

victoria and awaits his moment to enter

the chapel

the queen meanwhile is in a side room

with her bridesmaids

she wrote my 12 young train bearers were

dressed

all in white with white roses which had

a beautiful effect

this is the mother of all white wedding

dresses

it's quite shockingly radically

simple what everybody was expecting to

see was a shanty golden

dress this is a perfect example of

melbourne stage management

the saturn has to be seen in the half

light to appreciate its explosive effect

you can see that it really does glow in

the dark that's what the white

does and victoria is a visionary when it

comes to her wedding dress

millions of people will follow in her

wake

some people are less impressed with the

bridesmaids than victoria herself

saying that there's no danger of them

outshining her because they look like a

bunch of village girls

the ladies are in fact all aristocratic

but the list has been the subject of a

heated debate

between victoria and albert

[Music]

albert had demanded that only the

virginal daughters of

aristocratic mothers with impeccable

moles could be train bearers

this causes a problem lord melbourne

will not put up with this at all and he

says you know it's impossible to find

12 uh daughters of the english

aristocracy

whose parents do not have lives that are

tarnished in some ways by scandal or

illegitimacy

and victoria is a realist the list of

tainted bridesmaids is allowed to stand

including the daughter of the late

king's mistress lady

jersey and right there with her laissez

faire and alba's uptight morality

we've got a glimpse of differences to

come

between our lovers

and now the music that signals albert's

entrance

he's been back in britain for just a few

days he will now live here for the rest

of his life

albert comes into this piece by handel

hale the conquering hero comes

he is a conqueror he's stamping down on

prejudices about his background

and conquering his queen's heart

it's amazing to see him in context

looking

into the history feeling the sort of

intake of breath

as he arrives albert goes out to

his future mother-in-law the duchess of

kent and kisses her very fondly

people have already noticed that albert

is building bridges between victoria

and her mother victoria's really good at

holding her grudge

she still loathes her mother but albert

can see that this is problematic

if not dangerous albert

is determined to heal that feud this is

the sax coburg family

we must be united also

albert is dubious about victoria's

replacement mother

a governess layton

albert might be jealous of the love

victoria feels for

her old governess they even had

adjoining bedrooms

it might also be snobbishness because

layton was born a commoner

baroness lazen is controlling the things

that albert wants to control

particularly the finances of the court

he might even already be thinking about

plans to ease lates and out

the ceremony is about to begin albert

waits for his bride

[Applause]

all eyes are on the groom in his field

marshall's uniform

albert is just feet away from the duke

of wellington

he probably chooses not to catch his eye

because he knows

this national hero almost didn't get

invited after he'd upset victoria

over albert's salary

so you have this german boy dressed up

for the first time in his life as

an english field marshal which must in

itself have been a pretty scary

experience the due to british was a very

scary person

and all around these old soldiers

who were veterans of the napoleonic wars

he must have been extremely frightened

the duke has also been quite ill and

while the whole court went to visit his

bedside victoria refused to go

[Music]

this was fabulous in rehearsal and now

you can

really feel the effect of these youthful

voices

in such an ancient setting

[Music]

everybody here has become a cog

in this new machine the royal wedding

machine

that will steamroller its way through

the next couple of

centuries what's happening here will

change the way that life is lived

in this world the world of 1840 but it

will also affect

the future with millions of white

weddings to come

it's a great aesthetic decision this

because victoria is clad in pristine

virginal white you know there's nothing

clean and white

in london in 1840 that dress must really

have

burned itself onto the retina

[Music]

it's much more than just a wedding of

two young people

it is seen one of a great drama which is

going to be the unfolding of modern

constitutional monarchy

[Music]

victoria enters to music chosen for its

message

handles a virtuous wife shall suffer and

fortune's frowns

the moment everyone has waited for the

queen

makes her entrance

this is what the experiment is all about

sitting here in the middle of it i can't

help but be swept up in enthusiasm

for the little queen for the romance for

the monarchy itself

[Applause]

this is perhaps the only flaw in the

brilliant plan the queen's train

is a bit too short for so many

bridesmaids and they're treading on each

other's heels

the chapel is so narrow everyone is near

enough to hear the rustle

of all that satin

dearly beloved we are gathered here

even though we're recreating all of this

and getting an

insight into how the royal magic

works to join together

this man something else made obvious by

reconstructing the wedding

the queen has placed her mother just out

of her eye line

but can easily catch the adoring glances

of her dear friend baroness lately

in the corner the queen's favorite

painter is making sketches for the

wedding picture that will take two years

to finish

george hayto produces the first great

portrait of her

while she's on the throne and victoria

and albert commissioned him to produce

the official

wedding portrait which is something from

a perfect world it's

burnished and soft focus secondly

it was ordained christ's holy body while

the archbishop deals with the sins of

the flesh

many in the congregation are looking at

albert's family

albert's father and his brother were

philanderers

and it was a horror that he really never

came to terms with

albert was very frightened of the

consequences

of sexual license of profligacy he was

very proper

very moral right from the beginning and

keep themselves

undeveloped members of christ's holy

body

this union would bring germany and

britain

closer together than ever before it was

supposed to

ensure international security keep

europe safe and this would work

at least for a while with our wedded

wife

to live together as the ceremony

progressed

many observers later noted how victoria

had locked her eyes on albert throughout

the ceremony

how she looked pale and slightly drawn

the press cast it as

charming innocent and girlish perhaps

she's waiting for the most

important word in the entire service

victoria with our bay here now this is

the big breath moment

there's been so much speculation about

the exact form of words

they're going to use what everybody

wants to know is

is she going to use the o word

with our bay him i will

she insisted when it came to the vows

that no

she was going to vow to obey albert

because she said

i want to be married as any other woman

and not

as a queen as with many of royal brat

victoria's father isn't here to give her

away

her favorite uncle the duke of sussex

stands in just at any other wedding

there was a certain amount of gossiping

and sniping

from the congregation this duke here was

famously skinned and some people

were saying that he was only too pleased

to give away what wasn't his

for as long as you both this duke will

die with

no legitimate children which means that

his title

will die with him with his ring the

sussex title nuts

megan and harry of course now have

assumed that title and it's been revived

[Music]

with this ring i be west with my body

i do worship with my body i the worship

in the name of the father in the name of

the father

and the son and the son and the holy

ghost and the holy ghost amen

amen

[Music]

this is the climax victoria will say

later that this

was the best moment of all she and

albert have actually practiced

putting the rings on she remembered the

mess up with the ring at her coronation

and with all my worthly goods i the

endow

and with all my worldly goods by the

endow in the name of them everybody in

the audience has sort of

tried to stop themselves bursting out

laughing when they know that albert

hasn't got any money

and victoria is the richest woman in the

world actually

albert is so near to the finish line

the british people here are probably

thinking that he's the country bumpkin

about to make good but i'm pretty sure

that he sees it differently

i think he's thinking i'm about to

become the boss of this lot

our father the archbishop marries the

couple using the same book of common

prayer

found in every parish church the queen

might be head of state but she's also

just like

any other person who's found their soul

mate

man and wife

[Music]

this moment caused quite a stir lots of

guests noticed that while the queen had

been

smiling and winking at baroness lakes

and throughout

and now made a special point of kissing

queen in adelaide

and as for her mother well she merely

shook her hand

in the throne room the newlyweds sign

the register

the archbishop signs first

[Music]

they're signing with just their first

names

like kings and queens do no need for any

surnames

of course everybody knows who they are

as the ceremony finishes the queen

assembles her pretty maids

and gives them all a fabulous gift a

jeweled eagle brooch designed by prince

albert

in this example at woburn abbey we see

the turquoise

that stands for true love the ruby eye

for passion the diamond beak for

eternity

and the pearls the beauty

[Music]

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

the guests invited to the palace for the

wedding breakfast now wait

in a withdrawing room the first dishes

are already next door

but they can't start until victoria and

albert arrive

[Music]

but rather than joining their guests

they retire to her quarters

until now protocol has prevented them

spending a moment together alone

suddenly now they're married and at last

they can shut the door on everybody and

maybe it was quite a frightening moment

for them because

there they are confronted with reality

and they have a whole lot of discovering

to do

in her journal victoria says that at

this moment they made vows

every bit as important as the ones they

made in church

albert said they must never have secrets

from each other

years later after he was dead she made a

very poignant annotation to this page

no secrets he said and she added

and so it was

in 1840 dinners were served allah says

it was a beautiful intricate style of

service in which all of the dishes for

each course were placed on the table

simultaneously

laid out symmetrically in practice in

the royal palaces

this meant that there was a whole

division of people called the table

deckers

it was their job to measure out with set

squares and tape measures

making sure that the gaps between each

plate were perfect that the table

was completely symmetrical fit of course

for royalty

[Music]

in the 20th century these georgian

kitchens became a tourist attraction

but today they're going to once again

see some culinary

gymnastics

a multitude of dishes undergo all kinds

of process

glazing basting boiling and frying

the royal recipe book calls for some

terrifyingly old school

practices annie what is this distressing

object this is a hair

what have you done to it well i've

victorianized it

today we would always take the heads and

the legs off roast birds and raise meat

and the idea of

presenting it like this is really alien

we don't want our food

to look like food anymore no we like to

have nothing that

reminds us that anything was once alive

on the table whereas the victorians were

completely the opposite

i think the thing about victorian food

especially at the high end like this

is it it's got to be a feast for all the

senses

when you're working with dishes which in

some cases really haven't been cooked

for 100 years if not 150 you do

find surprises and actually for me the

biggest surprise has been how

amazing they all look when they start to

come together

i kind of have a vision in my head of

how i think it will look and then

it looks even better

[Music]

they're tryst over the queen and field

marshall prince albert descend to the

withdrawing room

no doubt to the delight of their

famished guests

after the ceremony everybody noticed how

radiant

she looked the color had come back into

her pale

cheeks and can you see another part of

the magic of the white dress it makes

her

stand out in the colorful crowd reading

between the lines of her journal

it seems the queen and her new husband

invited very few

perhaps 50 of their 300 guests to eat at

the palace

an even more select group sit at the

table with the newlyweds

the seating plan doesn't survive but

we've worked it out

from clues in victoria's journals she's

between albert

and her uncle the duke of sussex and you

can see

the declining of melbourne's influence

by the fact that he's

several places away they put him in the

corner

where's victoria's mother the duchess of

kent well

she had to be here at the family top

table but she's

right down the other end she's out of

victoria's eye line

and ears shot where's the duke of

wellington

well she was forced to have the nation's

hero at the ceremony

but he hasn't made the guest list for

the breakfast

this meal is as political as the wedding

ceremony had been

the queen showing friends and enemies

alike their place in the new pecking

order

who sits where how easily can they catch

the queen's eye

or eavesdrop on the conversation the

food must be a mouth-watering relief

the wedding breakfast was

characteristically lavish and huge

prince albert was extraordinarily

fastidious

and squeamish about what he ate and was

very easily

upset by what he had she on the other

hand

always loved guzzle guzzle dazzle

she shoveled it in um course after

course

and also she had a very strong head she

drank like a fish she wasn't alcoholic

but she loved

knocking back the booze whereas albert

one glass would have been finished him

off probably

this is the roast cape on for the second

course now mr balls capons would have

been castrated

cockrells but that's illegal in modern

britain you can only buy french ones

this therefore is just a chicken the

point of capeling however was that the

birds became extraordinarily plump and

luscious quite superior to a normal bird

here's the country life brought to the

city table

asparagus standing to attention on a

bread base

naturally served drenched in butter

another cape on dish a key part of the

second course

these have been gallantined so boned out

they've then been stuffed and then

glazed with this schrodinger sauce which

is a type of cream sauce set with the

inevitable gelatin

everything is all about aspect they are

then being beautifully decorated up

these really are like little jewelry

boxes sitting on the table

the cu lots to birth features combs from

the heads of cockrells

on skewers interspersed with crayfish

and mushrooms this is the remove dish so

this is a really

crucial part of it because you've got

everything on the table and then

something goes out

the turbine or the soup and once this

comes in all the other dishes are then

uncovered so this is quite

a key wow factor it's a wow factor now

isn't it

when the waiting staff have delivered

the meats to the table

the guests themselves have the pleasure

of carving them

victorian diners above stairs reveled in

the

artistry of the craft people down below

a host was judged on their ability to

find a great cook and of course

victoria had the best her head chefs

were stars

and when they left the palace they had

their pick of jobs at grand hotels and

restaurants

so many dishes to get through but

victorian diners knew to pace themselves

one trick they had was to put mustard

inside the ear it's supposed to deaden

the nerve

that tells the brain when the stomach's

full

once she was queen victoria was

distressed to discover that she was

putting on weight

she once asked lord melbourne about this

he said you should only eat when you're

hungry

she said well then i'd always be eating

victoria was notorious for being an

extremely fast eater

and of course the protocols were that

the minute

the queen finished her food and put her

knife and fork down that was it

the servants came in whisked the plates

away

and they're always these complaints from

members of the entourage

that they never had a chance to finish

their what was on their plate because

victoria gobbled her food her majesty

might have been mason

to get to the jellies and puddings like

so many of her subjects victoria

has a sweet tooth it sounds good

yeah it needs a bit of leakage

yes excellent the kitchens at the royal

palaces were divided into divisions and

one of the most important was the

confectionary division which was in

charge of sugarcraft and that kind of

thing but also

jellies if you were victorian and you

had money

and you wanted to show it then you put

molded foods on your table

not just jellies if it could be molded

then you'd mold it

so this one is a molded fruit puree this

mold over here this is designed for

cakes or you've got something like this

which might well be used

for a meat mousse put it this way it

would not be

a victorian wedding feast if we didn't

have molded foods on the table

this confection of icing sugar jam and

whipped cream

is gatto on fuentage laced with liqueurs

that ooze at the first touch of the

spoon that looks precarious

it is i sort of had a vision of what

this would look like based on reading

the recipe

but you never really know until you see

it i'm not sure i'd realize it was quite

so

um dangerous puff pastry is so

delicate but it's very light it looks

like a sort of enormous

cake but actually it's just very very

light cream and a

really quite light jam this is actually

almost a sort of

a cloud as a mouthful rather than an

enormous great cake

there's so much time and work that goes

into it there was a little bit of

apprehension for sure but actually i

quite like it

this is the ghetto that had made annie

quake will it collapse before it reaches

the table

now fully dressed and still upright it's

ready to ascend to the dining room

[Music]

like all weddings the ceremony and this

meal were family occasions

for some guests one of the last of such

gatherings

within four years albert's father ernst

the first would be gone

his son ernst ii would live to be 75

busy flandering active in the arts and

in german politics

and nearly becoming the king of greece

the queen mother would live for another

21 years

she and victoria would never fully

reconcile

although after her death the queen would

realize how much her mother had loved

her and would be grief-stricken

the duchess of sutherland would become a

high-profile campaigner against slavery

and remained the queen's close friend

the person

victoria would cling to when albert died

in 1842 baroness lateston would be

dismissed by prince albert and go to

live in germany

where she'd die in 1870 surrounded by

pictures of the queen she adored

the grand finale of the feast is this

mammoth cake

the mothership of a flotilla of cakes

sent out to those who couldn't be in

london for the big day

[Music]

the cake is sensational it's

nine feet in circumference it contains

300 pounds of fruit and 11 pints of

french

brandy the top part shows victoria and

albert themselves rather incongruously

dressed in grecian robes

there's so much sugar and brandy in the

cake that

it will last forever the guests were

given

slices to take home in special little

tins and sometimes

they still come up for sale in auctions

so you could buy a bit and i guess you

could still eat it

after the cake is cut victoria and

albert rise and leave the table

they've somewhere else to be away from

the madding crowd

she wrote i went upstairs and undressed

and put on a white silk gown trimmed

with swans down

and a bonnet with orange flowers at 20

minutes to fourth

lord melbourne came to see me

perhaps she then finally realized

how tired and exhausted he had been the

last three years

looking after her and you know

nurturing her and helping her learn

the job of being queen suddenly their

long-held roles

are reversed she's in charge now

telling him to have an early night

and then albert comes in looking

wonderful and he's the one who carries

her

off leaving poor melbourne

melbourne was very diplomatic with

albert

he didn't entirely approve of his rather

priggish personality as he described it

but he understood that albert was the

right

man to be victoria's husband

and to guide her they were to be

separated

it is i can see why he tries i try

thinking about it myself so i think it's

the most

moving little moment in the whole day

really

it's four o'clock time to put the grime

at the capitol behind them

the rain stopped and the sun came out

and then they were riding west

out of town towards windsor they were

deliciously

alone they were in limbo they were free

from all the formality and the pressure

of buckingham palace

and ahead of them lay the fairytale

castle of windsor

[Music]

the newlyweds spend the evening in her

old rooms and have their supper

delivered

he plays her sweet music and she swoons

victoria wasn't feeling very well but

nothing

would stop her enjoying her wedding

night

there is no element of prunery in her

she describes it frankly in her journals

she describes the first night they spend

as man and wife

she adored him as she wrote at 20

minutes past 10

we both went to bed of course in one bed

to lie by his side

and in his arms and on his dear bosom

and be called by names

of tenderness i have never yet heard

used to me before

was bliss beyond belief a baby

princess vicky was very possibly

conceived

even that night eight more would follow

over the next 16 years

the queen began to long for the days

when she and albert could be

alone not surprisingly being the queen

as well as albert's wife as well as the

mother of all these children

began to take its toll on victoria

she started to experience symptoms that

today might lead to a diagnosis of

post-natal depression

even so during this first decade of her

marriage

she proved herself to be dutiful and

spirited

and pretty tough the queen

knew that her wedding day had

established a brand

victoria and albert a family business

that people could trust

it had rescued the crown fourteen years

later

what's said to be a retrospective

wedding photograph

was snapped up by their devoted public

we remade that wedding to see how even

the smallest detail was managed

the use of scale was masterful the small

queen

in the huge dress was vulnerable and

powerful albert scarlett drew the eye

made the boy a man we understood

victoria's placing of those she loved in

her eye line

and those she distrusted out of it

and most of all we saw the story the

public would be sold

the new style royals who believed in

love

a happy ever after for everyone

splashed across every newspaper the

wedding and the marriage

were expertly crafted to stop britain

from becoming a republic

and it worked there is a kind of

cooperation

that happens between the press and the

palace victoria and albert are going to

be a fresh start

they're going to be representatives of

progress and that's something that most

newspaper editors of this period are

interested in the idea that that britain

is going to go

on some kind of forward trajectory the

wedding of victoria and albert saw the

birth

of a legend the legends of their

powerful love that came to define her

whole

brain the brand of victoria and albert

was born

at this ceremony and on top of that

their new way of getting married affects

the way that

people still get married to this day

[Music]

chris and michaela witnessed some

amazing celestial wonders under the

christmas sky

sunday night at nine then on christmas

eve at nine

go behind the scenes of christmas at

some poor's cathedral

during their busiest time of the year

you