Plot Synopsis

In a special 90-minute film for BBC Two and a two-part special for PBS, Lucy Worsley oversees an authentic re-staging of the wedding of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Aided by a team of experts, Lucy re-creates the most important elements of the ceremony and the celebrations, scouring history books, archives, newspapers and Queen Victoria's diaries for the details. She reveals how every moment was brilliantly stage-managed for maximum effect. Like every good marriage celebration, the program is a mix of fine food, fabulous clothes, music, emotion, gossip and intrigue. From the white dress to the massive tiered white cake, from the music sung by the choir to the moment rings were exchanged, each element will be carefully researched and remade for a grand staging of the big day itself. The experts include food historian Annie Gray, clothing expert Harriet Waterhouse and military historian Jasdeep Singh. Woven into the recreation of the wedding day is the story of Victoria and Albert's courtship and engagement, and its political importance. Lucy will unpack and explore the hidden iconography and symbolism of this hugely significant wedding and reveal new insights into Victoria and Albert's relationship, both public and private. The program also sheds new light on the wider implications of the wedding, and reveals how this one extraordinary event helped to invent modern marriage. VICTORIA & ALBERT: THE WEDDING had its U.S. premiere on Sunday, January 13, 2019 at 10pm on PBS (check local listings), with the finale debuting the following week:

Episode 1 (January 13, 2019): Lucy introduces the team of experts who join her in preparing to reconstruct the wedding that changed history. As they get ready for the ceremony and investigate the stories behind the dress, the food and the music, they uncover details that astonish. And the challenge ahead of them comes into focus. As they labor, Lucy and her co-host, Museum Curator Jasdeep Singh, tell the backstory of the most romantic of all royal romances, a tale of tragedy, scandal, intrigue -- and a whiff of revolution.

Episode 2 (January 20, 2019): Lucy and her team are in their finery for Victoria and Albert's big day. Lucy herself dons the latest look for high-status ladies in 1840, and takes her place in a pew inches from the altar. The ceremony is the culmination of the love story at the heart of this series, and the most accurate reconstruction of the event ever staged. It's also a forum for discussion of the feuds and political undercurrents that meant that this union had to be a fresh start with a new kind of royal family. The ceremony is followed by a sumptuous wedding breakfast prepared in a Georgian kitchen by Food Historian Dr. Annie Gray, a prelude to the first night that began a marriage so iconic it saved the Crown and heralded constitutional monarchy as we know it today.