Oh god, when I first started watching the 1975 BBC miniseries Edward the King, about the life of British King Edward VII (1841-1910), I thought it would be easy to cover two episodes in one recap, so I watched episodes one and two back-to-back. Well, I had way too much to cover for just one episode, so while I just went and screencapped episode 2, I confess that I watched it several weeks ago and don’t remember the plot specifics, other than: Prince Bertie is NOT a natural student. His parents are awful to him about it, mostly because they’re terrified of him being a horrible king, but also because they’re kind of jerks. They (especially Prince Albert) have super loving, fun relationships with all their other kids, but they just continue to have incredibly high expectations of Bertie, which he literally can’t meet, and it drives them apart. The secondary plot line is his elder sister, Victoria (1840-1901), and her marriage to the German emperor, Frederick III. Queen Victoria is super weird about it, and everyone including Bertie is very close to Victoria so her leaving is hard on them all.
The costumes for this series were designed by three designers: Ann Hollowood (Disraeli: Portrait of a Romantic, The Muppet Christmas Carol, Merlin) and Sue Le Cash, who worked on The Muppet Show, which is pretty damn cool; Christine Wilson is also credited. And that’s going to be my focus for this recap!
Sadly, what Prince Bertie is wearing is pretty boring, so you’re not going to see a lot of him in this recap:
The girls all in matching dresses, with VERY 1970s Little House on the Prairie hairstyles.
Queen Victoria wears a parade of very spot-on-to-the-1850s dresses that are mostly boring:
At a party for a visiting royal (Napoleon III I think given the credits on IMDB), the big guns come out!
But then we’re back to daywear, sigh.
Everyone goes to Scotland, including Princess Victoria and her future husband:
Princess Victoria gets married, and it’s right out of the painting!
Bertie has a sad:
Bertie hopes to take Vicky’s place in his parents’ affections, but they are totally oblivious:
And that’s it for episode two! I’ll try to have more plot in episode three.
Thoughts on Edward the King‘s 1850s costumes?
Find this frock flick at:
