BBC’s miniseries Prince Regent (1979) has clearly fallen off the radar, so much so that it’s not even available for streaming (but you can find it for free on a possibly-questionable site via a Google video search). Nonetheless, it’s a solid, traditional bio-series about an inherently hilarious person, and the costumes (by Raymond Hughes) are quite good — as one would expect from the BBC!
We pick up from my previous posts, and I foolishly left this post too long to write, because I don’t remember all the plot points except it focuses on Princess Charlotte and her marriage! Prinny must eventually become king, right? (Yep, 1820, just checked). Oh, I also remember that there’s the whole George attempts to divorce Queen Caroline in Parliament thing, which fails. Onwards, let’s talk costumes! Because this is the BBC, I actually found a lot to screenshot despite it being Regency!
I was wrong, Cherie Lunghi doesn’t play one of George III & Charlotte‘s children, she plays Princess Charlotte (Prinny’s daughter) at a young age! She hangs with mom in this metallic embroidered dress with standing ruff; and while she’s wearing a day cap, at least it’s cute and ruffly?
Charlotte and one of her ladies visit Prinny:
Queen Charlotte is still kicking around in her blousy, more 1790s-ish ensembles:
Charlotte looks elegant for evening:
Prinny gets laid up with gout, so gets visited by Lady Hertford, his not-actually-a-mistress.
At an evening party:
Riding habitses!!
Princess Charlotte talks to dad wearing a portrait dress:
Charlotte gets married:
Charlotte gets pregnant!
Soon-to-be Queen Caroline gets up to no good in Italy:
Prinny has a super blowsy woman for his current mistress:
Prinny and mistress go riding:
Because of his gout, Prinny has to be carried out in a chair. He is DRESSED TO THE NINES.
Prinny ages:
Caroline shows up for the Parliamentary hearings about a possible divorce in a full veil:
Prinny has fun with the Blowsy (Frowzy?) Mistress:
Caroline dresses up for parties:
Prinny continues his Beau Brummell-ish elegant dress style:
But also loves a uniform:
And we’re out! Have you watched Prince Regent? What was your take on the costumes?
The “Portrait dress” actually still exists. I have a picture of it somewhere, so they could actually have studied the real thing!
After reading your first three posts on this series, I managed to find a copy of the DVD on Ebay for £8 (I live in the UK). I binge-watched it over a couple of days and thought it was excellent. OK, it’s rather stagey and studio bound but the costumes are fab and so are the performances. Especially Peter Egan – he reminded me here of his brilliant Oscar Wilde in “Lillie” which I think was made the previous year.
A shame that this is almost impossible to find, the costumes seem lovely and it covers some interesting history.